Instant Defense?, What can I do against sudden attack? Options

Today something happened that caught me off guard. I was in a parking lot with my father, helping him with his shopping. He had a difficult operation recently and has trouble walking. That is why he parks close to the entrance of the mall.
When I put the bags into the car, a woman came up to me, chiding me for parking there. She did not even ask me anything, she just judged and attacked.

I explained that it was not my car and that my dad has had an operation and can't walk far, but she did not listen and shouted at me. I could not see anything unusual, but I felt her aggression and bad vibes. Her mother joined her, and they both started attacking me verbally. I've been in arguments before, and usually I stay calm, but this was not a normal argument. I've never felt that helpless and aggressive in my life, there was definitely some kind of psychic attack going on.

I'm not usually aggressive, but I felt very aggressive towards them. I didn't recognize myself any more because I'm normally stable and balanced and I don't let people get to me like that.
My father came and ended the argument by offering to leave. I had the strong impulse to stay between him and them because I somehow feared they could do something to him.
No, this definitely wasn't a normal argument.

When I was alone, I almost started crying, for no apparent reason. I used my instant magick trigger and visualized three rings of blue light around me, repeating the phrase "Thrice around the circle bound, evil sink into the ground" three times, only then did I manage to calm down.
I do energy shielding regularly, but this time it was like the shield wasn't there at all. I'll definitely work on my shielding technique (I've already discovered the shielding thread in this forum), but:

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/help.gif) Is there any instant magick I can do against this kind of attack? Anything I could have done right there, in the parking lot, other than running away?

Vagrant,

You may be right about the practicality of assaulting women in parking lots, however in a situation where a party is directing energy at you in a focused manner, good defense and a strong counterattack will get you further than trying to shame an interloper into acting "right". It would be lovely if reason could prevail, but one needs to be prepared in case words fail. The only way to be prepared to mount a magical defense and offense is to make the process second nature. In real time, there often isn't the luxury of a quiet ritual space.

I was very surprised at how difficult it is to pull shielding out of my ass while being attacked. It gave me a new appreciation of the degree of preparedness that is necessary.

motsie

Vagrant,

You may be right about the practicality of assaulting women in parking lots, however in a situation where a party is directing energy at you in a focused manner, good defense and a strong counterattack will get you further than trying to shame an interloper into acting "right". It would be lovely if reason could prevail, but one needs to be prepared in case words fail. The only way to be prepared to mount a magical defense and offense is to make the process second nature. In real time, there often isn't the luxury of a quiet ritual space.

I was very surprised at how difficult it is to pull shielding out of my ass while being attacked. It gave me a new appreciation of the degree of preparedness that is necessary.

motsie

No offense, but you obviously haven't given it a try before. The aim isn't to shame anyone. Open yourself up, through compassion, to a higher source of energy, and you gain control of the exchange, simple as that. You have the high ground, so to speak, at that point. Every single time I have been in situations like that (and I live in New York, I get into some sort of exchange, of varying degrees of intensity, a couple of times a week.)

Shielding is all good and well on the astral, where you have inter-dimensional non-corporeal beings doing things you can't prepare for, but it's a method of cutting yourself off from the flow of energy between two people.

I'm simply offering a method in a different vein. You say counterattack and defense will get your further, i disagree. i think if you bring something away from the exchange, and leave something important behind, and make an impact on the world around you, you - as well as the rest of the human race - all get to move forward as one happy family.

Just because shielding and defense sounds cooler, doesn't mean it's better.

peace