From:    Josh Norton                            Area: ENOCHIAN
To:      Starchild                              16 Sep 94 14:47:02
Subject: enochian 101                           UpdReq 

Thus said Starchild to Shadow Walker concerning enochian 101: 
Hi Starchild!
 St> Merry Meet. This is my entrance into this echo. I hope 
 St> you'll pardon my butting in, but I couldn't resist the 
 St> topic.
Always feel free to comment.
 St> I find myself wondering where the both of you came by your 
 St> concepts of banishing.  In light of my own concepts of 
 St> banishing, yours seem a little confusing to me.  Help?
 St> Admittedly, I haven't backtracked the thread, just having 
 St> acquired the echo, but; JN seems to be describing, to me, 
 St> what I do when I put up a circle - the "wall," or "boundary 
 St> between the worlds of men and the realms of the mighty 
 St> ones..."  However, and jointly, your descriptions actually 
 St> speak more to me of protection, even warding.
 St> When I ward something, I place a protective spell, sometimes aided by
 St> tools,  stones, or natural fauna, around the thing or place, and 
 St> invoke protection or reflection, much like what I or my 
 St> coven might do when raising a Circle.
 St> To me, a banishing has one of several very specific meanings. One,
 St> quite  common to many of us, is a -releasing- of energies and/or 
 St> magickal structures -- such as releasing the Watchtowers, 
 St> or putting down the Circle.
In the Golden Dawn / Crowley way of doing things (with which I grew up), 
a banishing can serve several purposes:

-- To "clean out" an area of unwanted influences (whether deliberately 
malicious or simply random in nature) prior to the performance of an 
invocation, and to keep them out for the duration of the ceremony.
This sort of banishing is defining the area of work, and is followed by 
a general invocation or consecration to fill it with a generic 
"positive" energy before the specific invocation. I assume this is more 
or less equivalent to "raising a circle" in Wiccan practice?

-- To clean out the aura of the magician, or "purify" it in some way. 
This is the use to which the G.D. usually put the Pentagram Ritual.

-- More rarely, to release unused powers back into the general 
environment after an invocation.
In regard to my own practices, remember that I've been at this business 
a long time, and my methods have gotten more than a little 
idiosyncratic. They're suited to my own nature and conditions, and 
likely would not be appropriate for someone less experienced, or with 
different talents.
The problem with the first of these purposes is that while certain types 
of forces can be cleared out of an area, any circle a human being can 
create is going to remain transparent to many other forces. 
Environmental (as opposed to invoked) astrological forces in particular 
aren't affected at all by banishings, or by any sort of shielding. They 
pass through the region of working, and act on the magician, whether you 
want them there or not. This is why medieval magicians were so obsessed 
with chosing favorable astrological times to do their workings.
And no matter how "high" an initiate you become, there's _always_ some 
force operating at a sufficiently higher -- or lower -- level that you 
can't control it, but which can still affect you. The "completely 
uninfluenced being" is a figment of the intellect.
So banishing as a means of "clearing" an area isn't terribly effective. 
It's like putting up a three-inch high wall around you; it keeps some 
minor nuisances out of the way, but the big ones can step right over it. 
It IS useful when you're at the stage where little things distract you 
easily, but I find that my concentration is sufficient to overcome those 
sorts of things.
The circle-as-container view isn't really relevant to my everyday work, 
since the only thing I'm trying to influence is my own being and 
perceptions. My magickal body does just fine as a container for that 
purpose. I do use astral structures in some of my major workings, but in 
those cases the structures are intended to be permanent homes for the 
forces, and aren't shut down at the end of a session.
The second of the listed purposes is really a mental trick. The 
Pentagram ritual, properly done, doesn't simply push out impurities. 
Rather, the magician _invokes_ a force with a higher vibration rate, 
absorbs some of that energy into himself to _replace_ a force of similar 
nature but lower vibration rate. It's just like the pranayama exercise 
in which you visualize light coming into your body on the inhalation, 
and visualize it blowing out through your aura on the exhalation. 
[continued next message...]
... Perhaps if I revert to human form it will calm them.
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.10


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From:    Josh Norton                            Area: ENOCHIAN
To:      Starchild                              16 Sep 94 14:54:04
Subject: enochian 101                           UpdReq 

