Hands-On Chaos Magic: Reality Manipulation through the Ovayki Current - Andrieh Vitimus 2009

Invocation Theory

After twenty-four chapters, we are finally getting to spirits and invoking them. First, all spirits can lie, and they will do so if it fits within their plans. Let me repeat: all spirits can and do lie, including whatever notion of god you might have, whether or not he, she, or it exists outside of your own mind.

Before we talk about invoking spirits, we have to talk about what spirits are. This, like the question "What is magic?" is something I neither can nor will definitively answer. From the psychological perspective, obviously, spirits are components of the self or even archetypal parts of the mind. One interpretation from the energy model suggests that they are pools of energy. From the information model, they are external sources of information. And the spirit model assumes that they are external entities. Distinguishing between what is and is not a spirit is very difficult to do in practice, and while I encourage you to think about what a spirit is from every model you can think of, the discussion is largely academic. When you are pulling a spirit forward or into you, it is, for all intents and purposes, very real, and it can cause very real effects to your psyche and even observable reality.

Regardless of what makes a spirit valid, for the sake of discussion let's assume that the invocation of an entity causes a shift into a certain state of consciousness that fits with the entity. This concept is not too difficult to accept, since if this were not the case, there would be little reason to invoke any spirits in the first place.

What Is Invocation?

For some people, this might be an obvious question, but many books use the terms invocation and evocation interchangeably in a confusing way. For the purpose of this adventure, we will say that invocation is bringing forth a spirit, concept, or state of consciousness into the forefront of the mind. Essentially, it is pulling an entity into your mind (or potentially your body) as opposed to summoning said denizen to your presence. Initially, this is a good definition to follow regarding what invocation is, but as with many of the ideas in this adventure, such a clear-cut answer will get more muddled as we go on.

What does it mean to pull something into the forefront of the mind? Throughout the exercises and games we have been working with in this book, we have been taking on different states of consciousness and using those states to cleanse ourselves or to cast sigils or sympathetic magic. Now, much earlier in the book, we played around with bringing different parts of the self to the forefront as well as generating different energies by using correspondences we made through different types of exercises. The bringing forth of different states of consciousness, glamories, and some of the energy exercises was directly related to invocation training, and it will apply to what we are doing here.

Essentially, in each case, you shifted your focus to a very clear altered state, and you used that focus on that state to generate energy or the mental force you needed to work magic. Those were invocations of memories and parts of yourself. This is just a perceived extra step of pulling an "external" entity into your mind, but in practice it will feel and look a lot like pulling memories and parts of yourself forward. We already have been practicing it, so be confident that it will work.

Research, Reading, and Homework

Once we step away from purely internal states to "external" entities, we have to do a little homework. In most systems of magic or even spirituality, there are usually some form of entities. For a successful invocation, you must first understand the entity and be able to describe it. The idea is not to get every detail exactly right, but instead to provide a context for your mind to grasp.

Some basic questions to ask are: What is the entity I am researching? What type of creature is it (human or mythical)? What correspondences does the entity have? If the entity has a physical form, what does it look like? If I met the entity on the street, what would the entity smell, look, feel, and sound like? Does it have planetary correspondences, elemental correspondences, or something else I can think about? What type of personality does the entity have? Try to ask and answer as many questions about the entity as you can.

For most entities that are relatively well known from books or from traditions, a web search will provide a fair amount of information to get you started. Try to find myths or stories that feature the entity you are researching, and read that material.

Often, the information about any one entity is contradictory, but what you want to understand is its general temperament general nature. This process can be very difficult for some entities (who can shapechange or are tricksterlike). Try to categorize the information you have about an entity into a few general trends, and describe the entity using your own words and sense of what it is like. Often, you can find some sort of visual glyph that represents the entity (whether it is a rune set, veve, sigil, etc.). Again, Google will be your friend initially.

Now, take a long look at those general trends. Take some time and meditate on them. Try to translate each general trend into either a state of mind you have already discovered or straight sensory information. Try to map the general ideas you pick up into states of mind you can understand. This means mapping the ideas into the sense. Relate these ideas to feelings, your body, smells, tastes, sounds, and images. Basically, try to map the trends into various sensory data and mind states. If you can make a direct correspondence with some of the alphabet of desire, by all means try that.

