Since this thread is taking off it would behoove me to teach anon basic defense against witchcraft and spirits. These techniques will not save you from malevolent entities that take on a physical form (things possessed by demons), however they will protect your soul from spiritual malevolent entities (primarily but not limited to demons). They are tried and true among my kin, and as someone who's had some training in dealing with malevolent entities I can guarantee the efficacy of these against most weaker beings. I have twenty years of experience fending off spirits and demons so I would like to say I'm a solid apprentice in the art of "demon-banishing."
A primer on malevolent entities:
A malevolent entity is separated from a "ghost" in that it wishes physical harm on another being. Not all spirits that can cause you harm are malevolent entities (forest spirits such as the feyfolk are the most apt examples of this), but all that outright wish you non-retributive harm ARE malevolent entities. There are several hundred subtypes each with their own characteristics, but they can generally be broken into one of three categories:
>Those that have walked the earth
The most common type. These are "ghosts" that have been possessed by bad will in one form or another. They may manifest themselves in many ways but typically they have something anchoring them to the earth. Thankfully they are the easiest to deal with as they typically have predictive or "pre-programmed" patterns and can be considered as "unintelligent emotional remains" most of the time. They can be exorcised by conventional means or requested to go away and they typically will (temporarily at least). A show of force is enough to deter or temporary dispatch these entities. So long as you don't allow them into your heart (fear them) they cannot cause you harm. At least not directly. If you are overpowered by one you can flee it by leaving the place where it holds power most of the time.
>Those that have never walked the earth
In the Christian faith we typically refer to these as "demons" and they are beings that hold negative emotion for having never properly lived on the earth. Evil spirits that are non-human fall into this category. In general we tend to call these "negative entities." These are more dangerous because they possess intellect if not outright sentience (not free will, but sentience). They are capable of possession, they can place curses on you, they can manipulate objects more extremely in an attempt to harm you, in some cases they can actually harm you directly, and perhaps most importantly, they can follow you home. What defines these entities is that they never possessed a body to walk the material plane and they resent you for that. They will leave horrible marks on your body when you sleep at night, they will drop chandeliers on your forehead, they will infect your dreams, and they will whisper sweet nothings and contrivances into your ears. If you suspect the presence of one, seeing as how any strelo/k/ reading this is likely NOT an exorcist and does NOT have experience dealing with one, your best bet is to feign ignorance of its presence and get out in the hopes that it will not recognize you as a plaything or a threat. If you find yourself already marked by one, get professional help from a religious expert. If that is absolutely not possible, some of the methods detailed below may help you but don't hold your breath as you are probably not powerful enough to banish it and may god have mercy on your soul if that is your only option. Thankfully these are fairly uncommon, albeit they do exist.
>Those that take physical form
These are perhaps the most dangerous beings. Some speculate that they aren't even their own category but are rather negative entities that have possessed a living being. Regardless, stay away from them and get out if you encounter one. Many possess control over the supernatural in one form or another in addition to their physical properties. Having a physical form, they can harm you even against most countermeasures and require specific measures to deal with. Just don't do it and if you see one flee. Thankfully despite being the most dangerous, on average these entities are also the most passive and will typically allow you to flee if you encounter them on account of not wanting to deal with you.
Defense Against The Dark Arts
This is not an exhaustive guide nor does it contain any of my more advanced techniques since if you were to engage in more advanced defense you can actually invite malevolent entities into your mind or domicile without training. You do not have to be Christian for most of these techniques to work, but believing in Christ will definitely help.
>Willpower/Courage
Perhaps the most important trait to fighting malevolent entities is training your willpower. A strong mind will keep beings at bay. This takes two forms, training your literal willpower (a most common exercise is to remind yourself to sit up/stand up straight on the hour and to make your bed daily), and training your "spiritual willpower." To train your spiritual willpower, I want you to imagine a pure ball of blue-white (or blue and white) energy encompassing either your heart or head (hereby using "heart" to represent both moving forward). The clearer this image, the better (if you are a Christian, you can replace this "sphere" with a cross and achieve similar results if that is easier to image) . Once you can clearly imagine this sphere of energy in your heart or head, focused on the smallest of small points, allow it to encompass the entire organ. From there, imagine this power that you have manifested in your heart streaming through your body. At first let it go through your bloodstream, then allow it to leak into your muscles, then finally allow its very presence to waft off of your skin and pass through your circulatory system. As it expands each time, you should feel a wave of confidence, relief, and/or respite pass over you. If you do not feel this wave of "good-feeling" pass over you, you are doing it wrong and/or need to train more. Do this at least twice a day; once at some point after waking up and once before bed. Do not over-practice as you are opening yourself up to suggestion the more you do so which early on can have negative consequences and actually attract bad spirits.
Some notes:
White represents purity while blue represents pure willpower/energy. You can incorporate red into this exercise as dominance/confidence, but if you incorporate red into the below steps you are playing with fire as red is a direct challenge to the malevolent entity rather than a warning for it to move along and find an easier target.
Always start inwards and move outwards. The smaller and more acute the point of manifestation, the better. If you were to start from an outer point and move inwards you could be endangering yourself if you aren't completely cut off from malevolent entities at the time of starting as you are effectively "trapping" them inside this energy field.
Do not practice any other manifestation techniques for at least a month beyond conjuring the energy within you. This is taxing on your mental state and you are "broadcasting" a signal every time you do this.
