Sigil Masterpost Edit. Now with more Thoughtforms!
Hellooooooo my loves. You beautiful creatures. This will be a vaguely new and slightly improved version.
Method 1: Word Methods
1a) You take a phrase that is your intent, cross out repeating letters and vowels, look at the remaining letters and combine them in such a way that they are pretty (or not, whatever yo), then charge/launch. This is the Spare Method.
1b) You take a phrase that is your intent, cross out nothing, and create a series of superimposed sigils. Usually I make one sigil for each word in the phrase, then combine those sigils into one sigil.
1c) You take a phrase that is your intent, cross out nothing, and create a sigil for each word, then just make a cool looking bubble chart representing the “program” for your sigil and adding in symbols that would be relevant or powers you want to invoke (Symbol of Venus for love spells, etc).
Method 2: Automatic X Method
2a) Automatic writing is my favorite method. Get a blank sheet of paper (or a lined one, whatever you want baby cakes, use a post-it note, all good here you sexy thing) and use automatic writing. Automatic writing is basically you just allow your hand and arm to do “natural” movements as if you were writing, however for our purposes you must be fixed on the intent entirely.
2b) Automatic drawing is my least favorite one because I hate drawing anything besides naked women, which I am very good at drawing by the way… Where was I?… Oh yes. So what you do is you focus your mind on the intent, and with eyes opened or closed, you just draw what you see in your mind with that intent. Maybe a symbol, maybe some weird abstract… thing, just draw it.
Method 3: Traditional Methods
3a) Use a planetary square that corresponds to your desire. These should be easy to find but if not: Saturn is a 3x3 square, Jupiter is 4x4, Mars is 5x5, Sol is 6x6, Venus is 7x7, Mercury is 8x8, and Luna is 9x9. Planetary squares are the origin of magic squares, so each row/column must add to a specific number. This is where you can apply Method 1 to shorten your phrase to about 5 letters or so for the smaller squares. The Squares are usually consecutive numbers which are then assigned to the letters of the Alphabet.
Another use of the Magic Square is the creation of something similar to the SATOR square, where you take a series of words and perhaps alter them slightly so that they fit into a square that can be read from any direction.
3b) Aiq Bekar, or Qabbalah of Nine Chambers. You get the Alphabet and add perhaps an ñ so you have 27 letters. You create a tick-tack-toe box with nine sections. You take the alphabet and go, for the Latin Alphabet, left to right with each letter such that the top-left has a, top-middle has b, top-right has c, middle-left has d, etc, until all the letters are used. After that, use Method 1 to reduce it to perhaps a few letters, or take the first letter of each word.
Then, look at the Chart you just made and find each letter and use the lines that close it as a symbol, with 1 to 3 dots inside representing whether it’s the first, second or third letter in the section. That is to say, if your letters are c, e, and g, your three sigils will be an L shape with one dot, a box shape with one dot, and upside down backwards L with one dot. Afterwards just combine the various shapes you have to create a singular sigil. Keep in mind that this is usually done with the Hebrew Alphabet, and it is done so that the first letters, in this case the left most letters in each box and they would be the right most for Hebrew, are the ones that are the most “powerful”, with the last letters being “earthly”.
3c) The method I mentioned in passing about taking the first letter (or last letter) of each word in the phrase is also an old method called Notarikon. This also works to create a singular sigil or at least to reduce the letters enough so that you may apply it in other methods.
3d) Though not traditional per se, the Alphabet of Desire works well enough. However the sigils here do not work with the alphabet, but rather via 6 sigils + 18 sub-sigils representing a concept.
The Alphabet of Desire works based on YOU, mind you. What each sigil means depends on your own perception. Furthermore, I personally hate it. I have created my own wheel of sigils, with 8 subdivisions and then 3 subsections for each, leading to 24 sub-sigils + 8 main sigils = 36. This allows for a system of my own personal creation that speaks to me and likely me alone but I can still cross correspond to standard systems like the Names of Gods or the Goetic Demons or the Zodiac, etc. Make your own “Alphabet” wheel.
Effectively, however, this is a very old method. Ultimately a lot of words are Hebrew are built because each letter symbolizes something, thus putting the letters together creates a word that is actually a symbol for the idea. Aleph is bull’s head and Beth is house, thus “head of house”, thus father “Abba”.
You can even give an alphabet to a table of correspondence, a similar idea found in 3b, and create sigils that way.
3e) Atbash, just fold the alphabet upon itself, or better yet, make a strip of paper with the alphabet evenly spaced, tie it into a ring, and just shift it until you have a cipher you feel like working with. Change the entire phrase.
3f) Fusing images is very common. After all, Mercury is simply Salt-peter + sol + luna, on principle, as an example. One must be careful with the combination of images, as not all powers inherent in the symbol get along with all the other powers in other symbols.
Special side note: You can combine as many of these as you want. Personally I write a paragraph for my desire, atbash cipher it, then use notarikon, cross out repeating vowels and consonants, then either superimpose the rest on eachother, or use Aiq Bekar, or a planetary square that is appropriate, then end by sealing it all in a circle of my automatic writing while focusing on my desire. Then I launch/charge it.
Launching and charging is the more complex bit of information. Some say ‘forgetting’ is the best method. Some say sigils must be destroyed. Some say sigils must be kept around in case you messed up and need to undo it so physically having the “root” of the spell is important to keep. Some masturbate to charge the sigil, some just carry it around, some employ ritual and some believe the act of making it is enough to charge it.
Personally I believe you should do whatever feels right for that particular sigil.
