Sigil Magic

I had never heard of sigil magic until it was suggested that I create one for a friend for her new house. I haven't done it yet, because she hasn't found an acceptable home to move into. Still, I thought it was interesting enough to have here.

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Sigil Magic is a widely used form of magical spellcasting, common to many cultures throughout history. Norse Bind-runes, Arabic charms and the Kabballist's Khem are historic examples of using a written alphabet as a way of devising magical talismans.

The theory goes like this: the conscious mind is not directly capable of performing magic (in fact, it inhibits magic,) so the subconscious mind must have the magical intent implanted in somehow it so that it might "unconsciously" manipulate aetheric information to bring about the result.Not only does this theory model the function of Sigil Magic, but can be used to model any form of effective magical technique. Shamanistic sorcery obviously involves direct interface with the magician's subconscious, breaking down the barriers by extreme disciplines and psychoactive drugs. Complex systems of ritual magic can be effective, but only if the subconscious mind is trained to autonomically recognise the symbolism of the system and act on it's linguistics unconsciously. The adept may then use the tools of the system to formulate effective magical procedures. This explains the long apprenticeships and intense religious instruction that characterizes many magical traditions. But in Spare's conception, there is no inherent magical "power" in any particular set of symbols; it is only the subconscious manipulation of whatever symbols are chosen that make them magical. But it is more magically effective for the student of a system to accept the dogma of it's tradition -- that it's symbol-set is inherently magical -- without question, to provide the required belief-state to make it work.

Sigil Magic substitutes self-induced acts of psychological imprinting for dogmatic instruction and adherence to a particular magical model. Religious acceptance is replaced with passionate performance that taps into the unconscious archtypes that underlie all the religious symbolism of humanity. By use of the active imagination, and certain "slight-of-mind" tricks such as sigils, we breach the barriers of the subconscious by guile rather than by main force (as in shamanism) or by seige (as in traditional ceremonial magic).

The theory goes like this: the conscious mind is not directly capable of performing magic (in fact, it inhibits magic,) so the subconscious mind must have the magical intent implanted in somehow it so that it might "unconsciously" manipulate aetheric information to bring about the result.
Not only does this theory model the function of Sigil Magic, but can be used to model any form of effective magical technique. Shamanistic sorcery obviously involves direct interface with the magician's subconscious, breaking down the barriers by extreme disciplines and psychoactive drugs. Complex systems of ritual magic can be effective, but only if the subconscious mind is trained to autonomically recognise the symbolism of the system and act on it's linguistics unconsciously. The adept may then use the tools of the system to formulate effective magical procedures. This explains the long apprenticeships and intense religious instruction that characterizes many magical traditions. But in Spare's conception, there is no inherent magical "power" in any particular set of symbols; it is only the subconscious manipulation of whatever symbols are chosen that make them magical. But it is more magically effective for the student of a system to accept the dogma of it's tradition -- that it's symbol-set is inherently magical -- without question, to provide the required belief-state to make it work.

Sigil Theory

Sigil Magic uses these glyphs as a means to bridge the gap between the conscious and subconscious mind. It compares in some respects to traditional "talisman magic", in which predetermined symbols (such as planetary or astrological ones) are used to embellish a physical device that will encompass the "power" represented by those symbols. Generally, the talisman is subsequently carried by the user as a "charm".
In contrast, a sigil is a customized tool designed to bring about a specific effect, and it's physical basis is only used once at the time of the subconscious implantation, after which it is generally (although not always) destroyed.

Also, a sigil is an original artistic creation, produced by conceiving a sentence that expresses a magical intent, and converting that sentence into a pictoral representation. The point is to obtain an image that can carry the intent past the psychic censor and into the subconscious mind, where it becomes magically effective.

The great advantage of Sigil Magic is that no particular belief-set is needed to work with it; there are no discarnate entites to summon, no dieties to appease, no invisible rays to eminate from your solar plexus (unless you want to create them yourself as a meta-belief device). And there are no special tools or equipment needed beyond a pencil and paper, and even these can be abandoned by the adept practitioner.

The Making of a Sigil

There are three main parts to the construction of a sigil: formulation of a Sentence of Desire, conversion of the sentence into a graphic representation or glyph, and implantation of the glyph into the subconsciousness.

Of the three steps, the creation of the Sentence of Desire is the most important -- and the most difficult. Due to the psychological make-up of the human subconscious, there are certain guidelines that must be followed to obtain predictable results.

First there is the need for absolute precision and lack of ambiguity. I've heard of a test that is used in military officer's training schools, in which the squad leader is assigned a mission and required to devise a set of orders for the squad that he or she thinks is totally unambiguous. Then those under his or her command will try to follow those orders to the letter, but in such a way that is NOT what the leader really intended -- in other words, they try to purposely misinterpret the orders, if they can. If they find it impossible to do so, the leader passes the test. So a good way to test one's Sentence of Desire is to see if you can come up with any alternative meaning other than what was intended. If so, try formulating it in another way.

This need for precision must be balanced with the need for brevity. The Sentence must be concise, using just enough words to express the meaning and no more.

Also, the sentence must be expessed only in positive, not negative terms. The subconscious has the annoying habit of perceiving everything positively. For example, if you want to create a Sentence to protect you from traffic accidents, do not express it as "I will not be in a traffic accident" -- the deep mind ignores the "not" and hears this as "I will be in a traffic acccident"! Instead, express it as something like "I will drive safely".

Spare preceeded all of his Sentences with the prefix "THIS MY WISH..." followed by the description of what was desired. I've always felt this was a bit soft, so I tend to use "IT IS MY WILL..." Some practitioners drop the prefix entirely, and claim it works fine. But it may be more effective to make the Sentence a strong declaration, so the prefix is a very good idea.

Go to the sourced website for the visual part of producing a sigil.

I discovered this link to a 150 page ebook (for lack of a better word) regarding sigil magic on Scribd. Apparently it is the simplest form of magic that is supposed to be guaranteed to work.