SPIRITUAL BANISHING

(An excerpt from the Book CLEAN SWEEP- Redwheel/Weiser Books)

by Denny Sargent

   
“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”
Stephen Covey
   
    As we look at Banishing of ailments and demons from the Body, the Heart and the Mind, we are led to the inescapable conclusion that all three are interconnected. What interconnects and interpenetrates them all, the aura and electricity of our life, we call Spirit.
    So many images and ideas does this concept spark in everyone who discusses it, I will simply wave the white flag and admit to defeat in pinning down the term! Let us agree on this: Spirit is the Other, the manifestation of the spiritual, the energetic, the divine- it is really up to you! But we can say it is beyond static definition, it is the mysterious and mystical part of us and our universe. It is within and behind and throughout all we are and do and perceive. Whatever your faith (or non-faith!) the fact is, you, as a human being, are more than your body, heart and mind. I have alluded to a Self, others say Sour or Atman or Higher Self. Some preferring non-religious or spiritual language use terms like Energy or Orgone.
    Whatever we call it, however we face it and deal with it, it is what has been the core focus of ‘Banishing’ for centuries.
    The theory was simple and still is: If Spirit infuses our universe, then when something evil or wrong or harmful manifests, it can be eliminated (Banished) by removing the spiritual basis or source of that fault. I have been using the symbolism of tthis woerld view throughout the vbook by using the term for one of these personiofied evil spirits in reference to any concept of thing to be banished: demon.
    You have the luxury of NOT believing in actual evil spirits, demons, elementals, forces and so on, feel free to merely thing of them as symbols of something else. Buddhists would remind us that ‘all is generated from the mind’ and that therefore all ‘demons’ are internal problems to be dealt with by detaching from them. Why? Because they are not real, do not exist and so are merely illusions generated from the mind and so can be banished.
    Maybe true, maybe not, this is a Big Question. Yet in the end, it doesn’t matter! For the sake of our quest in this book, using Banishing as a practical and useful tool to make your life better, the ‘reality’ of these ‘demons’ is neither here nor there.
    The fact is, perception or real thing, you have issues and stuff and emotions and problems that you want to BANISH!  If these things or ‘demons’ seem to be of a real that is of the physical, emotional or mental or if it seems beyond these areas, then Spiritual Banishing is called for.
    It may also be that your view of a particular situation is Spiritual in nature, even if it deals with, for example, physical problems. Again, a spiritual banishing is useful, no matter what the ‘symptom’ might be.
    Ritual, rites, ceremonies and other forms of Spiritual Banishing bypass the conscious mind and the Ego; they bypass our view of the physical body and circumvent emotional states. Spiritual focus, understanding and Banishing thus literally can work wonders because it SUPERCEEDS all other sorts of banishing, if you BELIEVE. Belief is thus key, and focused belief, a combination of Love and True Will, can move mountains.
    Ritual has been defined as the acting out of myth, thus the symbolic creation or recreation of a spiritual event that is mirrored in the physical world of phenomena. Therapy can be considered a form or ritual as can playing a baseball game or massage. Any set of actions that is luminous, that is, has a spiritual or transcendent basis, can be an effective banishing ritual.
    This is the skillful active using of Spirit to accomplish real results, sometimes called ‘magic’ (or Magick) as Perdurabo said:
    “Magick is the art of causing change to occur in conformity with Will”
    One could argue that all conscious AND unconscious sets of actions that cause a desired reaction is magic! Thus spiritual Banishing can be defined as any ritual action that removes or gets rid of something in your life or in your reality through INDIRECT (spiritual, energetic,) means. This can mean, as you will see, everything from prayers to spells and chants to dances and invocations. The wide panorama of global spirituality is rich with thousands of ways people have Banished what is wrong or harmful or evil. This chapter will give a general overview of types of Spiritual Banishing and then give a number of specific techniques that have been adapted for your use here and now.
    First, we must look at WHAT we are banishing spiritually, what sorts of things require or call for Spiritual ritual work to ban them or drive them away? They can be categorized into three types:
1.    Malignant or harmful beings of a supernatural sort. Every culture believes in demons, devils, imps, elementals, sprites, and dark spirits that cause harm or problems. They may be truly evil, like traditional demons that cause sickness or steal kids, or they may be simply alien and enjoy causing mischief and trickery like dark elves, Japanese Oni and the like. In any event, they are seen as entities with a specific character and existence, personified with a spirit-form. Often they are Banished by invoking a higher power, by threatening them or by somehow tricking or diverting them away from causing harm
2.    Ghosts or the dead. For many eons, in many cultures, the line between ancestor spirits and deities has been blurred. The amazingly popular Goddess Kwan Yin, found in temples all over Asia, was said to have been originally a young woman who attained enlightenment and became a goddess. Then there are the unhappy or even evil dead, those that seek to cause problems or even curse or kill the living. Fear and banishing of the dead, of ghosts and of the ‘pollution’ of death makes up a large part of global folklore! Virtually every culture has ways of banishing those who have died but refuse to leave. They include freeing ‘trapped’ souls, blasting the evil shades away or appeasing them in such a way as to divert their attention from the living. There are also a number of ways to banish the PALL or ENERGY of Death itself.
3.    Negative spiritual or psychic energy. Some places are seen as just bad, emanating evil energy, often due to a past tragic history. Other forms of negative energy originate from people ‘cursing’ other people, casting the ‘evil eye’ or even just directing venomous anger at them, maybe using a voodoo doll, maybe using email! Yet another kind of Negative energy (Negative Chi) can come from negative actions, like bad karma, or from simply being ‘out of sync’ with the universe. This is perceived as bad luck or bad vibes. People who are ill or who have holes in their aura, psychic vampires and the like, are also generators of negative spiritual energy. Banishing this sort of energy can be seen more as deflecting, averting, sweeping away or cleansing. Often calling for a specific type of banishing called ‘purification’ it also takes thousands of forms

TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES OF SPIRITUAL BANISHING

Unlike the other chapters in this book, specific rationales for banishing and how to do it are not needed for the following sections. All spiritual banishing comes from the same concept- There is some negative spiritual force (Entities, Ghosts, Energies) that does not belong in a specific time/ place and the Banisher is ordering (bann) it to GO! The actual banishing may send the spirit or entity ‘back’ where it came from. It may be actually destroying or dispersing or absorbing the negative influence/entity or it may simply be ‘cleaning’ a place or person (purifying) who has become spiritually tainted in some way.
It may be that the negative spiritual force is seen as embodied in a person (a psycho killer?) or be within a person (a possession?) but often the negative spiritual force is in a place or space.

(One can use ) a number of cross-culturally believed methods, techniques and procedures for spiritual banishing. Most of them are purely ‘metaphysical’ in nature, meaning there is not rational or empirical explanation for why they work. For example, garlic keeps all sorts of evil spirits away, not just vampires, according to beliefs in a number of different countries. Yet, of course, there is no scientific basis for this belief or even the belief in ‘evil energies.’
    Many people justify the use of spiritual banishing from a psychological point of view. Tribal shamans are, for example, often allowed into hospital rooms to banish evil spirits from tribal believers. These banishings ‘work’ in that the healing of the patient is often significantly improved due to ‘the power of belief.’ Similarly, curses and a belief in evil spiritual powers, according to the psychological model, can ‘cause’ many physical and mental problems and in such cases it is only spiritual remedies that can put an end to such curses and afflictions.
    Frankly, it is the belief of this author that there is considerable gray area here. Clearly no one argues that the mind, the body and the emotional health of a person interconnect and interpenetrate and affect, positively or negatively, every person. Belief is a powerful tool, faith healing does sometimes work, hypnotherapy has data behind it and things like MRIs show us that crucial parts of the human body are energetic and not physical. This book does not seek to prove or disprove the concept of spiritual banishing, but we will note that it has proven a powerful and effective tool throughout the thousands of years of human history for whatever reason.
    Those reading this who have spiritual beliefs or who may be religious, regardless of what religious tradition you follow, also believe in a spiritual basis for reality and for human existence. If, in fact, we are spiritual beings in a spiritual universe, then the theory behind spiritual banishing is real: By banishing the ‘underlying’ energetic basis for a problem then you banish the problem. Now, this isn’t so for off from clinical psychiatry’s belief that by ‘resolving’ a neurosis or psychological block, overt symptoms will disappear. In any event, these spiritual banishing techniques and procedures are offered as tools in whatever way you wish to use them. They are traditional and I tried to survey many different cultures and traditions and chose the ones that seemed to be the most widely used and believed. May they prove helpful in whatever way you use them!

THE BASIC PROCEDURE FOR SPIRITUAL BANISHING:

It will be redundant (not to mention repetitive) if a procedure is laid out every one of these sections and banishing techniques. The first and foremost crucial concept behind spiritual banishing is that you are clear on YOUR spiritual belief system and that you are consistent in how you see those beliefs affecting reality.