>Spirit bombs and barriers
While perhaps a bit memetic to call them this, the above exercise is the basis for teaching you how to "manifest" spirit energy, which is largely dependent on your willpower. The above technique will drive spirits from your body and will act as a warning to weaker malevolent entities that you aren't worth the effort to fuck with. The natural extension of this is the "spirit bomb/spirit blast." Just as you conjured or manifested the energy inside of you, so too can you then extend this energy beyond you. I suggest using a religious symbol or totem as a focusing point when extending your energy beyond yourself, and incorporating scripture, however you do not need to in order to successfully use these techniques. From the point of the the energy wafting off your skin and through the air you're breathing, you can now "pulse" this energy out into your surroundings. Think of this like a sonar; Anything close to a sonar has its internals ruptured, but the farther away something is, the more it just becomes an annoyance that something may want to get rid of and/or run away from. Practice "pulsing" this energy from within you out into your nearby surroundings to flow through the room you are in. You should feel very, minisculely weakened as if a bit of your energy is gone every time you do this. This is normal. Do not over-practice.
After you have gotten to a point where this "pulsing" no longer feels like it's draining you (for some people about a week or two, for others sometimes up to two or three months), try imagining this energy "pulsing" out from within you, but instead of dissipating, collect it into a ball around you as it reaches an outer perimeter, say, a meter or so away from you. Once you can firmly grasp this image and "feel" its presence around you, you have learned how to create a barrier. There are many uses for this. For a while just practice maintaining it for a few minutes, but over time you will be able to form this barrier around you naturally and passively.
A word of caution, as stated above you should always focus from the innermost point outward. If you manifest a barrier outside of you without "purifying" your body and surroundings with pulsating energy first, you may be at risk of trapping a spirit inside your barrier. There is a more advanced cleansing method involving both forming a barrier and forming a "sonar" at the same time to trap and pummel a spirit, but your goal is to deter spirits not to try and pick fights/cleanse them. There's another advanced method involving imbuing an object with your energy at three or more points to form a barrier around an area or property. You aren't trained to do either of those so don't try to because doing so is playing with fire. Stick to forming a barrier around yourself or at most a room for your own safety.
>Imbued objects without barriers
As mentioned above, you can imbue an object with spiritual energy. If you are not religious this is a bit too advanced of a technique for most people to manifest properly without a lot of training. If you intuitively understand the concepts above though, you can imbue an object to act as a pulse or barrier when you aren't present. These need to be periodically "reimbued" so do not give these out as gifts as its putting a flare over the head of someone who may not be trained when you do so. The benefits of a naturally spiritual object (such as a religious text, artifact, or symbol) is that it can hold onto the energy longer than you manifesting it in order to provide a constant basic layer of protection, such as an orthodox cross around your neck or in a doorway to ward off simple spirits and demons.
Sacrifices and Rituals
There are certain tried-and-trued sacrifices and rituals that can committed to gain favor with good spirits or otherwise protect yourself. These are all basic rituals that anybody can perform without fear of reprisal from entities, so keep them all in mind.
>Sacrifice of bread and beer
When traveling to or camping in a non-home area such as a forest, derelict building, or cemetery, leave a simple offering of food and drink. A form of bread/fruit and a form of beer/wine is the "best" offering, but any type of offering of goodwill will do. Never offer meat unless the group you are in hunted/slaughtered it because meat without the challenge is disrespectful to the spirits. This offering of goodwill will ensure that whatever calls that residence home will either protect you or ignore you depending on its temperament. Place the offering in an appropriate area "based on feeling" somewhat away from your campsite. If you are worried about wild animals, you may bury the offering or leave the offering wrapped in paper or plastic to seal its scent. Opening/unwrapping the offering is not necessary if it is sealed as the purpose is a gesture of goodwill. Do not collect the offering when you are leaving; leave it. While not required, consider offerings that will not harm the environment such as using paper cups for drink and avoiding plastic wrappers. If you do not have both, a more generous offering of just food or just drink will usually suffice. Do not be stingy and give a half-eaten/half-drank offering (animal carcasses are fine though so long as they haven't been picked clean and were dispatched with respect).
>Makeshift Nonsecular Holy Water
Ideally you should get your holy water from a religious expert, but making holy water is not hard. There's many guides to making proper Christian holy water and anyone can do it so I'll let you do a google search on that one. Personally I find Christian holy water more effective, but both will work in a pinch. The purpose of holy water is to act as a protectant and as a last line of defense against evil entities.
>Collect seawater or sprinkle iodized or potassium salt into rainwater until it is salty (has to be rainwater and not runoff)
>Place a silver object in the water or sprinkle a silver powder into the water (optional)
>Add a pinch charcoal or woodash to the water
>Focus your energy via the above manifestation techniques into imbuing the water with energy and leave outdoors (with a mesh to keep out bugs) overnight
>If you are religious, say a blessing when imbuing the water
>Collect it into a vessel as the sun is rising (you may remove the silver object from the water at this time) [Expand Post] >Spritz or sprinkle a small amount on doorways, beds, and your forehead for protection.
Holy water only works if you believe in its power.
>Makeshift Spiritual Ammunition
This may be useful against physical entities. Mixed results have been reported.
>Explain what you are doing for protection and say a blessing to a religious symbol made of metal
>File the metal into shavings or powder and combine with lead (bullets) or cut into small pieces (shotshell) and seal with beeswax
>YOU MUST USE THE ENTIRE RELIGIOUS SYMBOL
>Optionally add woodash or charcoal to the mixture
>Optionally add silver to the mixture
>The sooner you use these the better as they lose power over time (most effective when a week or less old, lose all effectiveness by about six months to a year)