Customer Reviews

Summoning Spirits: The Art of Magical Evocation (Llewellyn's Practical Magick)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have been studying Magicknow for around 10 years, and have come across LOADS of books about the theory and practice of the subject. I have been through the armchair-phase, the practicing-phase, the back to armchair, the back to practicing several times now. The enduring problem that I have come across in my development is what this book presents widely,freely and openly:<B>NO ASSUMPTIONS!!</B>
The author speaks from his own experiences when explaining the whys, and gives step-by-step directions when explaining the hows. And I can tell the newcomers to Magic(k) that this is rare indeed!

One note to beginners:Dont believe the author's time-frames for how long each exercise should be practised. Each of the beginning exercises are in themselves giant. You just try that first one about emptying the mind of thoughts! I learned that the goals of this book are many more than the final evocation of a spirit: And believe me, these entities are REAL!

If you are interested in summoning up elementals,Planetary spirits, Angels and Goetic beings this is the book to get. Though I do a diffrent ceremony for goetic spirits. I do use the methods in this book for the other beings. The auther gives very good and solid information on the Elementals, Angels, Planetary spirits and Goetic beings. But dont be decieved sometimes evoking these beings are not very easy at all. Be prepared for successes as well as failures. This is a great book to get on the subject of evoking these forces.

"Summoning Spirits" is the one of best books I have read so far in regards to the ancient and powerful art of magickal evocation. Although I have only just recently purchased this book, I have found it to be very informative, educational and interesting. As an individual aspiring to master this ancient magickal art, and science, I had found Konstantinos's advice and guidance quite beneficial about only working with benevolent spirits such as Angelic, Planetary and Elementary entities. However, I will be looking forward to summoning the Goetic entities as well, as I believe that a magician should have a 'magickal and spiritual balance' between both benevolent and malevolent entities, in addition to mastering them. All in all, a great book for a magician wishing to practice magickal evocation. In addition, I am especially looking forward to evoking the divine and beautiful Archangels and striving to unite and become 'one' with Divinity, which Konstantinos mentions is the 'true' defintion and purpose of magick. A truly magickal and spiritually inspiring book. I know that I will always enjoy and value keeping it as part of my personal magickal library to cherish, reflect upon, and treasure the ancient magickal wisdom and power within it.

Good magick to all,

Mark

Excellent primer on evoking entities for the intermediate magick practitioner. Unlike many books of its kind, I believe that Konstantinos' book will be applicable for many types of practitioners. That being said, I don't agree with the author who was bothered by Konstantinos' suggestion to focus on benevolent entities, nor do I agree that those who prefer not to go near the nastier entities are 'fluff bunny pagans'. While this breed does exist (I've met quite a few perky cheerleader-Witch types), I hardly think that choosing to avoid certain more malevolent entities is akin to denying the dark side of one's life, spiritual and otherwise. I also think that the author's suggestion was just a SUGGESTION, not a condescending fluffbunny dictate. I know many don't follow the Wiccan Rede, but I do--and that usually led me away from many evocation books which for the most part focused A LOT on the Goetic entities. This one seemed to have something for those like me who chooses to use my practices either for positive spiritual goals (at my most lofty--and for this, I loved the selection on evoking the Angels, Archangels and Earth entities)or (at my most 'low magick')to improve my life without harming others. It seems too many authors in Pagan/Wiccan/high or ceremonial magic genres tend to go to extremes--either turn the ritual into a Grateful Dead peace'n'love for all no matter what be-in, or compete for who can be the most eager to prove the now-debunked, formerly popular notion that all pagans/witches/magicians are evil/in communication with demons/scary, etc. Finally, a book that is the happy medium. And for those who dismiss the idea of evoking angelic entities, you don't know what you're missing.

This book will give the beginer an excellent foundation to start evocation. The author draws on several old world texts and simplifies them so that the every day "Joe" can grasp the concepts.
I began my first works in evocation with the Golden Dawn material. However, "Summoning Spirits" gave me a clearer understanding of this working.
The first spirit I summoned from this book was the archangel Michael. Although I didn't "see" the spirit in the crystal, I could sense the presence and there was a sweet smell. As I continued to evoke various entities, my life began to improve. I had been very ill and was in a bad situation; in fact, I nearly died at one point. But thanks to the contents of this book, my life gradually improved, and today I have to say my health and life have improved 210%. (I must also credit the
People of the Orisha and the African baba who helped me, too).
This is a terrific book...however, if you're going to evoke a spirit, make sure you're reasons are very clear. Don't just do it to see if you can.

