Invocation

There are, in general, two main types of magickal operation: evocation and invocation. Evocation is the manifestation, in accordance with the will of the magickian, of a spirit or quality into something approximating physical form, outside of the magickian or outside of the circle. Although evocation is sometimes used in a small way, as in the two " resources" exercises and the archangel part of the Lesser Pentagram Ritual, this text is really only concerned with invocation, which is the drawitig in (into the circle and the magickian) of a god, spirit or quality.(If you wish to study the complex art of evocation, my suggestion is: learn invocation first, learn the nature and requirements of your True Will first.)

Invocation takes many and varied forms, but its result, when practiced properly, is to exalt and expand the consciousness of the magickian. By invoking a " god", it may be possible to gain new experiences, and new knowledge within the realm of that " god".

All right, I know, the idea of gods and goddesses, spirits, demons, angels, devils and all of that stuff is kind of archaic. Maybe before people had television and movies they could entertain themselves with stories about these fantastic beings, but ultimately, for most of us, Star Trek 23 is more amusing. Maybe before science had quantified many of the causes of things, people could easily explain away the complex workings of the universe by inventing fictional characters who worked behind the scenes to make the world turn. But, heresy of modern heresies! I propose now that the idea of gods and goddesses still retains quite a bit of usefulness.

Once again, I'm going to seemingly scramble the concepts of imagination and reality. It doesn't matter, I say, whether gods and goddesses exist in some kind of physical, humanoid form, as long as the things that these myths represent retain some use for us. If we can imagine something that we call a god or goddess, and that act of imagination has some use, then it doesn't matter if that entity is real or " just imagination."

On one hand, it is just a matter of definition. If we define the god Mercury as " a concept which includes all aspects of science, language and magick", then our act of definition makes " Mercury" exist. If modern science has greatly expanded the quantity of things which are included in that concept, so much the better for Mercury. " His" quality has not changed, really, just the number of things that we can attribute to " him."

On the other hand, there seem to be patterns in the universe and in the human mind that repeat themselves, possibly without our meddling with them.(Although we can only be aware of those thing which our senses and our brains have, in some way, meddled with.) Every culture that has existed, with only a few exceptions, has " created" gods and goddesses which were very similar to those created by every other culture. The Egyptians had their Thoth, who shares many things in common with the Norse Odin, the Greek Hermes, the Hindu Hanuman, and even the Holy Ghost in Christian mythology. Carl Gustav Jung attempted to explain the appearance of these patterns or archetypes with the idea of the Collective Unconscious. The collective unconscious, Jung explained, was an aspect of mind that went beyond the individual, and held many things, myths, patterns, instincts, archetypes that are accessible to everyone. This might explain why, for instance, cultures throughout the world have a common myth of a dying and resurrected god. (See James Fraser, The Golden Bough, for some dated but intriguing research on this particular myth.)

Since Jung posed his theory, work in the. field of genetics has provided possible justification for this kind of phenomena. To make a long story ridiculously short, we can say that if we all share common factors of genetic composition, and therefore common elements in neurology, physiology, etc., then similar patterns of behavior, even in something as complex as mythology, are not particularly surprising.

So it is also not particularly surprising that there have been those who have attempted to categorize these patterns. Once upon a time, as physical alchemy was developing into what we now call chemistry and physics, there were some people who noticed definite patterns between different substances. There seemed to be no known reasons for various things to behave in particular ways, they just did. One kind of material would combine only with certain other kinds, but not with everything. Another substance would combine with nothing else at all. Attempts to categorize these substances eventually led to what we now call the periodic table of the elements. This table made it possible, we know now, to develop theories about atomic structure, to produce new compounds and even elements not found in nature.

Similarly, attempts to categorize the patterns of mythology, as well as the patterns of human perception and behavior in general, have produced such systems as the Qabala (or Kabbalah), the I Ching, astrology, and others. Although fear of " the occult" and the superstition held by scientific dogmatists that anything outside their department at the university is to be distrusted (See Robert Anton Wilson's The New Itiquisition.) have kept these systems from general acceptance (even by those who would benefit most from them, such as psychologists, government strategists, and educators), they have been the object of research by magickians throughout history. These systems, especially astrology and the qabala, are by no means stagnant, solidified things which have been handed down through tradition. They are constantly being revised, added to, corrected and experimented with. And, to finally get to the point of all this, we can use these systems to view " gods and goddesses" as definite patterns in the universe and in human consciousness. Perhaps, eventually, they can provide us with the means to produce new theories of consciousness (and even genetics) in the same manner in which the periodic table is used by chemists. The issue of the " reality" of the objects of invocation having been settled (I hope), we can now get down to the work of invocation itself

What this kind of study suggests to the magickian is that if there are many different patterns latent in our consciousness (or collective unconscious), then we can devise techniques to access these patterns and make use of whatever information they might offer. These techniques are the rituals of invocation.

