File this post under Spell Crafting 101–Banishing and Binding are generally the first things a magical practitioner learns how to do regardless of their path or preferred magical practice. In fact, banishing and binding is so easily understood and readily practiced in our culture that even those who would claim that they absolutely reject any notions of magic routinely practice banishing and binding spells (New Year’s Resolutions are a prime example). Because we’re still in the period of making resolutions and/or trying to find ways to make our resolutions stick, this is a great time to review the basics regarding banishing and binding.
First, and this is important in all spell casting, really think through what you are seeking to accomplish and what you are actually willing to do in order to accomplish that goal. In my experience this is especially true when considering a banishing. It is very easy in a fit of pique to say “Oh My Goddess, I’ve put on 20 lbs again! That’s it! I hereby banish junk food from my life!” But do you really want to banish junk food from your life entirely? Have you thought out what other areas in your life that such a banishment may affect? What about those game nights with their requisite bags of chips, those birthday parties and other social gatherings with their cakes and cookies, the weekly office meeting with its trays of pastries? Are you willing to give up your social life as well as your consumable delights in order to lose a few pounds? Or do you need to refine your parameters to reflect what you are actually willing to do in order to reach your goal?
Perhaps banishing binge snacking or the eating of junk food in non-social gatherings combined with a binding to actively pursuing a more healthy diet and/or exercise regime would be the better choice of casting. Successful spell casting relies upon the marriage of words and intent. When the two do not match we will either circumvent and block the spell’s success through our unspoken desire for failure or we will allow the spell to succeed and become bitter and unhappy about the situations we created for ourselves.
The second important thing to remember about banishing and binding spells is that for these spells to be completely successful they must include both banishing and binding. Too often in our spells or resolutions we try to focus on just one half of the equation even though we know intellectually that we have to have both. We tend to be a bit better at remembering to include the binding after a banishing–it’s easy to remember that Nature abhors a vacuum and will fill any empty space that we create in our lives. Anyone who has fought an addiction knows this firsthand–when I was quitting smoking, finding appropriate outlets for the hand to mouth/oral fixation that I had developed by smoking cigarettes for half of my life was a key element to my battle. Fortunately that was understood by many of my friends and well wishers who offered substitutions ranging from the mundane (gum) to the erotic (use your own damn imagination) to the herbalist’s expert choice (licorice root, which I still use in almost every tea I make).
In my experience it’s much easier to forget to balance out our spells when we are focused on binding rather than banishing. I believe this is because we live in a society that emphasizes accumulation. We are taught at an early age that we should want and have every right to get the newest toys, the most toys, the best toys. It isn’t until much later in life that we really start to learn that having means spending, that energy in a system is neither destroyed nor created. So when we resolve to go to the gym every week or bind ourselves to a life of prosperity, we tend to forget that we need to let something go in order to bring the new in. Where is the time to be spent at the gym going to come from? What effort is required to gain and maintain prosperity?
Finally, remember to make your banishing and binding equivalent. Binding yourself to something that is unrelated or pales in comparison to what you are banishing still leaves a void which nature will fill for you with something you would likely not have chosen for yourself. Similarly, when the focus is on the binding half of the equation, make sure that you are banishing something that is equivalent in type of energy and value. For instance, in order to bind myself to a resolution to become a better read witch and get through some of those books that I’ve never opened, I have to banish my need to read Mercedes Lackey novels for the nth time as my way to relax before bed. To make room in my life to write on a regular basis, I have to give up an hour of online gaming each day.
For all that I said at the beginning of this article that banishing and binding is spell crafting 101, it’s also one of the main tricks in any witch’s bag of spells and a major aid as we look to make both small and large changes in our lives. What do you want to achieve and what will you give up to achieve it?