If you are as tired as I am tired of arm chair theorists who have never even tried REAL magick pick to death a really concise and well written book wile at the same time trying to tell everyone how much of a great Mage they are wile they have yet to begin writing their own book. (Must be so many wise and hidden masters are consulting them.) And that someone else's writing style is "immature" and doesn't meet an older work word for word. Then ignore almost every review on this page. But if you want to do real magick then read this book do the exercises and prove to your selves that you can do what so many say is impossible or improbable because they cant or wont. with the first entity you summon know that you are a far better magician than 99.99% of everyone that claims that title and also know that you have at your fingertips the means to know anything, do anything and be anything you want. My opinion of this book is that it is superb and easily readable on many levels yes it is written for a student but unless you are a god you are a student and still learning so pick it up and learn from it ... if you dont learn something from it you arnt really reading it. PS. There is no really new knowledge just that which is re-remembered, re-learned and re-introduced PPS. Use a spell checker Oh wise masters.

I'm a student of an esoterical order, and I have quite some knoledge about Magick and Summoning technics. Although this is an interesting book, with a really nice definition of the Art, it takes this Art too lightly in my point of view. There are some necessary warnings made in the book, but there is a lot of confusion in the classification of the entities. Some evil spirits (Powerfull Demons) like Bael(for example), are considerated as quite friendly entities with the beautiful classification of "goetic entities". I wondered if the author is aware of the real nature and wiseness of this kind of Spirits, and how they can create ilusions in one's mind. The Conjuration of the Seven written by classical authors like Levi and Papus has a sentence, "In name of Gabriel, may Adonay order upon you and send you away Bael" (I'm translating literally from french), wich should be considered... this entitie, for example, is one of the Seven main Demons, the Dark ray of the Moon, the Negative force, oposite of Gabriel the Inteligence of the Moon. There are some other demons that figure in some left hand path gromoires, like the Grimorum Verum, that are also presented as goetic... I agree with the author that this entities can be summoned and we can work with them. But I can't disagree most about the method recomended by the author. I think, the advertisements made in all the Magick Books, and by the Masters of the Art are being ignored in this book. Have ever the author read the Lemegeton?! I mean, maybe it wasn't a bad idea to read it again.Project astrally near a Demon?!? Enter, in His own realm and summon Him?!... I pass,thank's! If the summoning of the last 50 entities can be done by you, than summon Mettraton, Raphael, Michael, etc., in the first place... but to have results, better than the astral technic in the book, the operator should prepare himself in the classical way, although it is hard it is tested by time, and to be sincere, I have my serious doubts that a Divine Entitie as Mettraton, appears with that made easy, prepareless rituals, I have my serious doubts. Solomon the King, and others prepare the students about the difficulty of ordering a demon to manifestate, and here that is exposed like if it was calling a dog witth a bone... May the author forgive my words, but there are allready REAL efective methods to work with summoning, leggated by the Masters of the Magical Art, to be changed into a "naíf" magical point of view.

I found this book to be very well written, with no overt typos. The author is knowledgeable on the subject and as plus in my review mentions Franz Bardon, giving readers a chance to look at the work of an earlier occult author. Konstantinos provides readers a thorough examination of summoning spirits, including several different ways of evocation and exercises that can be used by the beginner or adept to ground him/herself and get a working knowledge of how to evoke before the actual evocations begin. He also provides a list of spirits the magician might wish to work with.

However, while I liked this book overall I did find the emphasis on judeo-christianity to be a bit much. Granted much of the tradition of evocation is centered around those religions, however I wish the author would've researched other magic systems such as Demonolatry so that he could present alternative ways of evocation that don't involve calling on the judeo-christian God. At the least I would've liked to have seen a framework provided for magicians that might not be comfortable working with judeo-christian spirits. I rank this book four stars out of five.

I must take issue with one of the claims made by the author about this book. He says that it is the only book you will ever need on the subject.

This is patently not true.

Don't get me wrong, there is some stuff worth reading in this book, but it is _suggestive_, not _definitive_. For example, his Clairvoyance and Clairaudience exercises are interesting. Also, the descriptions of the fifty spirits is useful - assuming that they are taken from his own magical diary.

But elsewhere, Konstantinos makes a bit of a hash with his presentation of the Golden Dawn-style of magic, no more obvious than in his treatment of Enochian magic, which is woeful. This is a complex subject in itself, so much so that authors like Aleister Crowley and more recently John Michael Greer have recognised that it can't be handled adequately in a book which is only general in its terms.

My advice: read it if you want - or better still borrow it from a lending library if you want! - but there _are_ other books on the subject which should be read to get a more balanced view. (See, e.g. Crowley, Greer, Lon Milo Duquette, Poke Runyon, etc).

This book is really very good. I have been reading and collecting books on practical magic (both classics and modern books) since 1986, and this book enters the "top 10" list, along with Kraig's "Modern Magick" and some of the books by the Ciceros. If you are planning on studying evocation, this book will teach you from the beginning, even if you don't have any magical background or training. If you do have magical training and background but haven't started on evocation yet, don't worry, the preliminaries are short enough and can be skipped. I cannnot recommend this book enough. I even started a discussion group on it. If you have the book or are planning to buy it, you may check this out. ...