The more information you can have about an entity, the better you can understand whether it is lying about who or what it is. Some entities will lie to you, and you have to know when they are lying based on your experiences with them and knowledge of them. In fact, many entities will lie even about who they are, especially the ones that just "show up" in the course of magical practice, particularly when you are using systems like the Ouija board.

"I Have Introduced Myself. You Have Introduced Yourself. This Is a Very Good Conversation."

This quote is from the movie The Last Samurai and is spoken by the samurai Katsumoto. It is spoken as Nathan Algren is speaking to the samurai leader for the first time, and is just making contact while being a prisoner in a culture that is radically different from the Western culture he was used to. Ultimately, Nathan and Katsumoto have much in common despite cultural differences, and they work together. This is a good metaphor for communicating with spirits. We are certainly prisoners (although we are also liberated) by having a body. Spirits, even if they exist only in our minds (which I am not saying is the case), exist in a very different state than we do, as we are constrained by a body. In many ways, the initial contact between a person and an "entity" is as awkward as the conversation between Nathan Algren, an American, and Katsumoto, his samurai captor. Many times, an initial invocation can be very much an awkward situation. In practical terms, it seems far more useful to try to have a conversation before a more formal invocation. This assumes that an entity can have a conversation, but if you are just starting out with invocation, I highly recommend using entities that can communicate in a human fashion.

How does one have a conversation with an entity? Before starting the conversation, try to write down or describe an appropriate setting in which to have the conversation. For a Japanese entity, this may be in a traditional shrine. For an African entity, this might be in a jungle or desert, depending on which environment the entity is associated with. The ideal setting depends on the entity. For example, Papa Legba might prefer to have a conversation at a crossroads at dawn, whereas Set might like a pyramid in the desert at midnight. Sit down and really think about where a good location is for the conversation to occur, and write down details about that location.

A second really nice gesture is to find something the entity likes, such as incense, food, liquor, or other offerings, and have that available. Simply and respectfully offering the entity these things before starting can help ease you into the conversation. Think of it as a gift to a guest who is visiting for the first time. In some systems, it would show weakness to offer a gift, so do understand at least the main ideas of what you are working with.

First, we have to clear our heads of any mental chatter. We can't possibly hear another "voice" if we are stuck on our own voices. We have to banish, and then we have to quiet down the mind. Once the mind is still and the body is relaxed, simply state your intent to have a conversation with the entity. At this point, just stare at the glyph or picture of the entity. If you have a mantra or song you found, repeat it or use the one you created. If you have done the homework and tried to map the entity to a personal mental state and your five senses, try to create that state of mind while chanting and staring. Keep going deeper into the mantra while staring at the glyph and internally generating the state of mind. When you get to the point where you feel you are going into a deeper trance, just close your eyes and visualize the surroundings you described, with the entity there waiting to talk.

If you start questioning whether or not it is real, you simply haven't reached a deep enough trance state. Keep going. Remember, a communication does not need to be verbal. It can be through images, feelings, memories, or even insight. Once you know you can communicate, it is only polite to address the entity by name and tell it who you are. From there, just attempt to communicate and stay with the conversation as long as possible. In your first conversation with someone you just met, would you ask for something major? In most cases, you probably would just try to get to know the other person, which is the right mindset to have when you are first contacting an entity. Books and the Internet might give a false impression of the entity, and it might come across differently for you than it will for others. A personal impression and interpretation is far more valuable than the book descriptions. Of course, the book descriptions should be thought of as guidelines or like a cookbook. That initial research provides a context for checking whether a spirit is even in the right "ballpark" You should ask a lot of questions, be skeptical, and use your research to look for inconsistencies in the claims. Of course, your well-tuned divination techniques will also give you insight into what the subconscious mind feels about the entity. It is always wise to check any experiences with spirits using divinatory means in order to get a sense of the context of the conversation.

The flip side of this equation is that if you really have been doing the self-work, banishing, and energy work, it is easier to just know that something is off. These precursory exercises give you some tools to do something about the situation. You know you can get rid of something that may not be what you expected and that you can decondition those effects away. Usually, when you are first approaching an invocation of a "spirit," you will have some leanings that are not entirely conscious. You might be pulled in one direction or toward one spirit. This pulling might be a guide or friend. This was certainly the case for me with Papa Legba (who I consider a good friend). Initially, err on the side of caution and use divination, intuition, and analysis to figure out where to go. Results are also a good litmus test.

