Becoming the God vs Calling It In | The Seven, Episode 16
In Episode 16 of The Seven: Living with the Planets, Lucy Baldwin explores the difference between invocation and evocation in ritual magic.
These terms can sound abstract, but the distinction is incredibly practical.
Invocation means calling a planet, deity, archetype, spirit, or energy into yourself.
Evocation means calling it into your presence as something outside of you.
One says:
Become the god.
The other says:
Call the god in.
Both approaches can be powerful. Both can be used in planetary magic. And understanding the difference can help you decide how you want to relate to the planets, your higher self, your ritual practice, and the archetypal forces you are working with.
Watch or listen to Episode 16 of The Seven here:
Key Takeaways
In this episode, Lucy explores:
the difference between invocation and evocation
what it means to call a planetary archetype into yourself
what it means to call a planetary force into your presence
why evocation can feel more natural for offerings and petitions
why invocation can be powerful in everyday life
how planetary magic differs from astrology
why embodying Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, or another planet can shift your state
the value of reverence, humility, preparation, and structure
why becoming divine should not mean denying human limits
how working with the planets can help you connect with your higher self
Invocation vs Evocation
Invocation and evocation are both ways of relating to magical forces.
They are not the same.
Invocation means calling something into yourself.
You become the vessel.
You embody the energy.
You let the archetype live through your body, voice, mind, posture, or action.
Evocation means calling something into your presence.
The force remains outside of you.
You relate to it as other.
You petition it, speak to it, make offerings to it, ask for help, and enter relationship with it.
Neither is inherently better.
They are different magical postures.
Evocation: Calling the Planet Into Your Presence
Evocation is often the more relational mode.
You call the planet, deity, archetype, or intelligence into your field.
You treat it as other.
You speak to it.
You give an offering.
You ask for help.
This can feel especially natural when you are doing petitionary magic.
For example:
You call Venus into your presence and ask for help receiving love.
You call Jupiter into your presence and ask for wisdom, protection, or expansion.
You call Saturn into your presence and ask for structure, discipline, or boundaries.
Evocation supports reverence.
It helps you remember that you are not only manipulating forces inside your own mind.
You are entering relationship.
Invocation: Becoming the Planet
Invocation is different.
Invocation says:
Let this force live through me.
Let this planet rise in me.
Let this archetype become active as me.
If you invoke Mars, you are not only asking Mars for courage.
You are becoming courage.
You are becoming directness.
Heat.
Action.
Force.
Confrontation.
Victory.
If you invoke Venus, you are not only asking Venus for beauty or love.
You are becoming beauty.
Pleasure.
Attraction.
Receiving.
Fertility.
Embodiment.
This is the power of invocation:
The planet is not only out there.
It is also a version of you.
Planetary Archetypes Already Live Inside You
Planetary magic works so well because the planets are not only external symbols.
They also name forces inside the human psyche.
You already have Mars in you.
You already have Venus in you.
You already have Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter, the Moon, and the Sun in you.
Working with the planets gives you language, imagery, ritual, and relationship for activating these parts of yourself.
Invocation makes this explicit.
You are not pretending to be something false.
You are calling forward a real current that already exists within you.
Why Both Approaches Matter
Evocation and invocation work beautifully together.
Evocation is useful before the moment.
Invocation is useful in the moment.
For example, imagine you know you need to have a difficult conversation.
You might evoke Mars in ritual.
Light a candle.
Make an offering.
Ask Mars for courage, clarity, heat, and clean confrontation.
Then, when the conversation actually happens, you invoke Mars.
You let Mars live through your body.
You stand straighter.
You speak directly.
You stop collapsing.
You act from the force you invited.
The ritual prepares the field.
The invocation carries it into life.
Offerings and Embodiment
Offerings can be made in both modes.
With evocation, you give an offering to the planet as other.
You call Jupiter in, offer food, incense, prayer, or gratitude, and ask for expansion.
With invocation, you become the offering.
You embody the planet.
You live its current.
You offer Saturn your discipline.
You offer Venus your beauty.
You offer Mars your courage.
You offer Mercury your play, language, and movement.
The offering is no longer only an object.
It is your way of being.
Planetary Magic Is Not Something That Only Happens to You
This is one of the major differences between planetary magic and a passive view of astrology.
In astrology, people often speak as if the planets are doing things to them.
A transit happens.
A placement activates.
Mercury retrogrades.
Saturn returns.
Planetary magic changes the posture.
You are not only being acted upon.
You are participating.
You are relating.
