Invocations for Beginners E-Book

Harry Eilenstein

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 69

Beschreibung

Invocation is the imagination of a deity and the subsequent identification with this imagined image of the deity. This procedure is one of the basics of magic, because through such an identification one's own possibilities of perception and action become many times greater. This technique goes back to the late Paleolithic Age, when hunters identified themselves with a panther in order to obtain the strength and speed of a panther during their hunt. Later, the grain god was invoked in the Neolithic period, and then the One God was invoked in kingship. The effectiveness of the technique of invocation, of course, like all magical phenomena, cannot be proven by words, but at least described in such a way that you may try this technique yourself. As with almost all things, patience and practice are beneficial, but there are also some methods, such as dream travel, that make the whole thing much easier and more effective.

Leseprobe

for Naropa

Table of Contents

What is an Invocation?

The Benefits of Invoking a Deity

The Choice of the Deity

Getting to Know the Deity

Study

Dream Journeys

Art

Kabbalah

The Connection to the Deity

Mantra and Chant

Temple and Cult

Imagination

Use

Transmission of Consciousness

Umbilical Cord

The Horoscope

The Invocation of the Deity

The Place of the Ritual

Place

Room

The Ritual Clothing

Clothing

Symbols

The Statue

Incense

Statue

Decoration of the Statue

Sacrifice

The Invocation

Foundation

Invocation

Mandala

Gestures of the Deity

Music and Dance

Music

Chanting

Dance

The Structure of the Ritual

Dynamics

Group Ritual

Mythological Scenes

Invocation and Evocation

The Variats

The Practice

The Kundalini

The Deity Consciousness

The History of Invocation

Paleolithic Age

Neolithic Age

Kingship

Materialism

Globalization

Book List

I What is an Invocation?

An invocation is simply the (usually temporary) identification with a deity. The word "invocation" means "calling in." So one invokes a deity into oneself, with whom one then identifies.

This sounds a bit like deliberate megalomania, but the concrete experience of an invocation is clearly different from megalomania.

Every prayer to a deity, every talisman dedicated to a deity, every meditation on a deity, every trust in a deity is a small invocation, a step on the way to an invocation: one approaches a deity and seeks a connection to it.

Invocations are found in all religions, although the methods for achieving "intimate connection with a deity" are different:

In the Christian Jesuit order, each monk reads the New Testament daily according to the instructions of the order's founder, Igantius of Loyola. In doing so, however, the monk does not assume the attitude of an outside observer, but always the position of Christ: he reads and experiences every situation from Christ's point of view. In this way, he increasingly suffuses and identifies himself with Christ.

In Jewish mysticism, one strives for identification with Yahweh or with Adam Kadmon, who is the perfect man united with God. An important element in this is understanding and meditation.

In Islam and Islamic mysticism (Sufism), this identification is achieved primarily through love of Allah.

In Hinduism, there is a great variety of meditations, rituals and cults to achieve this attachment to a deity.

In Buddhism, mandalas, meditations and rituals are used to gradually become like Buddha.

Invocations also exist in the lesser known, smaller religions, although they seem to be less common there.

Invocation is primarily an element of monotheistic religions: God is the source of the world, the king is the controller of the realm, the ego is the center of man, truth is the core of philosophy – in the worldview of monotheism there is always an original unity from which the diversity of creation emanates. Therefore, every form of self-knowledge and every form of self-expression is based on the return to this original center – and ultimately, therefore, on the return to God, to the invocation of God, in the unity with God.

The invocation of a deity still originates from shamanism: one of the main tasks of shamans was and is to call the spirits of the deceased to their still living descendants, so that they may assist them with advice and help. In the early Neolithic period (10,500-8,500 B.C.), the ancestral spirits were called into their skulls; then in the middle Neolithic period (8,500-5,000 B.C.) into their skulls, which were covered with clay and plasticized into as lifelike a portrait head of the deceased as possible; and then finally (5000-3250 B.C.) into a stone statue of the deceased. These three Neolithic phases were not sharply demarcated from each other, but flowed smoothly into each other.

The statues were obviously something like a "second body" for the soul of the dead person, which gradually developed from the skull of the dead person.

Then, as the archetype of the mother, various mythological motifs, and some ancestors evolved into deities during the Neolithic period, statues were also made as secondary bodies for these deities.

At first, these statues were simply a shaped piece of wood, clay or stone. Only by the shaman calling the spirit of the dead person or the deity into a statue, this shaped piece of wood, clay or stone became an "inhabited statue".

In various forms of magic, the magician identified with other beings already in the Paleolithic Age – the identification with the panther can be traced back the longest by the hunters, who wanted to be able to hunt as effectively as a panther (late Paleolithic Age). So the oldest known invocations were animal invocations.

It was obvious to connect these animal invocations with the calling in of the ancestors and deities into their statues: In this way, the invocation of an ancestor into one's own body (family constellations) or of a deity into one's own body (invocation) came into being.

The method, which is known today as "systemic family constellations", originated from South African shamans, who used this invocation variant to establish contact with the ancestors.

The principle of identification is still widespread today: Almost every young person has a role model, an ideal, of which he has a poster hanging on his room wall …

The successful, lasting invocation is described in many religions in the same way: Man becomes a child of the deity in question. This invocation and permanent connection is found in yogis, saints, founders of religions, kings, etc.

This "child of a deity" motif is found, for example, in the ancient Egyptian pharaoh who called himself "Son of the Sun," in the Chinese emperor who was called "Son of Heaven," in the Inca (king of the Qetchua Indians) who was addressed as "Son of the Sun," in Christ who is known as "Son of God," etc.

On the way to the successful invocation with a deity, one often finds several steps that build on each other:

1

st

stage:

waking consciousness, body consciousness

2

nd

step:

experiencing the power animal, the power plant and the power stone

3

rd

step:

experiencing one's own soul

4

th

step:

invocation of a deity

5

th

step:

unity with the one God

These five stages are a gradual expansion of one's consciousness to more and more comprehensive areas.

These five stages correspond to the "Middle Pillar" from the Kabbalah. From it is derived a meditation called "Exercise of the Middle Pillar" which is the short form of a comprehensive invocation. It will be described in more detail later.

II The Use of the Invocation of a Deity

According to the descriptions given so far, an Invocation seems to be something quite extraordinary and strenuous – at least if you do it purposefully, systematically and with great commitment and do not just pin a poster of your own youth idol on the wall of your room. Therefore, the legitimate question arises as to the benefit of such an invocation.

Well – if the Invocation is what it promises to be, one's own waking consciousness unites with the consciousness of a deity and consequently with the possibilities of perception and action of a deity. Since the possibilities of a deity go far beyond the possibilities of a human being, one expands also ons's own possibilities by an invocation.

One can assume that the experience of this expansion will be quite uniform in itself, but that the concrete experiences will depend very much on the particular deity invoked. Depending on the special request one has, one will invoke different deities. This expansion of one's possibilities through an invocation allows one's "ordinary magic" to become "extraordinary magic."

The greatest gift of an invocation, however, is the experience of dissolving the boundaries of one's own consciousness: a deity has a clearly defined character, but no boundaries – it is everywhere at once. One can reach this state through an invocation, among other things.