Bannishing Ritual
Building the circle or sphere of light around oneself is the simplest form
of magical ritual. It is an affirmation of one's wholeness and active
participation in the cosmos. The circle is a univer-sal symbol of the
feminine, while the penetrating shaft of light has a masculine quality.
Ritual is an end itself. It is a celebration of life; it is the soul in
action. During ritual we alter our consciousness in accordance with the
symbols being used. The magical circle, or mandala, with its four quarters
relates us to our environment with a maximum of meaning. It gives us
physical and spiritual orientation.
The power perimeter is formed by first tracing the circle around oneself
either physically or vividly in the imagination. Next, perform the
Qabalistic Cross by picturing a brilliant, piercing ray of scintillating
light entering from above your head and grounding through your feet. Then
cross yourself from left to right with a horizontal beam of light. Finish
with a moment of contemplation with arms crossed over the breast.
Continue with the Banishing Ritual, which will further focus or concentrate
your attention within your sacred precinct. Facing east, stretch out your
dominant hand, either holding your magical sword (or dagger) or pointing
your index finger. This can be performed "on the astral" via visualization
if you can hold the picture clearly.
Trace a pentagram with your outstretched hand; watch it burst into flame.
Then fling it forth into the east until it disappears in the far distance.
Intone the god-name YHVH (yod-heh--vav-heh). Turn north, repeat the
gestures, and use the name AGLA (ali-ge-lali). Do the same in the west,
saying AHlH (eh-he-yeh). Finally, turn south, fling out the pentagram, and
intone ADM (ah-doh-nai).
Return to your position facing east. Extend your arms in the form of a
cross, and say, "Before me Raphael." This is the archangel of aspiration,
pictured as a vast figure clad in billowing yellow light, scintillating with
mauve or violet. Feel a cool wind emanating from this entity, awakening your
potential.
Turn south, saying, "To the south Michael." This angel of fire is a muscular
warrior clad in robes of brilliant red, scintillating with green. You feel
intense radiation emanating from this angel of inspiration.
Facing west, call out, 'To the west Gabriel." Archangel of water, he holds
out a blue chalice of ambrosial elixir. Sea tides surge around his feet and
you smell the moisture of the spray. Gabriel is a purifying energy.
Finally, turn north, intoning, 'To the north Auriel," and feel the
stabilizing energy of this broad-shouldered, placid figure. He is clad in
indigo with glittering flashes of gold. Picture him in verdant fields of
grain and flowers. The golden orb and sickle in his outstretched arms
symbolize peace.
To close your operation, repeat the Qabalistic Cross. Remember to open any
ritual with this cleansing and focusing, but also use it to close a circle
and dissipate the concentration of energy and return yourself to normal
awareness. This ceremonial awakening back into everyday life makes an
important distinction between sacred and profane experience.
Ritual magic, done with the proper attitude, is actually a form of
self-hypnosis. The great benefit of hypnosis in general over casual memory
or regular talk therapies is that it allows you full emotional
participation, bypassing the critical mind. This permits a true catharsis.
It is a very potent tool for changing yourself in a prearranged direction.
You can use it for acquiring formerly unavailable resources that can be
quite useful in your daily life. And, as we have shown, scents in particular
open up direct access to the emotional part of the brain, which has the
greatest impact on the autonomic nervous system and the subconscious mind.
In fact, if you have a vivid imagination, you need never act out a ritual on
the physical plane. By simply taking a few deep breaths and establishing a
regular pattern of rhythmic breathing, then visualizing yourself going
through the banishing ritual, you perform an excellent induction for
self-hypnosis. Some prefer to call this technique guided imaqery. One of the
main symbols of the Egyptian god Thoth was the all-seeing single eye, the
mind's eye of imagination.
During your trance experience, always keep the perspective of operating
within your astral body your self as seen or experienced in the imagination.
