Do you get nervous invoking gods?

I always wondered is it natural to be a little nervous when invoking gods and spirits

Even for the most simple rituals which are almost more like simple prayers maybe with a few offerings ect. Do you ever get nervous when doing it when calling on upon powers you don't fully understand. Do you ever get nervous of the consequences

Even when you invoke deities that are good, that are not evil or hostile isn't it natural to be nervous because you are afraid you may mess up the ritual by either by missing a line or perhaps forgetting something else to do. I hear some rituals are personal and don't always have to be followed exactly to the letter other wise it will blow up in your face and so forth But perhaps it isn't that it wouldn't blow up in your face, you just wouldn't get the results you want? Is that true for you?

Just wondering what your thoughts are. Perhaps I just am paranoid at the thought of it even if my intentions are good. I know intentions has a lot to do with it. Such as calling upon powers to help you and your family as opposed to simply gaining power. Perhaps I worry about it since my brother foolishly played around with forces although the gods and spirits he messed around with were hostile and the deities I have in mind are forgiving and nice.

So I personally am not well versed in this. I haven't really reached out so to say but have friends that do.

I have seen some goofy things, and had a few weird experiences I cannot explain fully. I went to an old university in IL, USA it was used as a field hospital and chapel during the civil war. I spent a lot of time in the basement of the chapel learning basic piano for music theory (I was not allowed to write my pieces on bass and guitar since I could not perform them by myself for presentation). Anyways many a late night and many odd experiences there. Doors closing and slamming, locked doors opening, other pianos in a different room playing while I was there alone (I had to have security let me in most nights after work, so I know it was locked unless they came in, entrance from the outside was pretty loud so I always heard them when they were making rounds).

So, I had some friends and a girl I dated who did do some calling on spirits on this old campus. One person in particular always said to me that, "If your going to do this make sure you know what you are looking at and for, because you do not know what you are reaching too." So, I guess that some what stuck with me. I guess I fell into this idea that somethings are meant to be left alone. So, I would have high anxiety in this type of situation, just because I don't know what I would be getting. Particularly when we are talking about (IMHO) manifestations of the Force that are different sentience than our own (if that makes sense).

May I ask why you feel the need to reach out to these manifestations and which ones you do? This has always been a little of an interest for me because of my above experiences.

Much Love, respect and Peace,
Kobos

No it's not natural to be nervous. If you don't know what you are doing why are you taking a chance and doing it?

As far as I know it is more dangerous evoking than invoking as invoking is calling in and evoking is more commanding as it involves conjuring and summoning. I have everything I need as far as instructions and self taught although sometimes even when doing simple offerings sometimes I always feel nervous when doing it even though I'm not commanding at all.I don't have time or the money for a teacher to do it and I know it can help my life. I don't work with dangerous entities or command any of them and I have seen others work with them all the time invoking with little to no problems even novices but I guess I feel as if even the slightest chance something malicious may come, it shakes me sometimes but feel as if I am being paranoid about it.

As far as any of the rest of us know, the only danger in literally wishing upon a star is with all the time wasted that could have been instead utilized to affect the desired change.
That being said, removing this from actual real implications, I think it's perfectly natural to feel uneasy about operating with things one believes can dramatically alter a given state of affairs, especially when one has no indication whatsoever that one can produce any outcome reliably or indeed at all. Add to that personal insecurities, the fear of "messing up" that comes with almost everything we do that we feel we are unable to fully control or predict the outcome of, and something very much like what you feel is bound to loom over you as you perform.
That being said, while easy to explain in retrospect, it's a shame still that we have no instinct by which to tell protective fears from unfounded ones. That you feel insecure and nervous and stressful about doing something that has value only in that it can be fun, or entertaining, or relieve stress is a consequence of that. It is yet another response to the what's-the-harm line of questions. You are feeling unease borne solely out of your own superstitions on the matter, and for no benefit to anyone to show for it.

I don't recall ever being nervous when working with gods, not for a long time, anyway.
If you're the sort that tends to be nervous or fearful on instinct, there's not a lot anybody can do about that but yourself, so, developing some familiarity and thus an idea what to expect is your best bet. Nothing makes you scared worse than uncertainty, and uncertainty fills gaps fast if they aren't already filled with knowledge.
Nervousness and fear are, in my opinion, pretty natural instincts when faced with something you perceive to be "greater"; despite what some think based solely on our ability to kill things, we're evolved from a prey species. Fear comes easy, and as somebody pointed out, the real trick is differentiating between founded and unfounded. Educate yourself, and if that doesn't help, than maybe think better of doing it?

Sometimes I had always thought people would need a whole bunch of protection just to protect themselves from outside influences but as I look more into it usually such things are not required for generally invoking or calling within. And Wiccans and Druids invoke but generally do not evoke which is more rare, complicated and requires more protection and is generally more dangerous.

