14 - Evocation of Spirits
A similar Fire flashingly extending through the rushings of Air, or a Fire formless whence cometh the Image of a voice, or even a flashing Light abounding, revolving, whirling forth, crying aloud. Also there is the vision of the fire-flashing Courser of Light, or also a Child, borne aloft on the shoulders of the Celestial Steed, fiery, or clothed with gold, or naked, or shooting with the bow shafts or light, and standing on the shoulders of the horse, then if thy meditation prolongeth itself, thou shalt unite all these symbols into the Form of a Lion.
- The Oracles of Zoroaster
The thing that dominated the real room itself was also a drawing, not any piece of furniture or detail of architecture: a vast double circle on the floor in what appeared to be whitewash. Between the concentric circles were written innumberable words, or what might have been words, in characters which might have been Hebrew, Greek, Etruscan or even Elvish for all Baines could tell. Some few were in Roman lettering, but they, too, were names he could not recognize; and around the outside of the outer circle were written astrological signs in their zodiacal order, but with Saturn to the north.
At the very center of this figure was a ruled square about two feet on a side, from each corner of which proceeded chalked, conventionalized crosses, which did not look in the least Christian. Proceeding from each of these, but not connected to them, were four six-pointed stars, verging on the innermost circle. The stars at the east, west and south each had a Tau scrawled at their centres; presumably the Saturnmost did too ...
Outside the circles, at the other compass points, were drawn four pentagrams, in the chords of which were written TE TRA GRAM MA TON, and at the centers of which stood the candles. Farthest away from all this - about two feet outside the circle and three feet over it to the north -was a circle enclosed by a triangle, also much lettered inside and out; Baines could just see that the characters in the angles of the triangle read NI CH EL (1) ...
----
[1] Should read 'MI CHA EL': from the Book of the Goetia.
----
He entered the circle, closed it with the point of the sword, and proceeded to the central square, where he lay the sword across the toes of his white shoes; then he drew the wand from his belt and unwrapped it, laying the red-silk cloth across his shoulders.
"From now on," he said, in a normal, even voice, "no one is to move."
From somewhere inside his vestments he produced a small crucible, which he set at his feet before the recumbent sword. Small blue flames promptly began to rise from the bowl, and Ware cast incense into it ...
The flames in the brazier rose slightly.
"We are to call upon MARCHOSIAS, a great marquis of the Descending Hierarchy," Ware said in the same conversational voice. "Before he fell, he belonged to the Order of Dominations among the angels, and thinks to return to the Seven Thrones after twelve hundred years. His virtue is that he gives true answers. Stand fast, all."
The Seal of Marchosias
With a sudden motion, Ware thrust the end of his rod into the surging flames of the brazier. At once the air of the hall rang with a long, frightful chain of woeful howls. Above the bestial clamor, Ware shouted:
"I adjure thee, great MARCHOSIAS, as the agent of the Emperor LUCIFER, and of his beloved son LUCIFUGE ROFOCALE, by the power of the pact I have with thee, and by the Names ADONAY, ELOIM, JEHOVAM, TAGLA, MATHON, ALMOUZIN, ARIOS, PITHONA, MAGOTS, SYLPHAE, TABOTS, SALAMANDRAE, GNOMUS, TERRAE, COELIS, GODENS, AQUA, and by the whole hierarchy of superior intelligence who shall constrain thee against thy will, venite, venite, submiritillor MARCHOSIAS!"
The noise rose higher, and a green steam began to come off the brazier. It smelt like someone was burning hart's horn and fish gall. But there was no other answer. His face white and cruel, Ware rasped over the tumult:
"I adjure thee, MARCHOSIAS, by the pact, and by the Names, appear instanter!" He plunged the rod a second time into the flames. The room screamed; but still there was no apparition.
"Now I adjure thee, LUCIFUGE ROFOCALE, whom I command, as the agent of the Lord and Emperor of Lords, send me thy messenger MARCHOSIAS, forcing him to forsake his hiding place, wheresoever it may be, and warning thee —."
The rod went back into the fire. Instantly, the palazzo rocked as though the earth had moved under it.