Most entities will be willing to have a conversation if you go through the effort. If they are inside your head, it's still communication. You might not jibe well with one entity, and you might leave other workings with a lot more information. If the entity communicates how to invoke it in a more powerful way, pay attention (it is inviting you to do so). Either way, you have framed the contact in the guise of initial conversation, so take notes regarding the experience. This brings our full communication abilities into play and provides a relatively "safe" framework as well. If the conversation starts going badly or there is a bad feeling, simply break out of the visualization and banish (banishing by laughter is a great one for that). Generally, if you are starting out with invocation, choose more traditionally known positive spirits such as helpful god forms or angels-or Cthulhu (just kidding).

When you are deep enough in trance not to question whether or not a conversation is real, your mind will treat it as real, so treat the situation with respect. Essentially, you have to get to the level of trance where your psychic censor is not interfering. This generally means that same "singularity" of focus where you are not questioning the validity of the experience, which we talked about earlier. A conversation frames the encounter in such a way that there is an implied distance between you and the entity. This is a good idea until you have some understanding of what the entity is about.

Generating the State of Mind and Connection

The initial conversation with an entity can often give you a pretty good "impression" about it. This might not entirely be verbal or visual information. In fact, the conversation may be entirely comprised of symbols, feelings, a set of images, or even just knowing that the information was transferred. Either way, if the conversation works, you will have something personal to compare and contrast with your notes. See what additional information you get while having the conversation. A conversation implies a connection between you and the "force" you are invoking, and an exchange of information (which can use any of the five senses). In fact, greater levels of invocation could be seen as increasing the amount of information or connection that is occurring between your conscious attention and what you are pulling forward.

An entity will communicate with you in the way that you can best understand. This may be a straight conversation or a conversation of metaphors. Once you have had a successful conversation, you may have to tweak the process of going into the conversation by using your five senses and imagination to make the conversation seem more powerful. In some systems, however, there is a progression of things that must be invoked. For example, in Vodou, Papa Legba must be called before any other mystery (in Vodou, the entities known as the lwa are referred to as mysteries). If you have done some research on the system, those precursory preconditions will be obvious. You will have to decide for yourself if you agree with the preconditions (which also implies that you know what they are). However, as we have learned, it is very possible to invoke states of mind, memories, and experiences themselves with practical magical effects.

Now, we had some experience with increasing the flow of energy and connection between two points when we were working with the sympathetic magic techniques. In the sympathetic magic chapter, we were trying to get an increasing energy or information flow between two physical links. In this case, it is a "nonphysical" point that we are trying to link to. Some of the same exercises involved with being a receiver definitely apply, in that you are linking and then pulling in. Take a moment to review chapter 21. Now, of course, a caveat is that you may indeed be generating this between different parts of the same brain, but so what?

One technique to use once you have done the homework about a specific entity is to take a photo/painting of the entity you are trying to invoke, and try to create a give-and-take between you and the picture. Imagine the picture is a link to the entity. Push energy into the picture using the more dominant sending hand, imagining it has to go beyond the picture (I usually imagine that the entity is off in space somewhere, and the energy link goes out there). Use your receiving hand too, and imagine a response from the entity. This method does seem to help communication with the entity and it will help you to "resonate" with it more easily. Try it. How does it make you feel? If you do this with an entity a few times, does it get easier or more effective?

The memory of a successful conversation or energy cycling is a great starting point for additional conversations and deeper invocations, but now that we've had a conversation, we really have to mention that invocation doesn't mean the same thing in each ritual.

Different Layers of Invocation

There are many different layers of invocation. On one level, invocation can be thought of as tapping the vibration pattern of an entity. In ceremonial magic, a person uses the various god names to vibrate as god with the authority of god. The magician is usually still consciously there, however. Many acts of sorcery call for a similar mimicking or tapping of the energy of an entity. To reiterate: we can mimic and then resonate an entity out from us by focusing on the sensory information we get through the process of working with it. You already tried to map an entity to the five senses and states of mind. In possession rites, the purpose is to displace the "consciousness" of the individual with an alien consciousness.

On the surface, these two facets of invocation seem very different, and that is partially true, but it is a matter of how resonant the person is with the entity at that point in time and how much control the "ego" still has. In sorcery, the goal is to become extremely resonant while still in control of the energies. In possession, the goal is to push down the ego or "I," till there is another "I" that emerges. We will cover possession a little later, but after a conversation, what comes next?

