The sigilization technique described below is a variation of the procedure illustrated by Adam Blackthorne in The Master Works of Chaos Magick: Practical Techniques For Directing Your Reality. It is a method that I have used extensively with much success and I consider it to be one of the most intuitive, expedient, and versatile magico-psychical techniques available. It is primarily employed for operations of enchantment as demonstrated below, but may be adapted for divinatory purposes as well. The procedure is as follows:
Place the tip of a writing utensil on a piece of paper, mentally clarify your “statement of intent”, and vividly imagine the event you desire to occur from the first person perspective, arousing the feeling of satisfaction or excitement that you would experience following the actual fulfillment of that desire.
Once you have semi-lost yourself in the visualization, allow the writing utensil to move in a spontaneous, quick, and explosive manner. This automatically produced mark is the sigil.
Now, place the sigil in front of you and either [1] visually focus on it until you experience anoesis, or [2] visually focus on it while chanting a mantra until anoesis ensues.
Conclude the operation and take a few moments to clear your mind.
To later avoid ‘lust of result’ (which is theorized to undermine your intended manifestation), re-arouse the retrospective feeling of fulfillment each time you recall having performed the operation.
This technique is used frequently by someone I know personally and they say it allows them to channel something like a “core essence,” a source of creativity, a voice, which otherwise remains inexpressible with ordinary writing techniques. Physically, it’s more like a practical application of autohypnosis, and grants oneself temporary release from internalized prejudices, judgements, and tension, therefore allowing access to newer ideas without that overly-critical inner force which naturally predicts, analyzes, and catalogues thoughts and feelings.
Quite reminiscent of Austin Spare’s experiences with automatic drawing.
Below are the operations of Sigil Work (a common form of Chaos Magic):
The sentence of desire must be formulated and written down in capital letters. Why capitals? They provide more structure for your sigil shape with more straight lines than lowercase letters
Repeated
letters are deleted so that every letter will be used but once. Why delete? It simplifies the final sigil shape by keeping the amount lines/shapes to a minimum.
All letters of the whole sentence are combined into
one general sigil OR several
parts of the sentence are sigilized into several single sigils then combined
into one general sigil. Why? To make the actual sigil
The
sigil is internalized/activated. Internalizing should be done by staring at your sigil in a sort of trance, either during a state of euphoria, ecstasy, fatigue, or a simple meditative state. It is taught that just internalizing your sigil will activate it, but you can activate/charge it by really any means possible. Why? This is what plants your sigil into your unconscious
The
sigil is banished and forgotten. This can be done by immediately distracting yourself upon removing the sigil from your sight. Why?
so that it can obey its encoded direction in the unconscious mind without hindrance from the concision mind
Step 5 is not necessary if you decide against it, but it is very rarely found in “Tumblr Sigil Craft”. And Step 4 is almost never enforced. This post is to provide you with that lost piece of information to allow you to choose your own direction when practicing sigil magic. If this final step resonates with you, please practice it! It’s an incredible tool that will help you gain results with your sigils when done effectively. But if you feel that your particular sigil will work best when kept clear in the conscious mind, go right ahead with it. As much as the final step is stressed in “traditional” Chaos Magic, it is also important to remember that the authors of sigil craft literature encourage your own adaptations of your witchcraft as well. Some quotes by Frater UD include: 1. “Dare
to experiment, make changes where you feel they may be necessary, and always
aspire to develop your own techniques and methods.” 2. “place
your trust in your feelings (i.e., your intuition) rather than in rules which
other magician’s have set up according to their own subjective biases” 3. “In
Spare’s system there are no ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ sigils; neither is there a
list of ready-made symbols. It is of no import whether the sigil is a ‘correct’
one or not, but it is crucial that is
has been created by the magician and is therefore meaningful to [them].”
Additional Tips For Sigil Craft you may not have heard before
”Formulating
the sentence of desire and drawing the sigil should be done with the utmost
concentration. It makes the following activation (“charging”) much easier.”
“You should keep your operation secret. For
discussing it…may dissolve the sigil’s power.”
“negative
formulas are usually not properly comprehended by the unconscious” Avoid words like “not” or “never” in your sentence of desire
“Sigil
magic is primarily success magic. It aims at achieving very tangible and
verifiable results. Accordingly, sentences of will should be concrete and
specific.”