"Stand fast!" Ware said hoarsely.
Something Else said:
"HUSH, I AM HERE. WHAT DOST THOU SEEK OF ME? WHY DOST THOU DISTURB MY REPOSE? LET MY FATHER REST, AND HOLD THY ROD."
Never had Baines heard a voice like that before. It seemed to speak in syllables of burning ashes.
"Hadst thou appeared when first I invoked thee, I had by no means smitten thee, nor called thy father," Ware said. "Remember, if the request I make of thee be refused, I shall thrust again my rod into the fire."
"THINK AND SEE!"
The palazzo shuddered again. Then, from the middle of the triangle to the northwest, a slow cloud of yellow fumes went up toward the ceiling, making them all cough, even Ware. As it spread and thinned, Baines could see a shape forming under it; but he found it impossible to believe. It was - it was something like a she-wolf, gray and immense, with green and glistening eyes. A wave of coldness was coming from it.
The cloud continued to dissipate. The she-wolf glared at them, slowly spreading her griffin's wings. Her serpent's tail lashed gently, scalily ...'
So runs James Blish's description (2) of an evocation of Marchosias undertaken by Theron Ware. The basic elements of this ritual are taken from the Goetia, a relatively straightforward grimoire which catalogues a full seventy-two spirits (reputedly those sealed up by Solomon) and the technique for evoking them.
Evocation has been touched upon at the beginning of the previous chapter mainly by way of contrast with invocation. However evocation is a very important part of the magician's repertory. In fact if you relied entirely upon the grimoires of the fourteenth to the nineteenth century for your sources of information, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was the major part of magic. Of course over the same period, other works such as the works of Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Dee or Francis Barrett put it into perspective with the rest of traditional magic.
----
[2] James Blish, Black Easter, or Faust Aleph-Null. Faber and Faber, London, 1968.
----
The practice of evocation however requires more preparation, safeguards and equipment than perhaps any other magical practice; for this reason it is the last chapter in this book. Despite many aspersions cast on it, it is part of high magic. The reason for placing it after invocation is that the essence of a successful evocation is the sure knowledge of success. This sure knowledge is only generated by having invoked and become the god under whose auspices the spirit comes. It is under these conditions that the magician can truly say:
'Behold! He is in me, and I in Him!
Mine is the radiance in which Ptah floateth over his firmament.
I travel upon high.
I tread upon the firmament of Nu.
I raise a flame with the flashing lightening of mine eye, ever rushing forward in the splendour of the daily glorified Ra giving life to every creature that treadeth upon the Earth ... Behold! I am Yesterday, To-day, and the brother of the Morrow!
For I am born again and again.
Mine is the unseen force which created the Gods, and giveth life unto the dwellers in the watch-towers of the Universe. I am the charioteer in the East, Lord of the Past and the Future:
He who seeth by the Light that is within Him. I am the Lord of Resurrection, who cometh forth from the dusk, and whose birth is from the House of Death ... If I say "come up upon the mountains", the Celestial waters shall flow at my Word; For I am Ra incarnate, Khephra created in the flesh! I am the living image of my Father Tmu, Lord of the City of the Sun! The God who commands is in my mouth. The God of Wisdom is in my heart: My tongue is the sanctuary of Truth, And a God sitteth upon my lips!' (3)
----
[3] An invocation of Thoth adapted by the Golden Dawn from the Egyptian Book Of the Dead.
----
This avoids the fatuous position of threatening a rebellious spirit with punishments that the magician could not hope to exact. It is also the reason why evocation should never be undertaken by beginners, for essentially it is an operation dealing with unbalanced force and therefore requires that the magician should have achieved a considerable measure of balance before embarking on this type of undertaking. However assuming that the magician has achieved this degree of stability and also assuming that the ceremony has been well designed and rehearsed (making sure to leave out the crucial bits during the rehearsals) there is no reason why the spirit should not be successfully evoked. If a medium or skryer is present the spirit should at least be seen by her (although not always in its traditional shape). In exceptional cases where adequate preparations for manifestation have been made the spirit may be visible to all the participants, although this type of result is unlikely until considerable expertise in evocation has been achieved.
