wards, on a psychic or mystical level, are methods or objects for protecting one's dwelling. Wards protect one from both spirit invaders, and to some extent physical ones. They are often set with the intent of "those of good will may enter freely, those who mean harm are turned away". These barriers usually involve at least two layers--a physical one, and an energy layer. Wards can be set in many, many ways, with the most common physical layers being salt, gemstones, or herbs, and the most common psychic ones being elementals, shadow, color, and spirit energy.
there are as many ways to
ward as there are
people, but this is the set of wards i have on my
dorm room:
when home over
break, i went into my local
magic store, walked up to the wall of
herbs and went "OK, what does my room want?" and walked out with seven bags of herbs.
once i got back to purdue and my roommate took the old wards down (she had to move to a first-floor room for massive problems with her ankles), i began to set the new ones up. i took four wooden, woven bowls, one for each directional corner , and began to grind herbs with my mortar and pestle.
all of these herbs are for banishing, warding, protecting, anti-theft, and the like.
First into each bowl went a quarter-sized pile of blessed thistle. this was followed by ahtela, then amber powder, of about equal size. This was followed by (ground) blackberry leaves, and topped with dragon's blood.
The herbs were still in separate layers at this point. When the bowls were finished, i took my knife (athame) and stirred and blended them together, one bowl at a time, until everything was well mixed. Then i topped each bowl with three juniper berries apiece, in a triangle, saying (as the phrase popped into my mind) "maiden, mother, crone, protect this place that is my home.
Then, one at a time, i took each bowl and set it in its corner, invoking the proper element for each as i did so.
The last step involved binding them together--which was accomplished by focusing energy thru the point of my knife and drawing a line from bowl to bowl, weaving the energies together.
again, this is in *no way* a definitive guide to warding a room--first semester, this room was warded with only bowls of salt and shadow energy and that worked equally as well. i merely place this here as a suggestion, and as my own experience.