“To invoke is to call in, just as to evoke is to call forth. This is the essential difference between the two branches of Magick. In invocation, the macrocosm floods the consciousness. In evocation, the magician, having become the macrocosm, creates a microcosm.” - Magick in Theory and Practice, Aleister Crowley
Invocation vs. Evocation: Internal calling (invocation) vs. external summoning (evocation).
Calling in and Calling out
Calling in And Calling forth
"All the spirits, and as it were the essences of all things, lie hid in us, and are born and brought forth only by the working, power (will) and phantasy (imagination) of the microcosm." - The Magus. Francis Barrett.
Invoking - calling upon higher, more subtle, or more pure energies to replace the lower energies that have been banished. Most often these energies take the form of deities, Archangels, and angels.
Magical Evocation
Evocation sits at the boundary between psychology, spirituality, imagination, religion, myth, and direct experience. It is one of humanity’s oldest technologies of consciousness.
If we strip away the robes, circles, incense, divine names, and grimoires, an evocation can be understood as a deliberate act of communication and relationship.
In the Western grimoire tradition, the spirit is usually treated as an objective entity existing independently of the magician. The magician enters sacred space, invokes divine authority, establishes boundaries, and then calls the spirit into manifestation. The spirit appears in a designated place—the triangle—and communication begins.
Yet if we look beneath the ritual form, we find a deeper process. The magician first alters consciousness. The opening prayers, circle, wand, names of God, and sacred gestures all serve a common purpose: they move awareness out of ordinary reality and into mythic reality.
The magician ceases to be “John sitting in a room.” He becomes a priest standing in the center of the cosmos.
This shift is perhaps the most essential part of the entire operation. Once consciousness enters this mode, attention becomes extraordinarily focused. Imagination becomes vivid. Symbolic thinking awakens. The unconscious begins to speak. Something that was previously latent begins to emerge into experience.
One way of understanding evocation is that it externalizes a pattern of consciousness. There is an objectification that occurs . A spirit is called forth. A name is given. A form is imagined. A place is prepared for it. A relationship is established. The spirit becomes an “other” with whom one can converse.
Whether one believes the spirit originates in the deep psyche, the collective unconscious, an archetypal realm, a subtle dimension, an astral world, or an independent spiritual intelligence, the mechanism is remarkably similar. A hidden intelligence becomes manifest through relationship.
This is why the triangle is so important in traditional evocation. The triangle is not merely a location. It is a psychological and metaphysical distinction: The spirit is there.The magician is here. A relationship is created. Without that distinction, the experience tends toward identification. With the distinction, dialogue becomes possible.
This is one reason many traditions distinguish invocation from evocation: Invocation draws a force into oneself. Evocation calls a force before oneself.
Consciousness is fundamentally interconnected. Every mind participates in a larger field. Archetypes, spirits, angels, ancestors, gods, and intelligences all exist as patterns and identities and thought-forms within a vast living psyche.
Then evocation becomes something like tuning a radio: The spirit is contacted. The ritual creates resonance. Attention becomes the tuning mechanism. The name becomes the address. The image becomes the interface. The emotion becomes the power source. The intention becomes the call. Then the connection forms.
In this view, the imagination occupies a much more mysterious role than modern culture typically grants it. The imagination is not merely fantasy. It is the organ through which invisible realities become perceptible. Imagination is a bridge between worlds.
The grimoire magician often seeks objective manifestation. The mystic often seeks communion. The shaman often seeks dialogue. The psychologist often seeks integration. Yet all are engaging a similar process. They are creating conditions under which another intelligence can become present.
If one were to reduce evocation to its absolute essentials, it might look something like this: First, enter a state of focus, prayer, and sacred attention. Second, define clearly whom or what you are calling. Third, establish a symbolic space for encounter. Fourth, focus attention until the presence becomes vivid. Fifth, engage in dialogue. Sixth, receive whatever communication arises. Seventh, conclude the relationship intentionally.
The robes, circle, incense, divine names, tools are just elaborate theatrical staging to help you believe it is real, to believe in the ritual to accomplish what it purports to be doing. They are just permission slips and play staging to make it seem and feel more real. The symbolism strengthens imagination. THERE IS NO OBJECTIVE REALITY. (Other than God itself.) So to call forth a spirit and converse with it is no more difficult or improbable than calling up your friend on your cellphone - it all depends on what you believe in and choose to focus on.
The core operation is quite simple: Consciousness enters sacred space. A relationship is established. A presence emerges. Communication occurs. The experience is then integrated into life.