You are calling in.
You are embodying.
You are learning to work with the planetary currents instead of only observing them from a distance.
Historical Context: Calling Spirits vs Becoming the Vessel
Older ceremonial magic often emphasized evocation.
The magician would call a spirit into a circle, triangle, vessel, mirror, or ritual space.
The spirit remained outside the body.
It was addressed as other.
Invocation became especially important in later Hermetic, Neoplatonic, Golden Dawn, Thelemic, and other ceremonial traditions where the practitioner might become the vessel for a deity, force, or intelligence.
Channeling, trance, possession work, and deity embodiment all touch this territory.
For planetary magic, both modes are available.
You can call the planet in.
You can become the planet.
You can also do both.
Safety, Discernment, and Reverence
Invocation is powerful, but it should not be approached carelessly.
It is one thing to invoke a well-established planetary archetype you are intentionally building relationship with.
It is another thing to invite random spirits, forces, or unknown entities into your body or field.
Discernment matters.
Reverence matters.
Structure matters.
If invocation feels too intense, begin with evocation.
Call the planet into your presence.
Make offerings.
Build relationship.
Learn how the current feels.
Then, when you are ready, experiment with embodying that current in small, grounded ways.
Planetary magic does not require recklessness.
It rewards respect.
Becoming Divine Without Denying Human Limits
There is a real power in saying:
I am Mars.
I am Venus.
I am Jupiter.
I am the Sun.
There is also a trap.
The trap is confusing divine embodiment with omnipotence.
Yes, you have access to divine currents.
Yes, the planets live within you.
Yes, there is a higher self, a wiser self, a more radiant self, a deeper intelligence available to you.
But you are also human.
You have limits.
A body.
Time.
Needs.
Consequences.
This is where Saturn becomes essential.
Saturn reminds us that real magic does not bypass limitation.
It works through limitation.
Embodiment is not fantasy.
It is divine force moving through human form.
Planetary Magic and the Higher Self
The planets can also be understood as pathways to the higher self.
Each planetary current gives you access to a different kind of wisdom.
Mars gives access to courage and clean force.
Venus gives access to beauty, pleasure, and receiving.
Mercury gives access to language, cleverness, and movement.
Jupiter gives access to wisdom, expansion, protection, and capacity.
Saturn gives access to structure, discipline, and reality.
The Moon gives access to intuition, rhythm, and emotional knowing.
The Sun gives access to radiance, creativity, and divine selfhood.
Together, the seven planets become seven inroads to the deeper self.
Not the small defended self.
The larger, wiser, more balanced self.
How to Experiment With Invocation and Evocation
You do not have to choose one forever.
Try both.
For evocation:
Light a candle.
Call the planet into your presence.
Make an offering.
Ask for help.
Listen.
Close with gratitude.
For invocation:
Choose one planetary current.
Stand or sit in a way that matches it.
Breathe as if that planet is rising through your body.
Ask:
How would this planet move through me right now?
Then act from that place in one small way.
For Mars, that might mean making the phone call.
For Venus, receiving the compliment.
For Saturn, doing the disciplined thing.
For Mercury, sending the message.
For Jupiter, letting yourself think bigger.
For the Moon, honoring the body’s rhythm.
For the Sun, allowing yourself to be seen.
There Is No Single Correct Way
The point is not to become rigid about terminology.
The point is to understand what kind of relationship you are creating.
Are you calling the planet in as an ally?
Are you embodying the planet as yourself?
Are you asking for help?
Are you becoming the help?
Planetary magic is experimental.
Relational.
Alive.
The more you practice, the more you will understand which mode works best for you in different moments.
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Lucy Baldwin (00:18.382)
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Seven. I am Lucy Baldwin and this podcast is all about doing magic to get what we want, really. And also living with the planets, so thinking about the planetary archetypes. But today I'm not going to be talking about the planet so much because I'm going to be about a topic that I think is very interesting, one that I kind of tend to...
brush over a lot and maybe even arguably misuse these terms. So I'm going to talk about evocation versus invocation. And I want to just start by saying that the whole concept here is that in invocation, we're actually calling a spirit entity, deity, archetype, energy.
into ourselves and thus becoming it. And in evocation, we are calling it outside of ourselves. So like we're calling it into our presence, but it's like out there, it's separate from us. And this is something that I just want to touch on because I think that it is good fruit for
understanding what we're doing in magic and also framing some of the magic that I've been talking about because the way that I've been framing magic is that we're calling forth these things within ourselves that already exist within ourselves. And that's of course totally true. And that's exactly what we're doing. And also, kind of, so I guess I'm just going to confess and say that I kind of use invocation for both of these when I mean to
when I mean evocation and invocation, I just always say invocation, like we're invoking the archetype, we're invoking the planet that we're working with. But it's actually different. And I think it's important because it helps us think about what we're doing when we're doing magic and ritual. And also it helps us think for ourselves or you think for yourself.
