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
Eight-legged essay pluralistic ideology characteristic of the Tang Dynasty to a neo-Confucian ideology based on Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi's philosophy. The eight-legged essay came into existence under this background, coinciding with the shift in ideology and embodying the new orthodoxy. The essay format didn't become prevalent as a standard essay in the civil service examination until early Ming dynasty (1368-1644), when the composition of the essay was clearly specified. In the seventeenth century, Gu Yanwu stated that this form of essay-writing became standardized precisely during the 15th century, when the eight parts of the essay were determined. The term "eight-legged essay"