[from http://www.oakgrove.org/GreenPages/bos/0103.txt ] On the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram by Tim Maroney The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram is one of the chief rituals of Western Magick. It has been with us at least sin ce the Golden Dawn of the nineteenth century, and it has penetrated in to all the many Golden Dawn spinoffs, including Neo-Paganism. Yet th ere is still no widely available, clear instruction. The directions of the magical orders are mere mnemonics for those who are assumed t o have personal instructors. To formulate my personal approach t o the ritual, to aid any others who may be considering practicing the LBR, and to satisfy the idle curiosity of any gawking onlookers, I ha ve put together this short discussion of the ritual and its symbolis m and performance. A. Intent of the Ritual The real action of a magick ritual takes place in the mind. Ritual is a form of moving meditation. The effect is also pri marily psychological.* The LBR is a tool to facilitate meditation. [*Not all players would agree with this statement. Many wou ld say that the effect of the LBR is a fortified and cleansed area o n the astral plane, which they think is as real as Hoboken, if not mo re so. It doesn't really matter in practice.] The experience of a proper LBR is pleasurable and soothin g, yet energizing and empowering. One is made at home in the mystical realm, protected from lurkers and phantasms by strongly imagined wards. This solace from mundane experience is a precondition for more s erious works of meditation or ritual, but it can also form a healthy p art of the life of the mind by itself. B. The Ritual I'll just reprint the description of the Lesser Banishing Rit ual of the Pentagram from Liber O, a publication of the occult orde r A.'. A.'. 103 i. Touching the forehead say Ateh (Unto Thee), ii. Touchi ng the breast say Malkuth (The Kingdom), iii. Touching the right sho ulder, say ve-Geburah (and the Power), iv. Touching the left shoulder , say ve-Gedulah (and the Glory), v. Clasping the hands upon the breas t, say le-Olahm, Amen (To the Ages, Amen). vi. Turning to the East, make a pentagram (that of Earth) with the proper weapon (usually the Wand). Say (i.e. vibrate) IHVH. vii. Turning to the South, the same, but say ADNI. viii. Turn ing to he West, the same, but say AHIH. ix. Turning to the North, the same, but say AGLA. [Pronounce: Ye-ho-wau*, Adonai, Eheieh, Agla.] x. Extending the arms in the form of a cross say, xi. Befo re me Raphael; xii. Behind me Gabriel; xiii. On my right hand Michael; xiv. On my left hand Auriel; xv. For about me flames the Pentagram, xvi. And in the Column s tands the six-rayed Star. xvii-xxi. Repeat (i) to (v), the "Qabalistic Cross." [* Modern scholarship has a different take on the pronunciation of the Big Guy's name. I use "Yahweh" rather than the "Ye-ho-wau" of Liber O because that's what the Catholic priests of my youth taught me to say, and I've never been able to shake it off. Use wh atever pronunciation you prefer, or a different name altogether.] C. Politics of the Ritual With practice, you will no doubt come up with your own st yle of performance, and your own different symbolism for ritual acts. Different people do rituals as differently as actors play parts , even though the lines and motions may be fundamentally the same. (The alternative is an authoritarian, dogmatic horror which is alien to the deep occult understanding of religion, but is still common in m agical groups.) Slavish imitation will get you nowhere in Magick -- except, perhaps, to some high spiritual degree! The Christianity -- or at least angelic monotheism -- of the ri tual symbolism may give a start to some. Many of us involved in occ ultism have strongly negative feelings about Christianity. These are p erhaps justified, but there are a few saving graces here. 104 First, as with any ritual, you should feel free to make it you rs, to mess around with it. If you don't start to at least play wit h the styles of a ritual after a while, you are probably not doing i t very well. It is perfectly legitimate to substitute cognate symbols at any time. However, the saying in the martial arts is that one first learns another's style, and after mastering it, moves on to create one's own. For a beginner, it will be easiest simply to u se an existing ritual form in order to explore the meaning of a ban ishing ritual. Given that experience, which transcends any mere set of symbol s, one may devise a form more in keeping with the emergence of one's pe rsonal style. For instance, Neo-Pagans use a highly reified form of th e same basic ritual in many of their traditions, but with non-Chr istian deities, spirits, and heros at the quarters. Aleister Crowley w rote a new version which made the performance more dancelike, and use d the names of Thelemic deities and officers rather than monotheist go ds and angels. My private version, called "Opening the Threshol d", is entirely atheistic and philosophical. In any case, of those people who so abhor Christianity,how man y have looked at some of the practices of historical pagans in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas? No religion should ever be "accepted" by an occultist. When using any religion's symbolism, the adept shou ld cut to its sacred poetical core, and discard the political dross. B y this standard, Christianity looks about as good as any other religion. Without this standard, and by factoring in historical excesses and power plays, almost all known religions look just about as bad as Christianity. In other words, someone who will happily use Norse gods, Art hurian heroes, Taoist immortals, Voudoun loas, or what have you in ri tuals, but will never touch a Christian angel, is guilty of th e same narrowness he or she probably imparts to the Christians. The Vibration of God-Names -------------------------- In the LBR, the vibration of the god-names "charges" or "enl ivens" the pentagrams in the air. This is difficult to describe, but e asy to recognize. There is a feeling of presence in one of these c harged warding images -- though not necessarily a feeling of true exter nality or separate intelligence. Weare told to "vibrate" the names. The description and illust ration of the "vibration" given in Liber O have been known to mislead people into hilarious postures. What the picture most resembles is the skulking monster from the movie The Mummy. To the modern eye, it is remarkable how truly unclear a photograph can be. I didn't learn how to vibrate a god-name until I signed up wi th yet another occult order and was taught it in person. I wouldn't wi sh the ensuing experience on anyone, so here is a description which I hope will be adequate in print. 