Understanding the Pentagram Rituals and When to Use Them
If you’ve spent any time poking around in the world of ceremonial magic, you’ve probably come across two phrases that seem to follow each other around like a magical yin and yang: the invoking and banishing forms of the Pentagram Ritual.
They’re often mentioned in the same breath, sometimes even in the same breathless online post, but if you’re new to this world (or even if you’ve been around the block a few times), you might be wondering: what’s the actual difference between invoking and banishing? And when should I use each one?
Let’s unpack that, slowly, clearly, and with both feet on the ground.
First Things First: What Are These Rituals Actually For?
The Pentagram Ritual, whether invoking or banishing, is a ceremonial act designed to interact with the elemental forces that surround and permeate us. At its core, it’s about working with energy and intention — clearing space, aligning with the divine, creating a container for magical or spiritual work, and dispelling negative and unwanted forces.
When you draw the pentagrams in the air, vibrate divine names, and call upon archangels, you’re not just going through the motions, you’re building an energetic structure, tuning your inner instrument, and opening (or closing) the gates.
But here’s the key: invoking and banishing are not just directional opposites — they serve different magical purposes.
Banishing: Sweep the Floor Before You Dance
Let’s start with the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram — often referred to simply as the LBRP (Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram).
This version is essentially magical hygiene. It’s about clearing out energies, external and internal, that are unhelpful, chaotic, stagnant, or just not what you need in the moment. A lot of magical practitioners think of it like opening the windows and airing out the room before meditation or ritual work begins.
Use the Banishing Ritual When:
- You’re preparing for magical work and want a clear, focused atmosphere.
- You’re ending a ritual and want to return to baseline.
- You feel energetically “off” overwhelmed, anxious, or heavy.
- You’ve been around intense people or environments and want to reset.
Invoking: Drawing Down the Forces
Now let’s look at the Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram
Where banishing is about clearing out, invoking is about calling in. You’re inviting elemental energies to take residence in your space and in your body and aligning yourself with them for harmony, strength, or magical operation and cooperation.
To be clear, invoking doesn’t mean inviting random forces to come and party. It’s a focused, intentional act. When you perform an invoking ritual — say, of Earth, you are calling in the grounding, stabilising force of that element. When used skilfully, invoking rituals help you balance or amplify specific energies in your life or your magical work.
Use the Invoking Ritual when:
- You want to embody or align with an elemental force (e.g., calling Fire for courage).
- You’re doing a working that benefits from strong elemental presence.
- You need to counterbalance an internal state (e.g., invoke Water to soothe anxiety).
- You’re building a sacred space to draw down higher forces.
How Do the Pentagrams Differ?
Good question, and a crucial one.
In both rituals, you’re drawing elemental pentagrams in the air. But the direction you draw them in makes all the difference, and is very subjective!
Lets take the Earth pentagram for example.
In the Golden Dawn tradition, to banish or invoke Earth you would draw the pentagrams as follows:
| Banishing | Invoking |
|---|---|
| 1. Earth to Spirit | 1. Sprit to Earth |
| 2. Sprit to Fire | 2. Earth to Water |
| 3. Fire to Air | 3. Water to Air |
| 4. Air to Water | 4. Air to Fire |
| 5. Water to Earth | 5. Fire to Spirit |
But in many other magical traditions you would banish with widdershins (anticlockwise) and invoke with deosil (clockwise)
In these traditions, to banish and invoke Earth, you would draw the pentagrams as follows:
| Banishing | Invoking |
|---|---|
| 1. Earth to Water | 1. Earth to Sprit |
| 2. Water to Air | 2. Spirit to Fire |
| 3. Air to Fire | 3. Fire to Air |
| 4. Fire to Spirit | 4. Air to Water |
| 5. Spirit to Earth | 5. Water to Earth |
So Which Should You Use — and When?
Here’s a simple rule of thumb:
- Banishing – Clears
- Invoking – Invites
Most practitioners begin their work with a banishing, to cleanse and prepare the space. After that, depending on the goal, they may invoke a specific element to support their working, and then when they are finished, they perform another banishing ritual to close and clear things out.
However, this is a very personal, and I don’t believe there is a right or wrong. Like it or not, the correct way is the way that feels right to you.
The place where I practice magic feels welcoming and friendly, so I start with an invoking pentagram ritual and finish with a banishing pentagram ritual, but should a time come where I feel uneasy, or that I’m not alone, I would start with a banishing ritual, then perform an invoking ritual, and finish with a banishing ritual.
Final Thoughts
Experimentation is the key here, try all the different approaches to the ritual, and whatever feels right to you (and you will know) stick with that until your gut tells you otherwise. By doing these rituals, you’re having structured conversations between your conscious mind, your body, and the beings that live all around us, and overtime these conversations will grow and grow, until it feels like talking with an old friend.
Learn the rituals well, practice with patience, and over time you’ll start to feel the difference.
