OK, I SEE WHAT YOU WERE SAYING AND WITH THAT I AGREE. I JUST DIDN'T WANT ANYBODY TO GET IN ANY TROUBLE BY EXPERIMENTING WITH SOMETHING THEY DON'T HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT.

Thanks heroheidR. If someone has no experience and uses a banishing ritual with the intent to banish, I suspect any symbol would serve. The pentagram shown only becomes an "earth" pentagram when you have studied enough to realise that some schools of thought teach that it is, and then the remedy is revealed by that same increased knowledge. Before you gain that knowledge, your intention to solve the problem will naturally focus your magic on the correct area.

Since the thread was discussing untrained users stumbling into potential problems, my belief, based on nearly 40 years experience, is that this kind of simple banishing will be more than sufficient (I used one very similar to shift a haunting when we moved into this house 22 years ago).

A more experienced practitioner may well use the refinements you mention to good effect, since they will have more of a sense of where the problem lies (i.e. Is it a spirit, or is it an unconscious projection etc?)and be able to fine tune their efforts.

Thanks also to Romana for starting the thread and helping to draw out the debate.

Understood.

I suppose that I pointed it out because there are several who are at the point in their training that ( I thought ) they should start thinking about these things. Help them get over that hump that comes when you just start doing things by rote and forget that the focus and intention are the important things. Ya' know?

Interesting that you used it to ease a haunting. I tend to talk to the entities in question and strike up an agreement.

IF YOU TALK TO THE SPIRITS WHICH ARE ALL READY THERE THAT'S FINE, BUT CALLING SPIRITS AND THEN "SEE" WHAT SHOWS UP IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA IN MY BOOK. IT WOULD IT MAKE IT HARDER TO CONTROL THE SITUATION. THE OUIJI BOARD ADDS TO IT. FOLKS, THAT'S JUST ME. AS YOU CAN TELL I DON'T LIKE THEM.

Yeah, I don't call them, they just kind of show up.

A lot of them really don't want to be disturbed, that's why they haunt sometimes. Other times they just want someone to know what happened to them. The little kids are the worst. They break my heart every time.

I KNOW THEY THERE BUT MOST OF THE TIME THEY DON'T BOTHER ME. THE DOGSJUST GET AGRAVATED.