List of Articles in this Series so far: Part One: Introduction –– Part Two: Making the most out of this series of articles. Part Three: Chapter one, Creating a Magical Mindset––The key to Magical Success, Part Four: Chapter one, The Four Elements, Part Five: Chapter one, Serving Spirits

In this series of articles, we are going to go over how to do Evocation & Invocation.

Right now, I am in the process of creating a book on making Evocation & invocation far more efficient, and powerful & Beginner-friendly. Oftentimes, when authors make books, they lock themselves up in a room for days at a time over years & Write/edit their work simultaneously.

With this book, we are not going to do that.

Instead, we will write these blog posts publicly & get feedback as we create it. That way, the final product will be far more satisfactory & catered to make sure you’re getting exactly what you want out of the book. I’m not perfect, so I cannot make the perfect book alone. However, if we work on this together, we can make a book that is valuable & worthwhile for years to come.

If this sounds like a project you want to be a part of, then please subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest blog updates.

Note: I am not looking for typos or spelling errors as much as I am looking for structure, missing elements, interesting citations, & ways of keeping the book both concise, simple & completely practical. I love academics, but I want this book to be super practical and easy to use, first & foremost. If these articles make things approachable, then I am succeeding. If not, please let me specifically know how I can make this guide more approachable & universal.

Chapter One: The Four Elements

The ancient scriptures of the East and the West attest to an occult belief that all things in the Universe is made up of the interaction of primal elements. Agrippa says that the elements are the foundation of all things in the cosmos. When the bodies die, they are dissolved into elements. The elements are found in the heavens, the stars, the zodiac signs, planets, in different spirits like angels and demons, and even in the Primal Principle or God. The elements are in all things.

Rather than actual objects seen by the naked eye, these refer to universal principles as well the actual elements themselves. In the west due to how these principles behave, they are given the attributed names of fire, water, air, and earth. These elements are called in the Indian tradition as the tattvas. The fifth element, taken from the Sanskrit, is called akasha.

According to the Indian scriptures, these tattvas form a descending hierarchy – from the finest elements (akasha) to the densest (earth).

According to Franz Bardon in his work Initiation into Hermetics, the Aksha principle is the origin of all the other elements. Bardon further states that each element has two polarities sometimes known as positive (+) and negative (-), active and passive (-).  Plus (+) will always stand for the positive, innovative, and productive sources, whereas minus (-) represents everything negative or damaging. There are always two fundamental characteristics that must be made explicitly distinct in each component. The polarity of good and evil are merely concepts created by humans and according to Bardon, they do not exist. Everything in the universe was made in accordance with unchanging laws that reflect the Divine Principle, there is neither good nor bad in it. We can only approach the Divine by understanding these laws.

From Akasha, the first element Tejas (fire) is born from akasha. This element, along with all the others, has an impact on everything made as well as our basically material plane. Fire’s basic qualities are heat and expansion.

The second element is Waju (water).  Water also comes from the etheric principle, akasha. It has quite different characteristics from fire, however. These fundamental characteristics include shrinking and coldness. In the same way that fire has two poles, so does the point in question, with the active pole being constructive, life-giving, nourishing, and protective and the negative pole, which is comparable to fire’s, being destructive, dissecting, fermenting, and dividing. The element of water has the basic quality of shrinking and constricting and produces the magnetic fluid.

The interaction of fire and water are the two main elements. They represent the positive and negative poles.

The third element is Apas (air). This element also comes from the etheric principle or akasha. According to the Bardon, the entirety of created life has taken on motion because of the combination of the active and passive elements of fire and water. The air principle takes on the qualities of warmth from the fire and dampness from the water in its role as a mediator. These two characteristics will also endow the airy principle with two polarities, namely the life-giving polarity in a favorable outcome and the destructive polarity in a negative outcome.

The final element that comes from the etheric principle is Prithivi (earth). This element comes about, according to the Initiation into Hermetics, a result of the interaction between the fire, water, and air. The earthy principle has emerged as the fourth element, and because of this, all three elements undergo solidification. The three elements have taken on a definite form thanks to this quality of solidification. With the emergence of space, measure, weight, and time, the three elements’ combined action has also been constrained. The earth principle can now be described as a 4-pole magnet since the reciprocal actions of the three elements and the earth have combined to form a tetrapolar force, according to Bardon.

In the next part of this series, we will cover the Cosmic Hierarchy.

In the final edition of the book, the next sequence would cover Akasha & Non-dual light with great depth & detail.

If you want to go through a complete course to Gain an Accelerated ability in Skills & Transmissions, you can look at the complete magical evocation & Invocation course at the Mystery College or Perseus Academy. You can also check out our other course on the Practice of Magical Evocation by Mark Rasmus. One of our Partner schools, The Sixty Skills, is also working on Evocation & Invocation skills.