Seeking Recommendation Evocation and Invocation Books

[DurumKebab]

I'm looking for books on the subject, primarily seeking depth and the logic behind it, the what, how and why. I don't mind if the books are a thousand pages long each or the course lasts a hundred hours, as long as it explains things coherently,even the origin and evolution if necessary, etc. I'm looking for something practical, more than just theorical, but I'm willing to read anything as long as it meets these minimum requirements.

 

[Bluesoft]

Before it, read as most as you can. This is a topic that would not be taken easy.,

 

[HoldAll]

My first choice would be "Archangels of Magick" by Damon Brand:

Book – PDF - Damon Brand - Archangels of Magick: Rituals for Prosperity, Healing, Love, Wisdom, Divination and Success

The main reason is that invocation (with the big exception of demonolatry) and evocation is usually associated with ceremonial magic with all its elaborate paraphernelia (robes, magic circle, incense, magical weapons like wands, swords, etc.), purifications, endless prayers and fasting and so on, which can be daunting (it sure was for me!). The book uses no such props, is written in a very beginner-friendly style and divided into several levels of difficulty, so you'd start out with simple sigil magic, learn invocation and continue up to evocation.

Disclaimer: I wasn't able to able to get the book to work but don't think it was the book's fault, rather my lack of natural talent and preparation (and by 'preparation' I mean groundwork like meditation, visualisation, breathwork and energy work.). My main beef with the Gallery of Magick books is that they shrug off the importance of preparatory work on oneself (which can easily take two years or more) and make things seem deceptively easy - and it can be easy provided you're naturally gifted. In Damon Brand's defence it must be said that he's a little bit more thorough with invocation where he suggests a (very brief) period of time where you try to get familiar with the archangel you plan to invoke, something E.A. Koetting calls 'preparatory immersion' or Tibetan Buddhist monks the 'generation stage', so it's not the usual GoM "quick n' easy" approach.

Another recommendation would be to try "The Bornless Rite" on p. 85 in Jason Miller's "Real Sorcery" (I would also recommend the book for its groundwork program):

Book – PDF - Real Sorcery: Strategies for Powerful Magick - Jason Miller (new edition of sorcerer’s secrets)

It's an example for my opinion that invokation is a relatively new method pioneered by the Golden Dawn because historically, it was either full possession or the assumption of godforms (as in the "Bornless One" lifted from the Greek Magical Papyri, ca. 3rd to 6th centure CE, doubtless more knowledgeable members will be quick to disprove my theory). In this ritual, you don't invoke a god but become one. The Bornless Rite is a bit of a lithmus test, IMHO - if it doesn't give you goosebumps, you're not ready yet, but that's my personal opinion.

As for theory… my opinion is that you can easily get lost there. Ancient magic was mainly about contacting the spirits, so you can study paleolithic Shamanism, Sumerian demonology, Egyptian magical practices, the old medieval and Rennaissance grimoires, modern psychological theories about spirits and wade through contemporary quantum mechanics psychobabble for decades. Just about every book on magic contains chapters on spirits; reading a lot of background information, however, can be both illuminating as well as a way of procrastinating, so it's basically your choice what and how much you read.

Every author and every (aspiring) magician has their own view about spirits. What's more, Tanya M. Luhrmann describes in her book "Persuasions of the Witch's Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England" (a scholarly anthropological study, also in the Library) how most magicians go through several interpretative shifts in their careers depending on their experiences so their views are likely to change over time. Anyway, personally I find it important to avoid ascribing human psychological patterns of behaviour to beings that are basically ineffable; one example would be prayers and offerings - they are not means to appease, pay or bribe an entity but rather ways to attune oneself to them. This opinion of mine is also subject to change pending actual personal experiences, of course.

Phew, long-ass post. I think I've just about covered it. You will find tons of books in the Library when you search for "spirits", so I'd better shut up and leave you to your studies.

 

[DurumKebab]

Thank you very much for the detailed response @HoldAll ; it answers more questions than those books likely will.