And of course as mention it has a lot to do with my brother who made mistakes when doing it but he followed a much more dominating and aggressive path and I approached things differently. More concerned about being more passive, and caring more about working with nature and spirits instead of dominating and commanding them. So I may be worried for no real reason. I have books on the subject that talk about this and never involve evoking and generally spells are custom meaning you do not always have to follow things to the letter.

you shouldnt be nervous when working with the gods/spirits.that tends to tense the energies that you are working with. if you have to meditate before use. that always helped me before a rite. casting a circle helps but its for outside forces. do what you FEEL is natural. books are a great reference material but not set in stone.its all about you and what you are working.

Yabuturtle wrote: Sometimes I had always thought people would need a whole bunch of protection just to protect themselves from outside influences but as I look more into it usually such things are not required for generally invoking or calling within. And Wiccans and Druids invoke but generally do not evoke which is more rare, complicated and requires more protection and is generally more dangerous

This statement really speaks to your novice level. You have this exactly backwards. What would ever be less dangerous about calling a spirit within your body, a form of voluntary possession, vs just working with that spirit externally? In fact Wiccans commonly evoke spirits but rarely invoke them. In the first place you have no ability to "Command" any spirit. In the second place invoking a spirit within your body in voluntary possession is a much more intimate and complicated act than just evoking a spirit to the circle. None of this work is about commanding, it is about personal will.

The spirits, if you even have the ability to get their attention with your pre-written scripts and rote actions, are not the enactors of your will. They are only a ceremonial device used to focus your will. You must then enact that yourself. And if you are a believer in The Force, as this place tends to be, that force is already within you so what need would you ever have to invoke or evoke that? It is sufficient alone for whatever you want to do. That is if you have the discipline, experience and self control to utilize it to its fullest ability. If you are absent those you will never achieve anything no matter how many spirits you poetically produce.

Actually no I don't have it backwards

When your calling in something it doesn't hurt to meditate to take extra precautions anyway even if it involves evoking

I spoke to a lot of wiccans and druids and read other books and hardly do they mention "Evoking" Lots of invocations though but probably because you get confused because many use them interchangeably when in fact they are different.

Yabuturtle wrote: Actually no I don't have it backwards

When your calling in something it doesn't hurt to meditate to take extra precautions anyway even if it involves evoking

I spoke to a lot of wiccans and druids and read other books and hardly do they mention "Evoking" Lots of invocations though but probably because you get confused because many use them interchangeably when in fact they are different.

I do not have them backwards and yes, they are very different and they are not used interchangeably except by those that are uninformed about their nature. I dare say those you spoke to have read a few llewellen books or are self taught eclectic practitioners and really have little idea what they are doing.

Invocation: is a process in which a person, acting as a single individual, allows an aspect of divinity that is called as a god-form to enter her or his body. To call upon a higher power for assistance, to appeal to, petition, to call for earnestly, solicit, to summon with incantations, conjure, or to cite in support or justification for ones cause.

Evocation: is a process in which a person or group invites an aspect of divinity, such as an Elemental or directional guardian, or a specific God-form, into the working space as defined commonly by ritual.

There's a young adult fantasy series called The Bartimaeus Trilogy. In it, the magicians are extremely paranoid and afraid of demons. As such, their summoning spells come with safe guards. And, the slightest wrongly uttered word or smeared chalk circle could lead to the death of a magician.

The demons all want to kill the magicians. Why wouldn't they? Humans are mortal and weak.

How would this be any different in our lives? If we call upon the supernatural (which I don't believe in so I used a fictional example), then shouldn't we realize how much stronger they are?

Yeah, if I were in the habit of asking gods to do stuff, I would be scared out of my skin. In fact, I feel like if it were real, you'd have to be like the magicians in Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy: years of training, a healthy dose of fear, and a lot of precaution.

I know some get it confused with invoking and evoking and when they are evoking something they are actually invoking it and vice versa so it gets confusing. If you invite something within your self it seems like it takes less effort than to actually conjure it from wherever it came from. I've seen many rituals about it and usually evoking is more elaborate and complicated and there's a lot of things you need to do before doing it.

I'm getting into it but it also depends on what you're bringing in? A being that is known to be benevolent and forgiving or a being that is known to be hostile. There have been some that try to dominate whatever spirit they get and sometimes they succeed but it's like the equivalent of trying to restrain a tiger. You may be able to but might get attacked to because your making it do something against it's will.

I tend to follow these things by the letter when doing something and in order even if it isn't fully necessary just in case. Don't want to make the same mistake my brother did.

The fluid nature of our language can trip us up here.

