The names invoked are Archangels.
This is commonly performed to start, or end, the day. And is also used before or after more advanced magical work.
In my world, this is only 'practiced' while awake, and actually performed while lucid or out of body, where you are then also surrounded by a flaming green circle as you turn, the cardinal directions are flaming in blue as you draw the pentagram with an athame or wand. At that point, these points are then portals you can draw things out of, or that you can enter into.
Other methods and practices exist, of course.
Directions of rotation are often creating or removing/closing, and directions of the start and end of symbols can also be meaningful.
The pentagram is also not the only thing you can use, and there are some basic geometry figures and colors used for the elements.
A good place to start would be Ophiels series in The Art and Practice of... it is much easier than trying to decipher the Golden Dawn or other more complicated versions.