Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

84 Evocation and Invocation
This threat to upset the balance between the
living and the dead would result in an intolerable
situation that, like Ishtar’s disappearance from the
land of the living, would eventually destroy everything,
including the gods. It is thus a threat to
which the celestial divinities must respond.
In one version of this myth, Ereshkigal threatens
to kill Nergal. Nergal responds by invading the
underworld, assaulting its queen, and forcing her
to marry him. In other versions, however, Nergal
returns for a happy reunion: “Laughing joyously,
he entered her wide courtyard and approached
her. He pulled her from the throne, and began to
stoke her tresses. The two embraced, and went
passionately to bed” (Dalley 1989, 176).
Subsequently, Nergal becomes Ereshkigal’s
consort. Yet another myth recounts what happens
when Nergal tarries so long in his wife’s bed that
he neglects to perform his function as god of war
and killing. This story begins with an image of
Nergal (who in this story is referred to by his
Akkadian name of Irra or Erra, scorched earth)
lying awake in bed beside his wife, experiencing a
rather restless night. At length, the silence of the
nuptial chamber is disturbed by the voice of his
weapon, Sibittu. Sibittu calls Nergal to embark on
a campaign of war, citing evidence of the general
decline of the world as evidence that the equilibrium
of things has been disturbed:
Lions and wolves, no longer hunted by Nergal,
attack the cattle and carry them away. The
shepherds, though watchful, are powerless to
stop them. Other creatures invade the fields
and carry away the grain. Most importantly, by
failing to exercise his function as god of war
and death, the population of men and animals
has multiplied to the point where the Earth
groans from the weight of them. The increased
population has also made the Earth so noisy
that the celestial gods cannot get any peace.
Recognizing the truth of Sibittu’s observations,
Nergal resolves to embark on a campaign of
violence, but it is an unusual kind of conflict in
which the normal order of things is inverted: “He
who knew nothing of weapons drew his dagger.
He who knew nothing of projectiles drew back the
arrow in his bow. He who knew nothing of war
engaged in hand-to-hand conflict. He who did not
know how to run flew like a bird. The weak
defeated the strong. The cripple outstripped the
swift” (Dalley 1989, 303).
It is a world turned upside down, in which
even sunlight has turned to shadow. After the task
of destruction is complete, the cosmos is reborn as
a fresh creation. The various inversions (only a few
of which are cited here) in the story exemplify the
renewal symbolism of reversal that one finds
worldwide in the myths and rituals of many traditional
societies. The logic of such myth/rituals is
that the old must be destroyed before the new can
grow, and if the old is not periodically obliterated,
then the cosmos will decay and run down.
For Further Reading:
Black, Jeremy, and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons
and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An
Illustrated Dictionary. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1992.
Cooper, Jerrold S. “The Fate of Mankind: Death
and Afterlife in Ancient Mesopotamia.” In
Hiroshi Obabyashi, ed., Death and Afterlife:
Perspectives of World Religions. New York:
Greenwood Press, 1992.
Dalley, Stephanie. Myths from Mesopotamia. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Sandars, N. K., Transl. The Epic of Gilgamesh. 1960.
Rev. ed. New York: Penguin, 1972.
———. Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient
Mesopotamia. New York: Penguin, 1971.
Evocation and Invocation
Evocations and invocations refer to two methods
of calling spirits and deities into magical and religious
rituals. Evocations, used in ceremonial magic
and sorcery, are elaborate commands, comprised
of detailed gestures directed to an entity that
appears and does whatever the magician asks. The
entities are usually spirits that are evoked to appear
in a triangle outside the magician’s protective
magic circle. The magician is supposed to purify
himself through fasting and prayer, and to purify
his magical tools. Invocations, on the other hand,
are used in religious ceremonies as well as in some
magic rituals. They constitute an invitation to an
entity to be present and to protect the rite. The
details of such a ritual may vary, in that entities can