Viewed this way, evocation is perhaps less a supernatural anomaly than an innate human capacity. Human beings naturally personify forces. We speak to our future selves. We pray to God. We converse with the dead. We imagine what a wise teacher would say. We dialogue with our conscience. We dream of angels. We receive inspiration from muses. We encounter figures in visions. The magical traditions simply developed elaborate methods for doing this intentionally and systematically.
The deepest question is not whether spirits exist. The deeper question is what consciousness actually is. If consciousness is larger than the individual ego, then evocation becomes a method of exploring the hidden regions of that greater mind.
Example of a Magical Evocation To Call Forth A Spirit
- Enter into the magic circle after drawing it on the ground along with the triangle. Or enter it within the mind.
- Say something like: “I, ——-, have purified my mind and body. I have completed my work within the world. Thus, may I enter into the Temple of the Infinite and behold the serpent biting its own tail. This is the prayer of the snake.”
- Recite the Bornless Invocation, or other invocation
- Now raise the wand and conjure the spirit with these words or something like them:
- When the spirit appears, say to it:
- Offer incense as a gift to the spirit (or other offering).
- Converse with the spirit (or perform other works of magic…)
- When done speaking with the spirit, say:
“Thee I invoke, the Bornless One! Thee that didst create the earth and the heavens! Thee that didst create the darkness and the light! Thou didst make the female and the male! Thou didst produce the seed and the fruit! Thou didst form men and women to love one another and to hate one another!”
“I invoke Thee, the terrible and invisible God who dwellest in the void place of the spirit! Arogogoro Brao, Sothu, Modorio, Phalarthao, Doo, Ape, the Bornless One! Hear me!”
“I am He (or She, if the one calling the spirits is a woman), the Bornless Spirit, having sight in the feet, strong and the immortal fire! I am He, the Truth! I am He, the Grace of the world! The heart girt with a serpent is my name!”
“Come thou forth and follow me, and make all spirits subject unto me, so that every spirit of the firmament and of the ether, upon the earth and under the earth, on dry land and in the water, of whirling air and of rushing fire, and every spell and scourge of God may be obedient unto me!”
“I evoke and conjure thee, O thou spirit ……………, and being armed with power from the Supreme Majesty, I do strongly command thee. Come! Appear before this circle and within that triangle, now and without delay, manifesting that which I shall desire, for thou art conjured by the name of the living and true God, Helioren!”
“I conjure thee by the name no creature is able to resist, the mighty Tetragrammaton, Ah-mah-shah-oh, the power that makes the wind blow, the fire burn, the sea roll back, the earth move, and all the host of heaven, earth, and hell to tremble!”
“I welcome thee, spirit ……………. I thank thee for heeding my summons. By the power of God, I command thee to remain before this circle and within that triangle, giving me true answers and faithful service until I shall license thee to depart.”
“O thou spirit ……………, I now license thee to depart unto thy proper place. May the peace of God ever continue between thee and me. Depart, depart, depart I say, and be gone!”
Magical Invocation
Invocation is the complementary operation to evocation. If evocation calls a force forth so that it may be encountered as an “other,” invocation calls a force inward so that it may fill, transform, illumine, or temporarily identify itself with the consciousness of the practitioner.
To evoke is to call before oneself. To invoke is to call into oneself.
In evocation, the magician establishes a relationship across a boundary. The spirit is there, and the magician is here. In invocation, that boundary becomes more permeable. The invoked force is not placed in the triangle outside the circle; it is welcomed into the body, mind, imagination, breath, voice, and identity of the one performing the rite.
This is why invocation is often associated with gods, archangels, divine names, planetary powers, saints, muses, ancestors, or higher spiritual principles. The purpose is not merely to speak with the power, but to become receptive to it. The magician does not simply ask a force to appear. The magician asks to be overshadowed, inspired, purified, elevated, or transformed by it.
At the simplest level, invocation is an act of conscious identification: A name is spoken. An image is contemplated. A quality is adored. A presence is invited. The mind becomes aligned with that presence. The practitioner begins to participate in its nature.
If evocation externalizes a pattern of consciousness, invocation internalizes one. A divine or archetypal power is called into awareness until the practitioner begins to think, feel, speak, breathe, and act from within that pattern.
This is why invocation is so important after banishing. Banishing clears the field. It removes distraction, confusion, impurity, or disorder. But an empty space does not remain empty. After the lower or chaotic influences have been cleared away, invocation fills the space with a higher, more ordered, more luminous force.
