This is a topic that does not apply to everyone, but if you're a psychic vampire, you probably are so inclined. Magick, spelled here with a k to differentiate from stage magick or fantasy, refers to either spell work or ritual work. The main difference is that rituals aren't always spells, and can often be used to prepare for spell work. Spell work can be quite eclectic. Magick with a k particularly refers to ritual done to improve the energy body and therefore one's spell crafting.

I strongly suggest any psy vamp to take on a ritual practice. Ritual, as stated above, improves the energy body. Ritual is made up of words and gestures which in and of themselves don't hold any special power, but which help you by training your focus, giving your conscious, logical mind something to do, and require you to draw up, concentrate and express energy. You can of course perform energy based workings without any rituals, but rituals tend to create better and more reliable effects. Totally random rituals tend to create totally random results. Again, it's not necessarily the specific words and gestures that matter, only that you peform them regularly and with intent.

Further, to engage in magick well, you need to train and prepare yourself through Inner Cultivation -- a variety of practices that work on one's mind, one's emotions, one's energy. If you are anxious, unsettled, have unrealistic fears and expectations; if your energy body is in disarray and you barely connect with it, you need to work on inner cultivation first.

For example, my daily practice includes the following every morning:

• After breakfast, I go to my temple space and practice a little qi gong. This helps me get my energy flowing properly.
• I then practice Pranayama, specifically alternate nostril breathing for ten rounds. This also helps clear energy channels. People make a very big deal about the importance of breath to energy and they aren't fooling.
• After pranayama, I sit down to meditate for 20 minutes or more. I also practice mudras -- although I usually default to the meditation mudra suggested in Buddhist texts, and sit in a half lotus style on a cushion. These aspects are important: sitting this way on a cushion means that I can keep my hips above my knees, which is much more comfortable and helps me keep my spine straight. Further, both the sitting postion and the mudra connect energy channels and allow me to circulate my energy without needing to think about it. I also hold the tip of my tounge lightly against the roof of my mouth just behind my front teeth for this purpose (completes a circuit). I prefer no-mind meditation, and I attempt to keep my awareness on my solar plexus or diaphragm.
• Last, I perform some daily divination by doing at least a single card pull for the day. This helps me train my intuition.

Obviously everyone has different lives and different schedules, but shortly after waking up is usually the best time, the second best time being before bed, and the third best is whatever time you have in which to do it regularly. Consistency is important.

As for magick ritual, this will vary depending on what's most accessible for you. Western Ceremonial magick is most accessible to me, so that's what I've practiced the most. The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (also known as the LBRP) is a lovely ritual that helps train visualization (you must focus on "seeing" the circle, pentagrams, spirits), projecting energy through voice (the vibration of names), and through gesture (casting the circle and pentagrams). If you practice this and its related rituals (e.g. the Greater Banishing Ritual, as well as Invoking forms) enough, you can use the elemental pentagrams for all sorts of things. You can, of course, choose to memorize other rituals instead. Ritual spell work normally involves summoning other entities -- spirits, commonly -- in order to assist in completing some goal or task, such as finding information, getting a job or home, and so on. Western Ceremonial Traditions are not the only traditions which work this way -- there are Taoist and Buddhist equivalents, for example (they require initiation to practice, but suffice to say the basic arugment is the same: performing rituals to summon spirits to do one's bidding, and usually invoking the guidance and protection of some deity or several). There are vampire specific rituals along these lines, such as those suggested in The Sanguinomicon.

All that being said, some vampires practice what's commonly called Manifestation Magick. This is done primarily through visualization and focus -- meditation of a sort on a given idea, image, whatever. It's accessible because we work so much with energy that we don't really need to spend time working it up through ritual in order to peform a spell.

Does ritual help protect our spaces while we do workings? Yes, provided the ritual prompts you to do the correct things. Anything that draws a boundary around your space, which places protective energy in the cardinal compass corners, and which is shored up strongly, will be effective. For example, in Konstantinos' book Nocturnal Witchcraft, you will find a circle casting ritual that is a little more intense than most Wiccan books offer. This ritual happens to be very good and I suggest it to anyone having trouble (ie, from spirits or other practitioners). One of the key differences, besides having you draw invoking pentagrams of the appropriate elements in each corner, is that he also suggests you invoke these elements with their physical representations, and shore up the boundaries of the circle each time -- thus, 5 times. This creates a pretty strong boundary compared to rituals which omit describing a boundary or only describe it once. You are also helped by using the representations of the elements -- invoking fire with a lit candle is going to speak to your brain pretty darn clearly. Work smarter, not harder, as they say (but work a little hard at least). Even when vampires focus on just manifesting things, it still behooves them to do so within a circle, or a similar boundary, or to use such boundaries around sensitive areas like their home, their bedroom, office, and so on. If you spend a lot of time online in communities about vampirism, magick, and so on, you're going to find your fair share of miscreants or annoyed neighbors who will lob malicious energy your way (or attempt to pay you a visit in spirit or dreams, which is annoying). Circles work like shields but take less energy to maintain. If you work with protective spirits and invoke them into the corners, appropriate offerings can make the energy cost essentially zero.

Now, all this being said, how often should one practice magick? Only as often as actually necessary. Ritual practice can be done regularly when it's things like banishing rituals or empowerment rituals (ie, Liber Samekh/The Bornless Ritual/Headless Ritual or whatever you want to call it), and focused spell craft is usually very rare. Of course, everyone's lives are different. Mine tends to be pretty calm.

Later I hope to include some more specific sections within here -- I'll add a cool side menu and everything -- and I'll share many more specifics for magick practice that I hope will be helpful to the curious vampire. We don't work all that differently from other types of people, although working with energy on a regular basis does mean that magick is a little easier to pull off and include in one's daily life. The training necessary for good magick is also super great for vampires, since a difficult and blocked energy body is going to have a harder time with energy needs, might not make efficient use of energy consumed, and might have more difficulty expressing energy stored.