Honestly when I saw that Tommie was asking me if I wanted to do the Star Ruby I had one thought, no two thoughts, the first was ‘nope, that’s bollocks’ and secondly ‘I care not one jot for the Lesser Banishing ritual of the Pentagram’ (LBRP). You see my mistake; in my eagerness to read his sentences so quickly I didn’t even notice he’d written ‘star ruby.’ It wasn’t until we were talking during the podcast that I realised he’d said ‘star ruby.’
What have I got against the LBRP? Well, a few things. Namely the name, why would I want to banish anything, I want as much from this world as I can get. Greedily I want to experience as much as I can, live fast, die young, although since I’m pretty much middle-aged now that won’t be happening, but y’know, buy the ticket, take the ride and other Hunter Thompson-isms. By my own admission then to experience everything I need to give it a try. The things is I have given it a try before and I just felt, well, stupid. Drawing imaginary pentagrams, evoking angels I don’t believe in and looking east, west, putting the left foot in, putting the left foot out, doing the hockey-pokey and turning around. Doing it I felt that what a bored housewife must feel like when doing step aerobics, albeit with magical angels, or not as the case was.
I tried it again the next day and the next and on the forth, I threw in the towel because I just couldn’t see the point. It was like wearing a suit to work, some people do it, some of them even enjoy it but those jobs ain’t for me. I don’t even wear suits to weddings if I can avoid it.
QC vs MP vs LBRP vs ROFLOL vs OPP, Yea You Know Me
Now, I can see a case for the Qabalistic Cross (QC) and the Middle Pillar (MP) because for me they are calling down the Divine and recognising your one-ness with it. I can get that, there’s a higher divine and I want to be part of that. Let’s go, but banishing, banishing just feels weird. I’ve done the QC and the MP loads of times, I try and do them a few times a week and the meditation following them is always very nice. But with banishing, well, what am I banishing? Only bad stuff, really? From the stories I’ve been told from people I trust, yes, Tommie among them, it doesn’t always end well and I like my life, I worked my arse off to have a life that I can work at home, take a day off when I want to and my wife and family are amazing. Even since learning the words for the Star Ruby some stuff’s gone south with those things already and I’ve not even started. Does this bode well?
Anyway, the Star Ruby isn’t the LBRP, Aleister Crowley came up with it some time in 1913 as ‘“a new and more elaborate version of the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.’ Crowley wrote that a good banishing ritual was ‘useful as it tends to produce the proper attitude of mind for the invocations.’ OK then, so the man himself says it’s good for invocation and who the hell am I to argue with him. God, I’d reckon arguing with Crowley was a nightmare, I bet that man never lost an argument just from his sheer tenaciousness alone. But did Crowley even practice it? According to David Shoemaker, he who wrote Living Thelema, he has said that as late as the 1960s Crowley was teaching the LBRP and not the Star Ruby, that doesn’t instil loads of confidence. Sorry, Al.
I want to try it though and fight against my biases against ritual/ceremonial magick and if it’s something that does ‘produce the proper attitude of mind for the invocations’ sure, that can only be a good thing. I see this as ego work because my head is telling me not to do something but I realise it’s because of my instilled biases and that’s something I need to bring down if ego destruction is the key to Crossing the Abyss.
But last night as I read up some of the material Tommie had sent to me and shared in the Discord channel things got a bit weird. The evening started off so incredibly well, a fan of the podcast got in touch and wanted to buy books for us. How awesome is that? I was floored by the kindness, really taken aback that someone would go to the effort of doing something so kind because they get a laugh and some insight out of the two of us chatting on a podcast. Then I started watching some videos on YouTube and honestly I had to laugh at the utter ridiculousness of seeing adults on robes doing mad, strange poses and whispering or shouting and chanting god names.
Don’t Make Fun of the Ruby Cross
The next morning things got bad real quick as the Yanks would say. I wrote this on the Discord channel ‘SMS from daughter’s creche at 7 am, closed for 10 days quarantine, our trusty hound had a poo explosion at the front door during the night and the wife is annoyed at me because I’m a heavy sleeper and don’t hear the wee’un crying at night when she drops her soothers. There are no coincidences!’
Probably shouldn’t be laughing at the Star Ruby eh? Then the wife and I were rowing because of a call we made to the Dr, the Dr didn’t understand me in Polish or England and to make matters worse she told me I have to go do an exam at a hospital even though I’ve had the condition for roughly 30 years now is the time I have to prove it because I’m a foreigner and in Ireland, you don’t need a certificate saying you have a certain condition; it’s only asthma by the way. Also, my daughter is potting training and well, let’s just say things went badly for me and her. Look, none of these are end-of-the-world type things but it’s strange that so many things went pear-shaped in one day, the day after I looked in the Star Ruby, I could go months without so many things going wrongly.
Why are things going bad already? There are, after all no coincidences, is this my own fault for having a laugh. There’s only one way to sort this out, I need to ask my Holy Guardian Angel Minerva for her opinion on all of this by doing some divination.
Have a look at the videos:
Video 1: Divination: https://youtu.be/0b-0xtqOx04
Video 2: Interpretation: https://youtu.be/JcWSrCdbRQA
So then, as said, I used Tommie’s 40 Servants Deck to get the ball rolling and was given The Healer: This Servant shows us how to heal and recover. She encourages us to always look after ourselves and others.
This here is why I was so happy with the card in the video as I remembered this from the Grimoire: ‘The Healer can also denote the arrival of a person in your life who will bring with them fantastic healing energy, or who will be a soothing and healing influence on you and your life.’
And for the Chariot from the Crowley/Thoth Deck:
The desire to conquer, the spirit of adventure.
The best thing that can be achieved: Holy Grail.
The outstanding power, the path leading forward, the quest for a person’s position in the world.
The victory of one’s self: self-knowing, overcoming the ego/self.
Happy days! Thanks, Minerva! Challenge accepted Tommie. Although I’ve decided to do the Star Ruby and then some invocations following it, a bit like doing a QC or MP and then a meditation on, say, for example, a Sephiroth from the Tree of Life or something akin.
I presume there’ll be weekly blogs on this, so speak to yous’all soon enough. G’luck.
HELPFUL LINKS
An Analysis of the Star Ruby Ritual by Frater A.L. (443)
Star Ruby Ritual breakdown PDF
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