Magickal devocation is the “cool-down” phase of any invocatory working; it’s the practice of returning to your baseline self. The process involves formally ending the connection to an invoked consciousness, cleansing your personal energy field, and grounding your awareness back in the mundane world. For an evocation, the closing rite serves as the final dismissal, the formal signal that the operation is complete and the summoned entity is to begin its task.
The Purpose of Devocation
The primary purpose of devocation is to maintain psychic hygiene. After opening yourself up to a powerful archetypal force during an invocation, failing to properly close the connection can lead to “psychic inflation”—where your ego remains identified with the god-form—or a “magickal hangover” that leaves you feeling drained and disconnected. A clean devocation ensures that the ritual ends when you decide it ends, preventing energetic residue from bleeding into your daily life and maintaining your psychological stability and sovereignty.
Simple Grounding and Centering Techniques
Not every minor magickal act requires a full-blown banishing ritual. Often, a simple technique to ground your energy and center your mind is all that’s needed to bring you back to baseline after a light trance or meditation.
- Laughter: A sudden, genuine belly laugh is one of the most potent and immediate ways to shatter a solemn magickal trance. It forcibly returns you to your body and collapses any lingering psychic tension through the sheer power of the ridiculous.
- Physical Action: Engaging the physical body is useful and often underrated. Stamping your feet on the floor, washing your hands and face with cold water, or eating a piece of bread or fruit are all classic methods of pulling your consciousness firmly back into the physical realm.
- Sensory Focus: Briefly and deliberately focus on your five senses. Notice five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. This pulls your awareness out of the abstract and back into the immediate, tangible world.
Cleansing Meditation and Energy Work
A more focused, internal approach involves using a dedicated meditation to consciously cleanse and re-balance your personal energy field. After an invocation, sit quietly and visualize a shower of brilliant, white light pouring down from above, flowing through your entire body and washing away any foreign energies or emotional residue from the ritual. This can be enhanced with basic ki energy manipulation; as you exhale, consciously push any lingering invoked energies out of your aura, and as you inhale, draw clean, neutral energy up from the earth to fill the space.
Devotional Closings Through Prayer
When you have invoked a deity or a revered spiritual figure, a harsh banishing can feel disrespectful. In these cases, the devocation can take the form of a devotional closing prayer. This is not a dismissal but a heartfelt “thank you and farewell.” The prayer should express gratitude for the entity’s presence, wisdom, and assistance. You then gently but firmly affirm the separation of consciousness, thanking the deity for returning to its realm while you return fully to your own. This method respectfully concludes the union while still ensuring a clean separation.
Sound Cleansing with Mantras and Incantations
Sound is a powerful tool for resetting the energy of both a space and a person. After an invocation, the use of a simple mantra or a personally meaningful incantation can effectively overwrite the specific energetic signature of the ritual with a neutral one. Chanting a resonant sound like “OM” or a simple phrase like “The rite is ended, I am whole” creates a vibration that physically and psychically “shakes off” lingering influences, clearing your mind and aura.
Formal Banishing and Cleansing Rites
For the most powerful workings, or when a complete and total reset is required, a formal banishing rite is the method of choice.
- Ritual Magick: Ceremonial traditions are rich with formal banishing techniques, such as the famous Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP). These are full-blown rituals that systematically cleanse a space on all elemental and spiritual levels, leaving no doubt that the operation is over.
- Smudging: This is a near-universal practice of using the smoke from sacred herbs—most commonly sage, but also palo santo, cedar, or frankincense—to purify a room. Walking through the space and fanning the smoke into all corners physically and energetically removes lingering influences and neutralizes the atmosphere.
Advanced Considerations and Permanent Changes
While devocation is a critical safety measure, the advanced magician understands that the “rules” are context-dependent and can be deliberately bent or broken to achieve a specific outcome. The decision to devoke is not always automatic. I, personally, often do not devoke after a performance of invocation. This is because I typically invoke to absorb specific character traits and integrate them into my personality. In this case, the goal is a lasting change, so a formal devocation would be counterproductive.
The rules can also be flexible for evocation. While a formal banishing typically follows an evocation to signal the end of the ritual and send the entity on its way to perform its task, there are exceptions. If a spirit is evoked for an ongoing purpose, like long-term protection where it’s supposed to remain as a guard, then I would not banish it. The choice is always dictated by the ultimate goal of the magick.
Final Words
Devocation is more than just a cleanup routine; it is the magician’s formal declaration of sovereignty over their own consciousness and sacred space. Every invocation or evocation leaves a unique energetic signature, a psychic fingerprint on both the magician and their temple. The act of devocation is the deliberate wiping of this slate clean, preventing the “cross-contamination” of energies between different workings and ensuring each new ritual begins from a place of pure, neutral potential. For ending long-term summoning rites, whether they are a series of consecutive invocations or evocations, a gradual devocation—a series of gentle cleansings or prayers over several days—is often more effective than a single, jarring banishing. Mastering the art of devocation is mastering the art of the return to the self, the silent, centered source from which all true magick originates.
Frequent Questions
Q: How should I feel after a successful devocation?
You should feel clear, calm, and firmly present in your own body. A successful devocation leaves you feeling like “yourself” again, without any lingering emotional bleed-through or psychic static from the ritual.
Q: Is it okay to use loud noises like clapping or bells for banishing?
Yes, this is a very effective technique. Sudden, sharp sounds are excellent for shattering a trance state and breaking up stagnant energy, which is why bells, gongs, and empowered shouts are common features in banishing rites.
Q: What is the role of water, like taking a shower, in devocation?
Water is a potent tool for energetic cleansing. Taking a shower or bath after a difficult ritual while visualizing the water washing away all residual energies is a highly effective and practical form of devocation.
Q: Why would I want to devoke a really positive or empowering feeling?
For instance, you may want to devoke the source of the feeling (the entity or god-form) to avoid psychological dependency and inflation. In this case, the positive changes the summoning rite made within you will remain, but you cleanly end the direct link so you can stand on your own two feet.
Q: What should I do if a feeling or presence seems to linger even after I’ve performed a banishing?
Repeat the banishing, but with more focus and intent. If it still persists, follow up with a physical cleansing of the space (smudging, saltwater) and yourself (a cleansing bath), and then perform a simple, grounding activity to fully return to mundane consciousness.
Q: Should I perform a banishing ritual every day?
Many magicians do, treating it as a daily psychic hygiene practice, similar to brushing your teeth. A daily banishing helps clear out the general mental and emotional clutter picked up during the day, creating a more balanced state for both life and magick.
Q: Does the “laughter banishing” have to be a genuine belly laugh to work?
Genuine laughter is far more potent, but even a forced, deliberate laugh can be effective. The act of forcing a laugh is itself an absurd and jarring action that can help break a solemn trance state, even if the emotional component isn’t as strong.