Earlier this month, I missed a video on the collab channel I co-founded on YouTube, The Pagan Perspective, because I was busy packing for a week-long trip to LA and completely forgot about the video! The following week, I said in my Tuesday video that I would post my answer to the weekly topic that I missed on my blog, and until now I hadn't made time to do that. So before I go on to many other wonderful projects, be they videos, blogs, or other sorts, I wanted to make this post for you. The topic is as follows:
August 4-9, Regina Oliveira - Incorporations / Invocations
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--“Hello Pagan Perspective! My name is Regina and I'm from Brazil, so you please excuse me if I write something wrong. I hope to be clear.
There are cases of incorporations (this is the term in Portuguese not think it's the same in English but what I mean is when an entity is manifested by the body of a witch) in witchcraft?
What do you think about it?
Think are the God and the Goddess there? Or a spirit that is intermediate between?
Could you recommend me books about the subject?
I love the channel, keep up the good work. Blessed be!”Regina's word is "incorporation" but her description, "when an entity is manifested by the body of a witch," sounds to me to be like what we usually call invocation, or taking the essence or energy of another being into yourself (as opposed to evocation, which is calling outward something from within you, or calling something to exist outside of your own body. This is the way I distinguish them, anyway). So with that being the case, I don't have many recommendations for sources or anything; it's something that is mentioned briefly in a lot of basic books, but I don't have anything that goes really in depth.
As for what I think about it, I think there are multiple levels or strengths, I guess you could say. On the one hand, when you invoke the Goddess and God or any other being using any such poem or power call that can be called "Invocation of ___," I don't believe that the Being being called is necessarily manifested by the body of the witch every time. In those cases I personally feel that yes, the God/dess/whomever has been called is there, and their qualities are present within me, but my body is not housing another being. On the other hand, I also think there are instances in which a spirit or an energy is called upon to physically inhabit the body of the witch, in essence "living" in the witch's physical form for a short time, and to my knowledge we also use the term "invocation" for that. Maybe "incorporation" is actually a better word for it, since it literally calls to mind that the being is housed in corporeal form, in a physical body. With THAT being the case, I would say that I use invocation, but I have never taken part in incorporation*, and I don't have any good sources for incorporation. Taking another being into yourself is some serious, powerful stuff, and I'm not ready to take part in that*. However, many people have, so I'm sure someone has some sources or even personal experiences!
*Unless you count a meditation in which I invoked the spirit of an animal (not a specific animal, but the energy of that Animal as a whole group) and had some pretty cool experiences with that connection. But I'm honestly not sure if that would be considered the same thing.
Thanks for reading,
Blessings~
-C-
