Invocation

{{Short description|Supplication to a supernatural being}}
{{About|religious and spiritual invocation|the term meaning starting computer software|Execution (computing)|other uses|Invocation (disambiguation)}}
{{more citations needed|date=November 2013}}
[[File:Gustave dore crusades invocation to muhammad.jpg|thumb|right|220px|''Invocation'' by [[Gustave Doré]]]]
{{magic sidebar|Forms}}
In Western [[Magic (supernatural)|ritual magic]], '''invocations''' (from the [[Latin verbs|Latin verb]] ''invocare'' "to call on, invoke, to give") are a field involving communicating or interacting with certain incorporeal, supernatural [[spirit (supernatural)|spirit]]s. Invocation may take the form of:

*[[Supplication]], [[prayer]] or [[Spell (paranormal)|spell]].
*A form of [[Spirit possession|possession]].
*[[wikt:command|Command]] or [[Conjuration (summoning)|conjuration]].
*[[Self-identification]] with certain spirits.

These forms are described below, but are not mutually exclusive. 
See also [[Theurgy]].

== Supplication or prayer ==
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 his/her spiritual presence in a ceremony) or simply for [[worship]], this can be done in a pre-established form or with the invoker's own words or actions. An example of a pre-established text for an invocation is the [[Lord's Prayer]].

All religions in general use invoking prayers, [[liturgies]], or [[hymns]]; see for example the [[mantra]]s in [[Hinduism]] and [[Buddhism]], the [[Egypt]]ian ''Coming Out by Day'' (aka ''[[Book of the Dead]]''), the [[Orphic]] Hymns and the many texts, still preserved, written in [[Cuneiform (script)|cuneiform]] characters on clay tablets, addressed to [[Shamash]], [[Ishtar]], and other deities.

In [[Islam]], invocation ({{transliteration|ar|DIN|[[dua|duʿāʾ]]}}) is a prayer of [[supplication]] or request.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Dua|editor=John L. Esposito|encyclopedia=The Oxford Dictionary of Islam|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2014|url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e561|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423045826/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e561|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 23, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Gardet, L |title=Duʿāʾ| year= 2012 |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam| edition=2nd|publisher=Brill |editor1=P. Bearman|editor2= Th. Bianquis|editor3= C.E. Bosworth|editor4= E. van Donzel|editor5= W.P. Heinrichs|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0195}}</ref> [[Muslim]]s regard this as a profound act of worship. [[Muhammad]] is reported to have said, "Dua is the very essence of worship."{{quote without source|date=February 2024}} One of the earliest treaties on invocations, attributed to a scholar named Khālid ibn Yazīd, has survived on a papyrus booklet dated 880-881.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tillier |first=Mathieu |title=Supplier Dieu dans l'Égypte toulounide : le florilège de l'invocation d'après Ḫālid b. Yazīd (IIIe/IXe siècle) |date=2022 |others=Naïm Vanthieghem |isbn=978-90-04-52180-3 |location=Leiden |oclc=1343008841}}</ref>

=== As alternative to prayer ===
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 a meeting of the City Council of [[Tulsa, Oklahoma|Tulsa]].<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=19423373|title = Atheist Delivers Invocation At Tulsa City Council Meeting For First Time Ever|date = Aug 30, 2012<!-- 9:27 PM EDT-->|publisher = KOTV.com}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.secularstudents.org/node/2938|title = Andrew Lovley's Secular Invocation|publisher = Secular Students Alliance|date = 2009-12-15 <!-- - 10:08 --> |author = Lyz}}</ref>

In this usage, it is comparable to an [[affirmation in law|affirmation]] as an alternative for those who conscientiously object to taking [[oath]]s of any kind, be it for reasons of belief or [[non-belief]].

== A form of possession ==
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 a deity or spirit, and as such need not be viewed synonymously with [[demonic possession]].

