What is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram and where does it come from?
The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram is a protective formula which can be used to banish unwanted influences, to “clear the air” as a preliminary to ritual or meditative work. It can be carried out physically, but it can also be used as a concentration exercise which is performed in the imagination prior to going to sleep (for example). The ritual exists in a number of variant forms, the best known being the Golden Dawn variant given below. The Golden Dawn version is is based on (or is at least strongly influenced by) Jewish sources. The version of the ritual below was posted by Rodrigo de Ferres(rodrigo@vnet.net) and is included here with his permission. [I have altered a couple of Hebrew transliterations to make them consistent with normal Hebrew vowel pointing.] –Rodrigo’s contribution begins– The following is derived from numerous GD sources.
