to banish or not?

I ran into something this week that had me rethinking and questioning my use of banishing spells. Rethinking and questioning is good; it is, for me, what this path is all about. I love it when I run into the wall of another way of doing things and have to decide whether to stop or tear down the wall.

I don't know if I have mentioned this, but I listen to Ariel's lectures from the Druidic Craft of the Wise. I listen to them over and over. Ariel's insights have changed my practice and my life. That said, Druidism and especially the DCW is not Wicca and there are some very clear points where we disagree, yet the overall content of the lectures has always been helpful and more importantly, makes me think and question and reaffirm my own practice.

I do banishing spells. I usually use the waning phase of the moon and do banishing spells on a regular basis. I also cleanse the area where I work and beyond with sage on a semi-regular basis. I cleanse any magickal tool that I acquire.
I live in a very negative household, I'm a big believer in chasing negativity out the door.

This week Ariel's lecture was about the concept that banishing anything is a waste of time. Let me back up here a bit, one of the basic tenants of the DCW is that everything...EVERYTHING in this world falls into two catagories...that which brings us closer to perfection and that which does not. So there is not good and bad or positive and negative or healthy and sick. Everything is working to bring us to perfection or not. There is more to it, but that will do for the purpose of this post.
So his premise was that doing banishing spells or more simply, trying to get rid of anything is futile. Instead we have to find a way to fill our lives with what we want and need. The "bad" is a lack, a hole, an empty space...fill it with what you want to be there instead.

I thought about this a lot this week. I do this most of the time. I don't do a money spell to get rid of the inability to pay a bill or get rid of the lack of cash to buy what I want, I do a money spell to bring money.
I don't meditate on my health to get rid of something, I meditate to let my body heal itself and become healthy.

On the other hand, I do banishing spells to get rid of the negativity spewing out of people around me. I do banishing spells to get rid of my attraction to surfing the net when I should be working. I do banishing spells (this one is new) to ward off that driver weaving around eating lunch and talking on his cellphone in heavy traffic.

So, in conclusion, I decided that while his concept is a good one; for me, right now, I will continue to do banishing spells......I may go back and listen to him again later.