Regarding creating a sensation using the "Bornless Rite," you can create it through your own will. When Blavatsky's works were translated, the concept of visualization was translated into mere mental image, whereas according to Robert Bruce (with whom I agree), it meant more of a "tactile image," referring to the sensation that the image creates rather than the image itself. Whether Blavatsky's works are worth reading is another matter; I haven't read any of her work.

There is a process to create that sensation, and it involves trance. I will make a post about it whenever I can as I saw one in the forum ([Help] - How do you enter trance state?) and they turned it into something "mystical" when, over time, you can enter it in seconds. A provocative thought for you meanwhile, do you understand or do you feel god? If God is an experience and being connected to the higher self/god whatever, leads to the feeling of synchronicity and manifestation what if you could create that sensation at will? Will write about it whenever I fill some mental gaps

About this,

It's an example for my opinion that invokation is a relatively new method pioneered by the Golden Dawn because historically, it was either full possession or the assumption of godforms (as in the "Bornless One" lifted from the Greek Magical Papyri, ca. 3rd to 6th centure CE, doubtless more knowledgeable members will be quick to disprove my theory). In this ritual, you don't invoke a god but become one. The Bornless Rite is a bit of a lithmus test, IMHO - if it doesn't give you goosebumps, you're not ready yet, but that's my personal opinion.

Exctracted from Stephen Skinner & David Rankine - Keys to the Gateway of Magic: Summoning the Solomonic Archangels & Demon Princes: 02 (Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic) - Highly highly recommended:

Another interesting aspect of the language in the 17th century, is that there is an increase not just in repetition but also in precision, with the spirit being carefully instructed exactly how to: "Appear in fair and decent form, & in no wise hurtful Dreadful, Terrible, or Affrightful unto us, or this place, or to any other person or place whatsoever, but in all humility & Serenity, Visibly to the Sight of our Eyes"

It seems that the Golden Dawn was hiding something.
Book link: Book – PDF - The Keys to the Gateway of Magic: Summoning the Solomonic Archangels and Demon Princes by Stephen Skinner and David Rankine

Anyway, personally I find it important to avoid ascribing human psychological patterns of behaviour to beings that are basically ineffable; one example would be prayers and offerings - they are not means to appease, pay or bribe an entity but rather ways to attune oneself to them. This opinion of mine is also subject to change pending actual personal experiences, of course.

I agree even though I haven't had the experience yet but had lot of those “synchronized“ feelings. I think that if I've made all this effort to reach you (spirit, angel, archangel, or demon), that merit makes me equal to you, neither inferior nor superior. What you mention about attributing human psychological characteristics to these beings, I agree with you, check this out:

e) The spiritual creatures invoked are not subjective, nor are they part of the psychological makeup of the invoker.
This is a fallacy introduced by Aleister Crowley's comments in 'his' edition of the grimoire the Goetia.17 Demons are not, repeat not, psychological and definitely not anatomical 'portions of the human brain' as Crowley categorically stated in his introduction. In this introduction Crowley writes a tongue in cheek exposition of magic that has confused many generations of students ever since. It was not till the publication of the excellent edition of the Lemegeton by Joseph Peterson in 2001 that Crowley's partial and defective edition has been finally eclipsed.

——
Open to more books or courses recommendations

 

[HoldAll]

Regarding creating a sensation using the "Bornless Rite," you can create it through your own will. When Blavatsky's works were translated, the concept of visualization was translated into mere mental image, whereas according to Robert Bruce (with whom I agree), it meant more of a "tactile image," referring to the sensation that the image creates rather than the image itself. Whether Blavatsky's works are worth reading is another matter; I haven't read any of her work.

