An Introduction
To Banishing Rituals
If I had a £1 for every
person I've met over the years who's said, "oh I don't
bother with banishing rituals" - and then wondered why
they started to have problems with their magic - I'd probably
have, er..well enough money for a meal in a decent London
restaurant. A Banishing Ritual is one of the first practical
exercises that you should learn in magic (in my view, anyway),
and by doing so, you can save yourself a lot of trouble later
on.
Banishing is also known as
Centering, which in many respects, is a more accurate term
for the exercise.
So what is a Banishing Ritual?
Essentially, Banishing has three aims. The first is that it
'warms you up' as a preparation for doing further ritual,
meditation, or whatever, enabling you to put aside 'everyday
thoughts' - "what's on TV later", etc. It allows
you to take on the role of 'magician' (I'll go into this later
on), and to place yourself in the 'centre' of your magical
universe - the axis mundi. Secondly, Banishing sets up the
space you are working in as 'sacred', so that the loft, bedroom,
basement or wherever you are becomes, temporarily, a 'temple'
space. Thirdly, a Banishing 'clears' the atmosphere of the
area that you're working in of 'psychic debris' - I'm not
entirely happy with this description, so I'll try and expand
on that later as well.
Most Banishing rituals have
three basic components:
1.A section to focus awareness
on the BodyMind.
2.A section which demarcates the main zones, gates, quarters
or dimensions of the chosen magical universe - at which you
are the centre.
3.An identification with a chosen source of inspiration -
merging the macrocosm (total psychocosm) with the microcosm
(self).
Example Banishing
There follows an example Banishing
ritual that I will explain in terms of the above. It was developed
for use in a group known as 'The Circle of Stars' which was
active in Leeds a few years ago.
1. Begin facing East1
and stand, arms by your sides, head tilted slightly upwards,
breathing slowly and regularly. Clear your mind of thoughts.
Reach upwards with your right hand breathing in, and bring
it down the centreline of your body whilst breathing out,
visualising a beam of white light passing down through your
body, from above your head to below your feet.
Next, turn your head to the
left and point with your left hand, then turn to your right
and stretch your right arm out, forming a Tau Cross.2
2 - breathe in, hold, and
breathe out, visualising a ray of white light running across
your body, from left to right. Then, whilst breathing in,
bring your arms across your body and fold them across your
chest. Breathe out, and visualise a cross of white light expanding
outwards from your chest, along the two axes you have made.
Feel yourself to be supercharged with energy, yet at the same
time, calm and ready.
This completes the first
stage of the Banishing, and is known in some magical systems
as 'The Cross of Light'.
3. With your right hand,
draw a Pentagram in the air before you. Begin at the apex
and draw down to the left-hand point, then across to the right,
across to the left, down to the lower right, and back up to
the apex. Visualise the Pentagram glowing with energy. Then
point your right hand into its centre and slowly intone the
letters I-A-O3 - drawing out each letter and visualising the
pentagram glowing brightly with more energy as you do so.
Turn and repeat this for South, West, and North.
3. Facing East, raise your
arms and say:
"About me flare five-pointed
stars,
Above my head, the Infinite Stars
Within my breast there flames a Star
Every Man, and every woman is a Star
Behold, A Circle of Stars."4
In this example, the first
section of the Banishing focuses attention on your BodyMind,
the second makes the space demarcation - marking out the four
quarters, and the third is the 'union' with the infinite -
'as above, so below' if you will. After the third section,
you are ready to begin your exercise, other ritual work, etc.
If you were doing the Banishing as an exercise in itself,
repeat the first section, and then after a pause - clap your
hands together as a sign of ending the exercise. To close
using this Banishing, do the rest of your work and then run
through Sections 1 - 3 again.
Do it with Style!
As with all kinds of magic, it's not so much what you do,
it's how you do it. A little dash of theatricality does help
a lot. For example, when using a Banishing to open a working,
I let a tone of awe and anticipation creep into my voice.
I try and create, using voice, gesture, and posture, an atmosphere
of expectation and tension. Similarly, when using a Banishing
to close a working, I try to project an air of finality, satisfaction,
and success. My spoken words are less strident and commanding,
and much gentler in intonation. This is certainly useful in
group workings, but also useful in solo work - since the feedback
that you give yourself also contributes to the atmosphere
that you create. As Granny Weatherwax says - "it's Headology
that counts".
Psychic Debris
I said at the beginning that I wasn't happy with this, so
here goes. A Banishing can be a magical equivalent to tidying
up (which you should do before working anyway). Since most
of us are not fortunate enough to have a room which can be
used solely for magical work, we have to use areas which are
used for day-to-day living as well. This creates an atmosphere
which you can pick up through unconscious cues, which it is
well to 'Banish' before starting focused magical work - or
it might well disturb you.
