WHAT IS BANISHING?

Denny Sargent



We can not truly begin our exploration without a clear definition of what we are focusing on. The Word ‘Banish’ in English has interesting connotations.

 ‘Banish’ sometimes means ‘to make someone leave a specific place, often as punishment. In the case of wanting to get someone out of your life, something we will definitely address, the primary definition that we are concerned with, as stated in the Oxford English Dictionary is:

‘to get rid of; drive away’
An alternate definition is:
‘expel, as if by official decree’
The root of the word BANISH is the old French BANIR ‘to order or prohibit’ and it is further linked to the word BAN, as in ‘smoking is banned in this house.’
This being the real root, it is worth referencing the Online etymology dictionary
(www.etymon.com) here. Note the connections between several related languages and how the meaning shifts…

ban (v.)
Old English bannan "to summon by proclamation," ….

which also is partly from Old French ban "public proclamation,"


 Main modern sense of "prohibit" is from Norse banna "curse, prohibit,"

 <Germanic.> *bannan "proclaim, command, forbid" (cf. O.H.G. bannan "to command or forbid…"…..

…… Ger. bannen "banish, expel, curse")….


And then we get to the real root, the oldest Indo-European, the base from which so many languages sprouted and formed thousands of years ago:

:from<Proto Indo-European>base *bha- "to speak"

…….. Sense evolved from "speak" to "proclaim a threat" to "curse."


Let me put this all together in a sense. The modern definition of Banish is to get rid of something, but the root of this term, BAN, indicates a much more primal and magical action. It means to forbid something, but in an active manner. That is, to exclude or consciously remove a person or action from society or a specific place. Yet the root origin of the word means TO SPEAK! It evolved from this idea of proclaiming to cursing, such an interesting and, at first, puzzling idea. Let’s dig a bit deeper and it will be clear.
In ancient times in Europe and even today in cultures that acknowledge the spiritual basis behind all things, words are power. The idea is this: if you know the name of a thing or person, then you have control over it, you have power to manipulate it. All magical processes and shamanic rituals center on this idea. A priest or shaman or magic maker by whatever name derives power from knowing the hidden names of things. For example, a shaman can call the deer to hunters by knowing the secret name of the deer. A priest can bring a god or spirit to a ritual by uttering ‘words of power’ just as wizards conjure spirits by knowing their ‘true names.’ It has thus always been crucial in magical cultures that people of power have an outer name and an inner name. To know someone’s inner or hidden name means that you have power to curse them. This is a firm belief even today in a number of cultures I have visited.
    Well, this is all fine and good, but where does it leave us? It shows us the power of CONCEPTUALIZING SOMETHING OR SOMEONE and then SPEAKING what we will that thing or person or concept to BECOME. In other words, the root of the word BANISH is to have POWER OVER A THING, PERSON OR IDEA IN ORDER TOGET RID OF IT. Now, this got translated into ‘curse’, and I won’t take you through another etymological maze with that word, but suffice to say, the idea of cursing something is rooted in the idea of diminishing, eradicating or making it go away.
So let’s do a quick recap on the word BANISH:

First, it assumes the power we all have to Speak with authority, to take control of aspects of our reality by first clearly conceptualizing them and then ‘speaking’ or uttering a directive to forbid, order or prohibit it – to BAN it from our reality by the force of our will and through the power of uttering its true name or essence. In other words, by SPEAKING or COMMANDING we have the power to get rid of it, and not just get rid of it but to CURSE or PROHIBIT it, that is, send it away and keep it away.
    Seems like pretty powerful stuff! Keep in mind that when these words were forming, those who ‘spoke’ or made such proclamations were seen as having divine power. In other words, their proclamations were LAW. And not just law in the sense we mean it today, but in the very real sense that the gods and forces of the universe spoke THROUGH them, that they had the power to reorder things, to COMMAND the rebalancing of a situation by expelling or banning a force, person of action for the good of the tribe, city or culture. This is underlined by the fact that another related word (cognate) in the Old Irish is BANN or LAW!
    So, I can hear you mutter, what does this all have to do with me and my life?
    Banishing, as I use the term in this book condenses all these ideas into a simplified modern form. Here then is my modern definition of Banishing:

    “The identification (‘naming’) of people, things, forces, feelings, thoughts or ideas that are negative or harmful in one’s life and, through the strength of will and positive power (love) taking command over those negatives and tossing them OUT of one’s life!”