[...continued from previous message]
 St> [re: banishing as release of energies] This is an accepted, and
 St> expected action.  To leave an energy or a magickal
 St> structure up and running (except when and if intentionally
 St> and properly time-capsuled), and unattended is, to me, an
 St> abuse of magick.  I believe we can agree on this, nicht war?
I'm not familiar with this "time-capsule" idea. Care to explain?
As a general principle, I don't think I agree with this.
I have several magickal structures that have been up and running, 
usually unattended, for years now. And others I've created where I've 
been told to stay away from them for a time so that they could grow 
properly. As far as I can tell, none of these has ever done any damage. 
Most of the magickal work I do now takes multiple sessions to 
accomplish, (e.g. the "Comselha" working described here a while ago) and 
I don't banish between sessions; that would defeat the purpose of the 
exercise.
In any sort of creative magick -- especially of the thaumaturgic variety 
-- it is generally thought that after you have invoked a force and 
shaped it to your purpose, you have to release it into the environment 
to fulfill its purpose without further interference from the magician. 
This is not the same as releasing unused energy from an invocation; the 
structure remains intact. 
In magick that is part of the Great Work it is often the case that a 
current of power is invoked from a higher level, attached to some lower- 
plane object (such as a talisman, or a book or article, or a thought- 
form) as an anchor, and then allowed to radiate its power onto all the 
levels in between, touching _anyone_ who resonates with it. The intent 
is not to create a specific action in a particular person, but to create 
a mass reaction among those who are sensitive to the energy, so that 
each responds to the energy in their own way, and "grounds" it in a 
variety of different mental, emotional, and physical circumstances. 
In all three of these instances the magickal power is essentially (and 
in two cases, _necessarily_) outside the magician's control for long 
periods of time, with structure intact.
As for the unused energy left over in an invocation, I find that it 
generally disperses by itself once my attention is directed elsewhere, 
without creating any effects on other people. I've heard the usual 
warnings from writers and teachers over the years, but have never 
actually seen any of the things they warn about. Given this lack of 
events, I don't worry about formal releases too much.
 St> Yet another is a bit darker, more insidious, and -not- to be lightly
 St> trifled  with.  It is the intentional performing of a direct act of 
 St> banishing -- a ritual of intent, directed at a person or
 St> entity, or directed towards an action or inaction from said
 St> person or entity.
 St> [....]
 St> The darkest, and most dangerous by far
 St> is the attempt to banish a person or thing from existance -
 St> [....]
I've never had any interest in either of these, so they haven't been an 
issue. I don't deal with spirits on a coercive basis (or with the sort 
of spirit that needs to be coerced), and other people can do what they 
want.
There's been a few times when someone tried to "banish" me this way, but 
so far they've never done worse than give me a case of mental 
indigestion for a few days. 
 St> Do any of these fit within your own concepts?  I'd appreciate hearing
 St> more. Further, are your practices governed by such guidelines as 
 St> the Rede, or the Threefold Law, or other guiding premise; 
 St> or are your practices bound/not bound by some other oath, 
 St> ethic, or premise?
I've only taken one real magickal oath in my life; only one was 
necessary. Much of it can't be verbalized, but the essential points can:
1) To follow the path of initiation as far as I can take it, and to 
never give up.
2) To never, ever, allow myself to become obligated to another person, 
entity or group as part of my magickal work.
3) To never subordinate myself to concepts and beliefs, but to make my 
own experience in magickal work the primary basis for my understanding 
of the universe and myself.
4) To never take a position of spiritual "authority" over another 
person.
This policy of "neither a follower nor a leader be" has expanded into a 
generally libertarian approach to things. But I'm probably not terribly 
consistent in my application of it.
... Nattily noodling my navel near Nirvana.
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.10


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From:    Christeos Pir                          Area: ENOCHIAN
To:      StarChild                              17 Sep 94 00:27:58
Subject: enochian 101                           UpdReq 

 -=> StarChild sent a message to Shadow Walker on 13 Sep 94  19:40:30 <=-
 -=> Re: enochian 101 <=- 
 Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
 St> To leave
 St> an energy or a magickal structure up and running (except when and if
 St> intentionally and properly time-capsuled), and unattended is, to me,
 St> an abuse of magick.
 How so?
 F'rinstance, what's the good of building up an astral temple, if you're
 just going to tear it down each time?
 Love is the law, love under will.
      - Christeos Pir
 ... And this is the grace of God, that these things should be thus.

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