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I love charm bags! And I’m always shocked at what they’re sold for online. This post will walk you through a powerful, personalized charm bag for protection. You can protect yourself, a loved one, or your home. And once you know how to do it, you can make a charm bag for anything! 

What Is a Charm Bag?

A charm bag, also called a mojo bag or spell bag, is a small pouch filled with magical items. These items are carefully selected to attract positive energy and protect against negative energy or psychic attacks. People often place them in a prominent place, such as near the front door or in a sacred space. You can make all different types of charm bags, but this post is about bags for protection. (I would love to do future posts on other types!)

But…the world is big and my children are small! Whether you have kids or not, everyone has some beloved person or pet that they worry about protecting. So protection bags are a good place to start. 

Even if you’re just thinking about protecting yourself, if you’re just getting started with magic, protection is an ideal place to start. Protection spells can help you learn the basics and build up your confidence. You’ll also be super glad you did it once you start experimenting with other types of magic. 

I don’t have any special expertise beyond practicing magic for the last ten years. But I bought my kids some new backpacks a while back, so I made them new protection charm bags, and I thought I’d write the process up for this post. 

Creating a protection charm bag is simple and customizable, so you’re not stuck using what I use! I really believe that magic is flexible and that the materials we’re using as much about about embodying our intention as they are about their own properties. 

Selecting a Bag to Use 

A charm bag doesn’t actually have to be in a bag! It’s the exact same principle, more or less, as a spell jar. And if you’re thinking of something like protecting a new car or a new driver, you might be just as happy with a jar. The mini ones are easily available: 

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And you can get them on Etsy too, if you don’t like Amazon. If you’re buying them specifically for this, you might choose black or white. Mine below are pink because it’s what I had. 

But I mostly use what my mother used to call a ‘potpourri bag’: those little organza bags that they used to put Jordan almonds in at weddings. (I’m dating myself. That was my childhood, I swear!) I feel like I most often come across them now when I buy or receive costume jewelry. 

Some people prefer those little velvet bags, and you might want those too if you’re using a lot of powdered herbs or a ton of black salt or all that. I don’t usually use those though. 

(Side note: the ones I receive a gift in are my FAVORITE and always become a charm bag. I specifically do not cleanse these ones because I want to keep the gift-giver’s positive intentions towards me. If they’re store-bought, or I can’t remember where they came from, or they weren’t a gift for me, I do cleanse them as I describe below.)

So first, you prep your bag by cleansing it with either smoke or sound. Depending on what else is going on, I might cleanse with incense, with a rosemary bundle, or with a tiny bell that I only use for magic. I personally don’t do sage smudging — rosemary smudging suits me better, but if you do use white sage, you could use that too. 

Whatever you use, plan to use it for all the items you’re using. 

Best Crystals to Add to a Charm Bag for Protection

Let’s start with crystals! Crystals are essential for a strong charm bag. They channel positive energy and block harmful influences. There is really a crystal for everything, but a successful protection bag can be made with crystals that are easily, readily available.  

The best way to do this is going to be to buy crystal chips. They’re very affordable compared to full-sized crystals, and they result in a bag that you can easily slip in your purse, your driver’s side door, or in a backpack.

So, here are some of the “classic” crystals for protection: 

• Black Tourmaline: Shields against negative energy and psychic attack.
• Rose Quartz: Encourages self-love and protects your heart chakra point from emotional attacks or negativity.
• Amethyst: Provides spiritual protection and enhances clarity.
• Obsidian: Blocks or absorbs negative energy, and grounds you in your body. 
• Selenite: Calms, purifies, and heals, replacing negative energy with positive. 
• Clear Quartz: Amplifies your desired outcome and boosts the power of other elements in your charm bag. A great all-purpose crystal. 

In this set of protection bags, I’m also using carnelian. Partially just because I have it! But carnelian brings energy, motivation, purpose, and courage. Even though it isn’t a traditional protection stone, I like the idea of driving away negativity, but also bringing in the good that I want to give them. 

If you want to do this and you can’t go out and buy everything, I would probably opt for black tourmaline. (When my niece started driving, I slipped a piece of black tourmaline under her driver’s seat!) It’s not about going out and buying every bell and whistle. It’s about having a place to harness your own intention. 

I really prefer to buy crystals at a local shop (and I love to visit them when I’m traveling) but I know that isn’t possible for everyone.