There are five types of invocation which we will discuss:

1. The artistic invocation. This consists of a play, pageant, symphony, song, concert, film, novel, story or poem which presents an archetype to consciousness in such a way that the participant, viewer, listener or reader is exalted and filled with the qualities of the god, goddess or mythic figure who might be the subject of the piece. Literary examples of this are numerous, dating back to The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest pieces of literature known to us. The Bible is an example; so is The Odyssey. The romantic poets were quite fond of invocation, many fine works by Shelley, Byron or Swinburne are examples of literary invocation. In modem literature, the field of science fiction has proven most fruitful for mythological ideas. Many Greek plays were dramatic invocations, as are Christmas pageants. My favorite modern example of a dramatic invocation is Robert Anton Wilson's stage play Wilhelm Reich in Hell. Musical invocations also abound, ranging from Mozart, Beethoven and Bach, to Stravinsky and Scriabin. Rock'n'roll has produced its share of magickal work, including the Rolling Stone's " Sympathy for the Devil", the Doors' " Soft Parade" (and others, Jim Morrison was apparently a dedicated magickian), the rock operas of Pete Townshend (musical and dramatic), and many others. Some current bands who are quite consciously experimenting with this kind of form include Psychic TV, Mission U.K., Legendary Pink Dots, Peter Gabriel and The Anti Group. Visual art, painting and sculpture, may be produced for use in ritual, but it probably requires more fixed attention and concentration than most audiences have to achieve a strong result by itself. Several popular artists, including David Byrne of Talking Heads, have recently expressed the opinion that art and entertainment will, more and more, be fulfilling the needs that were formally the province of organized religion. I hope these words can be an asset to that process.

2. Use of a mantra. This involves developing a short phrase, rhyme, repetitious poem or single word that sums up the nature of the quality to be invoked. This mantra is repeated over and over again, often in rhythm with the cycle of breathing, or with counting of some sort. The Roman Catholic use of a rosary, where prayers are recited and counted off with beads is an example of this kind of invocation. As simple as this may sound, it requires practice and strength of will to maintain a mantra for any extended period of time without the constant intrusion of mundane thoughts. To be really effective, this technique may have to be maintained over a period of at least several days. The test of completeness in concentration is when the mantra is maintained during sleep, throughout the course of the night. This was the technique chosen by our confused narrator in chapter 5. We may assume that he had been practicing his mantra throughout the course of his travels, probably for a week or so before climbing the mountain and meeting Pan.

3. Assumption of god-forms. This technique involves the use of active imagination to visualize, hear, think, and feel like a god or goddess. If you were going to use this method to invoke Pan, for instance, you would imagine yourself having horns, goat-legs and cloven hooves, an insatiable appetite for sex (and probably drugs as well), and a home in mountainous woodlands. Although traditionally magickians taught this as strictly a visualization technique, I believe that the addition of as many sensory details as possible can increase the effectiveness of this technique. You may even stand, sit, recline or gesture as images of your god or goddess do. The Sign of Harpocrates is an invocation of this type. Useful images and descriptions of mythological figures abound in encyclopedias, general texts on mythology and symbolism, and specific texts on cultural artwork and antiquities.

4. Therapeutic invocation. A quality can be enhanced, concentrated (and concentrated upon), or developed through the techniques employed by some psychotherapists. In this context, the qualities are not, generally, called gods or goddesses (Psychotherapists Roger Woolger and Jennifer Barker Woolger have written about the idea of " goddess therapy." See their book, The Goddess Witltin.), but are nevertheless magickal concepts. We have already used some of these " therapeutic" concepts in the " resources" exercises. Other qualities that might be invoked through these techniques include Self-Confidence, Self-Esteem, Tolerance, Playfulness, etc. The nuts-and-bolts of therapeutic invocation include gestalt therapy, behavior modification, reichian therapy, neuro-linguistic programming, hypnotherapy, past-life therapy, and many others. Some people may find the nomenclature of this kind of work more accessible than traditional magickal terms.

5. Mixed ritual. I am throwing in this category since most rituals are a synthesis of various techniques. I have found that combining the above methods, and adding in some general ritual intensifiers (more about this in later chapters), provides the quickest and strongest results. For instance, ' assuming a god-form while reciting a mantra and acting out

some of the story of your chosen mythological character is a more complete and effective method than any one of these taken singly. There is often a synergistic effect. When the mind and body are fully occupied, on several levels, it seems that the unconscious mind (and whatever neurogenetic processes are lurking there) is somewhat freer to act. Almost

all of the rituals described in this book fall into this category. It may, however, be useful to practice some of the above techniques separately, to develop your abilities, before combining them into a complex ritual.

9. MICROCOSMIC/