I have been following the latest skirmishes in the Golden Dawn flame wars with some interest lately. One of the latest disagreements relates to a Syriac translation of The Emerald Tablet by Nineveh Shadrach, a scholar, translator of arcane Middle Eastern texts, and practitioner of Rouhaniat. Ninevah has a lot of books and translations of various texts popping up in the market and I hope to read more of his work as time allows.

Anyway, I found this interview with him very enlightening. He makes some very interesting points and his assessment of the LBRP seems to hold water in my opinion. I have excerpted that part, but I would recommend that you read the entire interview.

M: It's been said by some of your detractors that you have said that the Lesser Banishment Rite of the Pentagram is ineffectual against Djinni; why is that?

NS: We use specific rituals for banishing the Jinn in our art that serves no other purpose. What I said was that the LBRP wasn't an effective ritual for banishing the Jinn or for keeping them away from you. This is true based on experience of having done thousands of LBRP's in my life time and on ritual analysis. I am honestly surprised that this statement has generated too much discussion. Maybe it's time to go underneath the hood on this one:

Let me start first with a quote from Israel Regardie's own book The Golden Dawn'. He says on page 281 of the 6th edition: "This Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram is only of use in general and unimportant invokations. Its use is permitted to the Outer that Neophytes may have protection against opposing force, and also that they may form some idea of how to attract and come into communication with spiritual and invisible things."

Let's look at this statement from Regardie. He himself says it is for general and unimportant invokations use only. I wouldn't place Jinn in this category. It was given to neophytes and I don't believe this part of our art should be undertaken by a magician with neophyte skills. He refers to an opposing force, but that is vague. A mugger coming at you with a gun would count as an opposing force. However, I doubt you would rely on the LBRP as your means of primary defense against a mugger with a gun. Jinn can be as dangerous physically to you as an armed person. They have individuality; they have free will; they have consciousness and can think; and they are able to affect your reality physically. They are not a blind force. They are just like people and just like with any other dangerous individual you need to rely on appropriate measures. The LBRP or SBRP for that matter wouldn't be an appropriate measure in my books against a person or Jinn individual trying to physically harm me, but your mileage may differ.

It would be fair to ask me at this point: ‘Are you saying a physical magical circle is appropriate?' My answer to that would be the ancient magicians believed them to be. They were drawn in the wild to protect against assassins, raiders, thieves, and wild beasts like wolves and pumas. They were designed to provide physical protection, but the details of that is another topic.

Let's go back to the LBRP ritual itself. The next thing to point out is that it lacks any specific charge directly related to the Jinn or any spirit for that matter. The verbal component of the ritual consists of adoration to God, followed by chanting the names of God in four directions, declaring the angels to be present around you in only four directions, declaring the presence of pentagram before you and the hexagram behind you, and then finally the same adoration. You probably noticed that we are declaring the angels to be there and not really inviting them through evocational means. This makes sense because you are not expecting the angels to be physically there. Why else would so many ceremonialists rely on imagination and visualization when it comes to angels? They are symbolically there and not physically. This is a psychically positive exercise. When done with a devotional and spiritual inclination, it can open your mind to higher vibrations. On page 54, Regardie talks about its use in getting rid of obsessive or negative thoughts. However, you are not taking the necessary steps to invite the angels to be there to protect you from harm physically. It is passive: "Before me is Raphael [period]" versus active "O Raphael come before me here in so and so by the power of so and so names and do so and so." This lack of charge is present throughout the whole ritual. You may be opening yourself to energies, but you are not giving them a specific purpose to go with. Like Regardie said, this ritual was for beginners and general working and for that purpose it is a good ritual.

Finally, let me make what counts as a controversial statement in modern circles. Regardie says the ritual is designed to aid the neophyte in attracting and communicating with spiritual and invisible beings. Wait a minute! Let me repeat that with bolding: "ATTRACTING and communicating with spiritual and invisible beings!" What is the difference between the banishing and invoking rituals of the pentagram? The only unique difference is the way you DRAW the pentagram. That means the pentagram symbol itself serves dual purposes. You can talk about intent and will, but for all general purposes you don't physically do that much different except that. I don't personally believe a symbol both inherently attracts and repel the same beings at the same time. My position is that the pentagram is a protective sacred symbol like a cross, a hexagram, or a few others, but magically it works to open doorways and attract spiritual forces only. I remember in the Golden Dawn we only gave the neophyte the LBRP. They didn't get the invocation part till Zelator. Still, many of the neophytes who did the LBRP regularly began to experience visitations. Our counter argument was that doing the rituals ‘lit them in the astral' and we gave them the Rose Cross to use to seal and protect themselves. Every time they did the LBRP, they basically opened the door and attracted things to them blindly and without control. This point wasn't missed by Regardie who states on page 308 concerning the Rose Cross: "It encloses the aura with a protection against outside influences. It is like a veil. The pentagrams protect, but they also light up the astral and make entities aware of you. They are more positive for magical working. When much distracted, use the Pentagrams to banish and the Rose-Cross to maintain peace." Effectively, he is saying when your psychically diffused go ahead and do the LBRP to clean your psychic mind of its clutter, but then do the Rose Cross or all those uninvited spirits will be attracted to you and bring chaos to your life. Based on this I would say, go ahead and use the LBRP to ‘attract' the Jinn to you, but don't rely on it for peace before or afterward.

I can say with confidence that the LBRP is a beautifully well designed ritual with specific intent that doesn't include the Jinn. My feeling on this is that it has over time taken a larger-than-life purpose. It became the defining ritual of a magician and the expectations for it may be more than the ritual was meant to do originally. In the end, it isn't my opinion and Regardie's that really matter; it is the results you get and that should be your guide here.