As he looked up at the towering apparition before him Victor realised that screaming and running away wasn’t an option. The space had been sanctified with the appropriate condensers, chafing dishes of cleansing herbs and focused intent. The wards had been cast and the Watchtowers raised. Then the invoking incenses had been lit and were, even now, smoking around the Triangle of Manifestation, their psionically charged particles enabling the summoned entity to materialise on the physical plane.

Victor was dimly aware of his fellow members of the magickal group to which he belonged looking on, but nearly all of his attention was focused on the entity he had summoned. Although only in his teens he had been a member of the group for a while now and this was his first attempt at the “Evocation to visibility” of an entity or spirit. In this case Agares from the magickal book the ‘The Ars Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King’. A supposed ancient Middle Eastern Grimoire detailing various spirits/astral beings, how to conjure them, and what their abilities were.

Tightening his concentration Victor ignored that rather than being in the Middle East he was in 1970’s Mexico City in an ordinary-looking building – at least from the outside – close to the Zócalo in the old part of town. This area was considered by the Mexican magical community to be the one of the most sacred and powerful spots in the country because it had been the site of the Emperors palace and the main temple of the Aztec Empire. The energies of the area made it ideal for this sort of ritual. Having been a member of the group for some time now this ceremony was the next step in his training, showing in front of the whole group his training, focus, emotional control, and intent, plus his ability to manage new situations.

The group itself was run along eclectic lines, the unifying factor being using what worked and advancement by merit. It was unusual for the time and culture in that several women of various ages were members, some in senior positions, in contradiction to the ‘macho’ attitude of the time. The preparations had also not adhered closely to the ones mentioned in the Goetia, being a combination of several different spiritual and mental magick systems, including the popular Silvera Mind Control System, and the local Bujaria (“Witchcraft/Folk Magick). The general group consensus was that as long as it worked, within certain really broad boundaries, you could use it. In this case Victor had cleansed the area as described in the first paragraph, including the names of Christian Saints as his sacred words, but the invoking pentagram instead of the usual equal armed cross. The herbs in the cleansing fumigant were from Burjaria as were the ones in the invoking incense that had been charged with personal power while concentrating on the intent behind the summoning of the astral entity. Emotionally he had drawn on his feelings of love during the empowering of the incense so that it also acted as an offering in addition to giving the entity something to construct a body with.

At the moment the smoke had formed a vaguely humanoid shape with a broad base, but like seeing shapes in clouds it was more a suggestion of a person than anything obvious. Victor placed his hand on the copper symbol around his neck and said firmly.

“I command that you appear in the form assigned you.”

For a moment the smoke writhed as though moved by an errant breeze, then it took on a more definite shape. Victor formed his hand to a particular shape which acted as a post self -hypnotic cue taking him into a deep state of trance. In this state he could clearly see the being he had called upon in the form of an old man, with a hawk tattooed on his wrist, riding a crocodile*. He knew that some of the audience would see this too, but those that could not would perceive the smoke as taking on a clearer shape resembling this.

“Thank you Agares” Said Victor. Agares looked pleasantly surprised, probably because at this point in the ritual most Mages would be threatening Him with all kinds of punishment should He disobey them. More out of fear and to bolster their own ego than anything else from what Victor’s researches had revealed, so he decided politeness would be the best way to behave.

“I have called upon you today because of your skill of restraining runaways and their bringing back. A group has stolen my friend’s hubcaps and run away with them. Some other friends are going to find that group and bring the hubcaps back. I call upon you to watch over them and to assist them, should they need it, with force and magick. This is the person who suffered the theft. (he showed Agares a hairband that had hairs on it which was a connection with his friend who had had their hubcaps stolen), and these are my friends (he showed a picture of his friends from a party during the Día de Muertos). Protect and assist them, this is my will”

Agares bowed slightly in agreement.

“Thank you for your attendance and service. Depart now to your own realm and harm none on your going” Agares began to fade away and, coming back to everyday consciousness, Victor watched as the smoke became, once again, a formless cloud. He finished with the formal banishing and ‘closed down’ the energies in the temple. His fellow mages and instructors were very pleased with how the ritual had been performed and how well he had interacted with Agares. All he had to do for his grade was wait to find out the results of the ritual.

These were not long in coming. The full story is told in my book “The Secrets of Love Magick” as Victor told me about the ritual he had performed the next day at school. Not only did the person get their hubcaps back, but an independent witness saw the form of Agares watching the action. When they learned about it his group advanced him two grades because of how successful the ritual had been.

In the next article we will look at techniques of working with Otherworld beings. Including what their agendas might be, and precautions to take.

*”The crocodile seemed perfectly happy with the arrangement” Victor assured me when telling me about this, because he knew of my love of animals.