Best Herbs to Add to a Charm Bag for Protection

Herbs have long been used in charm bags to ward off harm and attract good luck. Consider adding any of these powerful options:

• Sea Salt: A classic ingredient for cleansing and protection, and a great base for spell work.
• Witch’s Black Salt: Protects the user and banishes negative energy. 
• Lavender: Promotes peace and protection.
• Rosemary: Guards against negative energy and strengthens your intention.
• Bay Leaves: A strong herb for protection and manifestation.
• Cinnamon: Boosts positive energy and prosperity.

Again, I’m adding a few odds and ends here: orange peel for happiness, rose petals for love and feeling loved, and pumpkin seeds for growth. These are things that may not be traditional in a protection working, but when I’m thinking about what I want to drive out for my children, I’m also thinking about what I want to call in. I want them to feel happy, to feel secure, and to grow and mature in a healthy way. 

However: you can do this with just what’s in your spice cabinet if that’s what works for you! 

These are all also stuff that I had. Looking at what I put in the working, I bought the lavender and the witch’s salt, and the bay leaves and cinnamon are regular kitchen types. The rose petals, orange peel and seeds are stuff that I dehydrate periodically, usually at the end of summer. If I hadn’t used up all my mint and calendula, I’d probably have added those too. 

Pro note: if you’re using witch’s salt, you may want to put a little fabric on the bottom of the bag, or use a velvet bag. Witch’s salt is ground very fine, and can slip through the organza. (You’ll see that in the last photo!)

So, again: cleanse, and add to bag. 

Adding Personal Items to a Charm Bag for Protection

Including a personal item makes your charm bag unique and connected to your energy. This could be anything that holds meaning for you, and it should match up to your comfort level. For me, I’m perfectly comfortable using hair in a bag like this. Some people wouldn’t be! And others might be fine using blood, but I probably wouldn’t use blood myself for something with my kids. 

The last year or so, I have been into ancestor magic. So I might also go for something that represents them, and the protection they would offer. (Actually, the doily in the photos was crocheted by my great-grandmother, and it’s part of my altar.) 

A scrap of tshirt fabric, a little note from them — it all works. The first time I did this for my oldest, I used a post-it she had written her own name on when she was learning to write. 

The best way to personalize your charm bag is to trust your intuition. Select magickal items that resonate with your spiritual practice. If it feels right, you should be comfortable going with it, because it’s aligned with your intention. 

For this bag, I did use a little bit of hair I had pulled from each of their hairbrushes. I didn’t have any ancestor items I felt okay dividing in three, so I wrote my maiden name on three scraps of paper and put that in. (The ancestors are on my side, which is why I use my maiden name!)

Cleanse any extra item and add it to your bag!

Add-ons for a Charm Bag

If you want to really go for it — here are some ideas for making the bag itself extra powerful: 

• ​Sew a bag from fabric belonging to someone who makes you feel safe. Bonus points if this is ancestor magic.
• Select a bag in a color that aligns with your purpose. For protection that is traditionally black, but it’s worth searching your intentions about what you hope to be protected from. Since my purpose in this bag was ensuring my kids’ physical safety, but also a happy and healthy childhood, green might have been a very aligned color too. 
• Embroider or draw a sigil on your bag. I think that meditative tasks like embroidery are a great way to imbue a lot of purpose into a working! If it takes you twenty minutes to embroider a sigil, and you spend those twenty minutes focusing mentally on your true purpose in this protection working, you’ve significantly improved the power of your spell. It doesn’t have to be good embroidery! I have always wanted to try this but never have — maybe soon! 

Where to Keep Your Protection Charm Bag

So, mine are going in my kids’ backpacks. I talk to my kids indirectly about magic — a lot about mindset and intentions and things like that, but not in a “then we cast a spell” way. Honestly, to me my practice is very private and my kids aren’t really old enough to keep anything private. 

I also don’t really want to have the conversation about why we need to be protected! 

So I slip these bags into the very front pouch of their backpacks, where the pencil holders are. If there are kids out there organized enough to be using those pouches, that’s amazing. But no child like that came out of me. So they’ve never been disturbed in seven years. I replace them every couple years; when I remember it’s a full moon, I sometimes fish them out and put them outside to charge. 

Other good places to keep a protection bag: 

• the center console to your car
• the entryway to your home (I am currently hunting thrift stores for a ceramic figure I could fill with these materials for a mudroom protector!)
• your altar
• your purse
• your desk or nightstand
• a “touch point” in your home that you visit multiple times a day, or that every person in your house uses. ours is the key shelf inside my mudroom! 

If you make a charm bag, leave a comment and let me know!!

Pin this post to come back when your crystals arrive!