The Lesser Banishing Ritual Of The Pentagram, It's History, Applications, And Potential For Your Life.

What is The Lesser Banishing Ritual Of The Pentagram? Where did it come from? And most importantly, can it serve any practical function for your life?

These are the questions I will attempt to answer in todays post. Let's start:

The latter half of the twentieth century saw a resurgence in interests in occultism and esoteric topics. Large numbers of people felt dissatisfied with traditional , orthodox religion, and sought something more "spiritual." Young people, in particular, craved something more "hands on' and ritual oriented, rather than simply sitting in silence listening to a preacher or priest instruct them in cultural mores and traditions. Enter Hermeticism.

Wikipedia defines Hermeticism as "Hermeticism, also called Hermetism,[1][2] is a religious, philosophical, and esoteric tradition based primarily upon writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus ("Thrice Great"). It takes it's inspiration from Hermes, a Greek god that was the messenger of Olympus, parlaying messages from the god to the mortals and vice versa. Hermes was a trickster god whose help to humanity often came with a price. Thus, whose who follow the path of hermeticism are taught that wisdom must come with a price, and one must be willing to pay that price to obtain divine wisdom, and conversation with their Holy Guardian Angel. To the believers, it is not an easy path, but nothing of value is ever easy.

This resurgence of interests in the metaphysical led to the formation of "magical" societies, the most famous of the hermetic based western societies being The Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn. The founding of the Order is itself a remarkable story, and many books have been written about this fascinating venture and no doubt more will be written, but for the purposes of this essay we will keep it as short as possible, and say that there are conflicting reports as to the year of its founding, but most (including preeminent member Dr. Israel Regardie) agree that its first lodge, the Isis-Urania-Temple of Hermetic Students of The Golden Dawn was founded in London, England around the year 1887, with the purpose being to "give instruction in the medieval Occult Sciences." The three founders, William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and Samuel Liddell Mathers, were initiated English Freemasons, and Woodman was the recipient of a stack of "Rosicrucian documents" from one Robert Wentworth Little, former Supreme Magus of a Rosicrucian Society from which the Golden Dawn would evolve. These documents contained the materials for what would become the working rituals of the Golden Dawn, including the very important Lesser Banishing Ritual Of the Pentagram.

The Golden Dawn went on to recruit men and women (it was one of the first co-ed societies of its kind) from all professions. Probably the most well known member was poet William Butler Yeats, although it is safe to say that nearly every member of the society impacted politics and art of the time in some way.

It should be noted that the Golden Dawn divided itself into 2 orders. The "Outer Order" or the first six degrees and grades of the society, were not a magical order. That may sound strange, but the goal of the Outer Order was simply initiation, that is for the neophyte to attain the "magical mindset" necessary to pursue the Great Work, or reunion with the Divine. This meant studying the Tarot, astrology, the Hebrew language,and finally, "Enochian", or the language of the angels.

The "Inner Order," did indeed practice practical magick, but magick which could be learned only after years of study and meditation. At this point the initiate understood the "magical' feats had one purpose, to enhance the journey to the Divine.

Even a small amount of study into the Golden Dawn will reveal that much of the ritualistic work involved applied the use of Judeo-Christian prayers and Godnames, and this has led many to mistakenly believe that the G.D. is a "Christian Order." This is not true. The Christian formulae are used becasue the Golden dawn is founded on medieval and Rosicrucian systems, which due to the times were profoundly Christian. The student will soon see that, in truth, the actual NAMES of the Godnames chanted are not as important as the vibratory formulae, the visualization, and the intent. Like the Freemasons, the Golden Dawn had members of multiple religions.

I felt it was necessary to build a background around the Lesser Banishing Ritual Of the Pentagram, and why it is seemingly so important. The LBRP (as I will refer to it from now on) was the FIRST ritual a Golden Dawn member had to learn, and it remained the most important. Entire books have been written about this ritual, and will continue to be. The changes it can wrought in a humans consciousness can be profound, although at first they seem subtle. Simply put, performing this ritual daily for 6 months WILL change you, almost certainly in a positive way, although I make no promise of that. Chaos magicians like to compare the LBRP to the drug lsd, in the sense that both can rip away your ego mask and make you see yourself for who you really are, and then you can start to rebuild.

The LBRP has proved so powerful and beneficiary that many schools of magic,and even some schools of yoga have taken it and modified it to fit their own systems. No matter, the LBRP continues to work, although admittedly some versions are more efficient than others, and it should most certainly be vibrated aloud, as I have seen some yoga oriented programs encouraging people to whisper "their own personal godnames", the lack of the verbal vibratory quality can certainly impact the overall psychic atmosphere of the ritual.

The LBRP, in a nutshell, ask the student to make use of his/her imagination to tap into higher realms of consciousness. The student must , if possible, always perform the LBRP in the same space, once a day, and if possible, the student is asked to construct an "altar" and wear a tau robe. The reason for both these items is purely theatrical, but you will learn, if you practice, that magic and theater are deeply, intimately connected. When the magician dons his "tau robe" (a simple white or black robe resembling the Greek letter tau) he/she is discarding the clothes that connect him/her to his material world and donning the sacred garment for work with and communication with higher powers. It is a show yes, but done repeatedly it has a powerful effect on the mind.

The altar, which should have some symbols the four elements on it ( air facing east, fire facing south, water west, and earth north) provides the same purpose,and ideally should not be moved. If you cannot have all four elements represented, have none at all, in magical rituals balance is extremely important.

Finally, before the LBRP is performed, one should do a relaxation ritual. Anything which clears your mind and relaxes your body will do, but I like to lie flat on the floor and imagine a ball of warm white light moving slowly up my body, flooding all my nerves and muscles with warm healing energy. After doing it for awhile, you can actually feel the light as it moves along your body.

I suppose the big question is still, WHY should I do all this? No reason, really. Perhaps you have heard about topics like this and wonder what's all behind it? Perhaps you believe in the mind-body connection and like to test it? Maybe you meditate already and would like a new active meditation?

Whatever the reason, the LBRP is SAFE. We are not invoking anything, we are not "praying" to anything. We are banishing negativity! I don't know about you, but I think everyone on earth would do well to banish negativity from their lives!

Now, the LBRP is POWERFUL! To those who are just learning about it, I cannot stress that enough. It may sound silly, but this is a very powerful ritual and you will notice effects, oif not immediately then surely within a week or 2 of daily practice, if done right. It is a BANISHING ritual,a nd while that is a good thing, too much of anything can be bad, so I advise everyone after a certain point of doing the LBRP daily to slow down...you will know when that time comes. Banishing is like using enemas, you don't want to do too ,much! If you start to feel...empty, stop! After a day or so you will feel "normal" again.

Suffice to say in the first few months at least the LBRP should make you feel light, and less encumbered. As far as "metaphysical" results, this is different for every person. Within one week of starting this ritual I felt a sense of "charged" air around my altar, within 3 weeks I was seeing blue flashes of light in the room around the altar when not doing the ritual, and then the real effects begin. Let's just say a month after successfully doing the LBRP every day, I felt like I had always dine a really great stimulant drug, without any nasty side effects. Did I say it was powerful?

Here is the great Dr. Israel Regardie himself, the man we have to thank for saving the G.D. rituals, describing how to do the Kabalistic Cross and The LBRP. the Youtuber who so kindly made this put some Tool music behind it, but I kind of like it!

It should be noted that the Kaballistic Cross is the beginning of the LBRP and inseparable from it.

I hope you have found this informative and enjoyable. If you already do the LBRP or would like to try, tell me about it! Have fun out there and safe journeys!