THE LESSER BANISHING RITUAL OF THE PENTAGRAM

Preliminaries. Start by.going to the area where you will do the ritual. If you have an altar as
described in the last lesson, put it in the exactcenterofyourarea. Tobetotallycomplete,youmaywishto
take a ritual cleansing bath before the ritual. This type of bath is not intend- ed to merely take the dirt
off of your skin. Rather, it cleans negativity and the cares of the day from your spirit. First, take a
shower to get the dirt off. Then run a warm bath. Be sure to put in some bath salts or epsom salts with
some nicely scented oil or perfume added. Then get in and just soak for a few minutes. Feel all of your
cares, worries and negativity going into the water. Now, pull the plug and let the water drain while
youstayinthewater. As the water slowly drains you will feel all of the negative things which were
troubling you go down with the water. After all of the water has drained out of the tub, get out and dry
yourself with a clean, fresh towel. Finally, put on your robe or special magickal clothes.
34 / Modern Magick

Next visualize yourself growing so large that the planets of our solar system are like tiny toy rubber
balls spinning near your feet. Soon they are too small to see as even the Milky Way galaxy becomes a
small dot of light at your feet. Now visualize a dot of light coming from. somewhere far above your
head. Know that this is only a tiny bit of the light from this source, and if you saw the full brightness
of this light you would immediately be blinded and quite possibly go insane. This tiny bit of the
endless, limitless light forms a brilliant white sphere of pulsating light just above your head. It is nine
inches in diameter, about the size of a dinner plate. It is brighter than ten thousand suns, but still only a
tiny portion of the source of this divine, spiritual wnite light. Point to that sphere above your head with
your dagger or finger and "bring it down" (by pointing) to your forehead, just above and be- tween the
eyes. Next, visualize this brilliance filling your head with divine light. While pointing to your
forehead vibrate: Ah-TAH

(boldfaced syllable denotes emphasis).

STEP TWO. Bring the point of the dagger (or your finger) firmly down your body until you are
pointing toward the ground. Your hand with the blade should be covering your groin. As you do this,
visual- Ize the light in your head coming down along with the blade (or finger), down through your
body and beyond your feet down to eter- nity. Vibrate: Mahl-KOOT.

STEPTHREE. Nowbringthebladeuptoyourrightshoulder.As you do this, visualize the beam of white

light running down the center of your body form a beam from the heart area out to your right, past the
blade at your right shoulder. See this beam of light extend to the end of the universe, and beyond.
Focus on this beam and vibrate: Vih- G'Boo-RAH.

STEP FOUR Move the point of the blade horizontally to your left .houlder. As you do, visualize the
beam of white light now extending through infinite space to your left. As you focus on this beam of
light vibrate: Vih-G'Doo-LAH.

STEPFIVE. Claspyourhandsatyourchestasifpraying.Ifyou lilre using a dagger, the point should be up,

not pointing away from ?t'Ou, nor to the sides or down. Visualize within your chest, at the point
rCOvered by your folded hands, a brilliant golden glow. Vibrate: Lih- ·Oh-LAHM, Ah-MEN

The meaning of this first part of the LBRP is as follows: Ah-TAH means "Thine"in Hebrew.
The visualization given above along with the proper pointing of the dagger (or finger) is for
the purpose of indicating that you are linking your higher self with the Divine. Mahl-KOOT
means "kingdom," and according to the Kabalah refers to the Earth. That is why you should
be pointing down. Vih-G'Boo- RAH means "and the power" while Vih-G'Doo-LAH means
"and the glory."Lih-Oh-LAHMmeans"forever,"andAh-MENmeans, ofcourse, amen (but you will
learn the secret meaning of the word "amen" in a later lesson).

Thus, the first part of this ritual translates as "For Thine is the kingdom and the power and
glory forever, amen." Does this sound familiar? It should. It is part of the Lord's Prayer. And
although this was added to the original text of the prayer as it appears in the Gos- pels, it does
seem to prove that at least some of the early Christians knew the secrets of the Kabalah.
Several of the words used here refer directly to the symbol of primary import in the Kabalah,
the Tree ofUfe.

There are many variations on this part of the ritual. The Golden Dawn in Step Two above
pointed to the chest. Thelemites, those who follow the teachings of Aleister Crowley, point to
the chest between Steps One and Two above, and vibrate the name "Aiwass" at that point.
Aiwass, Crowley believed, was the name of his (Crowley's) Holy Guardian Angel and was an
extra-terrestrial intelligence. Alex Sanders, founder of the Alexandrian system of Wicca, at
Step One above, vibrates "Kether" and in Step Two points to the stomach. Instead of AH-
MEN, some people prefer AUM or AUMGN or even a combination such as AUM-EN.

As a final note to this section, if you have not figured it out as yet, what you have done is to
visualize yourself as the center of the universe with only the divine light coming through you.
You may wish to remain in this position for a few minutes to feel its power.

Part Two: The Formulation of the Pentagrams

STEPONE. Goingtoyourleft,movearoundtothefrontofyour

altar, to the edge of the space of your circle so that you are at the east edge of the circle and
facing away from the middle of the circle where your altar stands. In other words, you are at
the east and facing east. Here, draw a pentagram as was described in the last lesson. Be sure
to visualize the figure as a flaming gas-jet blue pentagram as you draw.

STEPTWO. Inhalethroughthenose.Asyoudo,feelenergyflow from the ends ofthe universe through your

nose and body, and down and out of the bottoms of your feet to the center of the Earth. (You are no
longer at the center of your magickal circle and, thus, at the center of the universe as in the first part of
this ritual.) As you inhale, both hands should be raised to the sides of your head by your ears. The
dagger (or right-hand index finger) should be pointing forward. Your left hand (which should have
remained at your side until now) is drawn into a similar position by your left ear, the index finger
pointing forward, the rest of the fingers closed into a fist.

STEP THREE. Step forward with the left foot. At the same time thrust your hands forward so that
they point at the exact middle of the glowing blue pentagram in front of you (this position is known as
a "God Form" and is the God Form known as "The Enterer''). As you do this you should exhale and
feel the energy come back up your body, out your arms and hands, through the pentagram and to the
ends of the universe. You should use the entire exhalation to vibrate the God Name: Yud-Heh-Vahv-
Heh.

STEPFOUR Bringyourhandsbacktoyourearswhilebringing your left foot back to its original position.

Put your left hand down by your side and point to the center of the pentagram with your right
forefinger (or dagger). Now trace a line in the air at the height of the center of the pentagram as you
move in a clockwise direction around the edge of your circle's space. You should go 90 degrees so that
you end up in the south, facing south. As you trace the line in the air you should visualize a brilliant
white light emanating from the tip of your finger or blade. At the South, repeat parts 1 and 2 of Step
(a), but vi- brate Ah-Doh-NYE. \ I I •

STEP FIVE. Repeat as above, but move to the west and vibrate: Eh-Heh- YEH.

STFPSIX. Repeatasabove,butmovetotheNorthandvibrate:AH- Glah.

STEPSEVEN. Complete the circle by connecting a white line from the North to the East where you
began. Then, moving in the same clockwise direction, come back behind the altar and in front of the
chair as when you started the ritual. You should once again be face to the east (see the diagram
below). Note: Ifyou do not have room for a circle, simply pivot where you stand behind the altar.
STEPEIGHT. Nowvisualizethebrilliantwhitecircleexpanding up and down to form a sphere above,
below and all around you. What youhave done is create a sphere in brilliant white all around you with
electric blue pentagrams at the quarters which have been charged and sealed with names of God.