Let me further define BANISHING in terms of the main life-areas covered in this book:



BODY-  Material/Physical Banishing-

    “The identification (‘naming’) of negative attributes that are part of or embodied in physical things such as the home, work or living environment, objects, in your life or anything having to do with your physical body and, through the strength of will and positive power (love) taking command over those negative things or attributes and tossing them OUT of your life!”


HEART- Emotional/Feeling Banishing-  

    “The identification (‘naming’) of negative attributes that are part of or embodied in emotional relationships and attachments in your life or anything having to do with your emotional balance, health or happiness and, through the strength of will and positive power (love) taking command over those negative emotions or feelings and tossing them OUT of your life!”

MIND-  Mental/Intellectual Banishing-  Banning/Averting   :KNOWLEDGE

    “The identification (‘naming’) of negative attributes that are part of or embodied in mental attachments or obsessions, intellectual problems, mental addictions or excessive mental stress in your life or anything having to do with your thoughts and thinking processes and, through the strength of will and positive power (love) taking command over those negative thinking patterns or attributes and tossing them OUT of your life!”

And finally, transcending and interpenetrating them all:
SPIRIT-  Mystical/Magical Banishing-  Rituals/Rites   :INSPIRATION

    “The identification (‘naming’) of negative attributes that are part of or embodied in your spiritual or energetic world, are part of your faith or are part of the ‘unseen world’ that interpenetrates all with the divine or anything having to do with your ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ body and, through the strength of will and positive power (love) taking command over those negative energies/entities or attributes and tossing them OUT of your life!”

A FEW OTHER DEFINITIONS

I use a number of terms in this book that I define a certain way. These terms will come up again and again, so it is important for me to be clear on what they mean to me and thus what they mean in my writing. I’m quite sure they mean very different things to others! Feel free to mentally substitute words that fit your beliefs or ideas better as you read along if you wish:

WILL; The core essence of an individual as manifested ion their life-path. The key idea is that each of us is born with a ‘True Will,’ a reason we exist, a path we are meant to follow, a ‘karma’ or ‘way’ if you like. When we are doing our Will, we feel the universe is going with us; we are ‘in the groove, we deep-done feel ‘right with the world.’ This inner spirit or strength, I believe, comes from a higher power. Call it a ‘spark of God,’ ‘Gnosis’ or ‘Guardian Angel’ if you like. The Psychologist Carl Jung called it the Self. The ‘voice’ of our Will is sometimes called intuition or ‘our conscience.’ Things that detract or hinder/block your Will need to be Banished!

LOVE: We all know what this word means, but we all would define it differently! When I use it in this book I’m mostly referring to self-love, your self-confidence and love of who YOU are that keeps you rooted in this world and which allows you to love others. Without self love and respect, you are blocked from fully loving others. Many negatives that you allow into your life or feel powerless to expel have roots in a lack of love. In the greater sense, as Einstein said, “God is Love.’ Love is the key to everything. Love for yourself and for the universe is the basis of everything in this book. Without Love, Banishing can devolve into cursing- a kind of spiritual, emotional, mental or even physical aggression! NOT our goal!

Will without Love is simply aggressiveness and posturing, love without Will is passive and listless. Together, these two can move mountains and, with the right ‘levers,’ can be use to Banish almost anything from your life!

