Sigil Creation pt. 1- The Letter Method
What is a sigil?
A sigil is a symbol of intent developed by the chaote with the intent of manifesting a desired result. It's a neat little glyph you can create that is processed by the subconscious mind to bring about the change the chaote is looking for.
There are so many different ways to create a sigil, but today, for this post, we're going to focus on the original method- the Letter Method.
This method was developed by the grandfather of chaos magick, Austin Osman Spare. This technique revolutionized the occult world, making it easy and accessible to the layman as opposed to the strict and gawdy teachings of the magick orders of the time, such as The Golden Dawn.
The idea is simple, and can be done in just a few steps. Some sigils are completed within five minutes, others may take several hours to get just right. It all depends on what the chaote is trying to achieve.
1 . Write out your Statement of Intent
A statement of intent (or SoI) is a simple sentence that outlines your desire in clear, concise language. It should be written in the present tense, and should avoid words that are either negative in nature (not, never, don't, etc) or words like "want". This is because the universe can be finnicky, and by using words like "never" it tends to do the opposite and manifest what you're trying to avoid. If you use a word like "want" (i.e. "I want a new book on the occult.") then you get trapped in an endless cycle of wanting that new book instead of actually receiving it.
For example:
"I want a new book on magick." Incorrect
"I receive a new book on magick." Correct
2. Remove all the duplicate letters and vowels.
The next step is to break down the SoI into fewer letters. This is done by removing all the duplicate letters and vowels from the SoI. If a letter appears more than once, remove it. If it's a vowel, remove it.
So with our previous example "I receive a new book on magick." if we break it down as described we're left with:
RVNWBMG
Simple, right? The reasoning behind this is that we're trying to encode the SoI into our subconscious minds. By breaking down the original statement, we're creating an abstract representation of the SoI. The subconscious is a very abstract beast, and it works with symbols and codes.
3. Rearrange the remaining letters into an abstract glyph
This is the fun part, where we get to be a little artsy. So we're going to take the remaining letters, and mash them together into one coherent symbol.
Don't be afraid to warp, bend, and morph the letters into unique shapes, and don't get too wrapped up in the aesthetics of it.
It may look like a bunch of a random squiggly lines, but if you look closely you'll see the shapes of all the letters that were leftover.
4. Charge it
Now you're going to "charge" the sigil, which means you're going to enter a state of gnosis and implant the sigil into your subconscious mind. There's a number of ways of doing this. The simplest technique is to simply sit still and meditate on the sigil for as long as you can. Quiet your mind from all other distractions and simply gaze at the sigil. Make it your one and only point of focus. When you believe it to be charged, move on to the next step.
Other ways of charging a sigil include: dancing to music while focusing on it, head banging while focusing on it, retracing it over and over again. These are just a few examples, and the creative chaotes usually develop their own methods.
4. Destroy it.
This part isn't absolutely necessary, but it is traditional teaching to burn the sigil after you've charged it. This extravagant event of burning implants the importance of the sigil further into your subconscious mind.
Destroying the sigil is supposed to release it to the universe, dispersing the energy you've gathered in the process.
Other ideas besides burning include: leaving it somewhere out in the open so you passively charge it out of your peripherals, hiding it somewhere out of sight, putting it some place of importance, etc. Be creative.
5. Forget it.
There's a lot of debate on this part, but traditional teachings say it is necessary to forget the sigil entirely so that the subconscious mind is doing all the work, while the conscious mind isn't lusting after the results. If we think about the sigil too much, our desire gets in the way of it working, and makes success much less likely.
And there you have it! A simple tutorial on the Letter Method of sigil creation. This was written late at night in a bit of a rush. I'll probably come through at some point at tighten it up a bit. Until then, this tutorial will give you the bare basic info you need to create your first sigil.
AASB- Yaxel the Manic