Do not just be a spectator. You need to be feeling the sensation of movement
and experiencing with your senses as if it were all quite physical. The only
exception to these guidelines occurs when you want to distance yourself from
something you are finding intolerably unpleasant. Then you mentally move
your perspective to viewing the scene as if it were a movie. In normal
ritual conditions, you need to feel the heft and weight of your magical
sword as you draw the pentagrams. when you draw the perimeter of your
magical circle, see it as an impenetrable barrier, impervious to all the
external forces of the cosmos. As you visualize the archangels in the
various quarters, feel the wind from the east, the heat from the south, the
moisture from the west, and the earthy groundedness of the north. Experience
the visceral feeling of awe and wonderment all these things inspire in you.
When you drink the wine, feel the cool moisture in your mouth and taste the
myriad aromas within the goblet. If you consume a wafer, visualize its
charging with light, and as you taste its fullness imagine that light
penetrating every aspect of your being.
See it . hear it . . . feel it . . . taste it smell it ... then BE IT. Be
one with your higher self in that moment of perfection. Then as you
circulate that light throughout your entire being during the Middle Pillar
exercise, know that you are the light.
Collapsing Negitive Anchors
Magic is actually the ancient form of psychotherapy, or healing and
integration of the mind/body system. We can draw from modern therapy and
also from the ancient ritualistic traditions to make a very potent method of
healing. Anchors are associations, and we have formed many anchors
throughout our lives at random, both positive and negative. Negative
associations are known as complexes. These can be used constructively in a
ritual setting, if we know how.
In a basic magical ceremony, a circle or sacred precinct is constructed,
supposedly to protect one from demonic influence. In Jungian psychology,
these demons are translated into modern language as psychological complexes
or blocks to further growth. One of these minor demons might be called lack
of concentration, or focus. The circle acts like a lens or focus to keep our
energy concentrated on one thing and keep out distracting thoughts. Jung
identified the magical circle or mandala as a symbol of the self. The
banishing ritual clears the psychic atmosphere and then we invoke one pure
thought form upon which to concentrate. As stated before, this is actually
the induction of self-hypnosis, which is selective awareness.
Hypnosis is not a therapy in itself but rather a tool for getting to the
state where work can be done. Once you have cleared a working area the
actual magic or process of change begins. You can use techniques from
gestalt therapy, NLP, Jungian active imagination, or other therapies in
combination with ritual formulae. First, determine on what level you are
working: a sexual problem or mother-complex would relate to Yesod (Sphere 9
on the Tree of Life), problems with procrastination to Malkuth (Sphere 10),
poor intellectual performance to Hod (Sphere 8), relationship problems to
Netzach (Sphere 7), religious dilemmas to Tiphareth (Sphere 6), and so
forth.
Now, the work begins in earnest. Go back in time via imagination to an
experience where you felt the feeling you want to change. Generally, these
are items of unfinished business things left unsaid, unresolved conflicts,
traumas. Relive and intensify that feeling to the point where it is stronger
than you have ever felt it before, in real life or memory. Be in that time
emotionally, feeling the feeling strongly. See yourself in the experience,
hear what went on, feel the body sensations and visceral reactions. Now,
anchor all these sensations by gripping your knee in a peculiar way (a way
you are not normally touched).
Now invoke the positive qualities of the sphere of the Tree of Life that you
wish to incorporate. Remember to invoke only the qualities you want, not the
entire effects of the sphere . . . that is too overwhelming. See yourself in
the same situation again with all the resources you need to perform and feel
the way you want to in the future. Now anchor these positive feelings with
another touch.
To neutralize the unpleasant experience forever, all you need do now is to
fire off the two anchors simultaneously by recreating both touches in the
same moment. This is a highly effective, proven technique, even outside the
context of ritual. If you combine a special scent for the sphere, with which
you have no other associations, you have a potent mnemonic device for
recreating the experience instantaneously. You have changed your
associations from unpleasant to pleasant. You have, in effect, changed your
personal history. Any anchor can be collapsed by another anchor, if the
other anchor is of equal or greater intensity, and both are triggered
simultaneously.
You can use scents to anchor natural resources and construct resource
experiences. You can use your imagination to elicit a sequence of internal
states that you have never before experienced. Associate a different touch,
or sound, or smell with each step of the sequence. Then fire off the anchors
in sequence. Anchor the resulting internal state. Every time you fire off an
anchor you get the same response that is, the quality you've programmed is
evoked. This is conditioned response.