‘DEMON’: While I avoided the use of this term for many years, I will use it in this book (in quotes) for a specific reason: To personify or objectify a negative thought, feeling, object etc. that you want to Banish. The Encarta World Dictionary defines demon as ‘a fear or anxiety that torments somebody’ and this is close to what I mean when I use the term. However, when we enter the realm of Spiritual Banishing, you may think of a ‘Demon’ as a negative spiritual force, energy or even entity, depending on your belief system. To me, for example, alcoholism is a ‘demon.’ Now, whether that is a negative state, a disease, an emotional horror or a spiritual force is up to you.
    The point is this:

    TO BANISH A THING/ENERGY/THOUGHT/EMOTION YOU MUST BE ABLE TO ‘NAME’ IT, WHICH MEANS GET AHOLD OF IT, VISUALIZE IT: KNOW IT AND THUS HAVE POWER OVER IT. THE FASTEST WAY TO DO THIS IS TO PERSONIFY IT.

    The whole point of this defining exercise is to get you thinking now about the ‘demons’ in your life that YOU want to Banish. That is, thinking about YOUR problems; the negative things, people, ideas, feeling and hurts in your life that you want to get rid of. Chances are that you have a number of ‘demons’ affecting your physical, emotional and mental realities that you would be better off without TODAY. It is common to feel powerless to change things, to make shifts in our lives that we know would be helpful but which seem impossible or too difficult to do. Think of the art of Banishing as making all these changes possible. Casting out the ‘demons’ of hurt, obesity, stress, pain! All you need is some techniques and strategies powered by Love and Will to get rid of those things holding you back and making your life less than it could be.
    If not now, then when? Let’s go!


 


KINDS OF BANISHING


INTRODUCTION

The following chapters will explore the philosophies, ideas and theories surrounding Banishing as it pertains to the BODY (physical issues) the HEART (emotional issues) and the MIND (mental issues) as well as issues of the Spirit and the realm of super-natural Banishing.
    Following this chapter, these topic and the issues will be revisited from a DOING or practical standpoint, giving specific techniques, actions, procedures, practices, behaviors and rites or rituals to banish in a very real way. For example, in this chapter we will explore the idea of Pranayama or breath control, in the next chapter you will read how to DO it. Theory and Practice.
    As we explore the ideas of Banishing regarding the Body, Heart, Mind and Spirit, we will break each down into five sections. Each will follow the following pattern.
    While it is impossible to disconnect the various parts and functions of , for example, THE BODY in that they are all interrelated, the BODY chapter  breaks the Body and thus issues of Banishing concerning thee Body down into ‘5 elements.’ This division and categorization is somewhat arbitrary but follows the very ancient concept that all things can be conceived of in terms of the ‘5 elements.’

Aristotle codified the 5 elements in this way:

* Fire which is hot and dry.
* Earth which is cold and dry.
* Air which is hot and wet.
* Water which is cold and wet.
* Aether which is the divine substance that makes up the heavens
These four elements interchange (i.e. Fire ↔ Air ↔ Water ↔ Earth etc.), while aether is on its own. The Sun keeps this cycle going. God keeps the Sun going (and thus the Sun is eternal).”

-Wikipedia Encyclopedia

 Humor me. It is a way to approach so many ideas and techniques in a fairly easy to follow way, regardless of how you may feel about the philosophy of all things being ‘Air, Fire Water, Earth & Spirit.
    For the more mundane readers, a modern interpretation of this division is:
AIR= Gasses
Water= Liquids
Fire= Plasma/Electricity
Earth= Solids
Spirit= Bio- energy or ‘Spiritual” energy


*****
The Other Chapters follow this same pattern but from different angles.

The chapter on Emotional Banishing cycle through the 5 elements, but with a focus on the 5 KLESHAS:


The Chapter on Mental Banishing, in yet another take on the 5-fold approach to reality, focuses on the 5 ‘power of the Sphinx:

All of these, conceptually and philosophically, of course have overlap. How can we talk about the energetic aspects of the body without thinking of Spirit? Doesn’t emotional health and mental health affect the Body? Aren’t all of them united in the Spiritual aspects of your life? Of course they are……
 


