Wasn't entirely sure where to post it.
Some who may venture outside Wicca or other nature-oriented systems may have come across the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, or seen it mentioned in various places. It is a fairly simple ritual, and is probably one of the few Hermetic rituals everyone knows, even if they don't study the magic.
I do not use it today. I have much better methods of banishing on my end now, but back when I was first starting out in ''formal'' ritual and ceremonial magic, this was an extremely helpful rite, as I was in the habit of performing it at least twice a day, after waking up and before going to bed.
So what exactly does the ritual in question do?
The first thing it does is that it isolates you from the rest of the world, putting you away from it. If grounding is the act of bringing you from a spiritual state, the first thing this ritual does is it takes you out of this place and simply connects you to the universe(in the form of the All) so that you may properly magically act upon it. In essence, it infuses you with, as the people who wrote it put it, ''Divine Love'' but in essence is just divine energy.
The second thing it does, is it banishes, in that it expels ''astral nasties'', wandering spirits, lingering energy from past evocations, even actual and powerful entities, things that may be around you, vampires, et cetera. Also, it does not limit itself to forces that are on the ''darker'' end of the spectrum so to speak. If fairies are messing with you, it banishes them as well. In essence, it banishes any forces that aren't either permanently seated in you, your home, your altar(read: devotion to gods, gateways, talismans, mergings, etc.), or not conductive to the rite(demonic energy when you want to summon an elemental, and such).
Finally, it summons a few ''bodyguards'', so to speak, in this case, the watchtower archangels, to act as the overseers of the operation, as well as for protection, and whatnot.
Now what it will not do is banish things that are stronger than these angels, or keep you ''feeling like god'',all day.
The ritual in question begins with meditation, in order to engage a light trance, as is important for practically every operation. I do not care how you meditate, or visualize, just that you do.
Next, stand up.
The first visualization would be to see yourself growing, until you are larger than your house, larger than your city, to the point that the entire planet is just a ball in space the size of your eye floating. Grow past that, until you're outside of the universe altogether.
Look up, and notice a strong light. ''Source'', ''the All'', ''Parasiva'', ''God'', whatever you choose to label this divine source. Reach out for it with your athame, or wand, or even your index and middle finger joined together, and pull this light down, from the crack you see above you, into your forehead, where your Ajna chakra should be.
Vibrate, which is to say intone slowly, the word ''ATAH''.
Pull the light downwards, towards your heart. Pull it down, to where your abdomen is, where your sacral chakra would ordinarily be.
Vibrate ''MALKUTH''.
Touch your right shoulder and imagine that a beam of light from the shaft passes through that point and your right side, into space.
Vibrate ''VE-GEBURAH''.
Perform the same, this time on your left shoulder.
Vibrate ''VE-GEDULAH''.
Bring both of your hands to your chest and clasp them together as if praying.
Vibrate LE-OLAHM, AMEN.
Now, what this action does is it separates you from your everyday life, and connects you to the Universe so to speak. The names in question are indeed godnames, though they have little relation to Yahweh, or Elohim, as they are in essence, simply mantras tying into source. My own UPG aside, the cross has been around since before Christianity as a symbol of union, between the spiritual and the material.
Now, move to the East, and trace in the air, with the energy you have invoked, in blue flames(clearly in your magical imagination), a pentagram. This pentagram has to start in the lower left corner, and end there.
Once you have done this, push into the symbol with your ritual item, and vibrate,''YOD-HEH-VAV-HEH''.
Keep your hand where it is thrust into the pentagram, and turn southwards, tracing white flames into a chain, to connect your current pentagram with the next one.
Repeat the process in the South, vibrating ''ADONAI''.
Trace the light to the West, repeat the pentagram process, and vibrate,''EHEIEH''.
Carry the light to the North, repeat the pentagram drawing process, and vibrate, ''AGLA''.
Finally trace the white light towards the East, thus connecting all four pentagrams, into what can look like a barrier, or a cocoon of energy.
Now, stand at the center, and close your eyes, remembering the cross you made, extent your arms, to form it.
''Before me, RA-PHA-EL''
Vibrate the name of the archangel Raphael, and try to feel his presence, as the wind in the East, or see him, rising and forming in front of you.
''Behind me, GA-BRI-EL''
Vibrate the name of the archangel Gabriel, and try to feel his presence, as the moisture in the West, or see him, rising and forming in front of you.
''At my right, MI-CHA-EL''
Vibrate the name of the archangel Michael, and try to feel his presence, as the heat in the South, or see him, rising and forming in front of you.
''At my left, AU-RI-EL''
Vibrate the name of the archangel Uriel/Auriel, and try to feel his presence, as the dust in the North, or see him, rising and forming in front of you.
Visualize a hexagram(Star of David) in your chest.
''Around me shines the flaming pentagram, and within me shines the six-rayed star.''
Now forget about all the visualizations, release them if you will and do whatever it was you were supposed to do. The ritual has a lot more pomp, so to speak, than is necessary, even when I boiled out much of the unnecessary components, such as the robe and such.
Too often with rituals, people forget magic is an internal process, and that the power is within their own Minds as reality-bending machines. Then they get lost in the rituals, and external items, projecting power everywhere but within. After they realize what they've done, they hack away at the effigies, claiming they've gotten to the source of magic as a whole, only to find that it's exactly what they've been doing all their lives.
It's an ongoing process of ascent, so I would advise you still remember where true power lies, not in the words you're chanting the motions, but the Mind, Will, Heart. And the forces you're calling, and directing.
Connection to the forces of this rite(which in this case are the archangels, because you have connection to the Universe simply by EXISTING), in any way, prior to the performance of this rite does indeed help you, and may even help you eliminate component by component.
Sorry this became so long, though I thought I'd share it.
The LBRP Tutorial
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