Thread: Sigils

I've run across a lot of conflicting data on how sigils work, and was wondering if anyone here could clarify them for me.

It's a personal medium of spellcasting, there's no rigor to it, just do what you feel most comfortable with.

So you could use any type of symbol, and it would work if it had meaning to you?

I'm no scholar of it, but it's the impression I've gotten from what I've read.

Thank you.

Well the "original recipe" for sigilization went something like this:

1)Write down your intent...
i.e "I want to sqibble the mome raths when the mimsys do outgrabe"

2) Then take out all the duplicated letters..Iwantosqiblehmrhwydugrb ..(bad example as I've now got most of the alphabet)

3) It is with these letters that you now create your Sigil...combine them all into a symbol. This part is up to you. If you want you can substitute other alphabets, the Hebrew alphabet is common because it lends itself to artistry.
I might use the runes, they tend to give a simpler sigle, and many runes exist within the patterns of other runes.

4) Charge your Sigil...

5)??

6)Profit

Originally Posted by Rezenic

I... how sigils work

Usually described in relation to Chaos Magic, the sigilization technique is based on the work of British magician Austin Osman Spare, a contemporary of Alastair Crowley and George Cecil Jones. For this reason, they are sometimes called AOS sigils. Spare believed that the greatest obstacle to effective magic was the "lust of result," the preoccupation with the desired results of the magic that distract from the focus on the spell itself. For example, when casting a spell for increased wealth, the magician would dwell on what he intended to buy with his new riches. Magic, Spare believed, was best accomplished by the True Will, unencumbered with the petty desires of the material world.

The sigilization method, therefore, is an attempt to systematically remove the goal of the magic from the material world so that it would only exist in the unconscious where the True Will could work on it. The method has four steps: encoding, forgetting, empowering and destruction.

First the precise goal of the spell must be determined. This is called the "statement of intent." A good statement of intent is forceful and, ideally, in the present tense. (The True Will exists outside of human perceptions of time.) The statement of intent is reduced to a symbol, called the sigil. How this is accomplished varies, but the most common method is to write the SOI out, eliminate all repeating letters then combine them by writing one over the other. Although it seems random, this is the part that tells the True Will what the magic must accomplish, so it can't be rushed.

In some ways the forgetting is the hardest part. You must put the sigil aside and forget what the goal of the spell was. Some magicians make up a lot of sigils and store them together so they forget which was which. An envelope on the refrigerator is a good place since while you are supposed to forget why you made the sigil, you can't forget that you made a sigil at all.

Empowering and destruction are accomplished together, usually in the same ritual. A (random) sigil is charged with magical energy that is then send out. Popular methods of gathering energy include meditation, yoga, and sex magic. The "runner's high" of exercise is also a very good source of ecstatic energy. However the sigil is charged, once the charging is accomplished, the physical sigil must be destroyed. The paper it's written on is burned or buried to prevent any of the magic from adhering to it and thus remaining in the material world.

Thank you for your help.

Originally Posted by Rezenic

I've run across a lot of conflicting data on how sigils work, and was wondering if anyone here could clarify them for me.

First, your signature is funny.

Sigils work by acting upon the subconscious mind; provided that such a sigil has an influence upon you contrived of learning and knowledge. Learn all about the sigil and its representation as much as you can. Never, never apply a sigil without knowing what you are doing! You do so at the utmost peril of pandering to falsity and ignorance.

To break down what daecon said:

1st Know your intent and what the sigil is for so when you sit down concentrate on that goal

2nd Write your goal as I will or My wish is etc etc NEVER write it in a negative tense always write it as you will have it or my wish is to become etc etc. Best part here is that you need to stock up the more you have the less you will remember what they will be for.

3rd remove all repeating Letters but not only that remove the ones that look alike.. If I had a B i'd not only remove all b's but all d's and p's as well because they look like the same as a b lower case or sometimes upper. Afterwards take all your letters and construct a symbol or image preferably in a circle, square, or triangle. The drawing does not matter I've made ones that look like circular weather instruments.

4th There are a few release methods the ones I am familiar with are scaring the crap out of you so that you internalize it like going down a roller coaster and looking at it. There are a few others I don't suggest for example theres one where you hold your breathe and right before you need to gasp for air you look at the sigil. The last method is you masturbate and the moment you feel like your going to ejaculate look at the sigil but there was an additional thing I read in this method you have to anoint the sigil with your umm... fluids.

5th Once you've released it you have to override yourself with another emotion like burst out laughing.

6th and final step the destruction. Destroy it as you wish I mainly just burn it but its your choice whether you'd like to... consume it in some manner... just tell yourself its mayo... or again just burn it.

Hope that helps