Scent In Ritual
Israel Regardie, one of the foremost authors on the Western occult
tradition, defines three purposes for the employment of scents in ceremonial
magic. The first is "to provide a material vehicle or basis for the
manifesting spirit." This requires burning incense to create a dense cloud
of smoke upon which the participant imagines the entity. Second, perfumes
are offered to the entity being called into communication most frequently
one's Holy Guardian Angel, a symbol of the divine genius or higher Self. In
more particularized operations, there are specific scents for each class of
being from the inner dimensions, forming calling cards, so to speak. They
are olfactory keys. Finally, there is "the all important intoxicant effect
of the powerful and penetrative incenses on the consciousness itself, a
separate one being assigned to accompany the invocation of each deity."
Regardie also outlines another means of employing perfumes and incenses by
using the Qabala.
Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has attrib-uted to it a long number of
correspondences, of spirits, intelligence's, colors, gems, ideas, and
incenses. By taking the letters in the name of a spirit, and consulting the
proper authorities, a compound of incenses may be made which will spell,
through the sense of smell, the name of the spirit. From this compound of
perfumes alone the appropriate spirit may be suggested in the imagination
and called forth by the proper rites. There can be little doubt as to the
essential suggestiveness of these perfumes, since even for ordinary
individuals some incenses are definitely seductive and excitant, such as
musk and patchouli; yet others overwhelmingly fragrant and generous, and
others which are sedative and tranquilizing.
Detailed lists of correspondences can be found in Aleister Crowley's Liber
777 (published as The Qabalah of Aleister Crowley).
The Middle Pilar Exercise
Use the Middle Pillar exercise for meditation right after the working period
of your ritual. Its primary purpose is to balance out the energies of the
mind/body and connect the personality with the higher Self. It establishes a
vertical connection between the mundane and the transcendent.
The visualization is based on the primary glyph of the Qabala, which is
called the Tree of Life.
The spheres of the Middle Pillar can be viewed as similar to the eastern
concept of chakras. They are visualized as vortices of living light, and
each has its symbolic meaning. The top position signifies ineffable
divinity, whose energy is drawn into the remainder of the body. The
throat-center symbolizes knowledge; the heart-center
represents love; the generative-center is the seat of emotions; while the
feet represent stability or groundedness.
Each of the centers has one of the five divine names of God attributed to
it. No religious or metaphysical theory attaches to the employment of these
names. They come from the Judeo-Christian tradition and are offered as
audible keys to the different parts of our being. They are an integral part
of the rite, which should include visual, aural, and kinesthetic aspects.
Intoning the series of god-names from top to bottom forges a link between
the divine genius of the higher Self and the ego or personality. Its goal is
to foster self-realization. Doing the Middle Pillar exercise brings in a
charge of spiritual force which is realized in your consciousness.
Symbolically, it brings godhead into incarnation.
Once you have practiced visualizing the light energy of the various spheres,
you may want to add color to your practice. In this case the crown-center is
still brilliant white, but the throat-center is pictured as lavender-blue;
the heart-center is brilliant gold; the generative-center is violet, while
the sphere at the feet is seen as olive green or black.
A full Middle Pillar exercise consists of several phases: the preliminary
establishment of rhyth-mic breathing, the formulation of the five centers
through vibrating the god-names, and circulation of the divine force
throughout the psychic system.
Circulation of the light distributes the power. Return your attention to the
crown. The light then descends the left side of your body and comes up the
right side. Then it flows forward over your face, neck, and chest until it
reaches the feet and returns to the crown up your back. To wrap up the
circulation phase imagine spiraling light surrounding your body. Spiral
light up from your feet, wrapping yourself like a mummy. When the light
returns to the crown, it shoots out of your head with a brilliant fountain
effect.
Regardie calls this exercise the groundwork of all actual developmental
work. As the basis of the practice of magic, it creates psychic
equilibration of the various human and divine qualities. It is calming, but
it also stimulates your potential for creativity. Light permeates the body
and produces clarity. Complete your exercise with a
banishing ritual to return you to ordinary consciousness.
*Blessed Be*
Lady Pavane-Maya
"Morning Rain" is playing.
