Banishment Options

Alright, this was my first actual spell. I did a banishment on a rather uncoopertive family member who had earned much of my disrespect.. and he just doesn't belong. He a jack-ass. Anyway, I began by calling the elements, lighting a candle for each one and saying a small prayer/chant to them, then cast the fifth candle as white and used it the pillar of the spell. I then used four pieces of paper, each with his name on them and a pentacle on the back, then burnt them one by one one for each element. The smoke curled in a very distinct upwards and widening spiral, then distburst.

During this I burnt a apple and cinnamon incense. Before the spell I burnt a bit of sage, mint and cinnamon as well as after I spread the ashes of the papers.

Afterwards I somehow found myself annoiting my forehead, left breast. both shoulders and down the middle of my torso with the burnt remains of the spell... Does this mean anything?

I have no idea if it's pertainent or not but it really strikes my curiousilty, so, if anyone can answer I would be most thankful. I know also that thi smay very well be perfectly normal... but it's not something I've ever come near doing before, even when participating in others spells/rituals....

On another note, if anyone is willing to tell me if I did this correctly, that would be very nice.

Thank you all,
~Violet

This post has been edited by Violet: Aug 29 2010, 10:09 PM

For your original question I had some thoughts:

For me personally I find it useful to use grounding and purification rituals before and after ritual magick. For me grounding is basically charging myself with the energy of my surroundings. The way this is done is through physical contact with my surroundings. In wicca this can be akin to "walking the circle" or basically declaring a location to be a magickal spot followed by meditation. If you use the same spot often, grounding is less important. Grounding is important to me because if I don't do that in a location I am not used to then I feel that I am leaving myself exposed to external energies. In this way grounding sort of purifies a location to my intentions and removes outside forces that might interfere with my magick. Now after ritual magick, ground is important again because this helps to return any forces or energy you used to where they came from. This way they don't linger around and lead to unwanted side affects. (feeling drained, bad dreams, sleeplessness, constant hunger, agitation - to name a few)

Purification is solidifying my own personal intentions (within me) and, for me, this acts as a way to clear my concsious and thoughts that might interfere. It also affirms my intentions. This is usually done through meditation and simple washing. For example taking purified water and literally wipe my face and my hands. This symbolizes a cleansing of my personal being. To focus my energy towards my primary objective and help prevent internal forces from jeapordizing my goal. Purification may also involve fasting and celebacy. But for a simple banishment I think that is over kill. For me personally, for simple spells or rituals, purification a second time after the fact is not as important to me. But just as grounding returns external energy, purification can help ensure you return yourself to the state of mind your were in before you did your ritual. And again the idea is that you keep yourself from experiencing side affects.

The point is I take magick very seriously - I'm sure you do as well. I don't use it on the drop of a dime. And I believe that if I have a legitimate reason to use magick - at all - that I need to be sure of myself and my intentions. Grounding and purification sort of places me at a point of no return where something through ritual magick is going to happen. But the other thing is that through this process I also have found a much higher success rate. Not only in accomplishing my main goal, but doing so as I actually intended it to happen. And it helps me avoid an unclear conscious or other side affects.

Another point to consider is that these grounding and purification exercises do not have to be complex or take up much time. In Wicca walking the circle can involve a witch walking a ritual circle some number of times (say 13, for example) and she does this clockwise. Then after the rite or ritual, she then walks the circle counter clockwise another 13 times. This signifies both declaring a sacred space for magick and reopening that space to release any residual forces. And purification really can be as simple as washing your face or anointing yourself with insense or natural oils.

So I share this with you so that maybe in the future when you do cast another spell if you use this, your self, that you will be not only more successful than you are already, but much more accurate as well.