DADA 101 – Basic Defenses

How Do You Defend Physically Yourself?

This is the opening question to ask yourself in considering your personal Defense Against the Dark Arts. What kinds of things do you do to defend yourself.

Get a piece of paper and write down all of the things that you might be doing for defense.

This is the beginning of the practical portion of this class. There is much to learn. But there is even more that we need to apply to our own lives. And one place it to begin at the beginning.

Ask yourself what ways you defend yourself.

Locks and Doors – We all live somewhere. And in this abode or home, we have doors. Doors close. Doors lock. Sometimes we barricade them against the outside. Then there are windows, with locks and curtains and shades. And if you are still worried, there are endless levels of security systems you can add to your line of defense.

Much of what you may do is dependent on your own circumstances. If you live in a walk up apartment in New York City, you might want multiple locks with a safe or two for valuables. You might want weapons and whatnot. On the other hand, if you live in the suburbs in a locked and gated community, the level of personal protection may be different. As it would be if you live in a farmhouse in Iowa or a shack on a desert island.

Everyone’s circumstances are different as are everyone’s need for personal security. Often times, the choice of where to live takes into account your personal need for protection.

And can you personally defend yourself? Have you ever been in a fight? Can you throw a punch? Have you taken a kickboxing class or Karate? If you are unable to defend yourself, people may consider weapons – whether it’s a baseball bat or a shotgun, it depends on how much personal protection you feel you need.

Putting Up Walls

With so many outside forces baring down on us, it is up to us to find lines of defense to protect ourselves.

Walls are pretty big in the news these days with all the talk about them along the Southern Border of the United States. Our country defends itself with so many walls. Most of them legal. Our laws are in place to protect us. Are we being protected from each other or from the government. That’s a big question to ask. In the end. When our laws are not working, physical barriers must be in place to assure that all are protects.

Often this is the same with our personal lives. Are you comfortable going to sleep at night with the front door unlocked?

Is it any shock that there is such a big controversy in the United States about the status of its Southern Border. And the focus is on a wall. My personal feeling is in favor of having completely open borders. We are the land of opportunity – the last frontier.

However, while we are the land of opportunity, we have also become the land of giveaways. Thanks to the New Deal back during the Great Depression, we have endless entitlements and government programs. Not to debate the value of these programs, but they all come at a cost – and they are paid through taxation of all of us here.

Add to this the very real threats we face from terrorism. We need to have some system in place that might identify threats that may come across the border. How this system works is up to the politicians – none of whom agree.  Until that time, the first line of defense is a barrier.

What About Security in the Wizarding World?

As you progress through the Harry Potter Series, you are slowly more and more aware of the security measures put in place for the magical protection of the students. You see measures of protection in the first two books (Guarding the Sorcerer’s Stone and then protecting the students against the threats contained in the chamber of secrets. In Prisoner of Azkaban, Dementors were used to guard Hogwarts. It is also in Prisoner that we begin to learn about protective spells. Chief among these is the Patronus Charm.

In Order of the Phoenix, we find out about protective charms to hide things (like 12 Grimmauld Place – Unplottable on a Map, protected by a Fidelius Charm). And also protection such as Occlumency, the counter spell to the offensive Legilimency. And in the Deathly Hallows, there is constant talk about protective charms cast over all of their many hiding spots.

It speaks of the need for personal protection and the lengths that you must go to protect yourself against outside attacks.

And while we may not be facing magical incantations (we hope)It still speaks to the level of alertedness we must keep. It also suggests that there are many forms of attack that we may want to consider defending against.

Not all Attacks (or Barriers) are Physical

In addition to physical protection, there is also the question of protecting your mind and spirit against other forms of attack. Consider simple electric or cyber threats. Do you worry about effect of 5G (or even every other cell or wifi service). How many people had smart meters installed at their homes? Do you fall asleep with your cell phone next to you? We are being bombarded constantly electromagnetic fields constantly.

And then what about gravitational forces? We are in Mercury Retrograde now. The Full Moon will hit next Tuesday. And anyone who wants to question these aspects I would ask to go visit your local Emergency Room and then report back to us your experiences.

Which brings us to the question of other outside influences and what lines of defense we may need for our protection.

A Case for a Good Defense

It is here that all the learnings of science kind of leave us. And a starting point for why we are looking at a Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Anyone who has followed Astrogardens over the past year and a half knows that I like to play in the prepper universe. Personal protection and preparedness are important. But the kinds of Defense taught in DADA are not the same.

The types of defense, and the threats that you may be defensing against, far exceed the scope of this article. This is more of a “lets get ready” article.

Next we will begin to explore personal protection and what you may need to do to prepare yourself daily to face the world.