*Basic Safety Guide*
Use common sense at all times, be aware of your surrounding and your situations to have your best chances of preveting injury or harm to yourself or others.
Smoke and Fire safety:
Have a fire extinguisher nearby; learn the location of the nearest fire extinguisher or buy one from the hardware store to keep within reach in case of an emergency. Your local hardware store probably has them for a reasonable price and there are smaller sizes intended for kitchens that are much easier to stash away in a closet if for some reason you have to keep your use of fire secret.
Never leave an open flame unattended; especially when you're using candles that are dressed in oils and incense, sometimes herbs can react and crackle causing an ember to fly outward away from the candle increasing the risk of fire. You can always snuff a candle out to relight it at a future time. It's just not worth the risk!
Fire Always Rises; and flames always flicker upward, so keep candles and flames away from curtains, drapes, or areas with limited space above the flame, as the rising heat or smoke may damage or even burn things like shelves or cabinets.
Only burn things in well ventilated areas; incense and small paper sigils included, open up a window and run a fan to dissipate smoke and reduce risk of inhaling unnecessary things.
be aware of smoke detectors and smoke alarms; the goal would be never to set them off. In certain areas, like some apartment buildings, if a smoke alarm is triggered, the fire department will be notified, and there would be no worse interruption to your ritual or meditation than a loud alarm followed by a visit from the fire department and having to explain to them that you were "smudging your place to banish unwanted energies".
Water and Earth Precautions:
water; as many of us familiar with tea and coffee already know, water can be easily infused with things to enhance its flavor and effects, but this doesn't mean that we should feel comfortable with experimenting. Many things can actually make water unhealthy for consumption. I have found that water that gets charged under the full moon can eventually begin to grow things inside it, and therefore should not be consumed, many crystals and minerals leave residues in the water that are not meant to be put through our digestive systems. Keep your drinking water separate to avoid unnecessary risks.
earth (salt); salt is symbolic of earth and is often used to cleanse objects and to protect our energy. Be mindful of casting salt circles for rituals on top of wooden tables, as the salt will often damage them by leaving behind scratch marks. As for taking care of the earth, please be mindful of what you try to bury or dispose of underground, many things are not biodegradable and could cause harm to nearby plants or animals.
many know that creating holy water is done by mixing water and salt, but not all of them know that salt water can stain wood floors or furniture, and even metal objects like handles and picture frames, so be aware of what you're cleansing with that salt water! it should also be noted that cleaning your metal athame or ritual dagger with "holy water" is not the best method, as the salt will corrode the blade and degrade the material quickly.
Show respect for the elements, its these energies that run the show behind the scenes on this planet, and our earthly human bodies need all of the elements to survive, but if we are not careful, they can hurt us or those around us. Always banish and close out your circle when you are done working, it is said that invoking elemental energies and keeping them around for too long will cause them to stagnate and decay into a negative manifestation of the energy. This is the spiritual equivalent of cleaning up at the end of the day, putting everything away where it goes so that you can find it in its rightful place the next time you go looking for it.
*General Protection*
Be aware of yourself and your surroundings, trust your intuition. As a practitioner of almost any of the different spiritualities, you may want to stand out to spread your message or to show others the light that you have found, but this is often detrimental to one as it will draw in more energy and attention than most would care to handle, especially when one is trying to work on self development.
Guard your mind; questions and double check all the facts that you come across, because even if someone's intentions are not to lie or hide things, we can still often misinterpret what we come across. Research both sides of every story and come up with your own conclusion to your beliefs, after all, no one knows everything so we all end up being wrong to some extent, so don't worry about changing others' minds either. I have learned that we tend to behave and act like the five people we spend the most amount of time with, if the five people you sped the most time with on a regular basis are not role models to you in some way, you may want to reconsider why you even have a relationship with them at all, often times they may be holding us back in life in big ways.
Allow yourself to blend in; Sometimes silence is your best form of protection. camouflage yourself and avoid unnecessary interactions with vampiric individuals who seek to steal your time and energy, or simply look to benefit off of you at your expense. For all of history "witches" have been persecuted by society and burned alive or executed in some way because people unconsciously fear what they don't understand, and therefore it is much more beneficial to be unknown and left alone than to try to seek their understanding.
All that which you keep secret and to yourself, can never be deliberately sought out by your enemies, and enemies will often pose as friends to extract information, so be careful what you share, some things can never be taken back. Sharing a picture of your altar can be an unnecessary liability to those who are new and not well protected, this can be used against you and is never necessary to share with others. Sometimes its better for people not to know that you practice spirituality and self development at all so as not to be targeted, questioned and unnecessarily judged.
Protections are much like a seatbelt, they can save you from a lot, but in the end they cannot prevent a collision if the driver is not being attentive, careful and aware. Warding and banishing can be done, but it's always best to avoid situations which put those protection spells to the test. Sometimes, your protection spell can manifest as a reason why not to do something or go somewhere, if it doesn't feel right, maybe avoiding it is for the best.