LBRP misconceptions

The LBRP is "The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram." and was formulated by the Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn in the 19th century and brought together elements from various resources, most notably the work of Eliphas Levi.

It is a ritual which is often recommended on this site, mostly by people who don't know any better, see the title, perhaps practice t once or have read a poor book on the subject and assume various things which are simply not true. It is one of my personal pet peeves when I see the ritual debased and simplified and recommended willy nilly by practitioners not from a hermetic background to practitioners equally uninterested in the God forms employed.

The Misconceptions

1. You are Banishing Earth

This is perhaps the most erroneous assumption people make. You are not banishing Earth when doing the LBRP, you do use the same pentagram as the one used for banishing Earth (except without the same names, symbol, and in some circles colour), but what you are banishing (most of the time) are the empty shells/qliphoth/astral debris which exist below Malkuth, the sphere represented by Earth on the tree of life. So to all the pagans who seem to be under the misconception that we hate Earthly energies and are banishing such, you have the wrong end of the stick!

2. It is enough to just do the ritual and not understand it.

On some level, yes, I can see this being a valid argument, however, if we look at why we do ritual: we perform ritual actions, visualisations, which are coupled with intent to cause a certain effect. That means you a) want to know how each action represents your intent and b) know what the intent is! Why are you using the Earth pentagram? Why the cross? Why these archangels? Why are you using the God names? Why the circle?

If you have no answer for these, the ritual as written is not for you just yet, either find out, or rewrite it to your own needs.

3. There is only one version of the LBRP.

This is again, incorrect. The Golden Dawn died in the Early 20th century and many splinter groups were formed, within these groups new teachings came about. Today one of the most debated topics is whether to use the sign of the enterer and sign of silence during the ritual, or simply point and vibrate. There are differences within each lineage, however, they all stick to the basic framework of 1.Qabalistic cross, 2.. pentagram formulation and charge, Evocation of Archangels, and Qabalistic cross. The precise details differ from lineage to lineage, and if the person is a real occultist they will often have their own insights they add to the ritual. It is by no means perfect as written.

4. It is only for banishing entities.

Good lord, no! In fact, most high magic practitioners use it daily, and let me tell you we don't banish entities daily! There are so many uses this ritual can have or be adapted to my list would be endless and it is best to figure it out for oneself and also work with the sister ritual "The Lesser Invoking ritual of the Pentagram" which in my opinion is perhaps more helpful in certain circumstances. Just a quick breakdown:

Qabalistic Cross: Invokes Deity into yourself, aligns yourself with the tree of life in a harmonious way brining a balanced amount of light (LVX) into the sphere of sensation.

Pentagrams: Banish the Qliphoth and serve as symbols on the astral plane to ward further disturbances off.

God names: YHVH (Lord of the universe), Adonai (Lord), Ehieh (I am that Iam), AGLA- This one's important, it is really an anagram, or notariqon, of "Attah gibor Le Olahm, Adonai": Thou art forever unto the ages, Lord." These charge the pentagrams with force, could be seen as a form of prayer and a general oath or statement of one's own Self in their own right.

The Archangels: The images used are usually elemental in nature, the angels serve as guardians for the circle made, but are also there as a symbolic method of balancing the elemental energies of the area and within oneself and equally distributing these to bring all within the space to a state of equilibrium.

QC again.

To quote Crowley:

"Those who regard this ritual as a mere device to invoke or banish spirits, are unworthy to possess it. Properly understood, it is the Medicine of Metals and the Stone of the Wise. (The Palace of the World)"

The LBRP as written will serve every single banishing scenario

No. No. No. No. No. Apo Pantos Kakodaimonos! Hekas, Hekas, este bebeloi!

If this were true nobody involved in high magic would run into trouble ever. I will admite the ritual offers a baseline and a framework, but as I mentioned above, is mostly designed for equilibrium and the qliphoth and anyone working on the formula of the outer order of GD: which essentially means anyone who has not yet gone through certain initiations, or has not reached a relationship with their universe which in turn means they operate in a specific state of consciousness and need alternative needs.

The ritual works of an elemental formula known as the ADNI formula, that is: Aleph-air-east, daleth-Earth-North, Nun-Water-West, Yod-Fire-South.

If we look at the hexagram ritual as commonly taught (i.e. incorrectly for anyone who is not an adept) they use the YHVH formula Yod-Fire-East, Heh-Water-North, Vau-Earth-West, Heh-Earth-South. Why? Because this is known as the macrocosmic formula, it is for the adept who is at or beyond tiphareth on the tree of life. Anyone who is below this level using this formula is using a formula not meant for them, outside of an adept context the ADNI formula should be used at all times.

But books never really tell you that, with the exception of two that I have come across.

6. This is the best banishing ritual for everyone.

No. No. A thousand times no!

It is a great framework and shows you what is needed in a banishing ritual, however, if you can apply this to your own path confidently and will relate to another mythology more naturally, then do it! The Cicero's show brilliant examples in their additions to Regardie's "The Middle Pillar" and show Celtic, Egyptian, Greek adaptations amongst a few others. It can be done, and if it be your Will, I recommend it be done.

Recommending the LBRP to a pagan or a Satanist is like telling them to pray to Jesus. Why witches do it so often is beyond me, I have no words at the amount of contempt I have for such stupidity.

There are probably many more things I could have written about, but these are the most annoying to me!

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Now, I understand that this practice is part of a larger system which requires initiation. However, is there a source, that some could use, to better comprehend the extend of what is missing?

I don't think it requires initiation per se, just familiarity.

Anything by the following would be good:

Israel Regardie
Chic and Sandra Cicero
Pat Zalewski

Quite frankly the Golden Dawn system is best explored solitary though the Cicero's "Self Initiation into the Golden Dawn" and the essential things with a little bit of other strands are also covered in Donald Michael Kraig's "Modern Magick".

Great post.

Very good post!

Sorry to have hit on your pet peeve. It's just that when there are so many newbies who dabbled without expecting anything weird but now there might maybe be something weird, the LBRP is just the easiest to tell them to do. It's like the common complaint of visiting a doctor and the doctor never says, "You're on the last two days of the flu, just get bedrest and lots of hydration and you'll be fine." Nope, the docs almost always recommend antibiotics when the patient probably doesn't even really need antibiotics. LBRP has become the antibiotic of the occult community.

It's like the 35 rules of occultism is "One: ignore rules two to thirty-four; and rule thirty-five is to do the LBRP more often because it's never enough."

Are you self taught or have you been taught as well?
Your knowledge of High Magick and way of breaking it down is very impressive,You can write a better Book them DMK,Modern Magick is a great primer but that's it,You can't really get past the prime basics with it and he holds a lot back.

I am mostly self taught but do have people to turn to when I need to and also have learned a lot by listening to people. Mostly through my own studies and practice though.

DMK's book is a great primer, but I agree there is very little there other than what is covered in a basic course. But that was his goal, and he did a fine job. The reading list he compiled is also fantastic allowing for further, more in-depth research.