The skill of the magician known traditionally as 'summoning' falls into two major divisions:
Invocation: The calling of a god, spirit or being into the sacred space, and into your own self, that is to bring it to the conscious mind, and relate to it in a personal way.
The act of invocation is generally used with gods and goddesses, planetary and elemental representatives. This act identifies that which is called with the caller, the highest form of this is known as assuming god form.
The astral body of the magician becomes that of the deity being invoked. For all intents and purposes, the magician and deity are a symbiotic whole. The magician is in charge, but only if the magician maintains a clear will and intention. Invocation is taking the spirit into one’s self. The being actually enters the operator’s body.
An example is invoking a spirit and the spirit speaks through the operator using his/her voice to communicate. Often when this happens, one’s voice may change, becoming deeper, raspy, or different in some way. During séances, often the medium is able to produce a substance called "ectoplasm" to provide a luminescent material in order for the evoked spirit to manifest itself visibly. This is a form of invocation as there is a direct connection with the spirit and the medium.
Evocation: The calling of a god, spirit or being into a very controlled space, external to the operator, and having no connection to the magician, save for those things which are directly requested of the spirit by the magician.
Spiritual evocation is summoning an entity whether it be a Demon, spirit, deceased person, or elemental and the being appears outside of the operator. When working with energy, the energy is always on the outside of the operator and never inside his/her body. With evocation, there is never a direct tie or connection.
There is a great difference between evocation and invocation. When we invoke energy or spirits, we create a link to the energy or spirit through ourselves. Obviously, if one is using destructive or death energy, this can be very dangerous. Invocation also includes building up energy within one’s soul and discharging it through one’s aura and/or chakras. This creates a tie to the victim.
Most black magick spells that go wrong do so because of errors on the part of the mage. There are other reasons for a black magick working going wrong such as the victim having a powerful aura that is able to deflect negative energy; the victim is under powerful spiritual protection (If one is under Satan’s protection, nothing can touch him/her) or bad timing on the part of the mage. There can be other reasons, but the above are the most common.
Even white magick where healing is concerned can pose problems to the mage who invokes the energy before applying it. Any time energy is invoked, a powerful connection is established. Obviously, no one in his/her right mind would want to connect with a disease.
