In ritual magic , invocations (from the Latin verb invocare "to call on, invoke, to give") are a field involving communicating or interacting with certain incorporeal, supernatural spirits . Invocation may take the form of:
31-398: These forms are described below, but are not mutually exclusive. See also Theurgy . As a supplication or prayer, an invocation implies calling upon God , a god, goddess , or person. When a person calls upon God, a god, or goddess to ask for something (protection, a favour, or their spiritual presence in a ceremony) or simply for worship , this can be done in a pre-established form or with
62-536: A " sing-sing ", a gathering of 90,000 Highland warriors, in Mount Hagen , and paddled up Chambri Lakes in a canoe, an experience she called "one of the most wonderful, and in a way formative, experiences in my life." Her first trip to Africa was in 1973, when she was invited to spend Christmas with a friend in Kenya . Beckwith bought a 45-day roundtrip ticket and ended up staying eight months. There she encountered
93-431: A deity or spirit. In some religious traditions including Paganism , Shamanism and Wicca , "invocation" means to draw a spirit or Spirit force into one's own body and is differentiated from " evocation ", which involves asking a spirit or force to become present at a given location. Aleister Crowley states that To "invoke" is to "call in", just as to "evoke" is to "call forth". This is the essential difference between
124-490: A man cut his belly with shards of glass but did not bleed, another swallowed fire. Nearby a believer, perhaps a yam farmer or fisherman, heated hand-wrought knives in crackling flames. Then another man brought one of the knives to his tongue. We cringed at the sight and were dumbfounded when, after several repetitions, his tongue had not even reddened. Possessive invocation has also been described in certain Norse rites where Odin
155-654: A meeting of the City Council of Tulsa . Nerren was invited to perform the invocation as a compromise following a long-running dispute with the City Council over prayers opening meetings. The invocation was written by Andrew Lovley, a member of the Southern Maine Association of Secular Humanists who had previously used the invocation in 2009 to invoke an inauguration ceremony for new city officials in South Portland, Maine . In this usage, it
186-451: A person. The main feat of Esoteric Christianity is to learn the mysteries of God (see Raziel ) and to rise to higher consciousness in the understanding of God's relationship to individual consciousness. Theurgy, in the esoteric tradition, uses this knowledge to heighten one's own spiritual nature. Some branches of Esoteric Christianity hold that if an Esoteric Christian, Rosicrucian , or Theosopher practices it they could potentially rise to
217-431: A popular hymn to the sun. In his theology, Helios , the sun, was the ideal example of the perfection of the gods and light, a symbol of divine emanation. He also held the mother goddess Cybele in high esteem. Julian favored ritual theurgy, with an emphasis on sacrifice and prayer . He was heavily influenced by Iamblichus ' ideas. Esoteric Christianity accepts theurgy as a tradition that could greatly benefit
248-435: A vessel for the spirit or deity). The person successfully invoked may be moved to speak or act in non-characteristic ways, acting as the deity or spirit; and they may lose all or some self-awareness while doing so. A communication might also be given via imagery (a religious vision ). They may also be led to recite a text in the manner of that deity, in which case the invocation is more akin to ritual drama. The Wiccan Charge of
279-488: Is a prayer of supplication or request. Muslims regard this as a profound act of worship. One of the earliest treaties on invocations, attributed to a scholar named Khālid ibn Yazīd, has survived on a papyrus booklet dated 880-881. An invocation can also be a secular alternative to a prayer. On August 30, 2012, Dan Nerren, a member of the Humanist Association of Tulsa, delivered a secular invocation to open
310-443: Is a series of rituals and operations aimed at recovering the transcendent essence by retracing the divine 'signatures' through the layers of being. Education is important for comprehending the scheme of things as presented by Aristotle, Plato, and Pythagoras. The theurgist works 'like with like': at the material level, with physical symbols; at the higher level, with mental and purely spiritual practices. Starting with correspondences of
341-449: Is comparable to an affirmation as an alternative for those who conscientiously object to taking oaths of any kind, be it for reasons of belief or non-belief . The word "possession" is used here in its neutral form to mean "a state (sometimes psychological) in which an individual's normal personality is replaced by another". This is also sometimes known as 'aspecting'. This can be done as a means of communicating with or getting closer to
