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While we are on the subject of calling up or down demons and other spirits, we should take note of two other important magical terms, invocation and evocation. The root "vac" is common throughout the Indo-European languages. We see it in a very raw manifestation as the primordial Hindu goddess Vak. We see it in the Latin "vocalis," which gave us our "vocal," meaning pertaining to speech. We also have it in our word "vocation," which signifies someone's calling in life and we should not forget "voice." The particular Latin word of interest here is "voco," meaning to call. If we combine this with the prefix "in-," we get "invoco," meaning to call in. As well as in, we have seen that the prefix "in-" can mean over or upon. This gives us "invocatio," which can mean either to call in or to call upon. This gives us our modern "invocation," with the same meanings. If we change the Latin prefix, we obtain "evoco," which meant to call out or to call forth. This gives us our modern English "evocation," with the technical magical meaning of to call into manifestation. Modern English imposes a strange spelling shift on this word. To say "evocation," "evocable" or "evocative," which means tending or having the power to evoke, we retain the Latin hard c. We can see, however, that in the operative verb "evoke" we are required to change the spelling to a k. The operative function of these words, again, is a calling or recital. Words are the operative medium of the magic, by definition and etymology. Latin has given us many words related to calling spirits or whatever entities you will. For instance, we commonly hear the words "summon" and "conjure" used in this context. Both are of Latin origin. "Summon" derives from the Middle English "somonen," which derived in turn from Old French. Old French had varying forms of the word, including "somondre," "somoner," "sumuner" and "semoner." The French derived these from the Latin "summonere," meaning to remind privately. This derived from the root "monere," meaning to advise, remind or warn. The use of this word in evocation is hardly different from the idea of a court summons and requires little elucidation here. The art of calling up entities by magic is commonly called "conjuration." The Middle English "conjuren" developed from the Old French "conjurer," meaning to use a spell. The French developed from the Late Latin "coniurare," meaning to swear together or to swear by something. This is a formation of the prefix form of "cum" and "iurare," meaning to swear, so we can literally translate it as to swear together. The sense of "swearing" carried over into English. For example, a "conjurator" is someone who is joined to others by oath, or a sworn conspirator. "Conjure" itself can mean to swear together, to swear by oath or appeal. These senses are falling into archaism, but we see the root surviving with more vigour in words like "abjure," meaning to renounce by oath. We also have "juratory," meaning sworn by oath and "jury" is not in danger of leaving our language any time soon, we can hope. When the word moved over into French, we see that "conjurer" aquired the meaning of "exorcize." This calling upon a deity for exorcism apparently was stretched in English to calling upon or calling up deities or spirits. This association with evoking later stretched to mean magic in general, including simple stage magic, hand trickery and even juggling. Unlike "enchanting" and "charming," however, "conjure" has retained its magical connotation, though in common parlance it can be used to simply mean "call to mind," in the same sense as "evoke." The concept of "exorcizing" or "exorcising," in conjunction with swearing brings us to look at the word "exorcize" itself. "Exorcize" is an old word, being traceable through Late Latin to ancient Greek. Its meaning has changed little along the way. To "exorcize" comes from the Late Latin "exorcizare." An "exorcismus" is an exorcism and an "exorcistus" and "exorcista" are male and female exorcists respectively. Sometimes we encounter the forms "exhorcismus," "exhorcistus" and "exhorcista." We can trace the Latin back to the Greek "exorkizo," meaning either to conjure and to exorcize. It should not be surprising to us to trace the root of "exorkizo" to the root "orko" meaning oath. We see it in "orkoô," meaning to bind by oath and "orkos," which is the object by which one swears. When we combine this root with the prefix "exo-," meaning out, we come to the literal meaning to swear out. We see this clearly in the word "exorkôsis," meaning either to exorcize or binding by oath. Here we see a similar development to "conjure," many centuries earlier. |