Spiritual Protection for Ghost Hunters

There are three main issues to consider when choosing protection. They include innately powerful tools, your own spiritual references, and the spirituality of the ghosts.

INNATELY POWERFUL TOOLS

Regardless of your beliefs (or lack of them), a few tools have been used successfully by believers, skeptics, and non-believers alike.

GARLIC

The most familiar protection may be garlic. Long associated with vampires and werewolves, garlic is supposed to repel evil spirits and entities.

Generally, people carry a garlic clove in a pocket, or wear it on a string around their necks.

Fresh garlic is usually used. You can buy it in almost any grocery store and some convenience stores, in the produce section.

SALT

According to many traditions, spirits cannot cross a line of salt. Others believe that salt generally repels evil spirits, and the salt can be carried in any container, worn in a small pouch around the neck (or carried in a pocket), or cast in the direction of the problem entity.

There are two main kinds of salt used for this purpose: White salt and black salt.

White salt is the common table salt found in most kitchens. Many people prefer to carry pure sea salt for protection, and some favor kosher salt, but any table salt or cooking salt can be used.

Some ghost hunters — including Hollow Hill researchers — carry blessed or charged salt. This is salt that has been blessed by a religious person, sometimes a priest or other spiritual minister.

The person carrying the salt can also charge it, using personal prayer or rituals over the salt before using it during a ghost investigation.

Or, it may be charged by the full moon. One way to do this is to put sea salt in a clear glass bowl. Place the bowl on a window ledge where it will be in the light of the moon during the three days around the full moon.

Black salt can be one of two kinds of salt. One is edible and the other usually isn’t.

One is a specialized mineral salt, generally mined in India. It is a dark pinkish gray, and tastes somewhat like sulphur. It’s available in ethnic stores and often sold in health food stores; its vegetarian uses include mixing the salt with tofu to mimic egg salad. This form of black salt can be used for protection, but it’s not the one most popular.

The other kind of black salt is the one more commonly used for protection. It is often made with sea salt — the white kind — but mixed with an ingredient to turn it black. Among witches, those ingredients can include ash or powdered charcoal from a fire, scrapings from a cast iron pot, or even black pepper.

Because black salt is often associated with voodoo, some people aren’t comfortable using it for any purpose. However, in voodoo and related traditions, black salt is used as a powerful means to lift or repel curses, and keep away evil spirits.

HOLY WATER

Catholics and non-Catholics alike use holy water as protection from ghosts and evil of all kinds.

Holy water can be purchased in some Catholic stores. However, most people visit the nearest Catholic church. In the church entry or lobby, there is usually some sort of drum or container with a spigot. Church members bring their own bottles to decant the holy water, and leave a couple of dollars as a donation.

Technically, anyone can bless their water to make it ‘holy’. In older Catholic traditions, an individual makes the sign of the cross over the container of water and says, ‘I bless this water in the name of the Father…’, and so on.

In other religious contexts, any blessing prayer or ritual can be used for holy water. Some Pagans also place a clear glass bottle of holy water in the moonlight for three nights, similar to the practice used with salt, described above.

Among non-Christians, Bibles aren’t quite as popular as holy water. However, we’ve met ghost hunters who are Atheists or non-Christians, and they believe implicitly in the power of the Bible as a tool for protection.

Update: Since writing this, some demonologists have said that — if you might be dealing with a demon, not a ghost — holy water can make things worse.  For that reason, I am reluctant to use or recommend holy water if there’s any possibility we’re dealing with a demon pretending to be a ghost.

CHARMS, AMULETS, TOKENS

While many ‘lucky charms’ and protections refer to specific spiritual traditions, some are successful whether the person believes in that religion or tradition, or not.

These include holy medals (St. Michael medals are especially popular), pendants representing a lucky horseshoe, iron nails (may repel faeries more than ghosts), or a lucky rabbit’s foot (not widely used during ghost hunts, due to their association with animal cruelty and death).

There are also ghost hunters who wear ‘lucky socks’ or a similar item of clothing, and firmly believe that they provide protection from evil… or at least bad luck.

Others wear a garment or piece of jewelry that was left outside on the night of February first or second. According to folklore and some Pagan traditions, Brigid (or St. Bridget) blesses these items, making them especially lucky, healing or protective during the coming year.

LIQUOR

Several cultures — including the Irish and some Native American nations — believe that pouring liquor on a grave (or on the ground, in general) is a way to pay respect to the dead. Several Yoruba-based spiritual traditions use this as a way to earn favor with certain spirits, including the dead.

If an investigator has established some rapport with a helpful spirit in a haunted setting, he or she may offer a gift of liquor (poured onto the ground, outdoors or in the building’s unfinished basement). After a brief time during which the spirit enjoys the gift, the investigator asks for the spirit’s help and protection during the research that follows.

These are just a few items that are used by a variety of ghost hunters, regardless of their cultural, ethnic or spiritual contexts.

In another article, we’ll discuss spiritual protection in the context of your personal religious beliefs (if you have them), as well as the importance of the ghosts’ religious beliefs.

Both are essential to consider before using a spiritual tool in a haunted setting.