Goetic Evocation by Steve Savedow
We are delighted to announce the opening of pre-orders for the hardcover edition of the 25th anniversary edition of Steve Savedow’s Goetic Evocation, first published by Eschaton Productions in 1996.
Our sewn bound hardcover edition is limited to 500 copies. It is covered in Wicotex Toile du Marais Cerise with black endpapers and head and tail bands, and gold stamped on front and spine. 300 copies are currently listed between our main site and our EU site, with 200 held in reserve. The softcover and digital editions will be released on 22 February 2022. The hardcover will begin shipping on Friday 11 February.
Goetic Evocation was the first workbook ever specifically designed to be used in conjunction with the popular grimoire known as the Goetia, which is the first book of The Lesser Key of Solomon. It is an efficient working manual for the ritual magician who is interested in properly practicing the system outlined in the Goetia.
Steve Savedow provides detailed instructions for the necessary preparations, as well as the actual performance of the evocations, plus thorough dissections of every portion of the Goetia and a complete explanation of the hierarchy of the Goetic spirits.
Also included are transcripts from the author’s personal records documenting nine evocations that were performed between the years of 1985 and 1987 (which feature a lengthy interrogation of the spirit Bim), and the results of his extensive experimentation.
Goetic Evocation book review
By Dr Stephen Skinner
Steve Savedow was certainly “a name to conjure with” in the 1990s. He was, and is, one of the few writers about magic who actually “walked the walk.” I remember being impressed with his remark to the effect that evocation required real physical stamina and endurance. This marked him out as a magician who had actually stood in a circle repeating the conjuration as many times as it took to finally dislodge the spirit and bring him to the circle. Anyone who thought that magic was “all in the head” would have no idea of the stamina and determination required to actually complete a conjuration including cross-examining the spirit and finally binding it to do what it had been called to do. Nowadays, I find even remaining standing in the same spot for as long as it takes to conjure a spirit, for the first time, very demanding. Subsequent evocations of the same spirit are considerably faster.
Steve was certainly a pioneer, in a decade when many writers on magic were treating the subject as purely subjective, Steve stood out as someone who knew from practical experience that the demons or spirits that are conjured by the Goetic art were, and are, objective and exist outside the human psyche and the realms of human fantasy.
In the 1990s many books on magic were published, just as there had been in the 1890s. But after a century in which magic was ‘psychologised’ there were few people who were happy to step forward and acknowledge that magic was in fact performed according to the rules as laid out in the grimoires. Strange as it may seem, the rot began with Aleister Crowley who, in his Introduction to Mather’s edition of the Goetia which he falsely published over his own name, after disowning the actual translator, he famously described magic as psychological. According to him “Ceremonial Magic fines down, then, to a series of minute, though of course empirical, physiological experiments.” He went on to state that “the spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain,” even though he definitely knew the difference between brain and mind. Instead of improving on Mathers’ work, Crowley’s tongue-in-cheek exposition of ceremonial magic has confused many generations of sincere students ever since. Those who adhered to this very materialistic explanation of the phenomena of evocation have completely missed out on its true essence.
Fortunately nobody followed up this line of enquiry, of associating spirits with brain parts, but many occultists of the time found comfort in his attempt to ‘modernise’ magic by hitching it to the star of psychology. Crowley thought that psychology was the way forward for the 20th century, and expected it to have fully explained magic by the end of that century. He would no doubt have been very disappointed in that soft science’s lack of progress, had he lasted another 50 years till its end.
It took a certain amount of bravery for experimenters like Steve Savedow to return to how magic was practiced prior to the 20th century. Of course there were other experimenters who had followed the path of the grimoires in the 20th century, but Steve’s appearance in print in the 1990s is an event to be celebrated. As Steve said “While this system of ritual magic has been well studied, it had rarely been practiced, at least in the traditional sense.” There were some exceptions to this rule including the goldsmith John King IV and myself.
In this book Steve very clearly lays out the spiritual hierarchy and the method that depends on it. To do this he resorts to the Kabbalah, and uses charts of the Tree of Life to organise the gods, archangels, angels and spirits much as Crowley did in Liber 777, or as I have done in my Complete Magicians’ Tables. He then explains the use and nature of talismans and pentacles such as those in the Key of Solomon.
Useful chapters on the Qliphoth follow, which explain the nature of the shells. The reading lists which appear at the end of many chapters will be of use to the tyro setting out to understand these things in greater depth. The Charts which follow and group the spirits by their planetary rulership, Zodiacal association and magical images will be of considerable help to anyone contemplating using the system. A full set of seals for each spirit, which are taken from Crowley’s edition of the Goetia complete the documentation, are also included. After which Steve analyses the actual sequence of the ritual gives a number of useful hints for the practitioner. His list of preparation and items required for the operation are the hallmark of anyone who has had to organise such a ritual.
In any scientifically organised experiment, the whole gamut of results needs to be recorded. Steve document his nine operations done during the 1980s, and in these document both his failures and his successes, including one where after an aborted ritual, a “dark presence loomed in the temple for approximately twelve days, surviving well over one hundred well performed banishing rituals, before becoming unnoticeable.” Fortunately Steve persevered and performed a total of 24 operations of which a number were successful evocations, a result of his hard-won expertise. The record of his ninth operation is truly a delight to read.
This is a text that I can wholeheartedly recommend to both the serious student as well as the merely curious who wish to understand the true nature of evocation.
