Warding

Setting a protective boundary around a place, most often at the doors and windows of a home.

Warding means setting a protective boundary around a place, and the boundary itself is called a ward. The word is old English for guarding, the same that survives in "warden" and "wardrobe". In its magickal sense it became common only in the late twentieth century, helped along by fantasy novels and games.

The thing itself is ancient. People have always guarded the openings of a house, where the outside comes in: with a horseshoe or a bunch of herbs above the door, a blessing written on the lintel, marks scratched into the beams by the window and the chimney.

A modern witch wards in the same places and with simple means. The door is cleaned, a sentence is spoken that says what is welcome and what is not, and sometimes a small thing is hung up or set down to mark the boundary. A ward keeps out. It does not strike back, and it names nobody.

Wards are renewed, at a new moon, when moving house or after a hard time, and a place is cleansed before it is warded. A ward does not replace a door lock.

Related: protection and warding, cleansing, amulet.