To return to the form of ceremony, Aleister Crowley (4) has recommended that the magician first address the God of the sphere or Sephirah under whose auspices he wishes to work. By prayer and supplication he appeals for the god's benediction, that He may deign to send the appropriate Archangel. He then proceeds to beseech the Archangel to send the Angel of that sphere to his aid: He conjures this Angel to deliver the Intelligence in question, and in turn he conjures this Intelligence with authority to compel the appearance, obedience and manifestation of the Spirit, to whom he issues commands. Implicit in these commands addressed via a chain of authority is both the separateness of the magician and the spirit, and the strict hierarchy of the non-physical worlds. This detailed sub-division of entities ranging from the most high God to the lowliest elemental spirit is characteristic of qabalistic magic, to which Crowley was no stranger. (5) The medieval grimoires settled for one or two stages of this process, usually just calling on the Prince or King directly in charge of the spirit to be evoked.
As far as equipment is concerned the magician uses in all evocations a circle and a triangle, the latter being the figure painted or drawn on the floor and appropriately consecrated which contains and limits the spirit, whilst the magician and his assistants occupy the circle. (6) The temple furnishings thereby reflect the nature of the operation: asserting the duality of the operation and the recognition that the spirit being much 'less divine' than a god, is not to be accepted into the consciousness of the magician unconditionally but must manifest, be examined, questioned and bound before being licensed to depart again to its own place.
----
[4] Aleister Crowley. Magick in Theory and Practice. Castle Books, New York, nd Chapter II.
[5] These hierarchies from Godname through Archangel, Angel and Spirit to Intelligence are listed for the seven planetary spheres in the table in Chapter Eight.
[6] See the diagram.
----
The Circle and Triangle for Goetic Evocation
The grimoires go to great lengths outlining the incredibly difficult and drawn out preparations required before the evocation itself is even begun.
'In goetic art, everything does ... (have symbolic functions). In the same way, as you probably also know from your reading, the forging and quenching (of the sword) is to be done on a Wednesday in either the first or the eighth of the day hours, or the third or the tenth of the night hours, under a full Moon. There is again an immediate practical interest being served here - for I assure you that the planetary hours do indeed affect affairs on Earth - but also a psychological one, the obedience of the operator in every step. The grimoires and other handbooks are at best so confused and contradictory that it's never possible to know completely what steps are essential and what aren't, and research into the subject seldom makes for a long life ...
Well, the horn handle has next to be shaped and fitted, again in a particular way at a particular hour, and then perfected at still another day and hour. By the way, you mentioned a different steeping bath. If you use that ritual, the days and the hours are also different, and again the question is, what's essential and what isn't? Thereafter, there's a conjuration to be recited, plus three salutations and a warding spell. Then the instrument is sprinkled, wrapped and fumigated ...' (7)
----
[7] James Blish. Black Easter. Faber and Faber, London, 1968. pp73-74. 180
----
These elaborate preparations are gone into in detail in grimoires such as the Goetia or Lesser Key of Solomon, the Grimoirium Verum, the Greater Key of Solomon (edited by MacGregor Mathers) and many others. Of these, the last is perhaps the most complete and reliable.
Typical of the style of these books are the following passages from the Goetia.
'I DO invocate and conjure thee, O Spirit, N.; (8) and being with power armed from the SUPREME MAJESTY, I do strongly command thee, by BERALANENSIS, BALDACHIENSIS, PAUMACHIA, and APOLOGIAE SEDES; by the most Powerful Princes, Genii, Liachidae, and Ministers of the Tartarean Abode; and by the Chief Prince of the Seat of Apologia in the Ninth Legion, I do invoke thee, and by invocating conjure thee. And being armed with power from the SUPREME MAJESTY, I do strongly command thee, by Him Who spake and it was done, and unto whom all creatures be obedient. Also I, being made after the image of GOD, endued with power from GOD and created according unto His will, do exorcise thee by that most mighty and powerful name of GOD, EL, strong and wonderful; O thou Spirit N. And I command thee and Him who spake the Word and His fiat was accomplished, and by all the names of God.
