The rules for preserving a black mirror are few and simple, but the factors involved are many and there are many subtleties, which can only be understood with time and experience.

The first fundamental rule, and which is the basic rule from which most preservation habits derive, is that the mirror must never receive direct sunlight. Light is bad for the black mirror. Light dazzles the mirror and makes those behind it flee. Since the black mirror is a nexion with dark entities, illuminating it is counterproductive because light degrades its value as a dark nexion. A black mirror illuminated by the sun is no longer a black mirror, but returns to being an object smeared with black. To understand the reason I invite you to read page 4 of Black Souls, following this one, because the reasons why a black mirror must not be illuminated are closely linked to what a black mirror is. For now, on this page, let us try to understand what to do, and leave to one or more later moments the understanding why to do - and the deepening of Black Magic will give the Satanist the occult answers he seeks, the esoteric truths of the Left Hand Path that are not explainable and that each one understands for himself.

The preferred storage location for the black mirror should be a generally undisturbed place. Very creative Satanists - and with plenty of space - organize an entire room dedicated to the black mirror, but I think this is excessive and in any case unnecessary. It could be a drawer that is never opened - except to take out the black mirror - a box, a casket. Where this box or casket is placed, then, depends on the relationship that each person has with the black mirror, and what their intentions are. Indeed, the location could be a remote place in the house, or at the center of one's daily life, or - as mentioned before - a kind of dedicated sanctuary. But here we refer again to the next page and to aspects that will be explained later, exploring the true nature of this object.

Leaving to the creativity, approach, care and will of each one, in general - and in standard conditions - the black mirror should rest inside a box or a casket, and inside this box it should be wrapped in a black cloth. This always for the reason of protection from light, and not only. At the moment in which the surface of the mirror is exposed, the place where one is must be free of light, especially direct light. A faint indirect light from closed windows is admissible, but in truth there should not be even that - in fact the rituals that involve the black mirror are almost always nocturnal.

Also, it is unlikely that the mirror will always remain in its fixed position - unless you have a mirror in that sort of sanctuary, but that is rare and unusual for this type of object. You may want to change its position in the house, or place it in a certain place in preparation for a ritual that you will perform for example that night, or put it in the car to go that night to perform a ritual outside, or you may need to move it for absolutely trivial reasons - like looking deep into the drawer for the car wash token. This is why it should not be kept "outside" but in a box or a casket.

The reason why the mirror should be wrapped in black cloth is still tied to preservation issues. Many Satanists perceive the cloth covering the black mirror as a kind of lid, which serves to "keep closed" the mirror - as a door - so that it "opens the door" only when the mirror is freed from the cloth. This implies the belief that, while the mirror is covered, it is in "stand-by" mode, meaning that the energies that involve it are somehow blocked and segregated, while they are no longer blocked when the mirror is uncovered, and return to being so when the mirror is covered. I am against this view and the nature of the black mirror profoundly contradicts this approach. I think this view comes mostly from fantasy or horror-fueled narratives, in which magical mirrors are completely inactive as long as they are covered. But if you think that Satan and dark entities in general can be stopped by a cloth, then stop and try to think carefully about what we are talking about. To believe that the nexion nature of the black mirror is deactivated by a cloth over it, to believe that the mirror is a gateway to the Dark only when uncovered and ceases to be so the moment it is covered by a cloth, is equivalent to believing that Satan can be stopped by a nursery rhyme - a prayer, that is - to Jesus or Mary. This is an important point of reflection on the black mirror that we will return to specifically in the next page of Black Souls, which sheds light on important details about what the black mirror really is and how it "behaves".

Despite this, the act of "uncovering" the mirror remains an important symbolic and ritual gesture. Most Satanists keep the mirror covered by its cloth until the moment the ritual actually begins, and cover it again at the end. You can do this too - and I do it too - but you must know well what I said above, that is, you must be aware that the mirror is not inactive because it is covered. The mirror does not sleep. Brother, the black mirror never sleeps.

Another important aspect to discuss is the time factor. In general, I agree with the principle that the best way to preserve a black mirror as such is to use it. But equally, I am against the belief that a black mirror that has not been used for a long time - even a very long time - has somehow "run out of power" or "closed". Let's leave aside the Wiccan interpretations, the black mirror is much more than a battery-operated toy - and again I refer you to the next page to discuss it in more detail. Believing that an unused black mirror can "turn off" is like believing that a door that has not been used for a long time will return to being a wall. If anything, what can happen is that it simply becomes a door open to nothing - or almost nothing. But these are also details that will be understood later. The black mirror is a nexion, a door and so a passageway. Therefore, understanding the principle that the best way to preserve it is to use it, becomes intuitive - and contains occult aspects that the Satanist can understand with experience.