“The Guardians are always present. Step into the circle and invoke their wisdom.”

David Salisbury’s Hail to the Guardians: Invoking the Wisdom of the Watchtowers is the first and only work devoted entirely to the guardians of the watchtowers, and it is a genuinely refreshing read. Most occult texts allude to the watchtowers, often confining them to a brief paragraph or two within discussions of circle casting. By contrast, Salisbury offers an entire volume dedicated to engaging with and exploring these forces in a practical, hands-on manner, something that feels long overdue for new and experienced Witches alike. 

The first part of the book explores directional beings from a good number of myths. Salisbury’s “Guardians Across the Globe” section covers beings such as the Bacab from Mexican myth, the Spirits of the Four Winds from Greek myth, the Four Royal Stars from ancient Persian lore, and, of course, the Four Guardians that we’ve all come to know and love from western magical traditions. He offers just enough to whet your appetite, encouraging you to explore more. 

I am a huge fan of books that encourage readers to roll up their sleeves and actually practice magic rather than just read about it, and this book truly delivers on that front. What makes it especially compelling is its unique structure, which guides the reader through hands-on magical work tailored specifically to each of the four guardians. Instead of just rattling off theory after theory, you are given recommendations for establishing a daily practice for connecting with each directional guardian (including above, below, and center), interpreting omens, and specific devotional rituals designed to help you connect with each direction. 

The crux of the book, however, lies in the last chapter: Initiation with the Guardians. This section provides a well-structured ritual for a solitary Witch who is looking to deepen their connection to the guardians, taking their practice a bit further than devotional work. The book offers the following explanation for the reader to consider:

When witches talk about initiation, a lot of people picture robes, candles, and a group of very serious people saying very serious words. Those rites can be beautiful and life changing. But the kind of initiation I’m most interested in, and the one I think many of us are actually craving, is personal initiation: a conscious agreement between you and the powers that you are willing to be changed. A personal initiation is less about being given a title and more about crossing a threshold. It is you standing in the center of your own life, “I am ready to be different now,” and then inviting the spirits you work with to help make that true.¹

Overall, this book was a delight read. The setup was easy to follow and the rituals are impactful and effective. While I didn’t personally perform the initiation ritual at the end of the book, the ritual itself seemed well-written and would be something I’d encourage a solitary practitioner to explore.

A Working from the Book: Devotional to the East

The working I chose to highlight from this book was the Devotional to the East, which was designed to help a Witch deepen and expand their working relationship with the guardians of this particular direction. The procedure was very accessible and offered a good framework for me to embellish a bit more with my own personal flair. I blended an incense using herbs and resins usually associated with airy qualities and burned this before a yellow candle. I used naturally shed feathers from a bird of flight (that’s a fancy way of me saying pigeons…there are so many pigeons here in Chicago) as my eastern icon and proceeded with the ritual. I steadied my breathing, as instructed, and begin to recite the invocation while lighting the candle:

Guardian of the eastern gate, whose veiled enchantment faces dawn, stride upon the chariot of fate, that moves the travelers ever on. I give devotion, praise, and love, and seek your wisdom in the stars, by eagle, hawk, sparrow, and dove, I praise the eastern avatars.

Then, once I felt ready, I cast a heaping amount of the incense into my cauldron and watched as the smoke erupted. It danced so beautifully among the glow from the light of my candle. I continued chanting:

Smoke is the gift of air. Hail to the guardian of the east. 

I continued chanting the last two lines until I lulled myself into a light trance. Scrying into the bellowing smoke, my mind began to fill with signs, symbols, and other images, reinforcing that I had found my connection with the guardians of the east.

About the Author

David Salisbury is a Baltimore/DC based witch and polytheist with 25 years of experience and an initiate of the Anderson Feri tradition of witchcraft as well as the Thelemic organization O.T.O. and has been consecrated as a Bishop into the Gnostic Tradition of Jules Doinel/Tau Valentin II. As an author of multiple books on the magical arts, David teaches both privately and at festivals and conferences around the world. His work primarily focuses on magic as a subversive act meant to unshackle our power and presence from the oppressive forces of society, and to restore authenticity and wholeness to the self. His work educating the public on paganism has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and more.

Book Information

• Hail to the Guardians by David Salisbury
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Publication Date: December 16, 2025
• Dimensions: 6X9
• Page Count: 230
• Purchase link.

1. Hail to the Guardians by David Salisbury. Page 152. ↩︎