Justice is a Verb
A public protection ritual for protesters, community defenders, and targeted families
This is a public, adaptable rite with clear steps, clear purpose, and room for your own magic.
There are moments when “good intentions” are not enough. When people are being threatened, targeted, separated from their families, or harmed for showing up for their communities, spiritual practice has to become a practice of protection, clarity, courage, and action.
This is a nonviolent justice and protection ritual designed for the public. It is intentionally simple, so people can actually do it, repeat it, and adapt it. It is also powerful, because it’s built on sturdy ritual mechanics: purification, boundaries, witness, petition, anchoring, and clean closure.
You can do this as devotional work, folk magic, prayer, a vigil, or a secular solidarity ritual.
What you’ll need
Bare minimum
A bowl of khernips or sacred purified moon water
One candle (any color)
Paper + pen
A small key, coin, or stone (something with substance and weight)
Optional
A libation (water, honeyed water, olive oil, wine, etc.)
Incense, only if smoke is safe for your body and space
What this ritual is for
Protecting protesters and community defenders
Protecting neighbors who are intervening, witnessing, documenting, and keeping each other safe
Protecting those being targeted, profiled, or threatened
Supporting safe passage, clear communication, and truth revealed
Calling consequence and containment for harm, without you becoming the harm
Making khernips
Khernips is ritual purification water used to mark the shift into sacred space. One widely taught modern method is to kindle a small flame (often from a dried herb or incense) and quench it into clean water to consecrate it.
a simple method
Collect water from a meaningful source that is safe to use, like a lake, pond, rainwater, or clean tap water.
Take a sprig of rosemary, thyme, or a bay leaf (dried lights easiest).
Light it safely.
While flaming, submerge it into the bowl, extinguishing it in the water.
That’s your khernips.
Safety note: Use a fire-safe bowl. Keep hair and sleeves secured. Have a lid nearby. If flame is not accessible, use clean water and prayerful intention. The point is purification, not theatrics.
The Ritual
Step-by-step, with why each step is performed
Step 1: Declare intention and ethics
Do: Speak this, or your version of it.
“I work for protection, justice, and safe return.
This working is nonviolent, protective, and rooted in truth.
Only what serves life and liberation may enter.”
Why: Intention is the contract. Ethics keep the current clean. This sets the spell’s job description.
Step 2: Purify with khernips
Do: Dip fingers into khernips / sacred water. Anoint your brow, throat, and heart. Lightly sprinkle around your space. Say:
“I purify myself. I purify this space. I enter with clear sight.”
Why: This marks a threshold. It clears energetic residue and tells your nervous system, “we are in ritual time now.”
Step 3: Establish protected space
Do: Trace a circle around your working area or altar with damp fingertips, even if it is only in the air. Say:
“This is protected space. Only allies of justice and protection may draw near. All else, depart.”
Why: Protection work can act like a lighthouse. Boundaries make sure you are calling allies, not broadcasting an open invitation.
Step 4: Light the candle as witness
Do: Light the candle. Say:
“By flame and witness, let truth be revealed. Let harm be stopped. Let the vulnerable be shielded.”
Why: Flame is focus. Witness supports discernment, accountability, and clear outcomes.
Step 5: Offer reciprocity
Do: Pour a few drops of libation, or offer a moment of praise and gratitude if you cannot pour anything. Say:
“I give in reverence. I ask in right relationship.”
Why: Offerings close the circuit. This keeps the work relational, not extractive.
Step 6: Write the petition in three lines
Do: Write these three lines on paper:
Shield those at risk.
Reveal what endangers them.
Return them home safely, with freedom intact.
Fold the paper toward you.
Why: Three lines keeps the spell architecture clean: defend, illuminate, restore. Folding toward you draws protection in.
Step 7: Anchor it under weight
Do: Place your key, coin, or stone on the folded petition.
“So it is set. So it remains.”
Why: Weight anchors intention into matter. A key adds road-opening and exit-finding symbolism.
Step 8: Send protection through breath
Do: Place both hands over the petition. Take nine slow breaths.
On each exhale, extend protection to:
protesters
community defenders
targeted families
medics, legal observers, and journalists
anyone acting in good faith to keep people safe
Why: Breath powers the working without draining you. Naming groups expands the shield while keeping it collective and consent-aware.
Step 9: Close cleanly
Do: Thank your allies. Then say:
“The rite is complete. The protection remains. I am released from carrying what is not mine.”
Extinguish the candle.
Why: Closure prevents energetic hangover. It keeps your body from staying in high alert.
Step 10: Seal it with action within 24 hours
Do: Choose one real-world action:
donate to mutual aid or legal defense
share know-your-rights resources
bring supplies
offer rides, childcare, translation, meals
check on a neighbor
volunteer skills
Why: Justice magic gets louder when it has legs.
Optional daily maintenance
Relight the candle for one minute daily and repeat: “Shield. Reveal. Return.”
How I may adapt working with my deities devotionally
For this working, I am focusing on and calling in fierce protection, equal binding, clear illumination, and safe passage. My signature working is simply one way this ritual can be lived, not a rulebook. Everyone’s devotion looks different, and it should. The way I work with these gods has been, and continues to be, an ongoing evolution, shaped by relationship, time, and practice. What I do may not reflect your path, your traditions, or what someone else insists is “right” or “wrong,” and that’s fine. My approach works for me because it’s been forged through years of research, trial and error, and lived experience. I share it as an example, a lantern on the road, so you can see what’s possible and then build what’s true for you.
If you are including deities in this rite, here’s a strong, respectful structure. I keep the calls focused and job-oriented. Here are some way I would adjust this to reflect my gods and their epithets. I work devotionally with Hades, Hekate, Apollo and Hermes.
Calling structure
For each deity:
Name + epithet
Honor their domain
Ask one clear job
Offer gratitude or libation
Invocation examples
Hekate, Dark Mother of Witches
Hail Hekate Enodia, Keeper of the Road and the Threshold. Clear safe passage.
Hail Hekate Brimo, Fierce One. Ignite courage where fear is weaponized.
Hail Hekate Rixipyle, Breaker of Chains. Unbind the targeted from intimidation and unlawful capture.
Apollo, God of Light and street-guardianship
Hail Apollo Phōibos, Bright One. Illuminate what is hidden. Let truth be seen.
Hail Apollo Agyieus, Protector of streets and doorways. Bless neighborhoods and thresholds with safety.
Apollo Alexikakos, Averter of Evil, turn away harm.
Hermes, Guardian of routes and right timing
Hail Hermes Hodios, of the Road. Guide safe routes, open exits, avert interception.
Hail Hermes Diaktoros, swift Messenger. Carry warnings, timing, and coordination clearly to those who need them.
Hades, Dark King of Consequence and Fate-line correction
Hail Hades Isodetes, Binder of All Equally. Bind violence to consequence. Bind cruelty to containment.
Hail Hades Moiragetes, Guide of the Fates. Turn the thread toward safe outcomes. Guide protectors and the targeted home intact.
Then I place my hands over the petition and speak the three-line petition once, slowly:
Shield them. Reveal what endangers them. Return them safely, with sovereignty intact.
Nine breaths. One steady focus. Close cleanly. Then I act in the material world.
May protection hold. May truth rise. May safe passage open.
If this ritual moved you, seal it with action in the next 24 hours, donate, share resources, check on a neighbor, support mutual aid, show up where you can.
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights
With reverence,
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