Magickal evocation is the high art of summoning a non-physical entity to appear in a space external to yourself. It’s a structured, ceremonial practice where a magician calls forth a spirit, archetype, or intelligence into a designated area to communicate, learn from it, or charge it with a specific task. Unlike the internal merging of invocation, evocation is a dynamic and commanding act of external manifestation.
The Outward Call: Defining Evocation
At its core, magickal evocation is the practice of calling a non-physical consciousness forth into a space outside of yourself, a stark contrast to the internal embodiment of invocation. Evocation is generally considered harder to master than invocation, but its primary advantage is delegation; once you successfully summon an entity, you can instruct it with a specific task, issue a formal “license to depart”, and then let it go. The entity deals with the task, freeing your focus for other things. In a technical sense, the act of servitor creation can be seen as a form of evocation, with the crucial difference being that you are creating the entity from scratch rather than contacting a pre-existing one.
Constructing the Temple: The Circle, Triangle, and Tools
A successful evocation relies on a meticulously prepared space, where tools like the magickal circle and Triangle of Art serve as both psychological anchors and energetic boundaries. The circle is the protected space where the magician stands, a bastion of personal authority. The triangle is the designated manifestation zone, placed outside the circle, into which the spirit is commanded to appear. While not strictly necessary, evocation tends to work better when formalized and executed in front of a consecrated magickal altar, which acts as a focal point for the magician’s will. However, these physical requisites are ultimately training wheels. Advanced Chaotes with highly developed visualization skills often dispense with physical tools entirely, constructing their circle, triangle, and altar purely from light and will on the astral plane.
The Grimoire’s Roster: Understanding Goetia and Other Spirits
The entities available for evocation are sourced from a vast roster, from the famous demons of ancient grimoires to planetary intelligences and even personally created deities. Traditional sources like the Goetia, a famous grimoire, list 72 spirits and their specific powers and seals, providing a well-documented (if notoriously difficult) starting point. A Chaote, however, is not limited to these ancient rosters. You are entirely free to summon made-up deities that personify a specific concept. I once, for instance, evoked a personally created ‘god of eternal high’ (called him Achonit), offering him cigarettes and beer as a sacrifice upon his arrival. I then asked this deity to bless a friend, who subsequently felt genuinely high for an hour despite not taking any drugs. This demonstrates that the power lies in the magician’s ability to believe and project, not in the historical validity of the spirit.
The Conjuration: The Ritual Act of Summoning
The conjuration itself is the heart of the ritual, a crescendo of focused will, chanting, and energetic projection designed to draw the target entity across the veil and into the prepared triangle. After an initial banishing to clear the space, the magician begins the formal calls. This typically involves a series of escalating incantations and prayers, where the magician uses the authority of divine names and their own perfected will to command the spirit to appear. The atmosphere in the room will often change, growing cold, heavy, or electrically charged as the entity draws near. To heighten their psychic senses and lower the barrier to perception, some practitioners may use chemognosis via a mild psychoactive substance as an amplificator for the ritual.
Perceiving the Spirit: Scrying and Psychic Reception
An evoked entity rarely appears as a visible figure in the middle of the room. Instead, it is perceived through shifts in atmosphere and by focusing the psychic senses on a scrying medium placed within the triangle. This is often a black mirror, a crystal ball, or a bowl of consecrated water. The magician enters a light, meditative trance and gazes into the medium, allowing their psychic vision to take over. The spirit may appear as a shifting, smoky form, a symbolic image, or even a clear, humanoid figure within the mirror’s depths. Communication is most often telepathic—a direct exchange of thoughts, emotions, and images—rather than a physical voice.
Advanced Dynamics: Group Evocation and the Psychological Model
Beyond solo practice, evocation encompasses advanced models of consciousness, including group workings and the powerful psychological interpretation of the act. Evoking in a group can massively amplify the energy available for a manifestation, but it requires a high degree of coordination and a designated leader to speak for the group.
Within the psychological model, the summoned entity is not seen as an ancient, external being, but as a complex of thoughts and emotions created within the magus’ own mind and then projected onto reality. It is an act of controlled, intentional self-psychosis, where a part of the self is given form and agency to communicate with. This understanding opens the door to hybrid techniques. A magician can invoke an archetype first to fully understand its nature, and then skillfully externalize it into the triangle, separating it from their own consciousness in a progressive act of invocation-to-evocation. The reverse is also true; an evoked entity can be drawn into the self for deeper communion.
Final Words
A magickal evocation can be viewed as an act of creating a controlled breach in reality, a temporary intersection between your world and the spirit’s. The most crucial protip for a beginner is to expand your definition of manifestation beyond clear visual images; learn to practice multi-sensory scrying by paying attention to subtle shifts in sound, smell, and temperature within the temple. Oftentimes, the first and most reliable sign of a spirit’s presence is not a face in the mirror but a sudden change in room temperature or smell. The palpable atmospheric charge in the room is a far better indicator of a successful conjuration than a perfect visual, as it shows the entity’s energy is genuinely present.
Frequent Questions
Q: What happens if a spirit “breaks out” of the Triangle of Art?
This is a common fear but a rare event if the ritual is done with confidence. The circle and triangle are primarily mental and energetic constructs; a “breakout” is usually a sign that the magician has lost their nerve, causing a psychological collapse, not a physical attack.
Q: How do I know if the entity is lying or trying to trick me?
You test its information with verifiable questions and cross-reference its advice with your own intuition and divination. A key skill in evocation is developing a “psychic-smell-test” to discern the quality and integrity of the information you receive.
Q: Do I really need all the physical tools like wands, circles, and a triangle?
The physical tools are highly recommended for beginners as they train the mind and enforce discipline. An advanced magician may be able to perform an evocation with purely visualized “astral” tools, but this is a skill that takes years to develop.
Q: What kind of offerings or “payments” do spirits typically want?
Offerings should be appropriate to the spirit’s nature. This can range from public praise and acknowledgement of the spirit’s name, to burning specific incenses, to offerings of energy like chanting or even blood for some chthonic entities. However, bear in mind that advanced Chaotes are able to evoke entities and simply command them without offering anything in return.
Q: Why do I perform a final banishing if I’ve already given the spirit a License to Depart?
The License to Depart dismisses the specific entity you summoned. The final banishing is a general “reset” of the ritual space, ensuring that no other unwanted influences that may have been attracted by the power of the ritual are left lingering.