you have completed your
Working, and enjoyed something to eat and drink, you have one last part
ritual to complete. You
must take down
the Circle. While
opening the Circle can be the
quickest part of the ritual to do, it is one of the most important.
are a lot of Witches who rush
through this part, or fail to fully Banish what they have Invoked. Banishing is probably the
thing you will learn how to do. If
know how to Banish properly, it won’t matter what you may encounter,
be able to deal with it.
teacher I have ever worked
with has always taught their students how to Banish before they teach
Invoke, or Evoke. The
reason for this is
that when you are learning how to Invoke, if your will isn’t properly
or your mind wanders, you may bring to you something other than you
intend. If you know
how to Banish
properly, you can send whatever you might call, back to where it
this is the web, and people
are able to read whatever sections they choose, in whatever order they
there is no way for me to make sure that this section on Banishing is
before the parts on Casting
I can only explain how important Banishing is,
and hope people listen to
you called the
Invoked the Elemental energies of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. During the Working, and
even while relaxing
with cakes and ale, you have commanded those energies.
You have controlled what those energies were
allowed to do or not do.
called the Elementals to
guard and protect the Circle. You
maintained control over them during the entire ritual.
Now is not the time to relax that
Elemental that is not
controlled can be a dangerous thing.
must always keep in mind that the forces you are dealing with are to be
are not evil in any
sense of the word. They
according to their nature. A
Elemental exists to create and spread fire.
An Air Elemental will stir and move the wind. When you see a forest
fire, a tornado, a
flash flood, or an earthquake, you are seeing an Elemental that is out
any of these things
evil? Is there
malevolent intent behind
any of these things? While
destruction, and death that they can create may seem evil to those
there is no intent to destroy or kill.
is the nature of fire to burn everything in its path.
Given a chance, fire will consume all the
fuel it can reach.
anyone who has fought a
forest fire, they will tell you that it is a living thing. It consumes, it grows, it
reproduces. It will
also do everything it can to
survive. When a
forest fire jumps a fire
line, it is finding a way to survive.
This doesn’t mean it is in any way
intelligent, but it does meet the
criteria for being classified as a life form.
Going through the motions
ancients were intimately
familiar with the Elements, and their power.
This is why they believed that everything was
made up of the four basic
understood that when in
balance, the four Elements, are a force for creation.
Destruction comes about when one or more of
those Elements become unbalanced.
Greeks were the first to use
this Elemental system. They also recognized a fifth Element, that which
called Psyche, or what we call Spirit.
It is the union and balance of these five
Elements that we use in
ritual. When each
Element is Banished,
it creates an imbalance that must be compensated for.
many Witches go through the
motions, but they forget that it is their will that holds the Elements
balance, and allows the power to flow in ritual.
This is why so many rituals seem so flat, so
lifeless. If all
you’re doing is going
through the motions, you might as well go to Catholic Mass. You chose this Path
because following someone
else wasn’t enough for you.
religions is easy because that’s all you have to do, follow. This Path requires active
going through the motions isn’t enough.
At best, nothing will happen.
At worst…well do you really want an
uncontrolled Fire Elemental loose in your house?
Even if you just go through the motions of
Invoking, always actively Banish what you’ve called.
That way you can always be sure you haven’t
now you know what not to do,
what is it you are supposed to do?
Letting the Gods depart
you Banish the
Quarters, you give the Gods license to depart.
Here is where you can use the words, “Go if
you must, stay if you
will”. You do not
command the Gods, you
simply inform them that you have finished your ritual.
To stay or go is their choice.
is that if you called
the Gods by name, you address them by name when you thank them for
addressing them as
Lord and Lady will do. Talk
to them with
respect and reverence. Too
Witches forget that they are communing with a higher power, and they
to the Gods without the respect they are due.
standard license to depart
goes something like this:
Lord, Lady. Thank you
for attending this ritual, and for
your guidance. May our Paths cross again
in the near future.
if you must,
stay if you will.
Hail and farewell.
this way you are inviting the
Gods to stay if they choose, but you are letting them know that your
with the Elementals,
where intent and command is required, the Gods must be addressed with
reverence and respect. There
is no need
to visualize an outcome, since the Gods will do as they wish.
remember that you are
dealing with living entities. The
Elementals have come to your Circle because your will compelled them to. Your will kept them in
check during the ritual,
and now your will must compel them to return to where they came from.
you do in ritual
revolves around intent. Your
be clear and precise. If
your intent is
muddied, or unclear, it gives the Elementals a loophole through which
act as their nature dictates.
you called each Elemental,
you cast your mind out to each Elemental Plain.