A Basic Invocation Framework

It is my opinion that the initial conversation with the entity is the toughest part of invocation. The reason for this is that there is at first no connection, but once you have had a good conversation, there is a connection between you and the entity contained within your mind. In chapter 21, many techniques were presented to try to work with the connection that such a memory of vision can provide. Essentially, there is a relationship, a connection that you can empower in a relatively quick manner, although at first it might only be a little like flirting with the spirit.

There is a general pattern to the invocation process. First, a mental clearing takes place. Second, the statement of intent is spoken (or even just willed). Third, the person obtains a trance state deep enough to stop questioning whether or not an entity is present. Fourth, the person resonates by focusing solely on the entity and imagining progressively less and less "difference" between themselves and the entity involved and then continues with what the magic is supposed to do. Lastly, the deep resonance with the entity is broken by a banishing.

Arguably, this simple framework underlies invocation and, as the relationship between the magician and the spirit is strengthened (implying a greater link), it becomes easier and easier to pull forward an entity or state of mind directly to the forefront of the mind, because there is less and less internal resistance to the entity. With a few entities, I can slip into a comfortably invoked state without words, sigils, or rituals within a couple minutes. I have a strong relationship with them, and the strength of the link makes this possible. Ultimately, chanting, sigils, and rituals are extremely useful ornamentation to the process (especially at first).

The following are a few sample rituals to illustrate the process, but if we really think intuitively about what the sympathetic magic, states of mind, and previous chapters of our adventure mean, we see that the memory of any successful and powerful invocation is, in fact, an experience we can go back to and manipulate to trigger greater and more successful invocations. Think about how we used memory before, and then, after you have practiced invocation a bit, just try to meditate and deeply remember. Concentrate on an invocation that was highly successful. What is the effect? Let yourself concentrate on the feelings and sensations of the extremely successful invocation. How is the experience?

Practical Examples: Invoking via Third -+ Second -± First Person

A simple way to invoke is to address the entity from different perspectives that go from the most detached to the most personal. In the conversation method, we were sticking with the second person framework.

Generally, the first step is to try to research the entity in the same way that you would have for the conversation method. Try to think about the entity in terms of "memories" or sensations you can imagine, with those sensations becoming more overwhelming at each step. This usually starts with reciting what the entity has done and is good at in a very thankful, awe-inspiring way, using the third person. At this stage, you should visualize the entity standing away from you, or even on the horizon.

For example, let's take Loki. Of course, this is my interpretation of Loki.

First we would banish, and then we would state our intent (which, for Loki, could be to not take ourselves so seriously). After stating our intent, we might say something like the following:

Loki, the great trickster of the gods would trick all of the gods. He fathered the great serpent, Odin's steed, and the Fenris Wolf. He was friend and foe to Thor. He initiated Baldr to the Underworld. He was the turner of the wheel of time, the turner of the Aeons.

I often go on and on, stating what Loki did in the most positive way. Those of you who know Loki and love Loki might state the things in a humorous way. Now, at this point, we would be allowing the memories and sensations that we had corresponding to Loki to start rising up in us. Of course, we would be visualizing the picture we have of Loki out on the horizon. We might be using alternate methods of trance generation, such as the death posture, or in this case dancing, to start going deeper and deeper into a trance state.

From here we would directly address the entity/part of self, replacing "he" or other third-person pronouns, with "you," effectively making the recitation into discourse. We might visualize the entity walking up right next to us as we are addressing it directly, as if we were having a conversation. At the same time, we would allow ourselves to go further into a trance state, allowing the memories and sensations we had corresponding to Loki to overtake us.

We might say something like the following:

Loki, you are the great trickster of the gods, who tricks all of the gods. You fathered the great serpent, Odin's steed, and the Fenris Wolf. You are the friend and foe to Thor. You initiated Baldr to the Underworld. You are the turner of the wheel of time, the turner of the Aeons.

At this point, we can converse with the entity as we did before, but we should stay in this second state until the sensations that we are working with have completely overtaken our conscious mind, implying greater and greater levels of trance. We should be able to see, hear, feel, and even smell Loki next to us. Usually, I will imagine that I can feel his breath coursing over my body.