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. Again, [[Aleister Crowley]] states that

{{blockquote|
To "invoke" is to "call in", just as to "evoke" is to "call forth". This is the essential difference between the two branches of [[Magic (paranormal)|Magick]]. In invocation, the macrocosm floods the [[consciousness]]. In evocation, the magician, having become the macrocosm, creates a microcosm.<ref>[[Aleister Crowley]], ''Magick, Book 4'', p.147</ref>
}}

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 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 the Goddess]] is an example of such a pre-established recitation. See also the [[ritual]] of [[Drawing down the Moon (ritual)|Drawing Down the Moon]].

The ecstatic, possessory form of invocation may be compared to [[loa]] possession in the [[West African Vodun|Vodou]] tradition where devotees are described as being "ridden" or "mounted" by the deity or spirit. In 1995 [[National Geographic Society|National Geographic]] journalist [[Carol Beckwith]] described events she had witnessed during Vodoun possessions:

{{blockquote|
A woman splashed sand into her eyes, 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.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Carol |last=Beckwith |title=The African Roots of Voodoo |publisher= National Geographic 188.2 |date=August 1995 |pages=102–113 }}</ref>
}}

Possessive invocation has also been described in certain Norse rites where [[Odin]] 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.<ref>[[Robert J Wallis]], ''Shamans/Neo-Shamans: Ecstasies, Alternative Archaeologies and Contemporary Pagans'', p.96 {{ISBN|0-415-30202-1}}</ref>

== Command or conjuration ==
{{Main|Conjuration (summoning)}}
{{blockquote|
I am Pazuzu, son of the king of the evil spirits, that one who descends impetuously from the mountains and bring the storms. That is the one I am.{{quote without source|date=February 2024}}
}}

{{poemquote|
I do not bake the bread, nor with it salt
Nor do I cook the honey with the wine
I bake the body and the blood and soul
The soul of (great) Diana that she shall
Know neither rest nor peace and ever be
In cruel suffering till she will grant what I request
I beg it of her from my very heart!
And if the grace be granted, O Diana!
In honour of thee I will hold this feast
Feast and drain the goblet deep
We will dance and wildly leap
And if thou grant'st the grace which I require
Then when the dance is wildest, all the lamps
Shall be extinguished and we'll freely love!{{quote without source|date=February 2024}}
}}

== Self-identification with certain spirits ==
Invocation can refer to taking on the qualities of the being invoked, such as the allure of [[Aphrodite]] or the ferocity of [[Kali]]. In this instance the being is literally called up from within oneself (as an [[archetype]]) or into oneself (as an external force), depending on the personal belief system of the invoker. The main difference between this type of invocation and the possessive category described above is that the former may appear more controlled, with self-identification and deity-identification mixed together. In practice, invocations may blend many or all of these categories.  See for example this Hymn to Astarte from the [[Songs of Bilitis]], first attributed to a contemporary of [[Sappho]] (but actually written by [[Pierre Louÿs]] in the 1890s):

{{poemquote|
Mother inexhaustible and incorruptible, creatures, born the first, engendered by thyself and by thyself conceived, issue of thyself alone and seeking joy within thyself, [[Astarte]]! 
Oh! Perpetually fertilized, virgin and nurse of all that is, chaste and lascivious, pure and revelling, ineffable, nocturnal, sweet, breather of fire, foam of the sea! 
Thou who accordest grace in secret, thou who unitest, thou who lovest, thou who seizest with furious desire the multiplied races of savage beasts and couplest the sexes in the wood. 
Oh, irresistible Astarte! hear me, take me, possess me, oh, Moon! and thirteen times each year draw from my womb the sweet libation of my blood!<ref>From the Songs of Bilitis</ref>
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary inline}}

{{Thelema series}}
{{Contemporary_witchcraft}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Anthropology of religion]]
[[Category:Ceremonial magic]]
[[Category:Prayer]]
[[Category:Ritual]]