Evoking is a way of remembering. This verb is used in three different senses: to refer to the action of bringing to the present a memory of the past, to indicate that something reminds us of something else for some reason or to call a spirit.
reference to past times
If a person experiences emotions or feelings that they have already experienced in the past, this mental action is an evocation. In this sense, we remember sad or happy moments, specific episodes or any experience related to the past.
In any case, it is a way of reliving or recalling a memory.
A way of associating ideas or feelings
In the action of evoking a relationship of similarity between two different elements can occur. Observing a landscape can make us remember a certain moment, a person can make us think of a different person or an object can be related to a specific episode. It is, therefore, an association of ideas, feelings or images.
From a cultural point of view, these types of links are frequent. Thus, the red color evokes the idea of passion, the white color reminds of purity and we can relate pink to the world of children. Certain smells are also evocative, because when we perceive them our mind remembers moments or sensations. The taste of a meal or the touch of an object can also make us recover a memory of something. As is logical, words lead us to remember images and these lead us to words.
In the world of dreams there is also an evocation, since certain dream images are related to our past. Finally, literature, cinema and art in general have an evident evocative component, since through their manifestations our sensitivity and our ability to recover experiences from other times are activated.
In the world of spiritualism
Those who practice spiritualism perform an evocation when they call a spirit to make it present. From this point of view, a person capable of communicating with the afterlife can contact spiritual entities.
This practice is carried out through an evocation ritual, just as it happens in Santeria practices or in the use of the guija. It should be noted that in the terminology of spiritism, evoking and invoking act as synonymous terms.
In ancient times, evoking the souls of the dead was a way for the deceased to answer for their actions or speak out before a specific request.
Photos: Fotolia – zhukovvvlad / mangulica
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