A Divine Feminine Adaptation Of The Lesser Banishing Ritual Of The Pentagram

The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) is a powerful ceremonial magic ritual designed to banish impure elements from the magician’s workspace. The original ritual was designed by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and is heavily influenced by the Jewish tradition of Kabbalah as well as Christian interpretations of the archangels and their correspondences. In each of the four directions, the Earth banishing pentagram is traced by the magician with an outstretched arm, forming a protective circle around herself.

The LBRP is not a tool of low magic. It does not offer material rewards. It also is not intended to banish external demonic entities but rather shadow aspects of the self. The LBRP is an affirmation of the magician’s place in the Universe. The LBRP also is a clearing of unhelpful and stagnant energies in order to open up space for purer, thamelic energies. It is ideally performed on a daily basis.

The calling of the Archangels in the original LBRP was modified in this version to the names of the Janyati (Déanic Angels, viewed as aspects of Déa). The Janyati invoked have the same planetary correspondences as the Archangels. Feel free to substitute other feminine Angelic names that correspond to the planetary principles invoked.

There are many variations of the LBRP in circulation, but this is the first that I am aware of designed specifically for those who worship God in the feminine form.

The Qabalistic Cross

1. Stand before your altar, facing east, and imagine your consciousness expanding above and beyond your earthly existence.
2. Imagine a bright white sphere of light hovering and descending down to the top of your head.
3. Reach up with your right hand or wand and pull this white sphere of light down to your forehead. When you do this vibrate the word AT (pronounced “aht”, the feminine pronoun “thou” in Hebrew) In the sense it is used in the Qabalistic Cross, it is best translated into formal English as “Thou art”. Note: In the original LBRP, the masculine pronoun Atah is used.
4. Move your right hand or wand down the center of your body, feeling the light beam being drawn down through your central energetic pillar. Touch your breast, move your hand over the sacral chakra, pointing downward to the earth, vibrate MALKUTH (pronounced mahl-kooth, a feminine Hebrew word corresponding to the English term “Queendom” and the Herthelan term “Ranyam”.) Imagine there is now a beam of light running through you, connecting the sphere of light above your head to the earth below your feet. Note: Malkuth is the tenth sephirah in the Qabalah and is identified with the Shekinah. She is Mother God’s presence in the earthly Creation.
5. Touch your right shoulder and imagine that the light beam travels from the sacral base of Malkuth to your right side, extending into space. Vibrate VE-GEVURAH (pronounced v’ge-vuw-rah, the Hebrew word ve meaning “and” and the feminine word Gevurah meaning “strength, power”). Note: Gevurah is the fifth sephirah of the Qabalah and is associated with Sai Rhavë in the Filianic tradition. She represents the Saturnian qualities of Dea, who purifies through justice and accountability.
6. Touch your left shoulder, extending the light beam to your left side, extending into space. Vibrate VE-GEDULAH (pronounced v’ge-doo-lah, a feminine Hebrew word meaning “glory”). The word Gedulah is associated with the fourth sephirah Chesed, representing the devotional piety of maid to Dea as well as Dea’s love and mercy towards maid. She is associated with Sai Sushuri.
7. Bring both of your hands to the center of your breast and clasp them together in prayer, vibrate LE-OLAHM, AMEN (pronounced lay-oh-lahm, ah-men, the Hebrew adverb le-olahm meaning “forever” and amen meaning “verily, in truth”). You are now standing in the center of a cross of light that extends to the ends of the Universe.

The Four Pentagrams

1. Face east and trace with your hand or wand a large Earth banishing pentagram in the air before you. 

Earth Banishing Pentagram

Visualize the pentagram glowing in flaming blue light. Perform the Sign of the Enterer (stand with feet parallel and shoulder-width apart, visualize a white sphere of light above your head with a beam of light descending from the above sphere to a second sphere beneath your feet as you inhale, simultaneously raise your elbows upward and outward parallel to the shoulders, hold your hands flat on either side of your neck with palms facing down and fingers pointed forward, while exhaling step forward with your left foot while thrusting your hands forward, lower your head between your arms with eyes forward, visualize the white beam of light rising back up through your body and projecting through your fingertips). Vibrate IOT ‘E VOH (pronounced “yot-eh-voh, pronouncing the final “h” sound with the exhaled breath. Note: IVH is Dea’s Sacred Name of Power in the Madrian tradition.

Sign of the Enterer

Perform the Sign of Silence (place the right foot facing forward with the left foot turned toward the left slightly behind it, raise the right forefinger to the lips). This Sign seals the motion of magical energy.

