Is This Protection Enough?
“If I summon a shade of the dead, is this bath and prayer enough protection?”
“If I do a spell, is this banishing enough?”
“If I make an offering to a spirit, is this exorcism enough?”
I get asked variations of this question all the time. Students want to be assured that no matter what they do, the protections they are invoking are “enough”. I always throw this back at them and say “Enough for what? Enough for who? Enough for when? Enough under what circumstance?”
Lets call this one the parable of the parking lot.
You drive to the grocery store, get out of your car, lock the door and walk inside. Is locking the door “enough?”
I would argue that 99% of the time, in most areas, you probably didn’t even need to lock your car. Unless you have valuables clearly visible to passers by, no one is messing with it. That leaves just a 1% chance that someone would even get as far as testing whether the door was locked or not.
So is it enough?
Probably. Maybe 90% of that 1% would just be crimes of opportunity. They test the door, see its locked, and move on to a car that isn’t. That still leaves .1% That it’s not enough for. Considering that you will probably park your car well over a thousand times in your life, that means sometimes locking the door will not in fact be enough.
If you are worried about it, you get a car alarm. Now, you have scared off 90% of that .1% that would try to get past the lock. You are 99.99% safe. Is that enough?
Not if you hit the jackpot, and there a thief who doesn’t care about the alarm, or knows how to disable one.
See what I am saying?
Now consider all the variables that might change this math. Are you in a high crime area? Do you have a Play Station 5 visible in the back seat? Do you have enemies that are targeting you specifically? The possibilities are endless.
So it is with magic and with spirits.
Again I remind you: If you believe that magic and spirits are real, you should start thinking about them the way you think about other real things, which rarely are served well by questions like “Is it enough”.