dark moon rituals newsletter

calling our protectors

It is the end of January, 2025 unfurls before us, and we are surrounded by the cacophonous clanging of Empire’s desperate death knell. As fascists are inaugurated and the oligarchy that has always had control over this country is now on undeniable display, the dying structures are lashing out with explicit cruelty, terror, violence, and intimidation. It is a terrifying time to be alive. Oh my dear friends, I am here with you. Our fear is valid. Our despair is valid.

In times like these, there is an emotional groundswell amongst radical spiritual communities - of deep fear & despair, alongside fierce courage & determination. And right now, there is a theme I’ve noticed rising for myself and many of my fellow practitioners: protection. In the face of increasingly explicit attacks on marginalized communities - trans & queer folx, immigrants, people with uteruses, the disabled & chronically ill, people of color, Black folx, indigenous communities, and all of us intersectional edgewalkers - we are yearning for protection. We are yearning to feel our own power, to resource into anchors of safety that keep us moored in an increasingly chaotic & perilous world. We long to protect ourselves, our beloveds, our kin near and far.

I keep feeling this primal, impractical instinct deep in my belly: a yearning to gather up everyone I love and keep them safely ensconced in a sanctuary somewhere far from the violence of capitalism & oppression & gun violence & inaccessible healthcare & deportation & transphobia. I just want us to be safe, to be cared for, to be surrounded with love.

I just want us to be safe.

I just want us to be safe.

I just want us to be safe.

From a spiritual perspective, how do we approach the work of protecting ourselves, our chosen family, & our ritual spaces? As a folk death witch, I believe there is an immense amount of power in folk practices of banishings, cleansings, protection sigils, and other potent spellcraft. If you want to learn more about these protective practices, two practitioners whom I trust around this work are Hannah Hadadi of Mourning Light Divination and Emmy of Soy Emmy (who is currently offering a course on protective magic). The practices of energetic hygiene and boundary-setting are also crucial for all of us witchy folk living in a capitalist society that seeks to drain our energy & attention every day and oftentimes threatens our livelihoods and even our lives.

But what is the beating heart that lies beneath all of the diverse and beautiful protection practices that we teach each other, that we pass down through our lineages, that emerge in the here-and-now? Coming home to this foundation of protection means coming home to our kin, for the true anchor of protection is the heart of our sacred practice - relationships. Our protection is rooted in the strength of our deeply-entangled relationships with our kin. We create boundaries, safety, & protection for ourselves by weaving our very veins into the ecosystems of support, seen & unseen, all around us. We anchor by sending our energetic body into the earth’s core, to draw deeply from that nourishment; and by literally plunging our hands into the deep rich soil of the earth.

Our ancestors knew this. They moved in deep grooves of protection that were enacted through daily practice with protectors & guardians - the plant allies, the animal ones, spirits of place (genius loci), deities, ancestors, and ultimately deep relationship with Source. Josh Schrei expounds in brilliant detail on this topic in the “Guardians and Protectors!” episode of the Emerald podcast (if this post of mine stirs something in you, please go listen to that episode). He describes how animist cultures all over the world construct complex systems of protection - beautiful, intricate mandalas - through daily devotional practice of relationship with guardians. By attuning ourselves to our place in it the vast web of chthonic and cosmic interplay, we wrap ourselves in a cloak of protection. We attune to the cycles of the sun and moon, the tangible compass of the four directions, and the ongoing regenerative seasons of birth - life - death - rebirth. We build specific, strong relationships with those guardians of place and lineage who call to us. And it is these relationships that most tenaciously anchor and protect us.

We must remember that we are not alone in our resistance to fascist late-stage capitalist insanity. If we allow ourselves to breathe through our fear, we can send out tendrils of tentative connection that meet with the living world around us. This living world is teeming with beings who are on the side of life. Who sing towards futures of interdependence, not violent extractionism. When you consider the vast power that we can choose to attune to - stone formations of cavern & mountain formed over millions of years, the thunderous waves of the ocean, herds of elephants rumbling across the savannah - the power of the billionaires doesn’t seem so great after all. When we are feeling fear in the face of the powerful white men who have a deathgrip on their control, let us remember Andrea Gibson’s words:

“Never forget how alone we are not. The moss, the mountains, the redwood tree, the marigold, the mourning dove calling for her love’s return - are our allies. Every natural thing in this world is invested in the peace of this world. All that is good and gracious whispers, ‘We are with you.’”

This is no small truth. Many of the beings in this wild, wise world are our allies against the forces of destructive Empire. We are in a league of power that is much vaster than the forces which seek to hurt and control us - a communion of kin, ancestors, spirit allies, plant & animal beings. As many brilliant comrades have been emphasizing and reminding us on social media and other channels, we need each other, and we are everything we have now. It is so incredibly important to build our human communities and invest in our chosen families, through systems of mutual aid & community care. We protect us. We care for us. And I am inviting us to consider widening that circle of protection & kinship beyond just our living human communities to include all of the supportive kin, seen and unseen, who I seek to amplify in my writings here, in my work, and in my life.