Sign of Silence

2. Keeping your finger or wand in the center of your pentagram, move to the south, and trace a white beam of light to the southern quarter of the magical circle. These lines connect your pentagrams. Trace another pentagram the same way, now perform the sign of the enterer and vibrate GEBIRAH (pronounced gheb-ee-rah, meaning My Lady or Queen in Hebrew). Perform the sign of silence, remembering to keep your right arm out in front of you. Note: In the original LBRP, the name Adonai is used, which is a masculine name meaning “My Lord”

3. Trace the white beam of light to the west, repeat the steps of tracing and charging your pentagram, but this time vibrate EHYEH ASHER EHYEH (pronounced eh-yeh ash-ehr eh-yeh, translated commonly into English as “I am that I am”, but in Hebrew is more accurately used in the sense of a constant state of “becoming”. Note: First person pronouns are gender neutral in Hebrew.)

4. Trace the white beam of light to the north, do the same sequence one last time, and vibrate AT GIBORAH LE OLAHM GEBIRAH (pronounced “aht gee-bor-ah lay-olahm gheb-ee-rah, translated as “Thou O Lady art mighty forever.”) Note: In the original LBRP, the Qabbalistic acronym AGLA is used which stands for “Atah gibor le-olahm Adonai”, both the name of God and the adjective for the word “mighty” are masculine and therefore feminized for use in the Déanic context.

5. Trace the white beam of light back to the east, connecting all your pentagrams together. You should now be surrounded by four blue flaming pentagrams in the four quarters of your circle.

The Calling of the Archangels

1. Visualize the Qabbalistic Cross you made earlier, extend your arms out to either side parallel to the floor to become the Cross. Look in front of you (east) and say “Before Me, SAI MATI“ (pronounced sai mah-ti). Feel Her presence manifest before you in the element of wind.

2. Visualize another presence behind you and say, “Behind Me, SAI CANDRÉ (pronounced sai cahn-dray). Feel Her presence manifest behind you in the element of water.

3. Visualize a presence to your right and say, “At my right hand, SAI RAYA” (prononced sai rah-yah. Feel Her presence manifest to your right in the element of fire.

4. Visualize a presence to your left and say, “At my left hand, SAI VIKHE (pronounced sai vik-hay). Feel Her presence manifest to your left in the element of earth.

5. Face east again and contemplate the flaming pentagrams around you while saying, “For around me flameth the pentagram” Then visualize a brilliant golden hexagram within you at heart level and state “And within me shineth the six-rayed star”.

6. To finish, repeat the steps of the Qabbalistic cross.

May Dea bless you.

Sources:

https://stateofformation.org/2016/03/blessed-are-male-you-gendering-god-in-jewish-text/

https://journeyingtothegoddess.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/malkuth/

https://www.aish.com/sp/k/Kabbala_11_Gevurah_The_Strength_of_Judgment.html

https://ritualwell.org/ritual/shabbat-amidah-feminine-god-language

https://sacredwicca.com/high-magick

https://uhg.readthedocs.io/en/latest/person_first.html

https://www.wikihow.com/Perform-the-Lesser-Banishing-Ritual-of-the-Pentagram

http://www.mother-god.com/goddess-religion.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXFKCcaYGtI&ab_channel=FoolishFish

Cosmic Perceptions

Varying layers of existence expand and contract within the crystalline matrix of Being.

We not only are a part of a ecosystem, we ourselves are an ecosystem.

We are the terrain through which billions of smaller units of Being live and die.

Our bodies are collections of many various small organisms called cells that have evolved with varying traits to collaborate together in order to create a whole.

Could these vessels of consciousness understand themselves without first understanding what together they build?

Could they comprehend the whole Being they belong to?

A Long Absence

“At the very dawn of religion, God was a woman. Do you remember?”

“When God Was A Woman” by Merlin Stone

I explored a variety of religious traditions as I made my way through the awkward adolescent years. I wanted to belong to a tradition that was timelessly true, but invariably, I ran up against religious doctrines that smacked of prejudice against female-bodied people and queer people. Progressive apologetics of these religions would justify these teachings as within the context of their culture and age. I wasn’t convinced. Humanity is of course fundamentally flawed. No religious teacher has transcended the human experience while entrenched in this plane of existence. However, teachings of true spiritual communion with the union of Divinity should nullify small-minded, ego-based assumptions that place half of humanity under the dominion of the other half.

It was during these formative years that I came across a book by Merlin Stone called “When God Was A Woman”. This book was life-changing for myself as a young female-bodied individual who had grown up in and ultimately rejected the orthodox, exoteric Catholic church, a faith without representation of the feminine divine. God is portrayed solely as “Father, Son, Holy Spirit” with all-masculine pronouns. Collyridians who worshipped the Virgin Mary as Mother God and the Gnostics who venerated God as Sophia were considered heretical and outside of the church’s realm of grace. “When God Was A Woman” was patriarchal poison’s antidote and inspired me to delve into researching religions that venerated the Divine Feminine. This book had a great cultural impact on the broad “Goddess Movement” of the 1970s and 80s, an eclectic movement which took on many different forms.

