Invoking

As a Witch, I invoke. I do not pray. Prayer assumes the individual is powerless, that they must petition a higher power for aid or comfort, implying that they are incapable of producing these things on their own. Or it suggests that they must appease said outside force in order to avert harsh consequences. This sort of thinking separates the individual from their own Power-From-Within, and places Divinity in a position of wielding Power-Over them. It defeats the individual at the very start of the process, maintaining a feeling that they are not in control of their lives, and that they are estranged from Divinity itself (resulting from the disunion that is inherit to the prayer dynamic, that one is separated from the Divine. That it is something outside of oneself that one must beseech).
   
Invoking does the opposite. It confirms our union with the Divinity residing within ourselves. When we invoke we awaken the imagery of archetypes embedded deeply within our unconscious mind (known as the Lower Self in Core Shamanism). When we wake these symbols within us, we also wake the power that they represent. That power is the ability to act, to feel, to effect change. Usually this is in a particular manner or direction, dependent upon the archetype. (i.e. invoking Kuan-Yin will awaken one's power to be compassionate. Invoking Aphrodite draws upon one's sexuality. Invoking the Morrigan calls up our power to annihilate.). These symbols are like lenses, focusing our raw energy and directing them into the patterns they represent. This energy in turn manifests in our action.
   
Is this all just a matter of semantics? No, the dynamics between prayer and invocation are totally opposite. Prayer is an act of denying one's own inherit Divinity and connection to the Universe, along with ones own Power to act and effect change within it. It puts up a road-block between the individual and those things. Typically this road-block is guarded and maintained by the members of organized, hierarchal religions that attempt to dominate the populations they claim to serve. On the other hand Invoking goes right to the source without stopping. In the words of Karlfried Graf Durkheim it is "Transparency To The Transcendent." That is why in Witchcraft there is no special class of Priesthood. We are all the Priests and Priestesses. We are all Shamans. For we are all Divine, we need only remember it.