Similarly, after a working,
you need to dispel the particular atmosphere that you've created,
or you might well find that it 'clashes' with the everyday
atmosphere that you associate with the room. On this point,
it can be useful to Banish a room if there's been a particularly
bad argument in it (the tension lingers), if you or someone
else have been pouring out emotions all over it, or if you
feel 'tired' within it. This sort of effect is covered by
the term 'Psychic Debris'.
Practice
Your chosen Banishing can be done as a daily practice - on
awakening, and before retiring. It should be used to open
and close any magical activity. In time, you will find that
the ritual can be done almost on 'autopilot', and the associated
feelings arise without conscious effort. It should be taken
as an encouraging sign if you start having dreams about Banishing.
I've often, during a nightmare, resorted to Banishing whatever-it-is
that's bothering me, and nine times out of ten it does work.
An interesting note, on Banishings & dreams is that, despite
the fact that over the years I've used many different forms
of banishing exercise, when in dreams, I always seem to use
the Golden Dawn Lesser Pentagram ritual - probably because
that was the very first one that I was taught.
Different Strokes
The basic Banishing ritual that I have given above combines
gesture, breath control, visualisation, energising, colours,
symbols, and invocation. These are all essential elements
to ritual magic that practice in, will stand you in good stead
later on. Different Paths have different approaches to Banishing.
As a Wiccan Neophyte, I was taught a method of 'Casting the
Circle' which, on average, took a good 10-15 minutes. This
is an excellent way of setting up a sacred space for a few
hours' worth of ritual. It combined not only the elements
given above, but also circumbulation (in a manner that suggested
'rising on the planes'), elemental invocations, altar consecration,
establishing a sacred space using salt & water, incense
& fire (candle). As a beginner I found this useful because
it helped me build up my ability to visualise slowly (not
everybody is good at visualisation automatically) and it had
a strong emotional power to it, which is also important. In
the circle, I felt 'safe', guarded, and ready for further
magick - which all helps you gain the confidence you need.
We did use the Lesser Banishing as well - but more for 'shorter'
workings. But whether a Banishing is elaborate or minimalist,
is up to you. The important thing is to know why you're doing
it (and some people don't get told the whys in magic - just
to do it), and that once you have the basic elements, you
can add to them as you like. It is important that the symbols,
images etc. are meaningful to you. Each time that you do a
Banishing, you are balancing the different aspects of yourself
& your psychocosm into a more dynamic whole. The underlying
structure of the exercise remains similar whether you are
working Wicca, Qabalah, Tantra, Thelema, or even Chaos.
The Magical Personality
Why do people take on magical names? Possibly to impress their
friends, but more often because they wish to create a distinct
magical persona which they can slip into when doing their
magical stuff. This is why the magical scene is littered with
Merlins, Morganas, Taniths, Circes, Taleisins, etc - all names
of wizardly folk. The 'magical personality' is what you become
when you put your robe on, light candles & incense, and
start fiddling with causal reality. The basic distinction
is that 'you' as your normal personality might have all kinds
of doubts about this magic business, and enjoy long conversations
about archetypes and such-like, but your 'magical' self, if
nothing else, is 110% sure (fingers crossed) that what you're
doing is effective, and is going to work, even if it takes
you all night! If you've ever played 'Dungeons & Dragons',
you should know what I mean. A D&D game is a few bits
of cardboard, coffee cups, lead figures, lots of dice, and
scattered sheets of notes. Yet you take on your character
to such an extent that when he/she/it is killed, it can be
quite a shock. In magic, all the preparation - and here the
Banishing is one of the most important bits - gets you 'into
role' as the (hopefully) powerful and confident magician.
And when you finish off your working, the second banishing
stops you going down the pub and still acting as though you
rule the Universe. Okay, well you might, but not everyone
will appreciate this.
Outdoors
It must be said, I've never felt entirely happy doing the
standard forms of Banishing outdoors. I think that this is
in part due to the different sense of space that I have when
working in some wild spot. I find that this is particularly
true if the place I am working at is a Power Spot. Power Spots
may be natural areas, or places where other magicians have
worked at in the past.
I think that outdoors working
is something that you have to get a feel for by intuition,
and that the 'rules' of indoor ritual don't always apply.
Perhaps someone else would like to take this point up.
Finally, as you read your
way through the multitude of occult how-to books available,
you'll find lots of different Banishing ritual formats. Remember,
there's no one right way to do it, just the way that works
for you.
Notes:
1.When working indoors, I often designate 'East' as the wall
with a window in it.
2.The Tau Cross has a lot of magical information attached
to it - go look it up!
3.The letters I.A.O signify the 'magical' formula of growth
(Isis), destruction (Apophis) and Rebirth (Osiris).
4.This rubric is quite 'Thelemic' in style - we chose it for
its 'poetic' quality.
More Articles On Banishing Rituals
Witchcraft & Magic
Section
The Lesser Banishing Ritual Of The Pentagram 1
The
Lesser Banishing Ritual Of The Pentagram 2
The
Lesser Banishing Ritual Of The Pentagram 3
(all 3 articles are different) |
