This is a project that was inspired by the first few posts in this thread - to evoke the spirit of a given book, that you haven’t yet read, to ask it for knowledge.
Prior to beginning, I had no real attachment to how this would turn out; my copy’s at my partner’s right now, and I haven’t even opened it yet, because I’m still working through WoD. I was prepared for nothing to happen at all, in fact.
In that post on Zorrito’s thread, I outlined the types of questions I’d originally planned to ask (what do you have to say about how I can change X specific situation in my life? What recurring theme will you present me with? What one thing will you say that I most disagree with? and so on) – however this evocation didn’t turn out exactly as planned, and I think there’s something to learn from that for anyone who attempts to evoke a grimoire of any kind in future.
I sat down with just one light and the fireplace, and decided at the last minute to use my own journal as the evocation base. This was because any notes I make reading EE will go into this journal, so there’s a genuine link, and I don’t use a triangle for evocation anyway.
I’d intended to create something resembling the talking books from cartoons, but once I’d structured a basic rectangular book frame in the astral then projected it in front of me, I was just about to make it more detailed, when the spirit that flew into it immediately took on the image of the actual book itself, complete with black cover and silver design, and absolutely NO comedic anthropomorphised features.
And it was PISSED OFF! There was an immediate vibe of impatience, to put it mildly – not malevolent rage, more like a powerful annoyance, and a strong sense that it wasn’t impressed by my attempts to structure a form inspired by cartoons.
It whooshed in from the general direction of my copy, over to the south-west of the city. It sounded nothing like either the tone of the writing in WoD/BM, nor did it sound like Eric: it had a rather solemn masculine sounding voice, and a distinct presence that transcended the structured form I’d created.
The rest is copied verbatim from my notes taken during the evocation, including unusual word/grammatical uses, and any notes I’ve made are in brackets:
Evoking Eternity: DO NOT structure me with mouth I speak direct to soul.
Me: Where do you come from?
EE: From the souls of man that cried out for freedom for too long – there is no barrier between us, only the curtains of time and lies.
Me: Is it possible for people to evoke other rare books and learn from them?
EE: I care not for other books nor must you; ask me questions concerning my own genesis or stay silent.
Me: What is your nature?
EE: I am the gateway, the portal of which my master/creator (some word that I struggled to understand, halfway between those two terms) speaks, it is not for you to delve into the mechanics of this.
Me: Why not? (I was a bit amused by the entity’s tone, and it probably showed.)
EE: It is impudent. Your attitude will win you no awards with true wisdom. (Strong sense that it was getting even more annoyed at this point, so I mentally apologised and carried on.)
Me: What message would you most like to share?
EE: This is truth, wisdom – seek, return it to yourself and all will follow.
Me: What is true wisdom?
EE: Men and there are woman too who bring back truths instead of miserly hoarding them nor making them known only to the few.
Me: What so you think about the ebook release?
EE: It is excellent.
Me: Can evoking a book after owning it tell the reader more?
EE: Yes, this is good praxis for all of your schoolfriends, as image goes. (I saw an image of this forum, esp. the 3 forums on Evocation, Divination & Soul Travel.)
Me: Is there a final message you’d like me to pass on?
EE: Yes – be good in terms of skills, practice, don’t let distractions come lightly and do not invite them.
Me: Anything else?
EE: No, good day.
It whooshed back out, and the sense of an angry and offended presence went with it.
~~
So, I basically got told off by a book! It was kind of funny, but the spirit had such dignity and such an evident sense of not wishing to be portrayed incorrectly that I was impressed - not what I was expecting, and also I felt a tell-tale tiredness afterwards that only comes from evoking a real spirit for the first time.
This didn’t really answer the original posts about evoking a book to learn from it, but I suspect that had I asked this no-nonsense spirit to tell me about his own content, he’d just have directed me to read the pages, and not mess about.
If I evoke any grimoire/magickal book’s soul in future, I’ll certainly take it a lot more seriously in terms of NOT expecting an egregore with maybe a vague link to the REAL thing to turn up, which is probably where this went a bit off-track from the start. I felt the entity wanted to get through as quickly as possible, and had I started with more of a serious attitude, I might have been able to get some more information from him.
I plan to try it again in future with a book I really can’t get, possibly Geof Gray-Cobb’s book Acupineology, which I’ve had on watchlists everywhere for ages.
And I almost certainly will evoke EE again at some point once I’m done actually reading it, and ask for any clarifications or anything else that comes to mind, and post up any results, but that’s what happened from my first attempt, and it was certainly unexpected and bizzare.
I’d be interested if anyone else actually has a go with this? And to the spirit of Evoking Eternity, sorry mate – thank you for your time, and I hope I’m telling my “schoolfriends” here in a way that will mean they’re not as impudent as me if they try this!
