How long do wards last anyway?

That's the question which started an intense and very engaging discussion between three practitioners this evening. If we hadn't been standing in the dark, in the parking lot, shivering in the cold, it would have been glorious. It was the kind of discussion that I like having in a secluded booth in a pub, or in a comfortable island of armchairs at the coffee shop. Some people might want such a conversation in the privacy of their home, or in some other non-public venue, but I actually enjoy the shocked, curious and disturbed looks from "the norms" when a group of diverse and comfortable energy workers start "taking shop". Tonight wasn't quite a "you should have been there when X..." exchange of metaphysical fishing stories, but it was just as fun. But I digress...

The question had been a serious and quite legitimate one. And my initial answer was not particularly helpful, "that depends..." Discussion of wards,their longevity and their maintenance wasn't really the meat of the conversation that followed... magickal paradigms was. You see, what may be a magic that requires constant refreshing and recharging in one paradigm can be as solid and unchanging as a concrete block in another. To know which kind of paradigm you exist in requires that you monitor your spell work and figure it out... unless, of course, you are in a long standing, traditional paradigm, in which case your teachers will probably have those answers for you when you are a neophyte.

From fueling of spells and monitoring of wards we wandered to the difference between magick tied to natural cycles and magick anchored in human patterns. We talked about kabbalah, rune crafting, spirit calling, essential oils, wiccan initiations, druidism, casting circles, banishments, lay lines and more. I've missed having conversations like that. They used to be a regular thing in my life and I can feel the lack.

A shaman, a witch and a dowser walk into a bar...