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#1732764740904372-517: Is invoked to "ride" workers of seidr (Norse shamanism), much like the god rides his eight-legged horse Sleipnir . Indeed, forms of possessive invocation appear throughout the world in most mystical or ecstatic traditions, wherever devotees seek to touch upon the essence of a deity or spirit. [REDACTED] The dictionary definition of invocation at Wiktionary Theurgy Theurgy ( / ˈ θ iː ɜːr dʒ i / ; from Greek θεουργία theourgía ), also known as divine magic ,
403-400: Is one of two major branches of the magical arts, the other being practical magic or thaumaturgy . Theurgy describes the ritual practices associated with the invocation or evocation of the presence of one or more deities , especially with the goal of achieving henosis (uniting with the divine) and perfecting oneself. Theurgy means "divine working". The first recorded use of
434-580: The Maasai people who invited her to witness a female circumcision ceremony. Astonished by the ritual, she then determined to spend more time with the Maasai. Beckwith studied photography in college but had initially intended to become a painter. It was during her travels through New Guinea that she realized the advantages of photography, saying that "there was such a vast amount of exciting material that I began to photograph instead, approaching photography with
465-804: The Royal Geographical Society in London. They have also collaborated on four films about African traditions. Together they have received numerous accolades, including the United Nations Award for Excellence, the Royal Geographical Society's Cherry Kearton Medal , two Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards , The Explorers Club's Lowell Thomas Award, and the WINGS WorldQuest Lifetime Achievement Award. Carol Beckwith
496-520: The Goddess is an example of such a pre-established recitation. The ecstatic, possessory form of invocation may be compared to loa possession in the Vodou tradition where devotees are described as being "ridden" or "mounted" by the deity or spirit. In 1995 National Geographic journalist Carol Beckwith described events she had witnessed during Vodoun possessions: A woman splashed sand into her eyes,
527-518: The book Maasai ( Abrams , 1980). She also collaborated with anthropologist Marion van Offelen to produce Nomads of Niger ( Abrams , 1983), a monograph on the Wodaabe cattle herders. Although she did not have formal training in anthropology , through working alone as well as with other anthropologists such as Saitoti, van Offelen and Linda Donley-Reid, she "was able to absorb techniques of interviewing, to learn what questions to ask in order to explore
558-434: The degree of Magus or Adept after a certain level of spiritual attainment. In a traditional and magical sense, theurgy is seen as the opposite of Goetia , even though many argue that they overlap. John Milbank , founder of radical orthodoxy , asserts that theology "encourages a theurgy which aims at a liberation of nature from terror and distress and at a fully harmonious and beautiful interaction between humans and
589-520: The divine in matter, the theurgist eventually reaches the level where the soul's inner divinity unites with the One. The Emperor Julian (332-363) embraced neoplatonic philosophy and worked to replace Christianity with a version of neoplatonic paganism . Because of his untimely death and the hold mainstream Christianity had over the empire at the time, this was ultimately unsuccessful, but he did produce several works of philosophy and theology , including
620-469: The divine light alone. Theurgy in this hermetic sense stresses the need for the individual to separate and analyze the individual components that constitute everyday consciousness and reunite them in a way that changes one's personal awareness into a state that understands and partakes in spiritual grace. Carol Beckwith Carol Beckwith (born July 10, 1945) is an American photographer, author, and artist known for her photojournalism documenting
651-552: The emanations are as follows: Plotinus urged contemplations for those who wished to perform theurgy, the goal of which was to reunite with the Divine (called henosis ). Therefore, his school resembles a school of meditation or contemplation . Iamblichus , a student of Anatolius and Porphyry (the latter himself was a student of Plotinus ), taught a more ritualized method of theurgy that involved invocation and religious, as well as magical, ritual. Iamblichus believed theurgy