Also by the names ADONAI, EL, ELOHIM, ELOHI, EHYEH, ASHER EHYEH, ZABAOTH, ELION, IAH, TETRAGRAMMATON, SHADDAI, LORD GOD MOST HIGH, I do exorcise thee and do powerfully command thee, O thou Spirit N., that thou dost forthwith appear unto me here before this Circle in a fair human shape, without any deformity or tortuosity. And by this ineffable name, TETRAGRAMMATON IEHOVAH, do I command thee, at the which being heard the elements are overthrown, the air is shaken, the sea runneth back, the fire is quenched, the earth trembleth, and all the hosts of the celestials, terrestrials, and infernals do tremble together, and are troubled and confounded.
Wherefore come thou, O Spirit N., forthwith, and without delay, from any or all parts of the world wherever thou mayest be, and make rational answers unto all things that I shall demand of thee. Come thou peaceably, visibly, and affably, now, and without delay, manifesting that which I shall desire. For thou art conjured by the name of the LIVING and TRUE GOD, HELIOREN, wherefore fulfil thou my commands, and persist thou therein unto the end, and according unto mine interest, visibly and affably speaking unto me with a voice clear and intelligible without any ambiguity.'
----
[8] The name of the Spirit being evoked.
----
The Second Conjuration
'I DO invocate, conjure, and command thee, O thou Spirit N., to appear and to show thyself visibly unto me before this Circle in fair and comely shape, without any deformity or tortuosity; by the name and in the name IAH and VAU, which Adam heard and spake; and by the name of GOD, AGLA, which Lot heard and was saved with his family; and by the name IOTH, which Iacob heard from the angel wrestling with him, and was delivered from the hand of Esau his brother; and by the name ANAPHAXETON which Aaron heard and spake and was made wise; and by the name ZABAOTH, which Moses named and all the rivers were turned into blood; and by the name ASHER EHYEH ORISTON, which Moses named, and all the rivers brought forth frogs, and they ascended into the houses, destroying all things; and by the name ELION, which Moses named, and there was great hail such as had not been since the beginning of the world; and by the name ADONAI, which Moses named, and there came up locusts, which appeared upon the whole land, and devoured all which the hail had left; and by the name SCHEMA AMATHIA which Ioshua called upon, and the sun stayed his course; and by the name ALPHA and OMEGA, which Daniel named, and destroyed Bel, and slew the Dragon; and in the name EMMANUEL, which the three children, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, sang in the midst of the fiery furnace, and were delivered; and by the name HAGIOS; and by the SEAL OF ADONAI; and by ISCHYROS, ATHANATOS, PARACLETOS; and by O THEOS, ICTROS, ANTHANATOS; and by these three secret names, AGLA, ON, TETRAGRAMMATON, do I adjure and constrain thee.
And by these names, and by all the other names of the LIVING and TRUE GOD, the LORD ALMIGHTY, I do exorcise and command thee, O Spirit N., even by Him Who spake the Word and it was done, and to Whom all creatures are obedient; and by the dreadful judgments of GOD; and by the uncertain Sea of Glass, which is before the DIVINE MAJESTY, mighty and powerful; by the four beasts before the throne, having eyes before and behind; by the fire round about the throne; by the holy angels of Heaven; and by the mighty wisdom of GOD; I do potently exorcise thee, that thou appearest here before this Circle, to fulfil my will in all things which shall seem good unto me; by the Seal of BASDATHEA BALDACHIA; and by this name PRIMEUMATON, which Moses named, and the earth opened, and did swallow up Kora, Dathan, and Abiram. Wherefore thou shalt make faithful answers unto all my demands, O Spirit N., and shalt perform all my desires so far as in thine office thou art capable hereof. Wherefore, come thou, visibly, peaceably, and affably, now without delay, to manifest that which I desire, speaking with a clear and perfect voice, intelligibly, and to mine understanding.'
