Apotropaic magic (From Ancient Greek: ἀποτρέπω, romanized: apotrépō, lit. 'to ward off') or protective magic is a type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye. Apotropaic observances may also be practiced out of superstition or out of tradition, as in good luck charms (perhaps some token on a charm bracelet), amulets, or gestures such as crossed fingers or knocking on wood. Many different objects and charms are used for protection by many peoples throughout history.

Apotropaic magical rituals were practiced throughout the ancient Near East and ancient Egypt. Fearsome deities were invoked via ritual in order to protect individuals by warding away evil spirits. In ancient Egypt, these household rituals (performed in the home, not in state-run temples) were embodied by the deity who personified magic itself, Heka. The two gods most frequently invoked in these rituals were the hippopotamus-formed fertility goddess, Taweret, and the lion-deity, Bes (who developed from the early apotropaic dwarf god, Aha, lit. 'fighter').

Objects were often used in these rituals in order to facilitate communication with the gods. One of the most commonly found magical objects, the ivory apotropaic wand (birth tusk), gained widespread popularity in the Middle Kingdom (c. 2040 – 1782 BCE). These wands were used to protect expectant mothers and children from malevolent forces, and were adorned with processions of apotropaic solar deities. The cowroid amulet (imitating the cowrie shell) was also used to protect pregnant mothers and children, and was typically incorporated into a woman's girdle.

Likewise, protective amulets bearing the likenesses of gods and goddesses such as Taweret were commonly worn. Water came to be used frequently in ritual as well, wherein libation vessels in the shape of Taweret were used to pour healing water over an individual. In much later periods (when Egypt came under the Greek Ptolemies), stele featuring the god Horus were used in similar rituals; water would be poured over the stele and—after ritually acquiring healing powers—was collected in a basin for an afflicted person to drink.^{[citation needed]}

The ancient Greeks had various protective symbols and objects, with various names, such as apotropaia, probaskania, periammata, periapta, profylaktika and phylaktiria. The Greeks made offerings to the "averting gods" (ἀποτρόπαιοι θεοί, apotropaioi theoi), chthonic deities and heroes who grant safety and deflect evil and for the protection of the infants they wore on them amulets with apotropaic powers and committed the child to the care of kourotrophic (child-nurturing) deities. The Greeks gave the epithet Alexicacus (Ἀλεξίκακος), meaning "averter of evil," to several deities, including Zeus and Apollo. Greeks placed talismans in their houses and wore amulets to protect them from the evil eye. They also attached charms on the animals. Peisistratus hung the figure of a kind of grasshopper before the Acropolis of Athens for protection.

Another way for protection from enchantment used by the ancient Greeks was by spitting into the folds of the clothes.

Ancient Greeks also had an old custom of dressing boys as girls in order to avert the evil eye.

In Ireland, it is customary on St Brigid's Day to weave a Brigid's cross from rushes, which is hung over doors and windows to protect the household from fire, lightning, illness and evil spirits. In southern Ireland, it was formerly the custom at Samhain to weave a cross of sticks and straw called a 'parshell' or 'parshall', which was fixed over the doorway to ward off bad luck, illness, and witchcraft.