Invocation Norse rites where Odin is invoked to "ride" workers of seidr (Norse shamanism), much like the god rides his eight-legged horse Sleipnir. Indeed, forms of possessive invocation appear throughout the world in most mystical or ecstatic traditions, wherever devotees seek to touch upon the essence of a deity or spirit. Some have performed invocation for the purpose of controlling or extracting favors from certain spirits or deities. These invocations usually involve a commandment or threat against the entity invoked. The following is a curious example of such an invocation, found engraved in cuneiform on a statue of the Assyrian demon
Odin ] over it", which imbued the head with the ability to answer Odin and "tell him many occult things". In , the great king and his wife (unnamed) are unable to conceive a child; "that lack displeased them both, and they fervently implored the gods that they might have a child. It is said that heard their prayers and told Odin what they asked", and the two gods subsequently send a Valkyrie to present an apple that falls onto his lap while he sits on a burial mound and 's wife subsequently becomes pregnant with the namesake of the family