The ritual of the pentagram has had so many different versions and interpretations, over many centuries, by so many different people and groups of practitioners.
What is correct? Remember magick starts in your mind and heart!
First, whether or not you are moving or drawing paths clockwise (deosil) or counterclockwise (widdershins), or upright versus inverted, intent and will are much more important than directions or having specific implements. For that matter, what archetypes or words of power you use are also not as relevant as intent.
There are also the so-called lesser and greater versions of the Ritual of the Pentagram. The lesser is version is very simplified. I have found this version to work very well for the quick setups and it works very well for the beginners (because it is less distracting from the mission), as well as the experienced (because the will and intent are usually very clear), and thus it returns back to what the practitioner is thinking, feeling, visualizing and where their intent and focus are.
I have used invoking and banishing, clockwise and counterclockwise, elements rearranged, upright and inverted for over 35 years. All of them work if your mind, heart, will and intent are in the right place.
First, choose one method/system, understand it, learn it, know it, and feel it in your mind and heart. The most important, is what you visualize, know, see and feel. It is very real!
O.T.O./Thelema Greater Ritual of the Pentagram
Golden Dawn Ritual of the Pentagram
A great description of why the Golden Dawn chose the method they use, which is not consistent with the other GD practices (see GD Hexagram Ritual), is excepted below from LBRP Theory – Q&A – Hermeticulture, Nicholas Chapel.
Q: Why are the pentagrams traced clockwise in the LBRP, rather than counterclockwise? Shouldn’t banishing be performed widdershins?
In order to understand why the LBRP’s pentagrams are traced clockwise, you have to gain some understanding of the larger Adept-level Pentagram Ritual within the Golden Dawn tradition. The four elements crowned by Spirit are arrayed around the figure of the Pentagram as follows:
While there is some problematic history here regarding the Pentagrammaton, I will not go into it here: for further information on that front, watch the video, in which I briefly digress into the history of the Pentagrammaton and the ordering of the letters around the Pentagram. Suffice it to say that this diagram did not originate with the Golden Dawn, but represents the key to understanding the Pentagram Ritual.
While we are used to the trope of “invoking = deosil/clockwise” and “banishing = widdershins/counterclockwise” in modern occulture, this isn’t how it’s done in the Pentagram Ritual. Here, it isn’t whether you’re moving clockwise or counterclockwise that determines whether you’re invoking or banishing; it’s whether you’re moving towards or away from the element you’re working with.
In the LBRP, you start and finish with the Earth vertex of the Pentagram. Earth is used here as a substitute or stand-in for a general banishing, as it is the heaviest and densest element. You can see this same logic behind the use of the Saturn Hexagram as a general banishing figure within the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram.
So far, so good. Things get complicated, however, by the fact that the lower “X” of the Pentagram—the paths joining Fire/Air and Water/Earth—are reserved for the element of Spirit or Quintessence, as those two paths connect and unite the active and passive elements respectively. Consequently, these two paths are unavailable for use in drawing an Earth banishing pentagram. In the LBRP, you start at the Earth vertex and move away from it to banish. Because you can’t use the path of Spirit Passive to do this, however, you use the path between Earth and Spirit instead, tracing the figure the only way you can—which is clockwise.
Now, note however that when you perform the LBRP, you are NOT banishing the element of Earth! The LBRP is a general banishing ritual that works on the microcosmic level—that is to say, the elemental and terrestrial realm. Remember that Earth here is just used as a shorthand or signature for the overall operation, and is used as a stand-in because it’s the heaviest and densest element. But again, it’s not an Earth banishing or even a specifically elemental ritual when you’re talking about the LBRP.
Because of the symbolism of the pentagram and its connection to Gevurah (or Geburah), it may be more accurate to say that the LBRP is a Gevuric ritual than an elemental one, insofar as it operates in the same manner that tracing a protective magic circle on the ground with a sword does in the grimoiric tradition—especially when the LBRP is performed using the Sword of the Hiereus or the Magic Sword of an Adept.
SOURCE: https://www.hermeticulture.org/2022/02/22/lbrp-theory-qa/