Launching and Charging:
The charging and launching part of this spiel is the most complicated part, because nobody agrees. It is believed by a minority that simply making a sigil charges it with Powah™ and that you don’t need anything else. Ritual is another method, this can be as small as circling the sigil in blood, or having it on your altar and “feeding” it, or some elaborate invocation ritual from some grimoire; another common method is the use of masturbation until orgasm, charging the sigil with your half of creation. One can focus and meditate on the purpose of the sigil, just really hyper focus so that it’s really “shoved into the universe.” It is believed by quite a few that a sigil must be forgotten and even destroyed outright upon being made. While this is great for small sigils like “Make people think I’m pretty today”, if you were to make a very elaborate sigil form with a lot of “ifs” and “buts”, destroying the sigil is like smashing the computer once you press the red button that launches the nukes. Keeping it in plain sight allows people to charge it in passing, since the sigil will be in their minds for x amount of time. HOWEVER, keeping it in plain sight also leaves it open for energy contamination, some argue. Keeping it hidden avoids this, but you don’t get the extra punch and also the extent of it’s effect on the universe is then limited by the strength of your will.
… I know I’ll regret this next part.
Thoughtforms basics:
Sigils are ultimately the foundation upon which we create Thoughtforms.
Objects give rise to Subjects give rise to Signs give rise to Symbols give rise to Sigils give rise to Servitors give rise to Egregores give rise to Godforms. (That escalated quickly, didn’t it?)
Ultimately, it is the next step behind the common idea today that Ideas themselves are “living”, in that they affect society as a whole and then the collective of individuals affect the idea. This also goes for Symbols, though some argue they are one and the same. I digress.
A servitor is basically an idea you have, a tangible concept within your mind, that you allow to create. It’s the difference of state within your mind when you think about something general and vague, like humans, versus some specific idea you have, such as your ideal partner.
They are limited by the concept they are based upon, that you perceive and create. In English, they are limited by the sigil you create for them. This is a double edged sword, however. You can make a servitor very vague, based upon a very vague idea, such as Geburah, the 5th Sephira. Quite a few traditions do this when they make an astral temple in each of the 32 Paths. You can make a servitor very, very specific, using a very elaborate sigil that specifies every single detail. Think of it like a circuit board, using logic gateways. Circuit boards only work if the current is able to go through a closed path. If a single thing isn’t working properly or is open, then the current will not reach it’s end and nothing happens.
One can also make a servitor without a tangible sigil, of course, but if you were able to do that you wouldn’t need a guide. It’ll come naturally later.
The reason why I recommend keeping a sigil goes back to the circuit thing. You can easily launch a current through a circuit and then erase the circuit from existence, hoping the lightbulb lights up… but why would you do that? Say the current starts make the lightbulb explode over and over again, or it never reaches the bulb because you know you forgot a detail. You have the circuitboard and can fix this easily. Otherwise you have to redo the circuit from scratch.
But you are still limited by the circuit board. The next step are Egregores, or to continue with the metaphor, Artificial Intelligence via a series of circuits.
Usually Egregores are created in a group. Multiple individuals work together to “breathe” collective “life” into the Idea, forming a Spirit from the Collective Will. This can be done actively, such as in the ritual setting, or passively, such as in society with Anonymous from 4chan.
But the individual Magician can create an egregore, of course. Based upon either a simple sigil; though I have no idea why such an effort would be put to create a simple being from one’s own will when if one wants an Archetypal being you literally have endless angels and demons and more for that end. Complex egregores are the norm.
Egregores can serve multiple purposes. They can be an astral temple with a personality, a being that allows for a portable altar, or a being with a purpose that is capable of adapting and responding to a change in plans.
You can also create a thoughtform from an already established sigil/seal, such as those found in Abramelin or those found in the Keys. It can be argued, however, that such an act would really be more like the creation of what I call a “Legion” construct, i.e. a being fused from a variety of beings, for more power, since the pentacles inherently invoke certain Demons and Angels, as do the Abramelin squares in large part.
The maintaining of these thoughtforms is another issue. Assuming you create a one-trick pony, you have nothing to worry about. But say you created a servitor from the Abramelin square to undo all (low) magick, you know, for quick clean up. You can either choose to reactivate/remake the servitor each and every time, OR you can keep it around permanently. Same with egregores.
Most people make the choice to keep the thoughtform feeding on you. Don’t do that.
You can have it feed off of the free energy in the universe. Entrophy is a thing you know. You can also choose to have it feed off of the energy given off by reality itself, slightly different. Or a living being, like your pets, though this borders on possession. You can bind it to perhaps a tree in your backyard. Whatever. There’s an endless possibility when it comes to maintaining servitors and egregores.
Personally, I create a sigil network with physical anchors creating a net that allows me to trap shit for my own purposes. Anchors for the net, with a central node that collects it all and another node that I have that allows me to access the energy. No I will not give you my sigils because I don’t want this to become some weird LS Network thing with me as the all powerful center feeding off of everyone.
The Legion Construct I just mentioned is another good way to create a thoughtform that doesn’t need to feed or be fed regularly for more Powah™
The creation of thoughtforms though, like what you actually do, is similar to that of sigils. Be creative. Ejaculations, Menstrual Blood, both have heavy symbolic power involving the idea of life. Intense meditation. Drawing of blood in general. Pain is a big one too.
DEFINITELY KEEP SOME PHYSICAL ANCHOR WITH AN EGREGORE. For the reasons mentioned of editing but… egregores, given their vague “free will”… just keep it guys.
Not going to talk about Tulpas. You want to talk about Tulpas go into the tulpa tag and knock yourself out. Fair warning, don’t go in there.
I’ll probably edit this again later. Send me feedback if you wan’t something, or maybe I forgot something super important, whatever.
