Speech as an Art Form

There is a certain art form when the magician is making invocations and calls into the Unseen and to the Powers. I have experimented with different ways of Speaking and have found the way that I do it, but I feel that there is a central working point that many magicians can work from.

As an actor I have learned how to place intention and emotion in my words as I portray them to the audience. As a method actor I take on the aspect of my character; I am not longer Angus but Claudius, King of the Danes and antagonist of the play Hamlet. This was my starting point: if I could call up such emotion in a mundane setting why should I not do the same in a spiritual setting? To do a working the magician must be emotionally invested in everything that is done for the magic or else nothing will happen. 

And so I began experimenting with how to call from deep within my inner self. Many authors say that to do an invocation the magician should speak from the heart. But what does this really mean? I interpret it as speaking from your very core, from the very roots of your being, from the deep dark within us. Go to there in your mind which should take you into a light altered state of consciousness and make your Call.

The thing is it may not come as actual words! You may work up to that point but in the beginning you may work in silence as you make your Call into the Unseen to whomever you are wishing to talk to. Or you may be laying down your compass and need only feel your physical and spiritual self connecting with the Land. The words may come, but they may not be in a language you understand. I have come close to shouting nonsense or singing gaily or humming a little tune or I may have the inspiration to play a little tune on my penny whistle or tap out a tattoo upon the ground.

In this you are letting your entire being Speak and not just your voice. Words may come to your mind but you are unable to speak them. I have found that to be the case many times. Sometimes I do speak with my voice and the words are almost always whispered whenever I do this as though my Self knows that my subtle breath will carry into the Unseen and that I do not need to speak loudly. A couple times, though, I have shouted, even screamed, words of such poetry and fervor that it is a shame I do not have a pad and paper to write them down!

If you are making a call to a certain being make sure that you visualize them firmly in your mind. Know what it is like to stand in their presence. Smell them, taste them, hear them stand before you. They are already there, but now you have to be aware of their presence and if it is a god s/he is very much aware of your existence but will wait for you to acknowledge his or her existence. When this happens they will come before you in all their power and glory but only if you are pure of intent and are not summoning them for play or anything like that and if you are focused on the working at hand. If you are distracted or do not finish the ritual because you aren't feeling anything worst things have happened.

I have said that they are already aware of your existence. A god is a perfect being, one who has lived and died and rebirthed. They are perfectly conscious of everything and Aware of the power of the All. They exist within us as we, as humans, are mirror images of Them. A tree spirit, being a creation of the gods, is also a mirror image of ourselves. You must call up the oak within yourself to call up the spirit of the oak. Let your call shake the Web of All and the spirits will answer.

So in the end what does speech really mean? Is it really speech if we can not hear vocal words? Remember that in acting that the pauses between the words are the most powerful. The space between notes in music is the greatest interpretation! Creation began in Silence.