Bonus Assignment: Invocations and Evocations

 

 

As a bonus assignment for each GSG lesson, I’d like to encourage students to write an invocation and an evocation for the goddess.  Please share what you create if you are willing at the Facebook group. I’ll also suggest you set aside the time to use your invocation. Call the Goddess into you, and performing a sitting or a walking meditation. Let the essence and wisdom of the deity roll through and work within you, as a way of resonating and understanding her energy and role.  When you are done, dismiss the energy and write down any experiences, insights, visions you’ve have in your journal.

 

 

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Spiritual energy can be invoked or evoked. It all depends on your purposes.

Invocation (from Scott Cunningham’s  Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner): An appeal or petition to a higher power (or powers), such as the Goddess and God…. Invocation is actually a method of establishing conscious ties with those aspects of the Goddess and God that dwell within us.

An invocation is a prayer which calls to the Goddess, God, or any spirit or energy you wish to bring forth for ritual or casting. In an invocation, the energy you call forth actually resides in you, in your spirit and body; the term possession is the closest explanation, however with invocation you are fully aware of who you are and what you are doing, but the power is your Higher Power. The essence, power, personality of the Goddess enters, or makes itself known, in your body, your self. In basic pagan rituals, the High Priestess invokes the Goddess, becoming the representation of  Her during the rite. However, it is possible and acceptable to invoke the Goddess outside of ritual practice. At times, we may feel called to invoke the Goddess just to get a feel of her, to gain a better understanding

Invocation Examples:

Yemaya Invocation by Brandi Auset

Goddess who is Mother of All,
Queen of the Deep Sea,
Protectress of women -
Allow your presence to be known.
I who call upon you as Yemaya
Our Mother, Our Womb of Creation,
ask that your love rolls and washes over me as the waves of the ocean,
as the rivers from your breasts.
Yemaya, Mother Whose Children are Fish
You who are comfort, inspiration, and forgiveness
I call you forth to enter my heart.

 

Invocation of Hekate excerpted from Scott Cunningham’s Book of Shadows, pg. 25 (and slightly reworked by Brandi Auset)

I align myself with the spirit of all, and emerge as Hekate, the unbroken cycle of death and rebirth.  I am the wheel, the shadow of the moon. I rule the tides of men and women, and give release and renewal to weary souls. Though the darkness of death is my domain, the joy of birth is my gift. I know all things and have attained all wisdom.

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Evocation (From Scott Cunningham’s  Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner): Calling up spirits or other non-physical entities, either to visible appearance or invisible attendance.

An evocation is a prayer which calls forth spiritual entities, Gods, and Goddess, but those energies stay outside of you. These energies come forth to witness your rite, ritual, or working,  to add power and force to whatever it is you are doing. In basic pagan rituals, when we call in the elements, we are evoking the elements. We call them forth to witness the rite and to guard and protect the sacred space, but they do this outside of our bodies and self.  When we pray to the God/Goddess/etc  it is a type of evocation.

Evocation Examples:

Elemental Evocation by Brandi Auset

I call forth the power of the elements
Earth that is the bones
Air that is the breath
Water that is the blood
Fire that is the heat
Be here now, and guard this sacred space.

 

Hekate Evocation by Brandi Auset

I call upon the power of Hekate
She who is the Lady of Three
I summon your wisdom and your protection
In this sacred space / to guide me today / etc.

 

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Dismissing the energy you’ve called forth in an invocation/evocation doesn’t have to be as lengthy or wordy as the calling. It can be as simple as:

Thank you for your energy, for your love. I release your power, go now in peace and love.

 

You can write your own invocations/evocations in any style, any length you wish – the process is entirely personal. Always feel free to adjust or rewrite found prayers, evocations and invocations to your preference.

There are tons of examples of invocation and evocations online. A source I’ve grown fond of is http://www.ladyoftheearth.com/listing-page.html

 

Questions, comments, insights? Visit the Facebook group.