And so, I think one of the most important practices we can implement now to help us survive this time and fortify us for a different future, is to nurture specific protective relationships of kinship.

And how do we do that? Through rituals of reciprocity - time spent together, offerings given & received, blessings & prayers & conversations. This can be through research, crafting altars, creating & anointing talismans, making devotional offerings, engaging in reciprocal prayer and invocation, spending time in journeys & mundane life conversing with your unseen kin, and so many more practices. I will dive more deeply into all of these practices in my future writings & teaching, and if you have a specific yearning to begin to deepen into these practices for yourself, please reach out to me about 1-on-1 sessions.

Here is an example of what one of these specific protective relationships looks like for me. My most cherished protective ally in the botanical world is Juniper, and particularly the tree form we have here in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado (Juniperus scopulorum). Juniper is a mystical, gorgeous conifer ally whose scales are an otherworldly silver and whose berries/cones are fragrant with volatile oils. They have been considered a sacred guardian for thousands of years in many cultures all over the world, as juniper species are found far and wide across the globe. They are a particularly powerful protector of liminal and threshold spaces, as well as the ritualists who walk between the worlds.

I have been building a potent relationship with Juniper for many years, starting in childhood and resuming as an adult when I began to reclaim my animist roots & study herbalism. My relationship with juniper draws potency from ongoing relational tending - I spend time with Juniper in the local forest, singing to them and sitting with them; I wildcraft juniper boughs to craft into smoke bundles that I burn as a protective & cleansing practice; I ingest tincture I made from juniper berries; I commune with juniper energetically as a central tree around which I gather in council with my ancestors.

And the roots of this relationship go even deeper than my personal exploration & tending. My European ancestors also had a strong relationship with juniper as a sacred & medicinal plant. The boughs of juniper were burned to protect & cleanse spaces, and juniper was used especially in times of death, illness, dying, & grief. Juniper was also cultivated by women and people with uteruses as a plant that aided in reproductive autonomy (see John M. Riddle’s book Eve’s Herbs for more information on this). As I have learned more about how my ancestors related to juniper, their connections to reproductive autonomy & death rituals validates the personal connection I have to this plant.

When I call upon juniper & burn their branches every morning, I am rooting into a relationship of protection that is deep, ancient, and powerful. My relationship with juniper is a strong anchor in a chaotic world, supporting me with the boundaries of my energetic body and offering protection as I traverse the liminal spaces of ritual, death, & grief. Learning to relate with juniper in this way truly opened me up to the magic of plant ally relationships, and I will be tending to this relationship, in deep gratitude, for the rest of my life.

We can all do this together, as many of our ancestors once did. We can orient to specific plants, animals, and elemental beings who have been engaged in protective relationships with humans for thousands of years. We work together, across species barriers and in unseen realms, to protect each other, to protect the Earth, to protect life. And as we deepen into our protective relationships, we will be even stronger and more fortified to stand up and protect our kindred who are being attacked. We have always done this, us folk witches and medicine people and everyday warriors of care.

Ritual:

• Begin to get curious about who you may be drawn to as a protective ally in your life. This could be a plant you have a deep affinity with, an element that calls to you (earth, air, fire, water), or an animal that represents strength and guardianship to you. Another way to identify a guardian you may want to work with is to explore the land around you, seeking to meet a guardian or elder being of this land (often a tree, a body of water, a stone formation, etc.).

• Begin building relationship with this protective one. Research them, spend time with them, give them offerings of prayer & song; and begin to discern and ask if this one wants to serve as a protective ally for you. Ask them, and listen for a response back.

• Deepen into relationship & begin calling upon this being for protection.

O guardians! O protectors! O nurturers!

Those who keep watch over our comings and goings

with keen eyes and ferocious discernment.

Oh taloned ones, those of hoof, horn, and claw,

the ones who howl in the night and stand vigil over our abodes,

those with long thorns and dense brambles,

those whose fragrance wards off danger and gloom,

gather around us in a circle of blessing.

We call upon you,

in our vulnerability, tenderness, fear.

We who are your kin,

we return our gaze to you.

Surrounded by a vibrant chorus

that sings of love and interdependence,

we root into the world of the croaking frogs,

the cooing doves,

the howling wolves,

the rushing river,

the rustling leaves,

the cycles of death & rebirth ongoing in fierce & comforting rhythm.

Hold us, powerful ones,

within the rubble

as the structures of Empire collapse around us.

Weave with us a tapestry of safety,

wrap us in the warp and weft of your love,

with every breath, prayer, & song.

in solidarity,

Summer