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Beltane
Closer Look at the Tarot: Aces
Earth's Coronation
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Guardians of the Four Gateways
How to Eat Meat
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Solitary Summer Rite
Stone Banishing Ritual
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The Oldest Magick
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A Stone Banishing Ritual

Scott Cunningham

Create a symbol of the habit to be banished from your life. A drop (like a teardrop) may be suitable if you wish to stop wallowing in grief; a padlock for inertia and self-restriction; a knife for excessive anger; a balanced, two-sided scale for love-obsession. For physical addictions the symbols are clear—a bottle of alcohol, a cigarette, a pill—whatever.

Practice drawing this symbol on a piece of paper. It should be as simple as possible and yet fully convey that which it symbolizes. Experiment. Practice until you've perfected making the symbol.

Gather at least fifty small tumbled and polished stones. These may be river rocks or a selection of semiprecious minerals such as amethyst, quartz crystal, blue lace agate, aquamarine, obsidian. It doesn't truly matter what type of stones you use as long as they're all about the same size—no more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter.

Purify the stones by soaking them overnight in salt water or by any other method.

Now, in a quiet moment when you are alone, sit outside on the bare dirt (or, if necessary, in the middle of the floor). Have the stones with you. As you sit there, visualize the negative habit as being banished out of your life forever. Visualize yourself free from it and any longings or cravings for it. Firm this up in your mind.

Divide the stones in half. With one half of the stones, form the symbol of the habit on the ground. Lay the stones end to end on the ground (or the floor) and so build up the image.

When it is completed, stare down at the picture. Build the power within yourself by whatever means you know—even if just by fueling your emotional need to rid yourself of this. Stare harder and harder at the symbol. Continue to visualize yourself as being free of the destructive habit.

Take up a handful of the extra stones. Say to the symbol:

I let you take control of me.

I let you take control of me.

I let you take control of me.

Now, when the power is bursting within you, transfer it to the stones. Say:

Banished, banished, banished be!

As you say "be," fling the stones at the symbol, obliterating it, smashing it into nonexistence.

Sparks may fly. The energy infused stones will strike the symbol (and, therefore, what it represents) with all the force of your controlled magick. The positive energy of change you send out will overcome the negative energy of the habit. The banishing will begin.

Afterward, rest for a while. Gather up the stones (if you lose a few, don't worry about it) and purify them again.

Repeat this ritual for a week. As you will, so shall it be.

copyright 1989, Scott Cunningham. All Rights Reserved