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#1732764740904682-479: The eye of a painter in terms of light, color, composition. I wanted the images to be multilayered experiences in a way that a painting is. . . [Photography] seemed to be a more suitable medium for the pace of travel." Beckwith's first major collaboration was with Tepilit Ole Saitoti, an anthropologist and former Maasai warrior whom she met in Boston during one of her painting exhibitions. Their collaboration produced
713-839: The indigenous tribal cultures of Africa, most notably in partnership with the Australian photographer Angela Fisher . Between them, Beckwith and Fisher have published 14 books, and have had their photos appear in National Geographic , Natural History , African Arts , The Observer Magazine , Time , Life , Vogue , Marie Claire and Elle . They continue to exhibit and lecture at galleries and museums worldwide, including The American Museum of Natural History and The Explorers Club in New York City, The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and
744-800: The invoker's own words or actions. An example of a pre-established text for an invocation is the Lord's Prayer . In general, all religions use invoking prayers, liturgies , or hymns ; see for example the mantras in Hinduism and Buddhism , the Egyptian Coming Out by Day (aka Book of the Dead ), the Orphic Hymns and the many texts, still preserved, written in cuneiform characters on clay tablets, addressed to Shamash , Ishtar , and other deities. In Islam , invocation ( duʿāʾ )
775-951: The many aspects of traditional African life." Beckwith first heard about Angela Fisher through Fisher's brother Simon in 1974, during a hot air balloon ride in Maasai country. They met during Fisher's exhibition of traditional African jewelry in Nairobi, where they discovered they shared a passion for documenting traditional African cultures. Within one week, they were photographing a Maasai warrior ceremony together. During more than three decades of collaboration, they produced African Ark (Abrams, 1990), African Ceremonies (Abrams, 1999), Passages (Abrams, 2000), Surma (Taller Experimental, 2002), Karo (Taller Experimental, 2002), Maasai, Himba, Hamar (Taller Experimental, 2002), Faces of Africa (Abrams, 2004), Lamu: Kenya's Enchanted Island (Abrams, 2009), and Dinka (Abrams, 2010). They are currently (2011) working on completing their pan-African study of
806-672: The natural world". He continues by stating that theology equally "encourages a theurgy which is a social work of maximising democratic participation and socialist sharing". Some organizations, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , teach a type of theurgy that would help one ascend spiritually as well as understand the true nature of the self and its relation to the Divine and the Universe. This tradition holds that theurgists are usually solitary practitioners who seek
837-586: The spiritual universe is regarded as a series of emanations from the One . From the One emanated the Divine Mind (Nous) and in turn from the Divine Mind emanated the World Soul (Psyche). Neoplatonists insisted that the One is absolutely transcendent and in the emanations nothing of the higher was lost or transmitted to the lower, which remained unchanged by the lower emanations. For Plotinus and Porphyry
868-497: The term is found in the mid-second-century neoplatonist work the Chaldean Oracles (Fragment 153 des Places (Paris, 1971): 'For the theourgoí do not fall under the fate-governed herd'). The source of Western theurgy can be found in the philosophy of late neoplatonists , especially Iamblichus . Although the neoplatonists are often considered pagan polytheists , they embraced a form of monism . In late neoplatonism,
899-469: The two branches of Magick . In invocation, the macrocosm floods the consciousness . In evocation, the magician, having become the macrocosm, creates a microcosm. Possessive invocation may be attempted singly or, as is often the case in Wicca, in pairs - with one person doing the invocation (reciting the liturgy or prayers and acting as anchor), and the other person being invoked (allowing themselves to become
930-535: Was an imitation of the gods, and in his major work, On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians , he described theurgic observance as "ritualized cosmogony " that endowed embodied souls with the divine responsibility of creating and preserving the cosmos. Iamblichus' analysis was that the transcendent cannot be grasped with mental contemplation because the transcendent is supra-rational. Theurgy
961-893: Was born in Boston , Massachusetts, where she went on to attend both the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Goucher College in Maryland . After obtaining her degree in Painting and Photography, she won a traveling fellowship from the Boston Museum , which let her travel to other countries for the first time. She spent seven months in Japan, living in a Zen temple and studying calligraphic painting. She continued to travel through Southeast Asia and New Guinea , where she witnessed