I perform my own banishing ritual when I’m clearing unwanted energies out of my space. I do it between workings to “clean the slate” before I begin the next working.
My own impression of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram was that it was more about “cloaking you” or “making you invisible” to something rather than banishing the energies themselves. I haven’t spent much time with it other than maybe a dozen times, but I distinctly remember getting that feeling when I was experimenting with it.
I used a modified version of it to cloak my conversation with a close friend from her nosy son who always had to butt into everything. I normally couldn’t get away from him, but when I used the ritual, he would wander into the room, scratch his head like he forgot what he wanted to do, then wander back off into another room. lol I used it 5 times on him and it worked every single time, so I’d chalk that up as “cause and effect”.
My own banishing ritual is a tweaked version of “I Am’s Solar Banishing Ritual”. I was amazed by how much more powerful that banishing ritual felt than any other banishing ritual I’d tried.
In another thread, author Kurtis Joseph said something to the effect that the strength of your aura is your protection. I completely agree with that and in my own experience it’s very true.
I’ve never been attacked or had any trouble working with any of the Goetic spirits, but I’ve never approached them from the more traditional Solomonic mindset.
I don’t feel the need to wrap myself in multiple layers of protection going into an evocation because I’m going into the evocation unafraid of them, treating them as one king treats another king. My goal is to connect with their energies and bring it into my life, not separate myself from them.
And if I did run into any trouble, I can defend myself through astral combat, summoning whatever astral and egregoric tools I need to do the job.
The attacks I’ve experienced have all been from astral parasites, unconscious thought forms created by bad thoughts sent my way, or intentional attacks from magickians testing themselves.
Sure, I’ve got several layers of protection from these kinds of attacks (they’re more annoying than anything), but I’ve never needed protection from a Goetic spirit.
Now that doesn’t mean some of them don’t come off as overbearing. Lucifuge came to me that way, annoying the hell out of me until I paid attention to him.
The worst he did was to invade my sleep and started chanting his name over and over in my mind, attempting to get me to evoke him.
I woke up, told him I would contact him when and if I decided the time was right, and then I blocked him from my mind using a thought construct until I was ready.
The experience was a test, leading to a deeper initiation. And a very important lesson.
In the end, your mindset matters.