Caiyros Neptunias 1 wrote:The best answer, is not a definintion, nor a specific way of making judgements. It is better the really follow the idea of "Know Thyself" well, and operate on instinct rather than forumula.

Caiyros

WhimsicalSage wrote:I know Noc isn't here but i wonder whether someone knows the answer to this question?

What kind of situations is invocation most appropriate and what kind of situations is evocation most appropriate?

MagickFromtheMysts wrote:

WhimsicalSage wrote:I know Noc isn't here but i wonder whether someone knows the answer to this question?

What kind of situations is invocation most appropriate and what kind of situations is evocation most appropriate?

Invocation is typically done by priests and priestesses of deities. Evocation is done to invite entities, spirits, intelligences, or elementals into an area for the purpose of working with those energies.

This essentially means that evocation is used far more often than invocation. Invocation would be used typically only when you wished to experience union with your divine as a gesture of devotion and closeness - it's generally done as an offering, as a blessing for those you are a priest for - such as when a mambo would take a lwa into themselves and then perform acts of divination or healing for their tribe, or a priestess would take their goddess into themselves for their coven, and offer the same blessings and other magical services to their covenmates.

Evocation can be done by any practitioner - you call the elementals to your circle to aid you in your magickal rites. You evoke your gods and goddesses. You evoke demons and angels and other intelligences of the planets and stars. You work with them, talk with them, learn from them, form alliances with them, bargain with them, trade with them, create relationships with them, befriend them, make offerings to them, share energies with them, and in exchange, they offer their energies to your rites and to your aims, your goals, and make your magick richer and more profound. From the everyday to the Great Work, from the alchemy of the soul to getting a better phone, evocation is used.

Invocation is better suited for devotional work. You can even go so far as to invoke yourself. When you're ready

WhimsicalSage wrote:Thankyou for that indepth information.

MagickFromtheMysts wrote:Invocation is better suited for devotional work. You can even go so far as to invoke yourself. When you're ready.

WhimsicalSage wrote:What does that last part mean?

No, You're Not Using "Invocation" Improperly


I came across a discussion recently on a Facebook forum in which a commenter was chided for using the term "invocation" improperly. The commenter had used the term just like I and most other ceremonialists I know use it, to refer to the calling up of a spirit into one's field of consciousness, and this was deemed wrong because "invocation" means "prayer or supplication."

I don't know if this is a meme that certain magicians have recently started throwing around, but in case it is I'm going to head it off right here. Invocation can mean "prayer or supplication," but like most English words it has more than one definition. From the dictionary.com listing:

1. the act of invoking or calling upon a deity, spirit, etc., for aid, protection, inspiration, or the like; supplication.

2. any petitioning or supplication for help or aid.

3. a form of prayer invoking God's presence, especially one said at the beginning of a religious service or public ceremony.

4. an entreaty for aid and guidance from a Muse, deity, etc., at the beginning of an epic or epiclike poem.

5. the act of calling upon a spirit by incantation.

6. the magic formula used to conjure up a spirit; incantation.

7. the act of calling upon or referring to something, as a concept or document, for support and justification in a particular circumstance.

So definition #5, "the act of calling upon a spirit by incantation," and #6, "the magic formula used to conjure up a spirit; incantation" both refer to calling upon and/or conjuring up spirits. And anyway, I really don't see the point of being overly dictionary-pedantic about the word as a technical magical term. "Invocation" has been used this way by magicians for more than a century, dating back to Aleister Crowley's works and before that the original Golden Dawn schema.

After all, when magicians use terms like "energy" - ala "energy work" - we're not talking about the physics definition of the term. There are a whole lot of other similar examples as well, and the entire reason that the dichotomy between "invocation" and "evocation" exists in ceremonial magick is that it's useful to be able to distinguish between summoning a spirit into a containment structure like a triangle and summoning a spirit into your field of consciousness.

I suppose we could make up new nonsense terms that would let us distinguish between the two methods and appease the pedants, but why bother? "Invocation" and "evocation" already work fine, especially as terminology that most ceremonial magicians understand. And as I see it, that's the entire point of language - to communicate with others precisely and efficiently. Anything else is just pointless posturing.