Okay so I am not a huge fan of this term “Wards”. I personally prefer the term “protective magic”. I only really come across the word “wards”, in American magic practicing groups that overlap with RPGers. Those are some fine people and I love them, but the total absence of the word in other magical practice groups indicates that it has probably come from RPGing rather than from any genuine magical practice history. Other groups will more often refer to “Wards” as “protection sigils”, “the magic circle”, “watchtowers” and energy workers will often say “shields” or “filters”.
What Are Wards?
Wards is a term that is generally used to refer to anything that protects. For example, the origin of drawing a magic circle was to create a holy space where evil spirits cannot enter into. This means protecting the space a magician or grimoire user might work in. A ward does not need to be limited to a magic circle it’s a generic term.
Wards are not limited to one thing, in fact it just is something that guards. Sometimes it is used in the reverse, it is used to refer to something which is protected / guarded instead of something which does the guarding. For example, in the music Sweeny Todd, Judge Turpin refers to Joanna as “my ward”, meaning that he protects her. The word is an old Germanic language word with the same origin as guard (gward). You also came across variations such as weardian (guardian).
Wards really can be anything. From talisman sigils worn by magicians summoning entities (particularly across the heart), circles drawn in the ground, mojo bags and even containers of graveyard dirt belonging to someone protective like a soldier or even a beloved granny.
The term “wards” is often used by people ignoring the generic meaning of “protective magic”. Instead they mean a very specific set up of a magic circle. Often you hear terms like “the 4 wards”. This makes it sound like there are only 4 types of ward in magic… uck no. By this they mean the watchtowers called in the magic circle. This is why I really don’t like the term because it is a generic term that keeps end up getting used like a specific word.
For the rest of this article I am going to avoid other forms of protective magic and just focus on what people most often mean when they say “wards”. The drawing of a typical wiccan magic circle.
The Wiccan Magic Circle
So the origin of the Magic circle is in grimoires. A lot of people try to claim it comes from other places like Native American Medicine circles, but that’s bogus, which comes from people who want to claim a different history to their practice. In Wicca, however, the circle has developed its own mythology, which changes the effect of drawing the circle.
The drawing of a circle in Wicca has a very different feel to it because of a long history of adding things to the myth of the magic circle. This is because many Wiccans talk about their practice going back thousands of years. It doesn’t go back beyond the 1950s, but it makes them feel connected to a history of Witches and I don’t want to take away from them that feeling of connection. In doing a practice that they believe connects them up to ancient witches, the circle has an almost necromantic effect. It calls old witches and magical practitioners going back over centuries.
Often Wiccans will say the circle connects them to their current coven and the deities that they are used to work with, within a circle. As a general rule this does help connect them to those things. But I would like to remind people that those deities will probably have existed in one or more cults for thousands of years, that involved no drawing of a magic circle in the deity’s worship or devotional practice.
The circle still has the protective aspect which comes from its origin in grimoires and magical practice. People like to image it draws a boundary between them and the rest of the world. The circle surrounds a divine space which becomes sacred. The area outside of the circle is comparatively profane. See this painting of Dr Dee performing necromancy.
In ceremonial magic practice the action of circumambulation is also used as an invocation of the sun, by walking in a particular direction representative of the apparent movement of the sun around the earth (naturally of course the sun doesn’t actually move it’s the earth spinning on its axis that creates that effect). So the drawing of the circle has an invocation of the sun. The sun is the power in magic which illuminates the darkness, brings enlightenment and gives the “self”. For many occult orders the sun is associated with the initiator who brings illumination and the creative power of deity.
The circle is conjured by simply taking a magical implement like an athame and walking around the circle. The Wiccan or magical practitioner begins in the east and walks clockwise (also called Deosil or the direction of the sun) around the circle. Drawing a circle around them with the implement. They focus their mind on their will for a circle to be conjured by the action they are doing, and the blade of the athame cutting off the divine space within and profane space outside.