You could visualize the entity walking into you and sharing the same space that you occupy. See you and the entity merging. See and feel yourself morphing into the entity until you are that entity, just like we did in the shapeshifting exercise. What does it look like? How does it feel? What thoughts come into your mind? At this point, you should see, hear, smell, taste, and be the entity you were calling down. Now change the speech to the first person, and speak the words as the entity itself.

For example:

I, Loki, am the great trickster of the gods, who tricks all of the gods. I fathered the great serpent, Odin's steed, and the Fenris Wolf. I am the friend and foe to Thor. I initiated Baldr to the Underworld. I am the turner of the wheel of time, the turner of the Aeons.

As you are going through these steps, it might be increasingly difficult to get the words out because your mind is shifting to a very alien consciousness. That's great. If you are in such a deep state of trance that your thinking processes can't get out the right words (or any words), you probably are at the right state of consciousness for the invocation to work. Often, it is helpful to repeat "I am [insert the name of the entity you are working with]," since you are replacing your "I" with a different "I."

Similarly, you could use the same technique with angels or "benign" god forms at first, but I guarantee that Loki is "interesting" Speeding up the process by working with dance is one of the mental steps I go through for a Vodou possession. I have personally found that stillness works with angelic forces. It can and probably will work differently for you.

The process of invocation can be further simplified by merely using a sigil and a mantra with the intent to invoke a spirit. This is actually how I usually do invocations. The 3-2-1 method really illustrates for me the process of invocation via the different degrees of closeness. At first, the entity is distant, but as I shift my consciousness closer and closer to the entity through the process, it becomes easier and easier to do the invocation. Essentially, the connection becomes stronger and stronger until a direct merging of energy is possible. After you attempt the 3-2-1 method, then try an invocation with just a sigilized mantra and your preferred method of going into trance.

Emulation

A second route to invocation that I have used is to emulate a task or deed of an entity while going deep into a trance state. This can take the form of a ritual performance or an emulation of the types of feelings the entity causes, along with mimicry of its actions via a ritualistic scene or play. Some ceremonial rituals and shamanic sessions will use this technique. In the shamanic sense, if you want to invoke a bear, you act like a bear and have the intent for the great bear to come down. As with any repetitive set of gestures, if you keep doing the gesture imitation you perceive as the spirit's actions, producing the sensory information you have mapped for an entity, eventually a deep enough trance state will occur that allows the entity to seep in and overtake your ego.

Practical Ritual Example: Ganesh Invocation (Dancing the Obstacles Away)

This is a ritual I have performed several times. This ritual was inspired by Phil Hine. In the process of doing the ritual for classes, I discovered that Ganesh likes milk and peanuts as an offering. However, that might be something that only works for me.

Mood: The room was set up only with candlelight from a gold candle and a rainbow candle on top of a covered file cabinet. A statue of Ganesh was next to the candles, and Nag Champa incense was burned.

1. Opening of the space: twenty-three rings of the bell (because twenty-three is a lucky number). This step is optional; I just felt like ringing the bell a bunch of times. Bells do induce a relaxed state, and the key point of this is that if you aren't having fun in doing magic, you should stop.

2. Banish.

3. Statement of intent: "It is our will to invoke Ganesh and dance our obstacles away."

4. Visualize obstacles in your life while in glossolalia (random speech). Stay in glossolalia till one phrase sticks in your mind and you are repeating it. This is a "mantra" of the obstacles.

Optional: When everyone has started dancing, the ritual celebrant can start some high-energy techno to give the dance a rhythm and feed into the ritual. (The ritual we performed did have the music at this point, and it was fantastic.)

5. At this point, start dancing. Visualize a small vermilion (redorange) and green sphere in your belly. Continue to repeat the mantra, but start to think about happy things.

6. Keep dancing; visualize and feel the warmth. Feel the ball growing, encompassing you entirely. Continue to repeat the mantra. Think about happy things.

7. See the light and warmth change and take form around you, slowly becoming Ganesh.

8. After you have taken on the form of Ganesh (full invocation through dancing), stop chanting the mantra and instead shout, "I am Ganesh!" Dance and allow the happy vibes to overwhelm you.

9. Visualize the obstacles in your life in the center of the room, and dance into the ground all the obstacles between you and what you desire. Ganesh has the head of an elephant, so this can be a brutal, crushing down into the ground of any obstacles you might have.

