Evocation For Non-christians, How do Pagans do it? Options

So I've recently been reading Summoning Spirits. It's an interesting book, but something that struck me is that the rituals in it are as Jewish as the proverbial Bar Mitzvah.

This begs a couple of questions.

1) How do people who adhere to non-Abrahamic religions perform evocations?
2) Are these rituals intended to imply that Judaism genuinely is "the truth," in a supreme or objective sense, to a greater degree than that of other religious systems?

So I've recently been reading Summoning Spirits. It's an interesting book, but something that struck me is that the rituals in it are as Jewish as the proverbial Bar Mitzvah.

This begs a couple of questions.

1) How do people who adhere to non-Abrahamic religions perform evocations?
2) Are these rituals intended to imply that Judaism genuinely is "the truth," in a supreme or objective sense, to a greater degree than that of other religious systems?

Well, there are more pagan ways to do evocation. If you want to work with grimoires, there are two points of view.

The first is that you must follow the grimoire to the letter, and more than that you must actually believe in what you're doing, therefore you have to make some kind of subconscious connection to the judaic and even catholic faiths.

That said, many practitioners believe that the spirits of the grimoires are objective spiritual entities who exist outside the physical planes. In this case, ultimately there is a formula that is used to summon them - and the differences between all of the grimoires suggests that there is not, really, only one way to do so.

So, I suggest looking into Hermetic Magick. Start at the root, with these books: Hermetic Magic and The Greek Magical Papyri.

A book that I also recently read, which turned out to be excellent although it is often, as far as my experience with it's 'followers' as it were, misinterpreted greatly, is here: Ceremonial Magic and the Power of Evocation.

There are not many texts relating to pagan evocation, and many of the texts I have read that were more modern oriented turned out to be dead ends.

I think that building your own system of evocation requires a great deal of experience and knowledge, and of course the practice itself requires a great deal of dedication. The tendancy is to build a system which is expedient, simplistic, and quick - which evocation is not. It must be a formula which fully involves your consciousness, your being, it must exalt your mind and spirit, and make a connection with spiritual power that will allow for evocation to take place.

Also, there are two forms of evocation - physical evocation, which is concerned primarily with the manifestations of demonic entities and neutral, typically elemental, entities; and the evocation of intelligences. Physical evocation is for accomplishing material things, including in many cases the direct transmission of knowledge. Evoking intelligences does not require a physical manifestation - they can be communed with through some astral medium, such as a mirror or skrying bowl, or communed with directly if you have such a skill. Their purpose is to instruct or inform you, from my experience with them, which is personally my primary experience in evocation. While they can help you accomplish things as well, their purview is more along the lines of the necessary information to accomplish a goal, rather than doing it for you. Evoking angels is a similar thing, they will help you, instruct you, and bring higher currents of divine energy into your life, but they will not heed your beck and call. People may have differing views, ultimately much of it depends on your subconscious belief in what these various entities can do for you, because it is your consciousness they will use as a connection to this plane.

Also, while you may not agree with the religious doctrines of the Jewish and Catholic faiths, you do believe in divinity, yes? That there is ultimately a source from which all existence springs? Really consider your own basic beliefs, and then decide whether they are really so different from the beliefs of creation from these other points of view. Taking the dogma, the rituals of those religions aside. You don't have to be jewish or catholic to use the grimoires - but you do need to form a connection to those religions, and respect for them.

They don't imply that abrahamic are the supreme truth, but that the individuals that wrote them (they did not materialize from the source itself) followed them personally - and, given their practices, more than likely held a more mystical, non-mainstream view of them. Plus, as you may read in some of the books mentioned above, one of the reasons there is so much catholic imagery involved in the grimoires is because those that wrote them did so during a period where not being catholic was very dangerous. Many of the judaic grimoires more than likely did not survive that period intact, but some of them did.

peace

So, I suggest looking into Hermetic Magick. Start at the root, with these books: Hermetic Magic and The Greek Magical Papyri.

Oddly enough, I was just looking into obtaining these two books last week. I've come across some references to the Papyri book which piqued my interest; and while looking it up, I came across the Hermetic Magic book. Which happens to be available from my local library.

Now that I've seen both referenced here in one place, I feel like I'm meant to read them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[not enough posts to allow me to supply the correct link to the Papyri; or I would]

This post has been edited by rif: Apr 6 2008, 05:53 PM