To banish is to clear the temple and the magician. To invoke is to invite the god into the temple and into the magician. To evoke is to call a being before the temple and into relationship and communication with the magician.
In many magical traditions, the first and most important invocation is not of a particular spirit, but of the highest divine reality the magician can conceive. The practitioner invokes God, the Holy Guardian Angel, the higher self, the solar intelligence, the Christ, the divine name, the Buddha-nature, or the supreme principle of consciousness. This establishes authority, orientation, and protection. The magician does not work from the ordinary ego alone, but from a higher center.
This is why Crowley says that in invocation, “the macrocosm floods the consciousness.” The human being becomes a vessel for something larger than the ordinary personality. The little self opens itself to the greater Self. The microcosm is filled with the macrocosm.
Psychologically, invocation works through attention, imagination, emotion, symbol, and identification. The practitioner concentrates on a divine form, sacred name, archetypal image, or spiritual quality until consciousness begins to organize itself around that pattern. The image becomes vivid. The name becomes charged. The emotion becomes devotional or exalted. The body begins to feel different. The voice may change. The mind may become clearer, stronger, more peaceful, more radiant, or more intense.
The invoked force may first appear as an idea. Then as an image. Then as an emotion. Then as a bodily sensation. Then as a presence. Then as a new center of identity.
A Christian mystic invoking Christ, a Hermetic magician invoking Thoth or Hermes, a Kabbalist vibrating divine names, a devotee chanting the name of Krishna, a Buddhist visualizing a deity, a poet calling upon the Muse, and a ritual magician performing the Bornless Invocation are all engaging variations of the same deep operation. They are calling a transpersonal intelligence, quality, or pattern into consciousness.
The goal may differ according to the tradition: The magician may seek power, clarity, authority, or illumination. The mystic may seek union, surrender, or communion. The artist may seek inspiration. The healer may seek compassion and grace. The priest may seek to become a vessel for blessing. The initiate may seek transformation of identity.
But the underlying movement is the same. Something higher, deeper, or more universal is invited into the limited human personality. The practitioner becomes a meeting place between worlds.
In this sense, invocation is not only a magical technique. It is one of the basic structures of religion and spiritual life. Prayer, worship, chanting, to call upon courage before a difficult task is a simple form of invocation, to ask, “What would my highest self do?” are all possible examples of invocation.
Invocation can be understood as a deliberate re-patterning of the self. The ordinary personality is not destroyed, but reorganized around a higher center. Fear may be replaced by courage. Confusion may be replaced by clarity. Fragmentation may be replaced by unity. Weakness may be replaced by authority. The isolated ego may be replaced, for a time, by participation in a larger field of intelligence.
If one were to reduce invocation to its essentials, it might look something like this: First, prepare and purify the mind, body, and space. Second, define the power, deity, angel, principle, or quality being invoked. Third, contemplate its symbols, names, images, colors, gestures, stories, or correspondences. Fourth, call upon it with voice, prayer, chant, vibration, or focused intention. Fifth, open oneself inwardly to receive and embody that force. Sixth, allow consciousness, imagination, emotion, and body to become aligned with it. Seventh, act, speak, pray, bless, create, or perceive from within that invoked state. Eighth, give thanks and return intentionally to ordinary awareness.
Invocation can be dangerous if approached carelessly. To invoke a force is to invite identification. If the practitioner invokes a confused, violent, inflated, or unbalanced power, consciousness may become shaped by that pattern. Even when invoking a noble or divine force, the ego may become inflated if it mistakes temporary participation for personal ownership.
The magician must remember: the force is not “mine.” It is contacted, received, embodied, and then released or integrated. Humility, grounding, discernment, and balance are essential.
The highest form of invocation is not theatrical possession or ego inflation, but transparent participation. The practitioner becomes like a clear window through which a greater light can shine. The point is not to say, “I am God” in the ordinary egoic sense. The point is to allow the small self to become quiet enough that something larger can speak, bless, heal, create, or illuminate through it.
Viewed this way, invocation is the art of becoming a vessel.
The magician stands in the temple of the heart and says: “Let the higher power enter. Let it fill me. Let me become an instrument of its light.”
Example of a Magical Invocation.
- Purify the space.
- Banishing.
- Face the appropriate direction / image / symbol.
- Speak the name of the deity, angel, or principle.
- Contemplate its qualities.
- Invite it to fill the body, heart, mind, and voice.
- Sit in identification or communion.
- Speak, pray, bless, create, or meditate from that state.
- Give thanks and return.