There is a process to create that sensation, and it involves trance. I will make a post about it whenever I can as I saw one in the forum ([Help] - How do you enter trance state?) and they turned it into something "mystical" when, over time, you can enter it in seconds. A provocative thought for you meanwhile, do you understand or do you feel god? If God is an experience and being connected to the higher self/god whatever, leads to the feeling of synchronicity and manifestation what if you could create that sensation at will? Will write about it whenever I fill some mental gaps

I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to (intentional) visualisations in the course of a ritual (also see my signature ) because I'm so panicky about deluding myself. I'd rather do isolated 'abstract' exercises, for example visualizing a green triangle, than imagening the traditional shapes of the four archangels in my daily LBRPs although everybody fervently recommends it. I have this theory that any impressions of spirits produced by our human senses are but subjective interpretations of unknowable influences we are unable to process otherwise, the same way the display of a voltmeter e.g. gives us a visual reading of the qualities of an electrical current that's otherwise completely invisible to us. For this reason, my daily practice is mostly geared towards creating a blank canvas in my headspace by means of empty-mind meditation so that any 'distortions' of that empty mind would be a sign of supernatural influence and not of the tricks of any intruding thoughts of mental artefacts. Right now I'm so caught up in the effects and philosophical implications of that practice that I'm not much interested in trance which seems to be the comple opposite of the zen-style focus I'm currently concentrating on (but then I may be totally wrong once I try it, who knows).

I sometimes joke and claim that I will only believe in the objective reality of a spirit if it bit me in the ass and all the pictures fell from the walls (which would be all the more miraculous because there are no pictures on the wall ). Crowley most likely went through his own interpretive shifts and changed his mind several times accordingly. There is also the opinion that spirits are mere egregores created by magical practitioners (or believers, in the case of gods); the Lovecraftian Cthulhu myth remains popular in chaos magic workings, and there is also pop culture magic where you conjure up superheros, for example. However, I heard that such chaos magic antics like conjuring Scrooge McDuck instead of Jupiter for wealth were less than successful, so more traditional (and older) egregores must be more powerful than more recent ones, dunno.

I'm not a hardcore sceptic, mind you. For me, scepticism is but a tool, not a fundamental attitude. So if I will feel one day an unmistakably alien sensation during a ritual (not there yet), I'll say, yep, that's definitely a spirit (even if the pictures refuse to fall from the walls). However, that's something I don't worry overmuch right now, and frankly, the Zen aspect of empty-mind meditation (something I was always interested in but too lazy to practise consistently) is currently swamping most of my metaphysical thinking.

All this means that I'm on the fence between the psychological and spirit models. I seem to remember that the Dalai Lama was once asked whether the gods in Tibetan Buddhism had objective existence, and he replied "They are treated as if they had objective existence", in one word: pragmatism. It's likely to undermine your angel ritual when you are convinced that that being is only a Jungian archetype and thus a figment of your imagination, so you had better address an actual astral entity instead of thin air. What is required here for guys like me is a 'sleight of mind' as Peter J. Carroll calls it, and I'm not certain I can pull it off yet - holding two opposing spiritual beliefs at the same time. However, that new Zen thing of mine helps a bit here because it induces some kind of nihilistic equanimity right now: "Objective existence yes or no, it's all an illusion anyway" (which is also an illusion, of course ). And that, too, may change as my understanding increases.

Post automatically merged: May 18, 2024

Just so I don't veer totally off-topic in my self-centeredness, here is another book (tedious but informative):

Book – PDF - Dennis R. Wier - Trance From Magic to Technology

This book describes a new model for trance as well as practical techniques to analyse and design trances. Trance is used consciously and unconsciously not only by psychologists, therapists and hypnotists, but also yogis, priests, magicians, witches, advertisers, politicians, lawyers, addicts and...

wizardforums.com

 

[pixel_fortune]

There is a process to create that sensation, and it involves trance. I will make a post about it whenever I can

please do!

 

[HoldAll]

Here is another good one (practical & beginner-friendly):

Book – PDF - Consorting with Spirits: Your Guide to Working with Invisible Allies by Jason Miller

About “Working with spirits can be some of the most dangerous yet some of the most gratifying work a magickal practitioner can engage in. With Jason as your guide in this book, you are in some of the best hands out there when it comes to approaching and working with spirits. This is a book I...

wizardforums.com