During my search, I discovered Filianism. Filianism is a rich tradition venerating God as Mother, Daughter, and Absolute Deity. The faith was unlike anything else I had ever encountered. It was a synthesis of Eastern and Western esotericism in feminine form. There was an underlying perennialism that I found lacking in many of the New Age interpretations of the Divine Feminine. While I had found much of what I was looking for in this regard through my embrace of Shaktism, I missed the more universal face of Thea as witnessed cross-culturally throughout the ages found in the Janyati of Filianism.

While I dedicated myself to the study and practice of the Filianic tradition for several years, I ended up walking away from the faith altogether for the past seven years. This distancing in many ways was not only from Filianism but also other associated viewpoints I had at the time that I wanted to cut myself off from.

For example, I was quite materialistic in my early 20’s. I had the luxury of an entire wardrobe filled with vintage dresses, hats, gloves, stockings, and shoes in the name of “racinating my image sphere” (a concept from the culture which Filianism emerged from which sought to do away with post-modern influences and return to what was seen as a more traditional aesthetic prior to the hippie movement of the 1960’s). All that appearance-oriented concern seemed silly when I became more aware of/involved in more pressing issues regarding the planet we’re destroying along with ourselves.

To be honest, in spite of my writings differentiating the points of my personal religious practice with that of the orthodox community, I also felt a sense of embarrassment publicly affiliating myself with Filianism in my day-to-day life. I didn’t want to be misjudged as an otherkin or lesbian separatist by the casual researcher into my professed religion.

I abandoned this blog a month before my 21st birthday. I am now 28 years old.

I continue to hold decidedly unorthodox beliefs and perhaps would better describe myself as a child of Thea at this point in life.

I believe in the maxim “as above, so below” and therefore do not believe that masculinity is purely of the material world without spiritual counterpart. In fact, Thea encompasses masculine principles as well (as the spiritual warrior Sai Vikhë).

I do not believe that Thea is entirely separate from Her creation and I acknowledge Her holy reflection found in Nature, though rippled it may be.

I’m less critical of viewing myth through the lens of Jungian archetypes than I used to be. I can see the value of witnessing mythos as symbolic of the collective unconscious and “God within the psyche” while simultaneously reflecting higher realities. However, I do not view God as simply a projection of consciousness, but rather the Source from which All emerge.

I’ll go a bit more into the changes I’ve undergone over the years as I revive “Goddess of 10,000 Names” from its dormancy.

In spite of any differences with the orthodox practice of Filianism/Déanism, I take a lot of inspiration from its thealogical perspective of the Divine Mother and its scriptural texts.

I deeply appreciate those who have kept this tradition alive over the years.

Habit’s Nature

Being and doing are deeply ingrained in the subconscious as synonymous. But the reality is the experience of being is created through the action of doing, but being is not action itself. Being is simply potential.

Neuroplasticity is both a blessing and a curse. It enslaves in exactly the same way that it liberates. Habitual ways of being are reinforced every time a pattern is repeated.

Self-preservative and self-destructive action run along the same spectrum, both may be kept in motion by the same force of repetition.

Start with where you find yourself in the world. Find small ways of resisting inertia every day to remove yourself from action that does not serve your potential.

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Energy’s Exchange

How can we describe the essence of that spectrum which encompasses both life and death?

Life feasts on death for the energy to maintain its existence, and in return for the favor, death can only touch what is alive.

The two express different degrees along a single spectrum.

The two cannot be separated from one.

The two polarities condense down into their singular function as energy’s exchange.

Energy is neither created nor destroyed, it is only transformed.

Energy’s exchange is not linear.

It does not travel in parallel lines, never to cross, or perpendicular intersections meeting at a single point in space for a single moment in time.

It spirals out into the manifest and returns back along the same path to its Source.

The Language of Form

Words place limit to the Formless, pinning down detailed definitions of known phenomena.

Words arise from conscious musings of Logic and Emotion, the two governed by a subterranean realm of imprinted patterns, primal urges, and fluid flows of existence.

From the steep precipice of definition reaches downward madness’ depths, a great abyss lying between the Great Integrity and the individual.

What is death but disintegration into the Mother of Form?

From death She speaks life anew, breathing Spirit into Form as the Self.

Form remains divided from Self’s identity; Self being an ever-elusive fragment of the whole from which Form operates; Form being the means by which Self perceives Self through an experience of otherness.