Merriam-Webster assigns the definition "to call forth" to both the word "Invoke" and "evoke". Since most of us here probably interact with the world at large - where these words are interchangeable - and members of the pagan community where they have distinct meanings, we have insure we are expressing ourselves properly and do not get mired in our own confusing syntax.

I studied casually for a time with a shaman whose training was traceable back to indigenous shamans of Peru. In each ceremony I witnesses, the spirits of the four directions were called, and the appeal "please be with us" was spoken. I never saw a hint of a request to "please be in us". I do think the former is safer, if we are relative newbies and on what for us is untrodden ground.

In terms of nervousness or fear, I keep thinking of electricity as a metaphor. A licensed electrician who's wired many homes probably isn't too nervous about dealing with electricity. An apprentice s/he is training might be slightly nervous, but not overly so because of being under the watchful eye of someone more experienced. It makes sense for just about anyone else to be more nervous, as the consequences of a misstep and the likelihood of one occurring are both high.

It's understandable to deal with forces such as this and be a little nervous until you master it. Even though the books I read usually don't involve drastic consequences should one fail. You just may not get the results you want. It's simple but effective and would like a teacher but the likely hood of me encountering someone who teaches something like this is not likely. Of course there's online teaching but with these things it's much better to be with them in person and I know some may charge for services but I haven't the luck to befriend anyone who'd teach me and the only one who was willing to teach me was my brother who unfortunately followed a darker more hostile path, a path I rejected as I wanted nothing to do with it.

I wanted something that involved something more natural and less hostile and allowed me to work with beings and not command them.

The thing is that you are not in fact dealing with "such forces" of any kind at all. What you are dealing, and struggling, with, is - pardon the expression - your own demons. That's why vigilance is so important, because otherwise one can delude oneself into unfounded fears like this. It's one of the consequences of uncritically going with what ever one's own or anyone else's gut tells one, and then decide that no reason shall ever move one off that position arrived at through no reason, because one thinks just that much of those intuitions.

Kyrin Wyldstar wrote:

Yabuturtle wrote: Actually no I don't have it backwards

When your calling in something it doesn't hurt to meditate to take extra precautions anyway even if it involves evoking

I spoke to a lot of wiccans and druids and read other books and hardly do they mention "Evoking" Lots of invocations though but probably because you get confused because many use them interchangeably when in fact they are different.

I do not have them backwards and yes, they are very different and they are not used interchangeably except by those that are uninformed about their nature. I dare say those you spoke to have read a few llewellen books or are self taught eclectic practitioners and really have little idea what they are doing.

Invocation: is a process in which a person, acting as a single individual, allows an aspect of divinity that is called as a god-form to enter her or his body. To call upon a higher power for assistance, to appeal to, petition, to call for earnestly, solicit, to summon with incantations, conjure, or to cite in support or justification for ones cause.

Evocation: is a process in which a person or group invites an aspect of divinity, such as an Elemental or directional guardian, or a specific God-form, into the working space as defined commonly by ritual.

The definition is correct(invocation = invite inside, evocation = call forth into presence) but the fear really isn't warranted. Almost every religion has the practice of invocation. And it is actually so close to every religion that I could probably get away with saying every religion.

In my religious/spiritual tradition it is actually "sinful" to have excessive or irrational fear of the Gods. We are to stand before them facing them boldly. For if we can't do that then why are we approaching them at all?

The Gods, as far as I can tell, are far to powerful and far too busy to care much if you flub one of your rituals.

I suppose it might be somewhat intimidating to stand before them...but that fades with time and familiarity.

I think it helps to remember that they can always see us.

But overall, on days when I'm a theist, I believe that we are the beloved children of the gods. Any deity worth worshiping isn't looking for excuses to fly into a rage just like any good parent isn't. No, if your kid shows up with a crayon drawing and your name misspelled, you put it on the fridge. Super-messy peanut butter sandwich? Best lunch ever! The gods view our honest mistakes much the same way.

This isn't to say "nothing you do matters to them". But if you mispronounce some Latin or Japanese, or you don't know the traditional way to formulate a prayer, or whatever? Are you doing your best? Then it's gonna be fine.

Depends on the God or Goddess I suppose. But in general, no. The Hellenes weren't big on being afraid of the Gods, at least not in the sense that I believe you are speaking. It's why we pray with our faces toward Olympos, arms raised proudly, speaking clearly and intentionally. I mean, I only get scared if I think a God or Goddess is mad at me for some reason. Which has happened more than I'd like to admit in my belief.

In any case, I think it is natural to be afraid when calling upon such otherworldly forces. I'm probably more of an exception than people who do get frightened. That's a lot of power you're attempting to call down.

Well, what do ya know, I answered this same thread before...saying almost the same thing. Interesting. Guess this has been bouncing around for quite some time. Kind of makes me sad to see so few posts in this subforum considering how much time has passed and the fact that this was on the first page.