The Constraint
'I do conjure thee, O thou Spirit N., by all the most glorious and efficacious names of the MOST GREAT INCOMPREHENSIBLE LORD GOD OF HOSTS, that thou comest quickly and without delay from all parts and places of the earth and world wherever thou mayest be, to make rational answers unto my demands, and that visibly and affably, speaking with a voice intelligible unto mine understanding as aforesaid.
I conjure and constrain thee, O thou Spirit N., by all the names aforesaid; and in addition by these seven great names wherewith Solomon the Wise bound thee and thy companions in a Vessel of Brass, ADONAI, PREYAI or PRERAI, TETRAGRAMMATON, ANAPHAXETON or ANEPHENETON, INESSENFATOAL or INESSENFATALL, PATHTUMON or PATHATUMON, and ITEMON; that thou appearest here before this Circle to fulfil my will in all things that seem good unto me.
And if thou be still so disobedient, and refusest still to come, I will in the power and by the power of the name of the SUPREME AND EVERLASTING LORD GOD WHO created both thee and me and all the world in six days, and what is contained therein, EIE, SARAYE, and by the power of this name PRIMEUMATON which commandeth the whole host of Heaven, curse thee, and deprive thee of thine office, joy, and place, and bind thee in the depths of the Bottomless Pit or Abyss, there to remain unto the Day of the Last Judgment. And I will bind thee in the Eternal iFire, and into the Lake of Flame and of Brimstone, unless thou comest quickly and appearest here before this Circle to do my will. Therefore, come thou! in and by the holy names ADONAI, ZABAOTH, ADONAI, AMIORAN. Come thou! for it is ADONAI who commandest thee.'
The Invocation Of The King
'O Thou great, powerful, and mighty KING AMAIMON, (9) who bearest rule by the power of the SUPREME GOD EL over all spirits both superior and inferior of the Infernal Orders in the Dominion of the East; I do invocate and command thee by the especial and true name of GOD; and by that God that Thou Worshippest; and by the Seal of thy creation; and by the most mighty and powerful name of GOD, IEHOVAH TETRAGRAMMATON who cast thee out of heaven with all other infernal spirits; and by all the most powerful and great names of GOD who created Heaven, and Earth, and Hell, and all things in them contained; and by their power and virtue; and by the name PRIMEUMATON who commandeth the whole host of Heaven; that thou mayest cause, enforce, and compel the Spirit N. to come unto me here before this Circle in a fair and comely shape, without harm unto me or unto and other creature, to answer truely and faithfully unto all my requests; so that I may accomplish my will and desire in knowing or obtaining any matter or thing which by office thou knowest is proper for him to perform or accomplish, through the power of GOD, EL, Who created and doth dispose of all things both celestial, aerial, terrestrial, and infernal.'
The Licence To Depart
'O Thou Spirit N., because thou hast diligently answered unto my demands, and hast been ready and willing to come at my call, I do here license thee to depart unto thy proper place; without causing harm or danger unto man or beast. Depart, then, I say, and be thou very ready to come at my call, being duly exorcised and conjured by the sacred rites of magic. I charge thee to withdraw peaceably and quietly, and the peace of GOD be ever continued between thee and me! AMEN!'
----
[9] 'The King of the East.
----
Needless to say, this, together with the final banishing rituals are extremely important, as they are the safeguards that the magician uses to prevent any 'overlap' into ordinary life of the special conditions prevailing during the evocation.
Evocation requires months of preparation and supervision by somebody who has already mastered the techniques. It is included here so that the broad field of magic is covered, and because it is such an important technique, but anyone lacking the above requirements and who has not already completely mastered all else touched upon in this book would be most unwise to attempt an evocation.
The preparations for evocation cannot arbitrarily be altered, as the magician is here dealing not with a god, but with an essentially incomplete entity whose reactions to the magician have to be carefully prepared for. Consequently it is advisable only to assay evocation when you have collected together all the necessary equipment.
However, it is worth remembering that Abramelin makes provision for the evocation of spirits at the end of his long magical retirement, and in many ways this technique is preferable to some of the more dubious grimoire recipes which verge more onto the 'selling-your-soul' type of magic than the legitimate practice of evocation.
