Evocation

Image:White indian conjuror.jpg "conjuror" in a 1590 engraving]]

In traditional and most contemporary usage, conjuration refers to a magical act of invoking spirits or using incantations or charms to cast magical spells. In the context of legerdemain, it may also refer to the performance of illusion or magic tricks for show. This article discusses mainly the original and primary usage, describing acts of a supernatural or paranormal nature.{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/conjure |title=Conjure | Define Conjure at Dictionary.com |publisher=Dictionary.reference.com |access-date=2014-08-20}}{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/conjuration |title=Conjuration | Define Conjuration at Dictionary.com |publisher=Dictionary.reference.com |access-date=2014-08-20}}{{better source needed|date=January 2023}}

Within some magical traditions today, such as Neopagan witchcraft, hoodoo and Hermeticism or ceremonial magic, conjuration may refer specifically to an act of calling or invoking deities and other spirits; or it may refer more generally to the casting of magic spells by a variety of techniques.{{cite encyclopedia |author=Houdini, Harry |author-link=Harry Houdini |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Harry-Houdini-on-conjuring-1973131|title=Conjuring |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |edition=13th |year=1926 |access-date=January 22, 2018}}

File:Ebenezer Sibly - Edwḍ Kelly, a Magician. in the Act of invoking the Spirit of a Deceased Person.jpg and Edward Kelley evoking a spirit]]

{{see also|Magic and religion}}

The Latin word evocatio was the "calling forth" or "summoning away" of a city's tutelary deity. The ritual was conducted in a military setting either as a threat during a siege or as a result of surrender, and aimed at diverting the god's favor from the opposing city to the Roman side, customarily with a promise of a better-endowed cult or a more lavish temple.Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 41. Evocatio was thus a kind of ritual dodge to mitigate looting of sacred objects or images from shrines that would otherwise be sacrilegious or impious.Nicholas Purcell, "On the Sacking of Corinth and Carthage", in ''Ethics and Rhetoric: Classical Essays for Donald Russell on His Seventy (Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 140–142.

The calling forth of spirits was a relatively common practice in Neoplatonism, theurgy and other esoteric systems of antiquity. In contemporary western esotericism, the magic of the grimoires is frequently seen as the classical example of this idea. Manuals such as the Greater Key of Solomon the King, The Lesser Key of Solomon (or Lemegeton), the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.

• {{anli|Apport (paranormal)|Apport}}
• {{anli|Materialization (paranormal)|Materialization}}
• {{anli|Psychokinesis}}
• {{anli|Servitor (chaos magic)|Servitor}}
• {{anli|Thaumaturgy}}
• {{anli|Theurgy}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |author-link=Max Dessoir |last=Dessoir |first=Max |year=1891 |url=https://archive.org/stream/aroundworldwithm00burl |chapter=Psychology of the Art of Conjuring |editor-link=H. J. Burlingame |editor-first=H. J. |editor-last=Burlingame |title=Around the World with a Magician and a Juggler |place=Chicago |publisher=Clyde Publishing Co. |pages=137–165}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Thomas Frost (writer) |first=Thomas |last=Frost |year=1876 |url=https://archive.org/details/livesconjurors01frosgoog |title=The Lives of the Conjurors |publisher=Tinsley Brothers}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Kocku von Stuckrad |first=Kocku |last=von Stuckrad |title=Western Esotericism: A Brief History of Secret Knowledge |translator=Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke |place=London |publisher=Equinox |volume=XII}}

• {{wikt-inline|evoke|evocation|conjure|conjuration}}

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Category:Anthropology of religion

Category:Ceremonial magic

Category:Magic rituals