CHOOSING WHAT TO BANISH FROM YOUR LIFE

    Before you can get rid of something from your life you need to know what has to go! This means taking time to examine your life as openly and dispassionately as possible with an eye to eliminating things, people, ideas, attitudes and ideas you either no longer need or which are actively harming you.
    Think of your life as a game with many flexible rules and scenarios! You may not feel you have much control in this game, but in fact you do. You have an immense number of choices every day, though you may not realize. Habits, ruts, patterns of behavior, all of things are enemies of change in your life and the only way you can see what works and what doesn’t work is by examining all of it. Once you have looked at all these things, then you begin Banishing!
    The most important thing in your life is happiness for yourself and for those you love. A good place to begin is to think deeply on what this means to you, You should not confuse happiness with pleasure, something that is only transitory and may or may not be helpful in attaining happiness. Happiness seems to be akin to inner Balance, a place where you and the world meet and get along. Some call this the center or the fulcrum. Buddhists call this Compassion and a state of ‘being.’
    So, this contentment, equipoise, default-peace, place of happiness, whatever you want to call it, this is your goal here.
    There are things that need to be Banished in your life, or you wouldn’t have this book in your hands. There are thing, relationships, feelings, patterns that need to GO. They are no longer useful. They hinder you. They inflict imbalance and pain in your life. They weigh you down.
    You have made the first move. You know that things need to be ELIMINATED. Now to identify clearly WHAT or WHO they are, WHERE or WHEN they crop up, WHY they are a problem and then craft a procedure for HOW to eliminate them!
    So let us begin with this simple exercise.
    Get a pen and pad of paper in front of you and at least an hour of free uninterrupted time. You are about to make some major changes in your life. You can accomplish these changes because you have a powerful and innate potential for Will and Love.
    Write everything you or others  LOVE about YOU. Write all the positive qualities you and others feel you have. Be completely honest, there is no one else here, no one else will see this, only you. Who are you? What are the best qualities and skills you offer to the world? You may want to have an honest conversation or two with a loved one or pal about this. Most people are very hard on themselves and tend to dwell on their bad qualities as opposed to their good ones. Keep the focus clearly and squarely on what is GOOD about you, your personality, your mindset, your environment and so on.
    It might start off something like…

I’M A GREAT PARENT.
I HAVE A LOVELY FACE.
I HAVE A GREAT HOME
I LOVE THE OUTREACH FART OF MY WORK.
I’M A LOYAL AND EFFICIENT PROFESSIONAL.
I’M A FUN PERSON TO BE WITH SOCIALLY.
I’M A RESPONSIBLE CITIZEN.
I’M A KIND PERSON.
I’M A GOOD STORYTELLER…..


Now comes the hard part, you need to decide what parts of yourself and/or of your life you don’t care for and what can or should be accepted and what can or should be Banished. There are three steps:

STEP 1:

Take four pieces of paper. ON THESE YOU WILL WRITE THE NEGATIVE ‘DEMONS’ IN YOUR LIFE.
Title one paper BODY/ENVIRONMENT
The next title EMOTIONS, SELF/OTHERS
The third title MIND/THOUGHTS, SELF/OTHERS
The forth title SPIRITUAL/SUPERNATURAL


Now, brainstorm all the ‘demons’ that are affecting you now!
Take your time; be as open as you like, you are merely noting EVENYTHING that is negative in your life that you would like to change. There is no planning at this point, just recognizing stuff you may not even consciously be aware of! Write it all out in single words or phrases without a lot of deep thought! Then put them aside for a little bit.



STEP 2:

After some reflection, take out your five sheets (the GOOD page and the 4 ‘demons’ pages)

Go through these and cross off the ‘demons’ or problem issues that you can accept, live with. You may, for example, have LOW PAY! But you may also love your job and, upon reflection, be able to live with the low pay. It is up to you.

