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Author Topic: Inverted Pentagrams: Banishing & Invoking ritual rules  (Read 3992 times)

loof

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Inverted Pentagrams: Banishing & Invoking ritual rules
« on: May 19, 2016, 08:21:02 am »
Hello,

What, if any, are the rules for banishing and invoking when making use of an inverted pentagram?

If there's a variety of schools of thought on such activity what are they and how are they viewed by the differing schools of magic?

My Thanks.

Emma Eldritch

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Re: Inverted Pentagrams: Banishing & Invoking ritual rules
« Reply #1 on: May 19, 2016, 10:31:34 am »
Quote from: loof;191366
Hello,

What, if any, are the rules for banishing and invoking when making use of an inverted pentagram?

If there's a variety of schools of thought on such activity what are they and how are they viewed by the differing schools of magic?

My Thanks.

 
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "making use of". There are different banishing pentagrams to go with each invoking one - are you just thinking of doing them upside down?

loof

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Re: Inverted Pentagrams: Banishing & Invoking ritual rules
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2016, 11:58:15 am »
Quote from: Mama Fortuna;191367
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "making use of". There are different banishing pentagrams to go with each invoking one - are you just thinking of doing them upside down?

 
Thanks for your reply.

If I wanted to draw inverted pentagrams, including instructions on the direction of drawing - for represent both banishing and invoking inverted pentagrams, how would I show this? Whicht point of the inverted pentagram would be the starting point, which other point would it connect to and so on?

Thanks again.

RecycledBenedict

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Re: Inverted Pentagrams: Banishing & Invoking ritual rules
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2016, 12:44:36 pm »
Quote from: loof;191455
If I wanted to draw inverted pentagrams, including instructions on the direction of drawing - for represent both banishing and invoking inverted pentagrams, how would I show this?

Do you use pen and paper? Draw the ten possible versions in your notebook with a small instructional arrow at each of them close to the ritual text you have written. I hope that I have understood your question correctly. Its choice of words is slightly confusing for me.

Quote from: loof;191455
Whicht point of the inverted pentagram would be the starting point,

That depends on which element you are banishing or invoking (supposing your inspiration is the non-inverted Greater Ritual of the Pentagram - I am not sure if I follow what you mean), and on which ritual system you choose to follow.

Quote from: loof;191455
which other point would it connect to and so on?

The other two. Otherwise it isn't a continuous pentagram. I am not entirely sure if I understand your question.

If it is a too personal and private matter, please disregard the following question: Why is it important for you to use an inverted pentagram instead of an upward-pointing one? Has it something to do with the downward-pointing pentagram being used as a symbol of The Holy Spirit in some forms of Christian magic?
« Last Edit: May 20, 2016, 12:45:38 pm by RecycledBenedict »

Jenett

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Re: Inverted Pentagrams: Banishing & Invoking ritual rules
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2016, 01:15:07 pm »
Quote from: loof;191455

If I wanted to draw inverted pentagrams, including instructions on the direction of drawing - for represent both banishing and invoking inverted pentagrams, how would I show this? Whicht point of the inverted pentagram would be the starting point, which other point would it connect to and so on?

 
As others have said, this depends a whole lot on the context you're intending to use them in, why you want the inverted pentagram, and other points of ritual practice or cosmology.

Personally, when doing invoking and banishing pentagrams, I follow a system which isn't the one in most books, but that makes logical sense to me.

For invoking: given five points with standard identifications (spirit at top, water at top right, fire at bottom right, earth at bottom right, air at top right), start on the element, then move around the pentagram, choosing to move clockwise rather than counter if there's a choice. So for air, you would do top left, top right, bottom left, top, bottom right, top right, so that the last stroke is back toward the element.

For banishing, start on the element, and move counter clockwise. So banishing earth would be bottom left, top right, top left, bottom right, top, bottom left.

This is a system that won't necessarily work in some magical approaches (and it's actually not the same one many of my trad mates use) but it works for me, and I can do it consistently. My point is that if you think through the logic of what you're doing and the implications from there, you can work out your best choice.
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loof

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Re: Inverted Pentagrams: Banishing & Invoking ritual rules
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2016, 03:25:24 pm »
Quote from: FraterBenedict;191464
Draw the ten possible versions in your notebook with a small instructional arrow at each of them close to the ritual text you have written.


Quote from: Jenett;191467
For invoking: given five points with standard identifications (spirit at top, water at top right, fire at bottom right, earth at bottom right, air at top right), start on the element, then move around the pentagram, choosing to move clockwise rather than counter if there's a choice. So for air, you would do top left, top right, bottom left, top, bottom right, top right, so that the last stroke is back toward the element.

For banishing, start on the element, and move counter clockwise. So banishing earth would be bottom left, top right, top left, bottom right, top, bottom left.


Thanks for your replies.

As the elements are inverted within the inverted pentagram are the motions of towards and away, so as to either invoke or banish, also invertted?

Would a banishing on an inverted pentagram = an invoking on an upright pentagram?

What would the action of a banishing motion on an inverted pentagram result in or at least be seeking to achieve?

Jenett

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Re: Inverted Pentagrams: Banishing & Invoking ritual rules
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2016, 05:35:03 pm »
Quote from: loof;192038

As the elements are inverted within the inverted pentagram are the motions of towards and away, so as to either invoke or banish, also invertted?


Depends on how you want to do it. I wrote out the way I construct them, so you could decide on your own. I don't use inverted pentagrams like that in my practice (they frankly don't make sense in my practice.)

Quote
Would a banishing on an inverted pentagram = an invoking on an upright pentagram?


That would depend on why you're working with an inverted pentagram in the first place.

In - cousins to my practice, is probably the best way to put it, the inverted pentagram is flipping things so that rather than spirit (the single point) being the top, it is instead underneath everything: one can read this as it being foundational rather than aspirational, or as it manifesting more directly through the other four elements.

(In a number of witchcraft traditions, an inverted pentagram is used as the sign of the second degree: first and third use it upright. This is often a nod at the 'journey into the shadow / underworld / etc.' that is often part of second degree work.

Since you haven't said what the symbology of upright vs. inverted means for you, it's hard to answer your last question at all.
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loof

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Re: Inverted Pentagrams: Banishing & Invoking ritual rules
« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2016, 06:42:53 am »
Quote from: Jenett;192044
Since you haven't said what the symbology of upright vs. inverted means for you, it's hard to answer your last question at all.


My interest is in how symbols with particular connotations can be made use of by differing philosophies and how within these differing philosophies there can be a myriad of potential ways of making use of such symbols.

I'm particularly interested in how a symbol can be considered good/bad in the first place, how these notions accrue acceptance in a wider sphere of influence and how this understanding can be balanced by differing interpretations.

The inverted pentagram seems an obvious choice of investigation as it has associated with it so very much in the way of negativity - to my mind it's the most commonly used symbol (apart from perhaps inverted crosses or all seeing eye pyramids) to denote evil in popular culture and by pop culture I include all that goes into making up the day-to-day/9-5/rat-race existence.

In my own extremely limited use of the inverted pentagram I lean towards the 2nd degree approach making use of the inverted pentagram as a means by which to explore the chthonic so I'm curious how specific renderings of inverted pentagrams may result in particular outcomes.

Thanks.

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