10. After all the obstacles are beaten down, sit upright on the floor and think about your life without those obstacles. The people who are too tired to continue dancing, but who are still blocked by obstacles, are encouraged to lie flat and visualize themselves dancing and stepping on all of the obstacles until they are gone. At that point, those people should sit up.

11. Banish with laughter when everyone is sitting upright.

In practice, this ritual shows several of the concepts that we worked on previously, but you can feel free to tweak the ritual or use the ideas as you see fit.

Tool Usage and Invocation

If you have read other grimoires and books on magic (and if you haven't, I most certainly hope you will), you will notice that tools or long speeches are frequently used as part of the invocation. From a shamanic perspective, tools are often used as links to the spirit world and entryways into trance. In Vodou, a rattle is often used to call the mysteries down into a priest or priestess. In chapter 22, I mentioned that anything can be a link to an energy source or even a state of mind within the person, and I even gave a technique to find tools that will work with individual purposes. The same can be done with entities to ease the process of invocation.

Why, then, would we use tools if we can directly connect to an entity? At first, the use of tools adds to the symbolic mix that something is happening to help bring about the invocation. Additionally, from an energy perspective, it is possible to empower the tools (as we did previously) to help with the invocation. This technique is far more useful in evocation, as we will see, but if a tool is empowered and resonating like a certain entity, it will be easier for a person who has never worked with a particular entity to connect with it.

The use of tools in this manner does create a certain distance between the magician and the spirit. It provides a specific and limited context for an invocation. Essentially, it is a way to condition yourself to allow an invocation only when you have the physical tools in the appropriate setting. Once you have had the conversation with the entity, or a couple of conversations with it, ask it for an idea for a tool that can act as a link to it. Some tools will seem to help with a specific entity more than other tools, but you can certainly force the issue with items that don't quite fit. When we surveyed the tool from our subconscious, we created a tool that could be used in a general class of workings. Having a conversation with an entity is a fantastic way to get ideas for tools to work directly with the entity. The spirit has to put together pieces and tool parts from what is already in your head. Try it. After talking to the entity, try to make a tool in line with the "logic" the entity gives you, and one that doesn't really seem to fit. Now, when an entity talks to you, it must communicate with you through your subconscious or at least be filtered through the subconscious. This information has to then be interpreted by your conscious mind via the five senses so you can then put the tool together. The tools that you come with might not work for anyone but you, but for you they are personally keyed. In a way, they are a personal key to work with the entity. Ironically enough, if you study the entity after you have made contact, you may see similar "items" in the mythology or practical techniques other people have used.

If you are working with a known entity, your research will probably turn up many tools that you could use with that entity. At first, you might be tempted to ask what the point is of having that distance from a spirit.

We started our discussion with "All spirits can and do lie." Even spirits that are merely parts of yourself can and do lie. A deep relationship with a spirit implies that you can easily invoke the spirit and that it has a greater level of influence over your subconscious and possibly your observable actions. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on the spirit and what you need at that point in your life. However, even a "positive" spirit might have an agenda that is "counterproductive" to your personal well being. One great metaphor for this is chocolate. Lots of people like chocolate, but if you eat too much chocolate you can get very sick from it. Of course, there are some things that you probably would want to invoke and then walk away from without a real permanent connection. While some people would believe that getting possessed by Nyarlathotep from the Cthulhuean set of entities is a fun way to spend a Saturday night, chances are good that you would not want to always have that entity in the back of your head all the time. The limiting use of tools in this sense can create a healthy distance from the entity in question. The greatest challenge when working with spirits from within or without is that it is all too easy to get obsessed with the spirit. Spirits may promise the world, but delivering it is a whole different matter. We will talk more about this in the next chapter. In this case, limiting the invocation with the use of tools is one way to keep it safer.

A simple way to condition yourself to do this is to hold a specific item whenever you are talking to or invoking an entity or concept. Whenever you want to work with an entity and have the safe distance, make using and having the tool a prerequisite for the magical work. Keep telling yourself that if you don't have the tool, you can't invoke the spirit or have a conversation with the spirit. This is a self-limiting behavior and habit, but as I mentioned, that could be a good idea.

