Invocation and Evocation

To invoke is to call in. To evoke is to call forth. The two operations are the summit of ceremonial practice, and the Guild teaches them late, in that order, and with care.

The distinction

In invocation the practitioner calls a power into the circle and into himself or herself. The worker stands in the place of the thing invoked, and for a time speaks, moves and perceives as its vessel. In evocation the practitioner calls a particular intelligence to a place set apart outside the circle, and deals with it there as one party deals with another. The first unites. The second keeps a distance.

You invoke upward and inward. You evoke outward and at arm's length. Confuse the two and you will have a poor evening.

The Common Book, Paper 88

Invocation

Invocation is taught from the grade of Journeyman. It begins with the elements and the planets, which are broad and well mapped, and only much later proceeds to anything more particular. The method has seven steps.

1. Prepare by correspondence. The day, the hour, the color, the number and the incense all say one thing. The practitioner fasts from distraction, not from food.
2. Open the Hall and state the purpose in a sentence.
3. Speak of the power. Describe it in the third person: its nature, its works and its signs. This turns the mind toward it.
4. Speak to the power. Address it directly and ask it to be present.
5. Speak as the power. Take the first person. This is the turn on which invocation depends, and the one that cannot be counterfeited.
6. Keep silence. Remain in the state, without words, for as long as it holds. Any working that is to be done is done from within it.
7. Return. Give thanks. Say your own name aloud. Close the Gates, eat something, and write the Record.

A sound invocation leaves the practitioner clear, steady, and a little more capable in the province of the power invoked: readier of speech after Mercury, more patient after Saturn. The effect is small and it accumulates. Members who report raptures are asked, politely, to show their Records.

The danger of invocation is inflation. It is the case of the practitioner who invoked Jupiter on Thursday and is still being Jupiter on the following Monday. The step of return is not a courtesy. It is the safety catch.

Evocation

Evocation is taught at the grade of Keeper. Until a Keeper has completed three evocations witnessed by a Master, it is never performed alone. The preparation takes weeks: the nature of the intelligence to be called is studied, its sign is drawn, and the question or request is written out in one sentence and agreed with a mentor.

The circle

The practitioner stands within the traced circle and does not leave it until the rite is closed.

The place of appearing

Outside the circle a place is prepared in which the intelligence is asked to show itself. By tradition this is a triangle marked on the floor. Within it may stand a dark mirror, a bowl of water, or a censer whose smoke gives the eye something to work on.

The call

The intelligence is called by its names and under the authority of the planet or element to which it belongs. The call is repeated with patience. It is not shouted, and it does not threaten.

The meeting

What appears varies from one practitioner to another. For a few it is a figure seen in the glass or the smoke with open eyes. For most it is an image in the mind's eye of unusual stability, a change in the feel of the room, or a train of thought that is plainly not one's own. The Guild asks only that it be described exactly.

The conversation

The question is put. The answer is written down word for word, in group work by a second member who acts as scribe. Wherever possible something is asked that can afterward be checked. Members make no bargains, offer nothing they would not offer a human stranger, and accept no instruction that conflicts with the Five Charges.

The license to depart

The intelligence is thanked and formally dismissed by name. The place is banished thoroughly, the Gates are closed, and the Record is written before anyone speaks of what occurred.

What is it that comes?

The Guild does not rule on the question. Some members are certain that they have dealt with independent beings. Others are equally certain that they have met an unfamiliar part of themselves in a form they could talk to. The four models each give an account. The rule of the Guild is practical: treat what comes with the courtesy due to a person and the caution due to a hypothesis.

Why these are taught late

• Both operations depend on trained attention, which is the fruit of some years at the Lamp.
• Both depend on the power to close what has been opened, which is the fruit of some thousands of repetitions of the Gates.
• Both ask for a settled life. No member is advanced to Keeper during a bereavement, a serious illness, or any time of acute distress, and a Keeper is expected to say so if one arises.