Lucy Baldwin (02:37.014)
about how you want to relate to these energies, archetypes, gods, whatever you want to call them, because you can think of them as entering your space and being out here, and you can engage with them here. And in some sense, that makes more sense. And sometimes that's actually how I'm engaging. And sometimes it's something that we're calling up in ourselves. But there's an interesting side of this, which is that
these gods literally exist within us and we can become them. And so I think there's actually a lot of power and potential with especially certain archetypes when we imagine that we are becoming not just like that we're leaning into these archetypes, but like, no, I'm fucking Mars. I'm the fucking God of war right now. You know, like that's empowering.
So just thinking about ways that we can play with this and actually imagine that we have become this archetype and also, or this God, I mean, fuck it. But also within that, there's also this concept of that each of us has a higher self. Each of us has our own sort of personal...
God, our own personal version of a God that is our sort of higher, all-knowing, all-powerful self that we can access. And I also think it's interesting, and I'm going to jump into all of this very soon with, you know, put a little more context and meet in here soon. I'm just kind of throwing out some fun stuff.
What was my third point? Fuck. Something about...
Lucy Baldwin (04:47.821)
and also there are certain ways that we can think about how we're doing our ritual to actually, like, how do we want to visualize it? Do we want to imagine that we're becoming the God or do we want to, and then we can, our thoughts are the thoughts of the God, like the wisdom is given to us just with what we're thinking in our own mind, or do we want to imagine it's out here and then we can interface with it and look at it and,
And then maybe it can still think its wisdom into us and we can hear its words in our head. my point is, and maybe just delete the part about the thoughts.
So do we want it? Yeah. So how do we want to frame our ritual depending on what feels most inspired and exciting for us? And I think, like I said, I do a mix of these and I call it always invocation, but sometimes we need, you know, it can be really powerful to sort of, it can be really powerful to relate to it as other.
because when you're relating to it as other, you can ask it for things. You can have that sort of reciprocal relationship that I spoke about in the offerings episode where I talked about offerings. You know, all of that feels more natural when you're thinking of it as other. With other, you can petition other. And so I find that really helpful. And also...
And I think that that's a way that rituals are often framed, is like we're asking for something. And so that feels natural to do it as we're doing it as the other. But then a more intuitive way of working with these energies that I think is really powerful is to just embody them in certain circumstances. And I would of course recommend doing a version of both of these. So, okay.
Lucy Baldwin (06:54.807)
So I want to get into the, just give a tiny bit of historical context because there were different, so different versions of this, I guess.
Lucy Baldwin (07:12.567)
What I'm trying to say is, okay, so I want to give a little bit of historical context because in older magics, like in older grimoires, like Solomonic magic, Goetia, I'm not sure how to pronounce it, Goetia, Goetia, Goetic, I don't know, I've seen it even spelled different ways, and medieval sort of ceremonial magic, they did a lot of evocation. So they were calling spirits,
they would have a circle on the ground and they would call the spirit there. Or if you think of a Ouija board is literally evoking a spirit, A ghost, theoretically. This is something that they did a lot where it's sort of staying outside. The idea of invoking it into yourself, invoking it into your own mind, your own body as the vessel,
came about more in the Renaissance period with hermeticism and neoplatonism and the Golden Dawn. And of course, from the Golden Dawn came Thelema. And they were very much into being possessed by it, to channeling. This is what you're doing when you're channeling, right? You're bringing it through you. You are the vessel. This is like a shamanic trance or any kind of...
channeling that you're doing that is happening, like that's invocation, right? I think sometimes, I'm not an expert on channeling. I think sometimes people see it still as like it's coming through them. Maybe that's kind of what, that's how I sort of imagine a channel being, but...
we're speaking as though it's in our body. And sometimes, especially if they're moving in certain ways, to me, they've invoked it. It's residing in them somehow. So I don't know, I'm not an expert on channeling. Maybe probably some channels think that, see it as channeling, it's passing through them, and some of them feel like they are actually, it's entering their body. I generally, in terms of channeling,
Lucy Baldwin (09:28.255)
I don't like the idea of having some foreign entity enter my body. For some reason, to me, that feels very different than invoking a planetary deity slash archetype, because I see that as a piece of myself. I see myself as already having Mars exists within me. And so,
I think that if I'm being true to my sort of philosophical stance on reality, I would maybe have to...