In medieval grimoires where the magicians are clearly afraid of what they are summoning, techniques involving physical tools and the necessity for having them are clearly stated in a way to make it seem like the rituals won't work without them. This is a clever bit of psychology in the grimoires. Some of the spirits in the medieval grimoires can be vampiric. Having a clear "this is ritual, this is not" mechanism is a good way to keep the processes separate. I personally have done Goetic work-summoning demonic spirits-without all the tools. The spirits will come, but the tools, difficulty of the rituals, and specialness of the tools themselves help to provide an alternate context from normal reality to work with various spirits while limiting their "invocation" to those alternate contexts. Conditioning yourself like this helps to make magic "safer" when working with spirits, although it does limit the communication and information streams you can get from an invocation. This might seem like something that you would not want, but is it wise to be well connected to a potentially hostile spirit?

The tools that you have developed yourself allow you to create that special space while you are deconditioning yourself from the barriers to magical success. The process of doing magic and allowing yourself to succeed will start deconditioning those parts. Let's try an experiment. Pick two entities you have not worked with before but might like to. Do all the needed homework on each entity, and have a conversation with each of them. Ask one of the entities to help you with a tool to facilitate invocation, and just try to work directly with the other. Don't work with one entity more than the other entity. Create the tool for the one entity, and then work with it only when you are holding the tool, wearing the tool, smelling the tool, etc. Work with the other entity directly. Are the invocations with the tool stronger than the ones without the tool? What happens after the fact? Is it easier to disconnect from the tool-based invocation process? How does each invocation feel? What comes to mind? Obviously, there are two different entities involved, so the feeling should be a little different.

After you have tried this experiment, try the experiment with an entity you have a working relationship with. Choose an entity that is more humanlike in its communication, and clearly explain that you are trying to intuitively understand the process of how tool-based invocation feels versus non-tool-based invocation. The process probably will feel very different for any person who tries this exercise, and whether or not you like using tools for invocational work will ultimately be your choice as you develop your own systems of magic.

Why Are We Invoking Entities at All, Again?

Given that we can directly call forth states of mind, and that we were mapping entities to states of mind, a legitimate question is why should we invoke entities at all? It's a question that, ultimately, you'll have to answer for yourself. Notice that entity work begins in chapter 30 of this book and that most of the techniques I have relayed can be used with straight sorcery work, as opposed to working with entities. At one time, I might have pushed the idea that straight sorcery work with energy was all that is really needed and that the exchange with a spirit and the possibility of a spirit lying was not worth the effort. I can see why someone would come to that conclusion, but I have changed my position on this point.

First, let me again stress that I am defining spirit or entity as anything that can be, will be, or has been conceptualized into a form that I can communicate with. This basically means that anything can be invoked and brought to the forefront of the mind. This idea is one that we will see over and over as our adventure continues from here.

From my personal perspective, and that of other occult authors such as Ramsey Dukes, as well as most of psychology, we are social beings. The greatest part of a human being's learning process, change, and even growth seems to come from the interaction between people. The majority of the brain is physically set up to handle communication channels. From a purely neurological perspective, we are using more of our built-in tools when we communicate with something. Indeed, it is a natural way to work out details and discuss something. Essentially, our brains are hardwired to conceptualize things into forms that we can work with.

In later chapters, we will start conceptualizing and building entities. In earlier chapters we were working with different aspects of ourselves, and it is only a simple step to name those parts within us and then start working with them as if they were people outside of us. By doing this, we use more of our natural communication and understanding abilities.

Even an internal entity, such as a part of the self, can provide a very alien perspective on a problem. If external entities exist, invocation will most certainly provide a very different perspective on an event or occurrence. This perspective can provide many additional details about a problem, as if you had looked at the same scene from a different angle. Keep in mind the metaphor of blind men feeling an elephant. They can each only describe one small piece of the elephant by touching the different parts. None of the blind men themselves can see or picture the entire elephant.

When considered as external information/energy sources, entities, especially entities that have worked with many people, have a wealth of information that perhaps you could not access without their help. From personal experience, I can say that I have learned a tremendous amount of magical operations directly from what I consider spirits. Whether or not these are mental constructs within myself that are teaching my conscious mind or whether they actually exist is largely irrelevant. Either way, the process of invoking and communicating with spiritual entities has produced good practical results for me. Results are the ultimate litmus test for continuing work.

In the next chapter, we will talk more about advanced invocations and deconditioning the effects of an invocation gone wrong.