Ch.9 The Mighty Ones (WMB 9.e)
Extract from: Wicca: Magical Beginnings written by d’Este & Rankine, 2008 (Avalonia.) PB / Kindle @ https://amzn.to/3Ay4HJr.
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The drawing of a magick circle, pentagrams at the cardinal points and calling of guardians at the cardinal points are all part of the Wiccan casting of the magick circle, and could at first glance appear to be derived from the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. However there are differences which indicate that although the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram may have played a role in influencing Wiccan ceremony, it is by no means the complete source for the origins, nor even for the invocations of the guardians at the cardinal points.
First we should consider the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram, an expanded and more elaborate version of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram also created by the Golden Dawn. This version of the ritual goes through the directions in the sunwise sequence and also uses all the elemental pentagrams, combined with the names of the Enochian Kings of the Elements.
The Opening by Watchtower Ritual is another Golden Dawn ritual which needs consideration. It begins with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram and other components, including parts drawn from the Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster, and is significant as the first ritual to include invocations of the angels of the watchtowers of the cardinal points:
“In the names and letters of the Great Southern Quadrangle, I invoke ye, ye Angels of the Watchtower of the South.”[1]
[1] Ceremonial Magic, Regardie, 1980
Extract from: Wicca: Magical Beginnings written by d’Este & Rankine, 2008 (Avalonia.) PB / Kindle @ https://amzn.to/3Ay4HJr. Shared here with the intention to inspire and inform the now and future generations interested in Wicca and other Pagan traditions inspired by it.