I could see an argument where I might have to accept that kind of all of reality. I have access with my own psyche to the full range of existence because I am, as we all are, tapped into the great mystery, the one collective mind. But I don't...
that doesn't feel quite right to me. It feels different for me. I think that there are certain archetypes that I... It feels like my particular lens is different. Like we're the same, but I don't want like somebody else to enter my body and my mind and take it over. With the planets, it feels like I'm still me.
but their archetype is now like, am also Mars as me. So I don't know, that's just kind of, there's a weird nuance there. I'm not sure if I'm explaining it well, but that's how it feels for me. So like I said, planetary magic works both ways because if you listen to my episode about offerings, which I highly recommend checking out, I talk about how one way of doing offerings is to actually just embody the archetype. That is what invocation is.
Lucy Baldwin (11:29.729)
But another way is to literally give gifts to the planet. And you can even call the planet into your presence while you do that. So you can evoke the planet and then give it an offering. you can invoke the planet as the offering. And of course, you could do both. You could invoke it and then eat.
the steak that you cooked for Jupiter. I don't know. Sometimes that feels like cheating to me, but I'm kind of having fun with this. Maybe we could just play with it and just evoke Jupiter, cook Jupiter a steak, evoke Jupiter, give it to Jupiter, and then invoke Jupiter and then eat the steak as Jupiter. mean, that could be fun. That could be a fun way to give your offerings. Any excuse to eat steak over here.
I'm sorry, vegetarians and vegans, I have, I'm sorry, I am a carnivorous person. So yeah, and the other thing is, you know, thinking about like the Venusian side of this, just embodying Venus and Venus is, you know, she's beauty and she's pleasure and she's just, that sounds so nice. I want to do that right now. So,
you know, evocation is projection, like we're projecting it outwards. Whereas invocation is integrating it into ourselves. And so I really think there's value in both of these. And I think it's actually helpful to do both of these because if you can invoke, let's say you're in an argument and you have the wherewithal to have a like,
invoke Mars, that's going to be really helpful. But then maybe you know you need to have a confrontation and you want to evoke Mars, ask for help, give an offering. And then in the moment you can invoke Mars and have it help, it can like help you carry through in the moment. And so I actually see this as a really helpful way to sort of use ritual in a more
Lucy Baldwin (13:58.855)
more from the evocation stance of like, we're calling it into our field, we're giving offerings, and we're asking for things. There's sort of this reciprocal, also reverential relationship happening. And then in the moment when we're actually out in the world, the invocation is something that's happening more on the fly.
and it's something that you can kind of act from and then bring in these archetypes to help you actually make the change and I have a Suspicion that if you're doing both of these it's gonna work better They're both gonna work better if you if you like make an offering and petition and ask for help and do a ritual like a proper ritual and Then you bring that deity in in the moment when it's actually relevant that ritual is gonna be more powerful and for having done the ritual the
in the moment invocation is going to be more powerful. So you're kind of approaching it from both angles. Like you're both working with it as an ally and you're also embodying it as a version of yourself that you have access to. you know, a lot of times, and this is why I love planetary magic so much. And I like to kind of, I love astrology, but I also, you know, this is where it really differs from astrology because we're
doing so much more than just having planets move and be in placements. We are literally bringing them, you know, their power into us. We're becoming them and we're also working with them in relationship with them. So it's not something that's just happening to you. It's actually something that you are holding, that you are embracing, that you are taking on. So, yes, I think that
you know, I think that I could see like a lot of questions arising around like the safety of this. I did kind of address it earlier. It's like, I think that I wouldn't recommend invoking just like random spirits or gods or deities that you haven't worked with before or just like willy-nilly or just sort of inviting anything into your field. I would, but I feel
Lucy Baldwin (16:21.0)
like the planets are very, they're well established, they're well understood, they're let's say relatively safe, know, assuming you're working with the planets. And if you're worried about it, start with evocation, start with calling something in and work your way up to the embodiment piece. I do think that
a lot of people in today's world are really into like becoming a god and you know becoming divine and I think that you know a piece that we can kind of take and carry forward with traditional magic that I think it behooves us to kind of consider is that traditionally in magic there was a lot of like discipline these were relationships that you had to kind of like you had to show up for them.
