Ceremonial Magic The Power Of Evocation __EXCLUSIVE__

The word conjuration (from Latin conjure, conjurare, to "swear together") can be interpreted in several different ways: as an invocation or evocation (the latter in the sense of binding by a vow); as an exorcism; and as an act of producing effects by magical means.[citation needed]

Ceremonial Magic The Power of Evocation

The word is often used synonymously with terms such as "invocation" or "evocation" or "summoning", although many authors find it useful to maintain some distinction between these terms. The term "conjuring" is also used as a general term for casting spells in some magical traditions, such as Hoodoo. In that context, amulets and talismans are often kept in a "conjure bag" and "conjuring oils" may be used to anoint candles and other magical supplies and thus imbue them with specific magical powers.[citation needed]

The grimoires provided a variety of methods of evocation. The spirits are, in many cases, commanded in the name of God - most commonly using cabalistic and Hellenic 'barbarous names' added together to form long litanies. The magician used wands, staves, incense and fire, daggers and complex diagrams drawn on parchment or upon the ground. In Enochian magic, spirits are evoked into a crystal ball or mirror, in which a human volunteer (a 'seer') is expected to be able to see the spirit and hear its voice, passing the words on to the evoker. Sometimes such a seer might be an actual medium, speaking as the spirit, not just for it. In other cases the spirit might be 'housed' in a symbolic image, or conjured into a diagram from which it cannot escape without the magician's permission.[citation needed]

While many later, corrupt and commercialized grimoires include elements of 'diabolism' and one (The Grand Grimoire) even offers a method for making a pact with the devil, in general the art of evocation of spirits is said to be done entirely under the power of the divine. The magician is thought to gain authority among the spirits only by purity, worship and personal devotion and study.[citation needed]

In more recent usage, evocation refers to the calling out of lesser spirits (beneath the deific or archangelic level), sometimes conceived of as arising from the self. This sort of evocation is contrasted with invocation, in which spiritual powers are called into the self from a divine source.[citation needed]

Evocation is the magical art of calling forth angels or demons to bring spiritual inspiration, do the bidding of the magician or provide information. Methods of this exist in many cultures that feature a belief in spirits, such as the shamanic traditions. Daoism, Shinto, Spiritism and the African religions (Santería, Umbanda, etc.) have particular systems of evocation.[citation needed]

Within some magical traditions today, such as contemporary witchcraft, hoodoo and Hermeticism or ceremonial magic, conjuration may refer specifically to an act of calling or invoking deities and other spirits; or it may refer more generally to the casting of magic spells by a variety of techniques.[5] Used in the sense of invoking or evoking deities and other spirits, conjuration can be regarded as one aspect of religious magic.[citation needed]

The user can call upon or summon a spirit or entity for a specific task, information, or some practical application aimed at manifestation in the physical world. After the operation, the practitioner dismisses or banishes the spirit to leave the room or space of evocation and complete the task. The operant is not offering supplication or service to the entity, and the goal is for the entity to grant the request of the operant. After a successful operation, the magician may choose to supply an offering to the spirit, as this is always good courtesy.

Ceremonial magic, also known as ritual magic, is a highly disciplined form of magic in which ceremony and ritual become the central tools used in the magical operation. As described in the older grimoires, the books that detail magical operations, ceremonial magic centers upon the art of the invocation (or evocation), and control of spirits. In its more contemporary versions, ceremonial magic concerns the discipline of the self and the art of controlling and directing personal and cosmic power, which may or may not be personified as a demonic or deific form.

In its pre-twentieth-century form, ceremonial magic's rites were religious actions, and the ritual format partook largely of the nature of religious observances. It was not, as generally supposed, a reversed Christianity or Judaism, though it departed radically from orthodox Christianity; nor did it partake of the profanation of religious ritual. It was in effect an attempt to derive power from God for the successful control of evil spirits. Even in the grimoires and keys of black magic, the operator was constantly reminded that he or she must meditate continu-ally on the undertaking at hand and center every hope in the infinite goodness of the Great Adonai. The god invoked in black magic was not Satan but the Jehovah of the Jews and the Trinity of the Christians.

The foundation of practical magic was the belief in the power of divine words to compel the obedience of all spirits to those who could pronounce them. Such words and names were supposed to invoke or dismiss the denizens of the spirit world, and they, with suitable prayers, were used in all magical ceremonies. Again it was thought that it was easier to control evil spirits than to enlist the sympathies of angels.

Ceremonial magic declined in the eighteenth century and most of the ritual books became buried in libraries. The surviving knowledge was collected into a single volume by Francis Barrett in The Magus (1801). However, in the mid-ninteenth century, a revival of ceremonial magic began with the career and writings of Éliphas Lévi. Lévi not only made a new collection of magical knowledge, but, by drawing upon mesmerism, reworked it into a system more compatible with the scientific spirit of the age. He integrated divinatory work with the tarot into the new system, thus suppling enough information that readers who chose could begin to practice ceremonial magic once again.

Toward the end of the century, organizations based upon the practice of ceremonial magic began to appear, the most important being the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in England. Cofounder S. L. Mathers rediscovered many of the older grimoires, which he mined for material to include in the Golden Dawn teachings, and published several of them. His effort was followed by that of Aleister Crowley, who developed a more psychologically oriented magical system based upon the exercise of the will (thelema).

Through the twentieth century, ceremonial magic has spread through the West, though it has never been the most popular of activities due to its stringent requirements. Several groups, such as the Ordo Templi Orientis, have become international organizations. 041b061a72