Ritual · “Repetition Rewires”
The LBRP as Daily Practice
Clear and ‘banish’ one’s psychic space and centre oneself daily — framed by Regardie as a psychodramatic act of self-integration that empties out the unwanted before the Middle Pillar fills and balances.
Regardie’s daily LBRP: Fourfold Breath to settle, face East.
(1) Qabalistic Cross (Ateh / Malkuth / Ve-Geburah / Ve-Gedulah / Le-Olahm Amen).
(2) Banishing pentagrams at the four quarters — YHVH (E), Adonai (S), Eheieh (W), AGLA (N), joined by a circle of flame, feeling the unwanted swept out.
(3) Archangels — Raphael before, Gabriel behind, Michael right, Uriel left; “about me flames the pentagram, within me shines the six-rayed star.”
(4) Close with the Cross, ground, then go into the Middle Pillar. Live the imagery — it’s psychodrama, clearing before building.
What it is
The mechanics of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram belong to the Golden Dawn as a corporate body, and are documented as such. This entry is Regardie’s distinctive treatment of it: the LBRP not as occult plumbing but as a daily psychological discipline — a piece of deliberate psychodrama in which you physically enact clearing, centring and protection, and so install those states in yourself.
In his published Golden Dawn material and in The Middle Pillar, Regardie pairs the rite with analytic psychology, presents “banishing” as emptying the psyche of the unwanted and disordered, and positions it as the first half of a daily two-part practice: the LBRP clears and empties, then the Middle Pillar fills and integrates.
The novelty he adds is the framing and the daily-hygiene discipline, not new gestures.
The Method
Open with the Fourfold Breath to settle. Stand facing East. Perform the standard rite, but with Regardie’s emphasis on living the imagery — treating each move as real psychodrama:
- The Qabalistic Cross. Touch forehead — “Ateh”; chest — “Malkuth”; right shoulder — “Ve-Geburah”; left shoulder — “Ve-Gedulah”; clasp hands — “Le-Olahm, Amen.” See a shaft and cross of light through your body; feel yourself become the steady centre.
- The four pentagrams. Facing East, South, West, North in turn, trace a banishing earth pentagram, “stab” its centre, and vibrate the name: YHVH (E), Adonai (S), Eheieh (W), AGLA (N). See each blaze in blue flame, joined by a circle of light — and feel the disordered/unwanted being swept out of your field.
- The archangels. Facing East, arms out as a cross: “Before me, Raphael; behind me, Gabriel; on my right hand, Michael; on my left hand, Uriel.” Then: “For about me flames the pentagram, and within me shines the six-rayed star.” Treat the four as living figures (symbol/synchronicity, Life Is a Dream) — Regardie’s point is the felt presence, not a literal claim.
- Close with the Qabalistic Cross to seal, and ground. Most days, proceed straight into the Middle Pillar. Throughout: vibrate sonorously, move deliberately, and visualise vividly — Regardie holds that the rite works through the wholehearted enactment. (Sourcing note: the gestures and words are the standard Golden Dawn LBRP that Regardie published; the framing — psychodrama, daily clearing paired with the Middle Pillar, psychological reading of “banishing” — is Regardie’s own.)
Source & Lineage
The ritual itself was assembled by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1888), which is why the mechanics live under the order’s node. Israel Regardie (1907-1985) is the figure who published the formerly secret rite (The Golden Dawn, 1937-40), folded it into a daily regimen in The Middle Pillar (1938), and supplied its enduring psychological rationale — magic as “a subdivision of psychology,” ritual as a tool an analyst could use, the practitioner advised to undergo therapy first.
This entry documents that Regardian use. → (Regardie node); paired practice; complementary invoking rite.
Common refinements
Mechanical recitation. Mumbling and skipping the imagery guts it — for Regardie the enacted feeling is the active ingredient.
- Doing it as superstition rather than psychodrama. Held as literal anti-spirit armour it invites magical thinking; held as deliberate self-clearing it does real work.
- Banishing but never building. Regardie’s whole point is the pair: clearing without the following Middle Pillar leaves you emptied but not integrated.
- Sloppy pentagram geometry. Keep the banishing earth pentagram’s starting stroke and direction consistent; the precision supports the felt sense of order.
- Skipping the closing cross / grounding. Leaving the rite “open” undercuts the seal.