The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram: A 21st Century Grimoire

Product Information

There seems no real reason why the archangels are omitted at the quarters, other than that the Spirit Pentagrams are perhaps supposed to fill the same role of symbolizing Briah. Depending on their preferences, individual magicians can fill in this step using the wording from the LRP. Make the invoking Pentagram of Air, visualized in yellow light. Vibrate ORO IBAH AOZPI while drawing Pentagram. Draw Aquarius symbol within Pentagram. Vibrate YHVH while making this symbol. Give the sign of Shu.

According to Crowley's notes (above), the purpose of the LBRP is to protect the Aura, placing one in a box or body (Astral Body = Light Body = Body of Light). Being at the intersection of Samekh and Pe also denotes this is taking place in the Astral since Hod and Netzach are on the Astral Plane. (Note: Yesod is on the Etheric Plane, Malkuth on the Physical Plane, Tipareth on the Mental Plane.) The QBL orienting you to fire being on your right shoulder and the ritual being drawn with the right hand also emphasizes this is an astral ritual. (See A. E. Powell for extensive writing of the 4 bodies.) The 4 blue flaming pentagrams some say is an equilibration of Chesed (4) and Giborah (5). Which, when drawing an equilateral pentagram on the Tree of Life, points to the intersection of Samekh and Pe, ruled by Mars (Giborah) and Sagittarius [ruled by Jupiter]). Make the invoking Pentagram of Air, visualized in yellow light. Vibrate YHVH. Give the sign of Shu. Crowley writes in his Notes on the Ritual of the Pentagram: Every man has a natural fortress within himself, the Soul impregnable. ...Besides this central citadel, man also has outerworks, the Aura. ...It is the duty of every person to see that his Aura is in good condition. There are two main methods for doing this. The first is by a performance two or three times daily of the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. Its main point is to establish in the Astral four Pentagrams, one in each quarter, and two Hexagrams, one above, the other below, thus enclosing the Magician, as it were, in a consecrated box. It also places in his Aura the Divine Names invoked.

About Me

ADNI: Adonai, meaning "lord," is the name vibrated into the pentagram traced in the south. The Divine Name Adonai is often said in place of YHVH, the latter of which is considered too holy to pronounce. Note: Some associate Adonai with the divine name of Malkuth = Adonai ha-Aretz. Others associate it with Binah. Note: There is a teaching about the 4 swords of Adonai. Note: YHVH and ADNI interlaced is IAHDVNHI. The Kabbalistic Cross is made on the body, signifying that one's self is an expression of the symbols and meanings described by the ritual gestures. The cross has a vertical and horizontal dimension. The vertical component represents the divine reality. The horizontal is material or manifest existence. The vertical line is drawn first to show the ontological priority of spirit, which extends to all planes of reality both above and below our world. The horizontal axis is then described, such that the two axes of matter and spirit meet in a point at the heart. A mathematical point has no extension, and so this point, which is in the heart, represents Hadit, the true Self. It is also the mystical nothing, that silent place where spirit and matter meet and are one. The sign for the element of Fire is that of the grade of Philosophus. The sign is made by raising the hands to form an upright triangle at the forehead by joining the tips of the thumbs and forefingers. This can be seen as representing the directing of the will, which corresponds to Fire, vertically in spiritual aspiration. An upright triangle also represents the element of Fire in traditional Alchemical notation. The sign is said to be that of the Egyptian goddess Thoum-ash-Neith, or Neith, typically represented with a human head and carrying a bow and arrows. In the Golden Dawn system this God-form is assumed by the four officer called the Daudachos, whose duty is to consecrate both the initiates and the temple with incense. The incense represents fire to the purifying water of the parallel officer the Stolstices. By Jewish tradition, the invocant would be facing East, thus placing Uriel in the East, Michael in the South, etc. This arrangement of the Archangels to the quarters is consistent with other Jewish writings, such as Sefer HaBahir and the Book of Enoch. Some religious historians have found other forms of this invocation utilizing early Semitic gods. As we can see, the symbolism of the Pentagram serves as a visual resume of the entire ritual. Placing the Pentagram at each of the four quarters shows the elementals or other forces of those quarters the dominion of Spirit over them, as embodied in the magician.

The title comes from a gemstone known for the 6 pointed star pattern that forms when light is refracted through the concentrations of a substance called rutile within the stone. The symbolism of the 6 rayed star and the rarity and value of the stone refer to the consciousness of the Adept in Tiphareth. There are several deeper layers of symbolism that can be gleaned from a close study of the Holy Book Liber 66: Liber Stellae Rubeae, where the Star Ruby is also the yoni of the Goddess.As Air, Therion is the Ruach centered in the Sun of Tiphareth. He is the lion of light, a solar god mediating between highest and lowest, Malkuth and Kether meeting in Tiphareth — beast, god and man as One. The placement of Malkuth tells you where the energy and/or effects of the ritual is either stored or manifests. Much attention has been paid in the explanation of these rituals to the Pentagram itself as a symbol. Just as important, however, are the other features of the ritual — the manner in which the movements and visualizations define the space of the performance and into which the Pentagram is inserted and integrated as a component of a larger ritual gesture. We can break the general structure of the most basic Pentagram ritual — the Lesser Invoking or Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (hereafter referred to as the LRP) — into a few basic components, which we will discuss in turn. These are:

Go to the East. Make the invoking Pentagram for Spirit Active, visualized in white light. Vibrate EXARP while drawing Pentagram. Draw wheel within Pentagram. Vibrate EHEIEH while making wheel. Configuration: The 3 points are each the center of 3 crosses upon which 4 pentagrams are drawn which, in turn, reveal 2 hexagrams. When the 2 hexagrams are merged, they become either side of a single Unicursal Hexagram. The center of which is the flower upon the heart. And it is in this heart that Man and God are united. The Qabalistic Cross, which is common to both lesser and greater forms, centers the operator on the Tree of Life, and affirms their own connection to divinity. Go to the East. Make the invoking Pentagram for Spirit Active, visualized in white light. Vibrate EHEIEH. Give the sign of the Rending of the Veil.The Greater Ritual of the Pentagram invokes or banishes all four elements one at a time, in detail, as well as calling the Archangels, and additionally using Hermetic and Enochian methods to invoke or banish the twelve zodiacal signs associated with those elements—three zodiacal signs per each element. It is a fully modular ritual, and can be adapted to work with only one elemental or zodiacal energy at a time.

In the case of the LBRP the four Archangels called are in direct relation to the directions of East, West, South & North (777). If no implement is used, it is an oral custom to vibrate the divine names of the quarters while making the sign of the Enterer, and following this with the sign of Silence. These two signs are paired together, and are the first symbolic signs given to the initiate of the Golden Dawn, corresponding to the Neophyte grade of that system. Provide students with effective tools to master their own minds and beings, and thereby to gain the true magical power: Power to live the life they choose, on their own terms.Point of Teth and Gimel: For about me flame the pentagrams, and within the column shines the six rayed star [Vav/air]