Underline all the ones having to do with other people, you may, for example have: MY BOSS ALWAYS CRITISIZES ME or MY LOVER INSULTS ME. Change the wording putting ‘I’ at the beginning of the phrase. For example:

MY BOSS ALWAYS CRITISIZES ME ->  I AM ANGRY AT THE UNFAIR CRITICISM I GET FROM MY BOSS

And

MY LOVER INSULTS ME -> I AM HURT WHEN MY LOVER DISSES ME

Narrow the number of serious issues or ‘demons’ to ONLY THREE PER PAGE. You have to start somewhere, and this will be the first process! Note, as you do this some issues that seem to be one category might move to another. What looks like an emotional issue (being criticized too much) may, upon reflection, be a mental one (lack of fairness, rules in the system.) Again, all of this is up to you!


Once you have it limited to three or less per page, then transfer these to 4 new ‘demon’ pages, each divided into 2columns.
The first column is labeled DEMON the second BANISHING ACTION

Hold that thought!
Now read this book!
Once you have a better handle on the theories behind 4 different kinds of Banishing you will read about many different action steps, techniques, practices and rites for Banishing. As you do so, fill in the actual ACTIONS you will do to banish each of the ‘demons’ you have identified.

What follows is an example of what my finished pages looked like:

My first try at this gave me a lot of stuff, some I hadn’t even expected because until I sat down and focused on this process I hadn’t even realized that some of these things were problems!
Here is a quick snapshot of what my 4 pages looked like. About 6 years ago:




Keep in mind that the BANISHINGS probably don’t make complete sense now, but they will once you have read this book! Here is a quick sketch of how well these worked for me:

BODY/ENVIRONMENT

Overweight        ->  Lost 30+ pounds, gained some back, mostly in muscle.
Toxic stress at work  -> Within a week I felt good, focused and found                 a much better job with better hours- all in 1 week!
Shoulder ache    -> Pain still there but much reduced - realized                 stress connection & eliminated most


EMOTIONS, SELF/OTHERS

Irritated by Traffic, Coworkers     -> Marked decrease in misplaced                             anger and irritation, calmer, more                         relaxed, less ‘hooked’ by externals. Depressed/upset; hard parenting   -> More patience, more solutions,                         more expressing of love, extending                             love to all autistic kids
Pain at being abandoned by friend  -> Cut emotional connection,                                 end of pain, end of mental                             /emotional attachment- peace

MIND/THOUGHTS, SELF/OTHERS

Worry too much about my son   ->  Decrease worry, focus on actions                         & solutions, keep worries real!
Laziness in reading, writing   -> Got a book contract! ☺, Read daily,                             cut ‘waste’ time (TV!)
My workplace is disorganize    -> Got new joy, organize disorder,                                accept some chaos, accept advice/                         other patterns of doing

SPIRITUAL/SUPERNATURAL

I feel spiritually disconnected   -> Clearer, more aware, more in-sync
Feel under psychic attack at work  -> effectively banished evil, gave                                 me space to focus & leave                                 for a better job
Long string of weird bad luck    -> Major change for the better,                             Generating good chi/luck, accept                             the Wheel- less attachment                                 /repulsion, less upheaval!



So, in the end, I am far better off than I was. Is life perfect? No, of course not. Do I now have a new set of things, feelings, ideas etc to Banish? Yes I do, I'm working on my stuff right now! Is my quality of like better? Yes it is. Banishing, that is, unlading or purging or banning or letting go of things that cause pain and negative thoughts and feelings is a GOOD thing, a POSITIVE thing. It can be hard, it can be painful and it is rarely easy, but releasing a negative leaves room for a POSITIVE and throughout this process I have discovered this. Awareness and the using of Will and Love are the keys. Once you have a handle on something negative in your life, you can banish it. Once you have banished it (or Banished the negatives around it) then you can fill the void created by that banishing with something Positive! And it is not that hard to do because you are now AWARE of what needs to go there! Hate is replaced by acceptance if not actual Love; impatience is replaced by patience, Pain with peace.
    This is the process of life; this is mere one step in that grand evolution of your SELF into something better, more balanced, more at peace in your skin and your world. Welcome home!


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