The assumption of the godform is a technique of Western ceremonial magic, developed within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, in which the magician imaginatively takes on the form and identity of a deity, most often an Egyptian god in the Golden Dawn system, in order to draw upon its powers and qualities during ritual. The practitioner visualises the chosen godform in precise detail, its posture, colours, crown and regalia, growing to fill and surpass the body, until the sense of ordinary self is set aside and replaced by the assumed divine identity, from which the magician then speaks and acts within the rite. The technique is used to invoke a particular force, to empower a ritual gesture, and, in the tradition's understanding, to elevate the consciousness of the operator toward the divine.
The practice bears a striking structural resemblance to the deity yoga of tantric Buddhism, in which the meditator likewise dissolves the ordinary self and arises as a visualised deity, and modern writers have often drawn the comparison, though the two arose independently and are framed by wholly different theologies and symbol systems. Within the Western esoteric tradition the assumption of the godform is regarded as an advanced technique requiring a foundation in visualisation and ritual, and it is understood by many practitioners as much as a psychological discipline, a deliberate identification with an archetype to integrate its qualities, as a magical operation, reflecting the broader modern tendency to read ceremonial magic in terms of the transformation of the practitioner's own mind.