Spirit - Active and Passive
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Within the framework of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram, how is Active Spirit or Passive Spirit generally used?
For example, if I wish to energize/motivate myself to perform a task, what is the difference between tracing the invoking Active Spirit vs invoking Fire pentagram in the four quarters?
What is the effect of banishing/invoking Passive or Active Spirit- on a theoretical level?
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@he atlas itch said
"Within the framework of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram, how is Active Spirit or Passive Spirit generally used?"
Within the Lesser ritual of the Pentagram, they are not. Their inclusion is basic to those changes that mark later versions of the Pentagram Ritual (variously called "Greater" and/or "Supreme")
"For example, if I wish to energize/motivate myself to perform a task, what is the difference between tracing the invoking Active Spirit vs invoking Fire pentagram in the four quarters?"
The so-called "Spirit" pentagrams are integrative of the other four elements. That is, they represent the principle (a) from which "the Four Elements" emerged and (b) into which they are subsumed in balanced disposition.
When you study (for example) the Golden Dawn grade ritual openings in this regard, the Spirit pentagrams appear in two kinds of places. First, they appear at the opening of the Tablets in the Elemental Grades, used only with a single element. The purpose of the two in this combination is to (so to speak) surrender the separateness of the individual element to that higher context in which they are One Stream, while nonetheless letting that One Light manifest distinctly as the particularized element. [I just made that up - but, on reflection, it's all correct, and probably the best way I've said this.] - The other context is the opening of the Portal, where the Spirit Pentagrams specifically represent the balanced integration of the four elements, and their awakening under the dominion of the Quintessence (their source and goal).
"What is the effect of banishing/invoking Passive or Active Spirit- on a theoretical level?"
"On a theoretical level" is the perfect way to ask the question - because, in practice, there are almost no circumstances where one would do this in isolation.
In particular, I can't think of a situation where one would (in isolation) to a Banishing Spirit Pentagram. Since "banishing" of a particularized force (in contrast to generic pentagrams) represents de-tuning yourself from that force (or mode of consciousness), then a banishing Spirit Pentagram (in isolation) would be (something like) distancing yourself from an integrated point of view.
I can at least think of a situation where the Invoking is used in isolation, and that is as a preliminary to one of the first two Enochian Calls. These calls are, themselves, attributed to Active and Passive Spirit, respectively. Invoking Active Spirit in isolation would be a deepening of your connection to the idea summarized as "the Quintessence," i.e., that One Stream of which the other elements are aspects, and into which they integrate. It is "Phallic (projective, intrusive, inserting) Spirit." - Generally one is only effective in this (in a balanced, productive way) when one has activated and equilibrated the individual elements in oneself, which is why this usage is generally reserved for one who has already passed through the course of the four elements.
Invoking Spirit Passive (in isolation) is Receptive Spirit, "Yonic Spirit." It is actually one of the few things I'd call out-and-out dangerous (except in the right circumstances) because its purpose is to make you unresistingly open to whatever comes along. It is total unbuffered, unfiltered receptiveness, essentially "negative spiritism." Of course, this is valuable in certain conditions - one just needs to make sure that the conditions are right! (Magically, one normally would have banished everything thoroughly, and then invited only the specific thing to which one wants to surrender oneself without resistance - and then "drop shields and surrender.")
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Thanks for that detailed explanation. The warning about Passive Spirit was especially helpful...