So far in our Solomonic magic series, we’ve covered the first step of our conjuration ritual framework: Consecratio Dei, the consecrations to God. We’ve talked about preconsecration of tools and materials, personal purification, and creation of ritual space. Now we’re ready to step into the circle and begin the actual ritual of conjuration. The next stage in our framework is Invocatio – preparatory invocations.
To start with, what is an invocation? Modern practitioners sometimes use “invocation” to mean rituals intended to call a spiritual power into the oneself or one’s personal sphere. To highlight in us the traits or energies associated with a particular spirit. This is contrasted with “evocation”, rituals to call a spirit into one’s presence but not directly into oneself. This is very much a modern distinction though, rather than one rooted in any historical understanding of the terms.
The word invocation comes from the Latin word invocare, meaning “to call upon” or “to implore.” Historically, it was used to mean any text that called upon the power or influence of a spiritual entity. A prayer, in other words. In human terms, invocation is like reaching out to an influential friend and asking them to intercede on your behalf in some situation.1
In a Solomonic context, our preliminary invocations are prayers to various powers asking them to lend their authority to the conjuration ritual, make it successful, and open the way for the spirits we are attempting to call.
So we know the purpose of the invocations in our ritual, but which spirits do we actually call upon? This is one of the places where there is the most variation between grimoiric sources, and the most room to customize things to fit your own personal practice.
Often the first step is to call upon God, as a highest level of spiritual power and ultimate arbiter of the success of a ritual. My favorite example of this comes from pseudo-Trithemius’s The Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals:
Oh, God! who art the author of all good things, strengthen, I beseech thee, thy poor servant, that he may stand fast, without fear, through this dealing and work; enlighten, I beseech thee, oh Lord! the dark understanding of thy creature, so that his spiritual eye may be opened to see and know thy angelic spirits descending here in this crystal… [and grant] they may be constrained to speak intelligibly, and truly, and without the least ambiguity, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
This section can also include invocations to various powers to help localize the ritual in space or time. In the Heptameron, this includes invocations to the angels and ministers of the day, the hour, the season, etc. In a lodge magic or neopagan context, it may include invocations to rulers of the four directions to guard the ritual space or open quarter gates to allow the free passage of spirits.
If you have particular patrons or tutelary spirits that you work with in your practice – particularly psychopomps, messengers, or intermediaries – you may want to include prayers to them as well, asking them to find the spirit you are attempting to call and convey them before you.
Finally, we may include calls to spirits with authority over the spirit we are conjuring. This generally follows one of two patterns: adversarial spirits or superior spirits. Adversarial spirits are those thought to have some combative power or dominion over the spirit we are ultimately calling. Superior spirits are spirits with authority over our target spirit in the spirit’s own hierarchy. In human terms, if we were attempting to get a low-level mobster to do what we wanted, the adversarial approach is like getting a cop to threaten them; the superior spirit approach is like getting their mob boss to give them the order instead. Both are ways of putting more weight behind our future conjurations, by reinforcing them with authority other than our own.
The adversarial approach is classically seen in the Testament of Solomon, where each demon reports that there is a particular thwarting angel appointed to them, at whose name they become obedient. This can also be seen in some versions of the Lemegeton’s Goetia, where the 72 demons of the spirit catalog are paired with angels drawn from the 72 Shemhamphorash.2
The superior spirits approach is most clearly seen in the Grimorium Verum, where demons are conjured by their own infernal hierarchies, originating in the ruling triad of Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Astaroth.
All of which is to say that, while it’s valuable to start off our conjuration ritual with various prayers for success and authority, there is a lot of leeway on which specific powers we invoke. Pick a source to get you started, and adapt from there. There’s generally not much down side to adding in additional prayers in this stage beyond what is called for in a specific source.3 Personally, I like to start with a general invocation to God like the one listed earlier, an invocation to my primary tutelary spirit, and a few to localizing spirits (either the angels of the day and hour, or Agrippa’s kings of the four directions, depending on what I’m doing).
As with most things, experiment for yourself to find out what works best in your practice.
This post is part of a series on Solomonic magic. You can find the next post here.
- In contrast, the word evocation comes from the Latin evocare – “to call out”, “to rouse”, or “to summon.” It’s not a distinction between calling a spirit into yourself vs. outside yourself, so much as a difference in the character of an interaction. If invocation is like asking an influential friend to intercede on your behalf, evocation is more like rousting your kids out of bed in the morning to get themselves ready for school. ↩︎
- Specifically, Dr. Stephen Skinner’s edition The Goetia of Dr. Rudd. ↩︎
- Within reason. Try to stay generally in the same pantheon – rather than mixing prayers to Adonai, Thor, and Kali in the same ritual. There are also diminishing returns here. One invocation to an intermediary spirit is great; ten invocations to ten different intermediary spirits isn’t better. ↩︎