 What follows is the basic procedure for spiritually banishing:

•    Be clear on the spiritual beliefs and worldview you are operating in.
•    IDENTIFY- Identify the spiritual issue at hand and identify the negative spiritual force- or forces involved- as much as possible
•    Make sure the person or the place to be banished is physically clean
•    NEVER banish a person or a place if there is outright disagreement about banishing
•    PREPARE yourself spiritually for the banishing. This isn’t like running an errand! Pray, fast, purify yourself, meditate before the banishing: whatever your beliefs call for.
•    REALIZE – the focus and Willpower of the Banisher is crucial to the success of a banishing.
•    PRAY- At the beginning and the end of a banishing, use prayers/chants/invocations etc. of your faith that call upon higher powers or which call upon your innate spiritual power
•    KEEP IT SIMPLE focused and one-minded.
•    ALWAYS- gets a reality check from the person being banished or from a trusted observer when banishing a place.
•    BE FLEXIBLE! If one spiritual banishing doesn’t seem to work, try another. Combine techniques- be creative and intuitive.
REPLACE THE NEGATIVE WITH POSITIVE- after banishing; call forth POSITIVE spiritual, mental, physical and emotional energy to heal/help.

BANISHING PROCEDURES- SPIRUAL BANISHING

A FEW NOTES TO AVOID REPETITION:

Note on Visualizing:
Visualizing or ‘seeing in your mind’ the spiritual forces and banishings going on is, by all accounts, CRUCIAL to the effectiveness of all banishing as is BELIEF that this will work and the TRUE WILL of the banisher empowered with LOVE. All the tools, herbs, etc. are tied together by these things. So, as you do a banishing, you (and anyone who is being purified through banishing by you) you need to create and follow your own Visualization script in your mind. Often this looks like so:
1)    ‘See’ with the mind’s eye the negative energies/energy- often it is dark, gray, and brown or ‘cloud’- it may be visualized as an evil entity, ghost or monster form etc.- up to you and your beliefs.
2)    As the banishing occurs, this negative force becomes agitated, moves around etc.
3)    As the force of the banishing peaks, the negative force is banished- it either flees (back to Hades?) disintegrates in the air, sinks into the earth, is burned up in fire, dispersed in water or is ‘captured’ in some way in a thing and is then disposed of.

Coordinating visualizing, praying/chanting/ ritual actions are the key to all effective banishing.
Hint: Practice first!

Note on herbs and natural tools:
Many spiritual traditions say that the harvesting or cutting of special herbs, plants, flowers used in ceremonies like a banishing should be cut at a special time: Often the full moon is recommended, or a ‘power’ day like an equinox or solstice or a holy day like All Souls Day. For banishings, harvesting herbs on the new moon is recommended. Also, the knife or scissors or blade used is said to be important- do not use iron. Silver or gold seems preferred, though many mention aluminum as a good ‘neutral’ metal to use.
Stones and other natural items should be gathered or even bought in the same way.

Note- re; Astrology: For those interested in astrological apporpriacy, Banishing is ruled by: The new moon, Saturn, Mars, Pluto- the signs associated are Capricorn, Scorpio and Aquarius. Plan the gathering of banishing items and the rituals with this in mind.

Note on Charging: Items used in banishing, be they symbols, herbs, stones or whatever are often ‘charged’ before their use. The belief is that in a spiritual ritual like banishing, it is the force and power of both the banisher and the collected items/words/actions that cause the effect. Therefore, all should be purified, centered and ‘charged’ with potent spiritual power. Centering and purification has been addressed, charging is thus: Imbuing an item or substance with a ‘charge’ of potent positive spiritual energy before banishing.
This can be done a number of ways and, of course, it depends on YOU and what your spiritual reality is. Some of the most common ways to charge an item are:
•    ‘Charge’ the item(s) with a prayer, chant, sacred song or mantra by holding them in your hands and directing spiritual energy into them.
•    Place the item(s) in a sacred place (the altar of a church, on a large crystal, in an ancient ruin etc.) and leave it there for a period of time. Prayers etc. may also be involved.
•    Get the item(s) from a person or place that has already charged them. From a Botanika, the hands of a priest, from a sacred field or well etc.
•    Let them absorb a charge from a celestial or terrestrial body: Leave the item(s) in the sunlight for a period of time, or bathed in moonlight or starlight. Items may be placed on a sacred mountain, in a sacred cave, in a sacred spring etc. etc.
•    The banisher may sleep with the item(s) under the pillow, in contact with the body etc.
•    Item(s) may be charged though other actions using other powers: Banisher may charge item(s) with sexual energy, with magnets, in ‘orgone accumulators’ and so on.

Clearly it is up to the belief, Will and creativity of the banisher!

Here then are a number of possible spiritual banishing procedures and techniques as gathered from a wide variety of spiritual traditions around the world. Choose, adapt, combine, alter and use as you Will! Whatever works, Works!