Tread carefully with guard rings

The news of the William Knibb Memorial High School student who was killed by a male schoolmate over claims that the deceased had stolen a friend’s ‘guard/power ring’, and the claim by school administrators that the wearing or possession of such is prevalent among students, gripped the nation for a few days recently.

Long before that disturbing tragedy, there were claims in the media that lottery scammers, too, were wearing guard rings to elude law enforcers, and to protect themselves from their cronies and competitors and/or enemies. Yet, the use of guard rings to protect people from human and supernatural threat to life and limbs has been in practice for many decades right year in Jamaica.

These rings were said to be found in the clothes and on the fingers of some of Jamaica’s most notorious criminals over the years. It is said that when the rings get warm, it means that danger is looming near, and it is time to go into hiding, or prepare for a confrontation. And the ones that were regarded the most potent were those ‘loaded’ by practitioners of de Laurence (called ‘Deelawrence’ locally).

The de Laurence Company was founded by L. W. de Laurence in Chicago, Illinois, in the 1900s. De Laurence was a pioneer in the business of supplying magical and occult items by mail order. He was a successful businessman, teacher, author and publisher. His magical and occult products were regarded as very effective, more powerful that the others, and the use of such became associated with voodoo, obeah, witchcraft, black magic, white magic, juju, etc.

Central to these practices is the spirit – or duppy, demon, ghost – that supernatural entity that carries out the job to be done. It is said to be instructed by the practitioners, who perform all sorts of ritual so that the orders are successfully carried out. One of the objects that embody the instructions is the guard ring, the panacea against trials and tribulations.

In an effort to understand how the guard ring works, and why misfortunes, harm and/or death still befall the wearer of such sometimes, The Gleaner spoke with a practitioner, whom we shall call ‘Loaderman’ from now on to protect his identity. And, yes, the practice and the rings are real and popular, and you would never imagine some of the people who wear them.

He said the ring must be loaded for a particular reason; if not, it can turn against you. So, it is not a universal guide. Its protection is only for that particular reason, and nothing else. In essence, if it is for protection from the police and the law, you are not protected from you friends and cronies who might deceive you.

“You have to know what you are protecting yourself from. Guard ring don’t protect you from robbing people. That can’t guard them from de Laurence’s mystical order, unless dem have on Mr de Laurence ring. And when dem have on him ring, him still can’t protect dem backside, fah dem too tief. Yuh don’t tief people and believe you are going to get away just like that.”

INTEGRAL INGREDIENTS

With the purpose established, Loaderman determines what the ring is going to be loaded with. Integral to the ingredients is something from the client’s body, be it urinary waste, sex fluids, tears, hair, a piece of skin, blood, saliva, etc. In addition, there might be “a piece of dead man headstone, grave dirt, dead man tissues, dead man ashes,” etc.

“You use a dead person to guard you, so when the blow comes, the spirit in the ring will be attacked and not you, because it is an image of someone else that the attacking spirit will see, and not you.

“It is a spiritual warfare,” he explained. And if he cannot get things from the person’s body, he knows what to load into the ring.

As for people who go online to buy products to guard themselves, he declared, “Scammer cyaan wuk obeah, that’s why obeah turn over and murder dem. Go pon line and buy things and a carry on, but is not so it go. There are many things that people don’t know and dem tek up things pon demself, an dem dead out like fowl. De Laurence a bruk dem blasted neck.”

He continued, “Dem go inna the Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses go find seal, or the Books of Seals. If you read it clearly, it ask for what you want, it tells you what time to do what. If you get a seal and is a blood seal, every full moon you have to ensure that you pour blood pon de ring, or yuh f**t.”

He referenced a man who was seen in an online video drinking blood from the head of a goat. The man was allegedly shot and killed not long after. Loaderman said the man should never have drunk the blood. It should have been spilled on the ground, after which it should have been covered with soil, so that it could not be tracked back to the drinker.