You felt each Elemental as it answered your
call. Now you do
the same as you Banish them. You
do not need to fully understand where
something has come from, to cast your mind to where that place is. Everything that is
Invoked, carries with it a
link to the plain it came from.
you can see or feel the
Invoked Elemental, you can get an impression of where it came from. Clear your mind, and
concentrate on the
Elemental you wish to Banish. See
feel the Elemental. Get
a clear picture
in your mind of just what it looks and feels like.
you have a clear mental
picture of the Elemental, you will know what the plain it comes from is
like. An Air
Elemental comes from a
plain filled with winds. Everything
a gentle Spring breeze to the tempest of a hurricane is encompassed in
realm. There is no
form or shape to
anything on this plain.
send the Elemental back to
this plain. See in
your mind’s eye, the
Elemental moving back to this place where it originated. The words that you speak
can help you to
focus your mind on the task, but they are secondary to the intent that
Elemental must return there.
is not a matter of thinking
that the Elemental goes back, or believing, or wishing or hoping. You must know that the
Elemental has gone
back. You must have
enough confidence in
yourself, and your abilities, that you know that the Elemental has
you do, never
say “Stay if you will, go if you must.”
This gives the Elemental the option to do
whatever it desires. It
will follow its nature, and stay.
This can cause no end of mischief. If the Air Elemental stays
in your house,
mischief is about all it can cause, but even that gets annoying. Always be precise in
telling the Elemental
what to do.
words for the standard
Elemental Banishing follow the form of:
you for your protection.
now to the
realm from where you came, harming none along the way, be it man nor
there be peace
between me and thee forever.
(Mentally push the Elemental
back to where it belongs)
Hail and farewell!
pentagram toward the direction you are Banishing, and extinguish the
I’ve said, the actual words
used are secondary to your intent.
Because the Elemental has performed a service
for you, it is customary
to thank it. You
also tell it where you
expect it to go and not to harm anyone or any thing as it goes. You tell it that you held
no malice in
summoning it, and then you give it license to depart.
By following this form, and mentally sending
it back, you are not giving the Elemental any choice but to do what you
You must do this for each of
the Elementals you
have summoned, in turn. You
exercise the same force of will with each.
That’s not to say that you can’t Banish the
Elementals at the same time. I
once took part in a ritual where the Priest
was in the military. It
handfasting outside, and it began to rain.
They quickly opened the Circle, and everyone
ran for cover.
Priest realized that he
hadn’t fully closed the Circle, so he marched out to the center of the
stood at attention, and as if addressing a platoon of soldiers, he
then did an about
face, and marched back out of the Circle.
the Priest showed that he
had authority over the Circle as a whole, and because he held a clear
that the Elementals should return where they came from, he was able to
all at the same time. This
brings up a
point that you should understand.
not need to be the one who Invoked, in order to Banish.
As long as the Elementals recognize you as
having the authority, they will follow your instructions.
Opening the Circle
this point, you open the
Circle. Walk to the
East side of the
Circle, and with the tool you used to draw the Circle, draw three
across the line of the Circle, while visualizing the Circle being cut. Each slash creates a gap
in the Circle.
Visualize these gaps as you make the cuts.
Because you cast the Circle three times, you
make three cuts, one for
each of the castings.
public rituals, the one
cutting the Circle will usually say, “The Circle is open, yet unbroken”. This alludes to the fact
that the Circle has
served its purpose, yet it is not uncast.
It is simply opened.
A Circle opened
in this way will retain some energy, and if other Circles are cast in
place, the area can become quite powerful.
is why ancient ritual sites
seem to resonate with energy. The
of ritual will also have an effect on how a site feels.
When a site is used over and over for a
specific type of ritual, it will retain the energy of that ritual. If you do ritual in a
public room of your
house, this can cause people who visit to feel comfortable in that room.
you go to a Witches house, and
it feels uncomfortable, you probably won’t want to associate with that
Witch. On the other
hand, and Witch who
has a house that feels comfortable is probably someone you will get
energy of a Witches house can give
you a very good idea of the type of person they are, and how close you
want to associate with them.
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