Is incense absolutely necessary in doing an evocation, will just using candles be sufficient? Is the purpose of the incense to serve as an offering/gift to the spirit/entity or is it mostly for the magician, so he or she can see the form of the spirit/entity in the smoke?
Its not absolutely necessary, no. For some people with a close link to an entity, sometimes all that those people need is to ask for them to show up, and they do. Youll probably know if that applies to you or not intuitively.
But incense is useful nonetheless IMO. It sets the mood for the magician, and I do believe that certain scents are associated with certain spiritual energies, or ‘locations’, so they can help you attune to that energy or place.
Also, most entities will appreciate the gesture as well, if given as an offering.
So Im going to stay that its for both magician and entity, and probably is never a wrong thing to have in a ritual in standard practice, but is not an absolute requisite.
Nope, the incense can serve as a base for the spirit to manifest in but no, it’s not necessary. All you need are candles, and a sigil and it doesn’t even have to be a hand drawn sigil. I use photos on my ipad from my photo library to evoke spirits, pictures of them, their sigils. I’ve been doing magick for since I was a child, for 19 years now, so trust me when I say that other stuff is just there to help you focus on the demon or deity. You’ll be fine with just a few candles and if you can’t find the right color, use whatever you have. It will not affect the evocation, unless you, personally, do something to mess it up on accident.
I was using incense, black candles and a sigil. However, I don’t have access to the garage where I was conducting the ritual, so just using the candles and a sigil suits my situation better. How did you get into magick at a young age if you don’t mind me asking. Were you raised up in it?
No I wasn’t raised in magick but I believed in it even though my family and friends told me it was stupid and silly. I could feel my guardians all around me and began connecting to them very early on, they guided me and taught me some basic magick, kept me safe, showed me the way pretty much so magick for me has always been a part of my life as opposed to something I sought after and had to find. But darn, my guardians made me wait several years before finally revealing their names to me. But it was worth the wait, I guess.