Specify
a time limit for your sigil within your sentence of desire (a day, a month, a year, a car-ride)
“it
is advisable…for you to place a border round the sigil, either in the form of a
triangle, circle, square, or something similar. This…makes it easier to
concentrate on the sigil when charging it. [And] it gives the sigil a
‘definitive’ and ‘conclusive’ touch, for if you work a lot with sigils,
occasionally you may find the sigils becoming ‘entangled’ in your unconscious
to form undesirable chains and combinations.”
Decorate/stylize
your sigil to add a “magic touch”
Sigils
can also be constructed through a pictorial method by sketching your desires,
simplifying them to shapes and lines, and stylizing (decorating) it as you
would with the word method
The Concept Behind Sigils and Their Success is that because
of their unrefined image, they will appear to our unconscious and remain there. “Everything which
reminds us of the times of amateurish handicraft will awaken primordial
impulses in our reptilian brain. This will virtually automatically liberate the
magical power in this section of the brain or awaken it in the first place.” Also “Mandala structures will awaken
and activate archetypal material in the unconscious.” Which is another reason why it is advisable to put a border around your sigil. Creating and activating a sigil to manifest your desires is putting all your faith into your unconscious.
Notes On Following Through With Step 5 of the Sigil Process
“There are three parts to the operation
of a sigil. The sigil is constructed, the sigil is lost to the mind, the sigil
is charged.” (Peter
J. Carroll)
You can also banish
a sigil by keeping it in one spot and getting used to it until you no longer perceive it consciously
”Don’t use
them lazily or heedlessly. This could definitely be dangerous! At the beginning
you will need perhaps a quarter of an hour or so for your first individual
sigil, but by your fifth or sixth sigil it will take you only a couple of
minutes. This effort will certainly prove to be worthwhile if you consider the
probably success. … With some experience, you will have finished the whole
operation, including activation and subsequent banishing, within less than five
to ten minutes. There is no faster way- even in magic!”
“It
is of prime importance not to bring back the meaning and aim of the sigil into
consciousness at any time.”
“It
is recommended…that you should not spend too much time consciously creating a sigil. This is because…it will be much more
difficult to forget the sigil’s outline and contents or to push it out of the
consciousness, which is so essential for its proper working.”
“If sigils or sentences of desire unexpectedly
pop up into consciousness, recharge and banish them again. Most of the time,
it’s enough to simply distract your attention”
“A
record should be kept of all work with sigils but not in such a way as
to cause
conscious deliberation over the sigilized desire.” So like a running
list of dates on which you created/activated a sigil without specifics
of the process or desire itself
What is Chaos Magic? A system of magic that focuses on personal symbolism rather
than a traditional system.
(The content of this post includes
paraphrased information from miscellaneous sources along with direct quotes from Practical Sigil Magic by
Frater UD
aka
Ralph Tegtmeier, which discusses the workings of Austin Osman Spar)
There are few things we consistently have with us when we leave the house: keys, wallet/phone and clothes. Of those clothes you wear, they change daily, but your shoes may not.
There’s tons of folklore about shoes and steps and turns of phrase, so why not use them as a tool?
There’s the helm of awe on the heels, moons and star on the inside heel, and an all seeing eye.
Why not draw the sigils you need on the soles of your shoes? Use some chalk and hop to it! Protection, travel, speed, discretion, do some hex work by writing the name of someone on the soles and spend the day trampling them.
Alternatively, you can draw on brick, walls, the ground and possibly shoes (haven’t tried) with salt.
You can get salt rocks online for a few bucks and they’ll last a loooong time. Treat them like chalk, when scraped against rough surfaces they leave a white trail and it’s an easy and less mess way of carrying salt with you for Witching on the go.
Draw a circle wherever you feel the need to do a working, sigils, staves, symbols, gliphs, anything you would trace or draw can have extra oomph behind it by physically drawing it with something of the earth.
a simple cleansing sigil. I’ll usually wrap or cover the item I’m cleansing in a paper with the sigil on it and let it sit overnight or until I’m satisfied. Then I’ll destroy the paper with the sigil on it. It’s for you to choose how best to use this sigil.
last week, something big happened in my city. i don’t really want to get into the details–that’s not the point of this post. the point is i did a protection spell. the thing is, a lot of my magic is very spontaneous. i don’t usually know what i want to say before i do it–i just get an idea, grab what I need, and go.
what i grabbed on the day i did my protection spell was a map. what i traced out as i spoke was the heart, veins, and bones of my city. and now, i’ve used that to make sigils.
I did a symmetrical sigil for once! I got this idea from a text post I saw on here, a tip saying that you can use your router for warding. Can’t remember who posted it but kudos to you for a great tip!
teakepp 