Also called banishing ritual, banishing negativity, LBRP
A ritual to push unwanted energy, bad moods or a lingering sense of trouble out of yourself or your home. The best-known Western form is the Golden Dawn's Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram; the simple version below suits anyone.
TraditionWestern ceremonial magic and household folk custom
RegionBritain and Europe
EraLate 19th century (LBRP); much older household forms
Moon☾ Waning moon
DaySaturday · Saturn
ElementAir
Difficulty●●○ Moderate
Time15 to 20 minutes
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
The working
Tidy the room first. Banishing traditions nearly always begin with physical cleaning.
Open a window or door so there is somewhere for what you are banishing to go.
Light the candle and stand facing east. Take a few slow breaths and picture yourself standing in clear light.
Dip your fingers in the salt water and flick a few drops toward each corner of the room, moving clockwise from the east.
At each corner, ring the bell or tap the pan and say a plain command such as 'Whatever does not belong here, go now.'
Return to the center and say what you want the room to hold instead, such as calm or rest.
Close the window, snuff the candle, and pour the salt water out down an outside drain or onto bare ground away from plants.
Take care: Keep candles away from curtains and never leave them burning. Salt water can harm wooden floors and plants, so flick only a few drops and pour the rest down an outside drain. If you feel persistently unsafe or unwell in a space, check practical causes such as mold, carbon monoxide or a gas leak.
Versions across time and place
i
Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn · 1888 onward
The magician makes the Qabalistic Cross, then traces a banishing pentagram in each quarter while vibrating a divine name, then calls the archangels Raphael, Gabriel, Michael and Uriel to guard the four directions. Many ceremonial magicians do it daily as a mental and spiritual cleansing.
Uses: no tools required, optional dagger or pointed finger
Recorded in: Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn (1937); Aleister Crowley's published versions
ii
Lemuria bean throwing
Ancient Roman household rite · Recorded 1st century AD
On the nights of the Lemuria in May, the head of a Roman household rose at midnight, walked barefoot through the house and threw black beans behind him nine times to buy off restless ghosts, then clashed bronze to drive them out.
Uses: black beans, water, bronze vessel
Recorded in: Ovid, Fasti, Book 5
iii
Setsubun bean throwing
Japanese household custom · Edo period to present
On the day before the start of spring in early February, families throw roasted soybeans out of the door or at a family member wearing a demon mask, calling 'demons out, fortune in'. It is a cheerful, communal banishing still done in homes and shrines.
Uses: roasted soybeans
Recorded in: Setsubun customs (see Wikipedia, Setsubun)
History
The modern word banishing comes from ceremonial magic. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in London in 1888 by William Wynn Westcott, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and William Robert Woodman, taught its members the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram as a basic exercise. It reached the public when Aleister Crowley printed versions of it and when Israel Regardie published the order's papers in The Golden Dawn from 1937.
Household banishing is far older. Romans drove ghosts from the house during the Lemuria, described by Ovid. Chinese families clean house before the New Year to sweep out the old year's bad luck, and in Japan families throw beans at Setsubun. Most modern witches time banishing work to the waning moon, when things are thought to shrink and fade, a rule of thumb drawn from older farming and folk calendars.