The Watchtowers
In American Wicca you will often hear these referred to as “The 4 Wards” as if there are only 4 wards. There’s far more than that. All magic is limited to one small practice, I’m afraid! That would make it delightfully simple. Enough of that rant again.
The Watchtowers are something inherited from Enochian magic into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn which then informed Gerald Gardiner’s practice. They are each wards related to a specific element. They are often believed to be the angels Raphael, Michael, Gabriel and Uriel, I think this attribution is inaccurate and just an attempt to associate angels to everything. (There are some gaps in Dr Dee and Kelly’s work which really don’t need to be filled up with attributions which don’t neatly fit).
The watchtowers are often associated with the 4 tablets of Enochian magic. This won’t make a lot of sense unless you have researched this type of “angelic” magic, but it is interwoven through the entire practice of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn which had a huge influence on modern occult practice.
In Wicca these are called in simply by saying the following phrase. A lot of people write whole articles about these guardians without even knowing their history from Enochian magic which is sad because they totally missed the point and just write a load of fluff that they made up. This really adds a lot of pulp to magic practice books.
Ye Lords of the Watchtowers of the East, ye Lords of Air; I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness our rites and to guard the Circle.
Witches Bible Janet and Stewart Farrar
For the other directions the element and direction is changed.
| Direction | East | South | West | North |
| Element | Air | Fire | Water | Earth |
These directions are attributed to the elements based on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn initiation rituals, which are supposedly laid out like the representation of a part of the afterlife in Egyptian funerary writings called Passing through the Duat. I haven’t seen the elements indicated in the Egyptian art so it really could be anything. I sometimes think it is the zodiac positions in the UK, during the hottest month of the year (23rd July – 22nd August), when the sun is at its zenith (noon). Therefore during the time of the most sun and most illumination. So I assume the greatest invocation of the enlightening sun power.
During this time, the sun is over the Southern horizon in Leo (fire), rising over horizon in the east is Aquarius (Air), setting in the West is Scorpio (Water) and below the earth vaguely northwards would be Taurus (Earth), but you can’t see it. I went into a bit more detail in this article. These signs are often associated with the Kerubic beasts that appeared before the throne in the book of revelations. In the forms of a Lion, an Eagle, a Man and a Bull respectively.
| Element | Air | Fire | Water | Earth |
| Direction | East | South | West | North |
| Sign | Aquarius | Leo | Scorpio | Taurus |
| Kerubic Beast | Eagle | Lion | Man | Bull |
When calling upon them a road is visualised, which is guarded and goes off into elemental realms. Some people think this is a new idea based on the cross roads, but I totally disagree. See this diagram from Dr Dee’s A True and Faithful Relation. This would indicate the idea of creating roads into the circle guarded by watchtowers is not a new idea. This diagram is supposedly from a manuscript inherited from Dr Dee after his death in 1608/1609 and was in a published version of the manuscript from 1659 so it’s been thought of this way for over 360 years.
Closing words
Warding is important. Full-stop. If you’re going to work the Wicca System of magic then being able to draw is a circle is important. Please can I take this moment to remind everyone there isn’t just one way to magic. A lot of magical systems have no place for a circle. Consider a lot of tribal forms of magic where a person takes on the dress and actions of a deity slowly lets themselves become possessed by spirits they have a close relationship to. Remember in many representations of the Witches Sabbath there is no circle and the witches and demons dance among each other. For example the 16th century painting below. Note however this appears in the writings of a Christian Theology who might want to be painting Witches as demonic, though.
Remember that many gods and goddess would have been summoned in huge purpose built temples. Due to summoning and devoting to the god / goddess in this place there really was no concern about demons or whatever getting in. I think the circle really comes from Christian fear of evil spirits. This doesn’t mean it should be dropped all together, but it is worth recognise magic that doesn’t use a circle is perfectly valid.