Sigils Magic Basics
"A sigil is a symbol used to represent something in a magickal working.
If you're not new tote occult, you may have come across or even used sigil magick of some type.
In basic candle magick, sometimes symbols of desire are carved into candles before they're burned. In the advanced art of evocation, sigils are used as signatures of sorts, representing the entity being called forth.
Somewhere in the middle of these two magickal ickal uses of sigils lies what is commonly called "sigil magick." Most modern versions of sigil magick owe their roots to the work of Austin Osman Spare.
Spare was an artist with an uncanny connection tion to the unseen world. One can assume he saw things moving in the dark matter all around us on a regular basis.
More important, however, was his ability to pull things out of his deep consciousness and reveal them through his drawings and paintings.
By doing so, he forged links to atavistic or hidden forces in his own body and in the universe.
Spare worked on a way of using symbolism to quickly contact the forces that his art sometimes had to painfully call up. His Alphabet of Desire was a series of symbols that could be assembled like mystical keys to an ancient puzzle. The way he'd put them together determined what real forces were called into his life.
At least that's the aspect of it that we'll explore for our purposes here.
Rather than use Spare's symbols, however, modern magicians realize alize that his work was truly relevant only to his subconscious.
Spare's Alphabet of Desire and other paintings are not universal symbols.
To come up with a symbol that will speak to your hidden consciousness, ness, you have to trick that part of your mind into making a connection with a symbol or sigil during its creation.
The idea is to know why a symbol makes sense during its creation, but then sort of forget the significance nificance upon its completion.
In other words, you should be fully conscious scious of why the squiggles on paper represent your magickal desire while you are designing the sigil.
When you use the sigil in a rite, though, you want the alien look of it to jump past your daytime mode of thought and straight to the hidden parts of your mind.
If you think of daytime consciousness as a mundane barrier to your latent powers, then think of sigils as blades that penetrate the barrier to release a tiny but specific sliver of your potential."
--The Nocturnicon
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This is where many beginners (and even some veterans) of Magic fail.
A Sigil is a personal symbol, with meaning only --or perhaps I should say, mainly-- to it's creator.
This means that using a Sigil created by someone else will either be less effective, or not work at all. Because THEY are the ones who hold the Key to their own creation, and it cannot be passed on.
Not without serious study and work to associate them correctly. (As one would study, for instance, Runes. Although that is a very different topic as Runes have some inherent magic by themselves.)
It is also far too easy to simply draw something pretty, by meaningless.
A Sigil must connect to the innermost part of the person who is to use it. This is vital!
So keep that in mind when you plan to use Sigil magic yourself.
Unless the Sigil speaks to you on a deep, subconscious level, it will not work.
Keep that in mind whenever you work with Sigils. Especially if you consider to use a Sigil created by someone other than yourself.
Mind you, you can use Sigils created by someone else, but it would be like learning a new language well enough to speak it fluently and automatically; A lot of work.
It can be done... but it would likely be easier to just create the Sigil yourself.
--Belial