106 Vibration phase i -- The Sign of the Enterer (1-4) -------------------------------------------------- 1. Stand upright. Blow all the air out of your lungs. Hol d your arms straight out at your sides. 2a. Close your eyes and inhale nasally, imagining that the bre ath is the name. The exact nature of this imagination differs from per son to person. Thus, you imagine yourself inhaling the name into your lungs. 2b. As you inhale, sweep your forearms smoothly and deliberat ely up so that your fists rest on your temples. 3. Imagine the breath moving down through your torso slowly , and through your pelvis, your legs, and finally to the soles of your feet. (Don't do this so slowly that you are hurting for air when th e name reaches your feet!) 4a. The instant the inhaled vibrational name hits the soles o f your feet, imagine it rushing back up and out. 4b. Simultaneously, throw yourself forward, thrusting your lef t foot forward about twelve inches (or thirty centimeters) and ca tching yourself on it. Your hands shoot forward, together, like a diver. You bend forward at the waist so that your torso winds up paral lel to the floor. 4c. The air in your lungs should be blown out through your n ose at the same time, but imagine the name shooting out straight ahead. Steps 3-4 are known as the Sign of the Enterer, or of Horus. T his symbolizes powerful active energy. The Enterer should be someth ing of a "rush". The vibrational name is projected outwards int o more tangible manifestation -- in this case, in the pentagrams of th e LBR, which are charged by the force of the projected god-names. It is highly inadvisable to omit the portion of step(4b) which reads "catching yourself on it." But again, I have no desire to infri nge on your freedom of choice. 107 Vibration phase ii -- The Sign of Silence (5) --------------------------------------------- 5. Finally, withdraw into a standing position, left arm hang ing at your side, right forefinger on lips, left foot pointing ninety d egrees out from the body. Step 5 is called the Sign of Silence, or of Harpocrates. This Egyptian god was mistakenly believed (at the turn of the centu ry) to pertain to silence, because his finger or thumb was touching his lips. This gesture is now believed to be a symbol of childhood; this correction appears in the World card of Crowley's "Book of Thoth" Tarot deck. Harpocrates was the god of the Sun at dawn, and so symbolizes wonder, beauty, potential, growth. So, step 5 may b e done in this academically corrected light instead. However, the "hush" gesture of the Golden Dawn Sign of Sile nce is adequate for the modern occultist, even if deprived of A Divine Identification. It is a common gesture, at least in the Eu ropean culture, meaning silence. Silence perhaps balances the ultra- active Sign of the Enterer better than does the more sch olarly positive/active "Sign of Harpocrates the Rising Sun", and sile nce is surely no alien concept to mystics. The Invocation -------------- The pentagrams are given form by the drawing, life by the vibr ation, identity by the four-part prayer of steps (x) to (xiv). Some people do very elaborate visualizations of angelic guardians on each o f (xi) to (xiv). Because of my tragic personal deficiencies, I am c ontent with strong feelings of presence, identity, and divinity in ea ch of the four directions. A horizontal cross is built up step by step as you say, "Bef ore me Raphael", etc, with you at the center; and the position of you r arms forms a vertical cross, a renewal of the Qabalistic Cross fr om the start of the ritual. You may feel a quite peculiar risin g and expansion when both of these crosses are formulated. One has become the center of the geometry of the space, and it is like a little world in itself, cut adrift from the mundane currents of ev eryday experience. 108 Steps (xv) and (xvi) are when the real banishing takes place, during "For about me flames the pentagram, and in the column stan ds the six-rayed star." A great pulse of force is emitted during these steps, imposing the personal will on the space and clearing it of all h ostile influences. After this is done, the invoked "archangels" maintain the ban ishing effect, guarding in all four directions. Of course this ta lk of angels is all bullshit -- the importance lies in the psychol ogical effect. Whether there "really is" an archangel standing there keeping out inimical spirits is not important. The "feel ing of cleanliness" is what matters. Concluding Cross ---------------- The final Qabalistic Cross is an affirmation of the completene ss and symmetry of the ritual, and also a new self-consecration. T his is more efficacious than the previous Cross because it is done in a banished environment. One is now ready to do a formal invocation, an evocat ion, a meditation, or whatever the overall purpose may be. The LBR is a preliminary ceremony, although it has a beneficial effect in i tself. It can profitably be done as a stand-alone ritual, but you shoul d move on. The LBR should keep away the horrible ickies that turn so many novices away from Magick. Its mastery is a first step to adepts hip.