You you couldn't just like make an offering once and then expect major results. And I kind of think that is how it is now, but you can get so much out. It's just like everything. You get out what you put in. And so I think that it is actually helpful to pull in some of the more traditional sides of it where there's this sense of like preparation and there's this sense of structure and we're sort of showing up and putting in a little bit of effort.
And also having that respect, think that there's a big piece here to having respect for these archetypes and treating them as though they are gods and having humility. I like the idea of like becoming, like embodying and being the god. And I like the idea of embracing our divinity. And I feel like with anything else, it can also be a trap if you take it too far.
And of course, this is where I'll come in with my usual thing about Saturn and how amazing Saturn is and Saturn will help you realize that whatever, whatever. I just love Saturn, but surely Saturn forces us to acknowledge our humanity and part of our humanity is having limitations. And so, you know, I do think that there is a piece of us, like I said earlier, that is divine. Like we have access to our own personal sort of divinity that exists.
Lucy Baldwin (18:41.004)
that we can, I think, touch and that is guiding us. And it's sort of like our own personal, personalized.
Yeah, divinity, that's the best word that I have for it. But recognizing that we are different from that. And so we are not all powerful and we do have limitations. But seeing life's happenings, like choosing to see life's happenings as...
a gift from your divine self, a gift from this piece, this higher sort of part of you. We talk about like self with the capital S and thinking of it as something that you can tap into your own wisdom, your own version of this, your own perfectly balanced, perfectly wise, all knowing.
part of you that does have access, that has that tether to this greater collective consciousness that we all do have access to. And sometimes it feels so far away, but it's right there and we can build that bridge to that higher self. And I actually think that working with the planets can help us forge that bridge because
there, it's like seven different inroads to accessing that part of yourself because of course all of these seven deities exist within your higher self also. So yeah, I think that that's kind of what I have to say about this. I don't think that either approach is obviously wrong. I think that they can be used together. I think that
Lucy Baldwin (20:32.598)
that let's see.
Lucy Baldwin (20:53.49)
And okay, yeah. And the last thing I want to say is that I think that you should, I hope that this is helpful in showing you kind of more of what's available to you within the world of working with the planets and living with the planets and doing ritual magic. And I also, you know, I encourage you to experiment and see what works for you and do what feels right for you. Because as I say again and again, there is no wrong way to do this. You are relating to yourself.
And I also just, don't know, kind of because I brought it up in this episode, we want to encourage you to...
to connect with your higher self and to, you know, feel into that part of you that does like know and does sort of have the wisdom and carry the, you know, whatever it is that you're seeking and has, yeah, just like insight and...
like knows what is best for you. So thank you so much for watching another episode of The Seven. I have a free community that involves monthly rituals and also, and sometimes in those rituals we do evocation mostly, and sometimes we do invocation. And honestly, I kind of haven't been distinguishing between them, but I think I'm gonna start to now that I recorded this.
And I want to encourage you to join my online free community. We also do community connection calls every month, which are really wonderful, beautiful calls. like one of my favorite things every month. So yeah, check it out. You can join at the link in my bio and I will see you there. Have a great day.
New to Lucy’s work?
Start with Lucy Baldwin’s complete overview of planetary magic here
This episode is part of The Seven: Living with the Planets, a podcast exploring planetary magic as a path of self-growth, ritual practice, desire, embodiment, and spiritual transformation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between invocation and evocation?
Invocation means calling a force, planet, deity, or archetype into yourself. Evocation means calling it into your presence as something outside of you.
Is planetary magic invocation or evocation?
It can be either. You can call a planet into your ritual space and relate to it as other, or you can invoke the planet and embody its archetypal current.
Is it safe to invoke planets?
Planetary archetypes are well-established symbolic currents, but discernment still matters. If invocation feels too intense, begin with evocation, offerings, and relationship-building.
Why would I evoke a planet instead of invoking it?
Evocation is especially useful for offerings, petitions, prayer, reverence, and building relationship with the planet as an ally or intelligence.
Why would I invoke a planet?
Invocation is useful when you want to embody a planetary quality in real life, such as Mars courage, Venus receptivity, Saturn discipline, Mercury communication, Jupiter expansion, Moon intuition, or Sun radiance.
Next Steps
If this episode resonated with you, continue exploring Lucy Baldwin’s work here:
You’ll find current offerings, free practices, podcast links, and ways to go deeper.
A good next step is the free guided Existential Kink practice available there, especially if you want to explore desire, shadow, receiving, embodiment, and radical approval in a deeper way.