SIGILS 101
What they are, how to make them, how to use them, and a sample sigil for liberty and justice.
It’s great to know all the magical terminology so that when they use it wrong in pop fiction, we can point and laugh. (Careful with that point, though.)
But it’s even more fun to understand what it really means when we practice.
Magic is deeply spiritual, yes, but it’s also highly psychological. Not in the sense that “it’s all in our heads,” but in the sense that, well, everything is. There is nothing in all creation that wasn’t first a thought. An idea. And the idea came from a desire. Something yearned-for in the simplest way, like a plant leaning toward the sun expresses a yearning, and its offspring came in with more ways to absorb sunlight, wider leaves or taller stalks for broader exposure, and so on.
And in leaning toward the object of our desire, we are also leaning away from the often unpleasant thing that made us desire it. In the case of the plant, it’s leaning away from darkness, toward light, away from cold, toward warmth. There’s no flash of purple smoke and glitter. It’s a gradual, gentle, inevitable improvement.
When we lean toward what we want, we automatically lean away from what we don’t want? We don’t need to hex it or curse it or sew a doll and stick pins in it. All those things are leaning toward the thing we don’t want. The leaning, you see, is the direction of our attention. It takes a lot of attention to make a poppet, and besides I’m all out of yellow yarn. Better to put our attention and our magic on what this seasons big bad has made us yearn for. The better ways we can imagine.
Back to Sigils
Sigils are symbols that hold the energy and intention put into them by the practitioner.
Personal Sigil: This always stays the same, and is the personal signature of the worker. It can represent her magical name or her personal name.
Often, we use a different name in magic than we use in life, because it’s a name we have chosen, rather than one chosen for us, and therefore, it’s more personal. Also of note, a person’s name holds power. Some folks don’t share their magical names, believing others could use it against them. And if you believe that, it’s certainly true.
Magical Sigil: This is a sigil that you make based on the specific magical goal. The thing you’re working for.
Both are created in the same way.
We begin with words. Write down the name or the magical goal. Put some thought into your goal. Let’s do a sample goal, shall we? Just picking something out of the blue, totally at random:
I need my nation to become a true, liberal democracy with liberty and justice for ALL.
Now, the first step is to examine our words and make sure none of them carry negative vibes and none are duplicates.
The word need is problematic. It denotes lack, and if our spell expresses lack of the goal, then lack of the goal is all the spell can create.
But on a deeper, more psychological level, the very presence of the word need indicates that’s what you’re feeling. Need. Lack of the goal. Want has a similar energy.
In magic, we’re trying to align with the presence of the goal, not the absence of it. Spells must be written in the present tense, in the most positive way.
My nation is a liberal democracy with liberty and justice for all.
Check for any limiting turns of phrase. I spot one right at the beginning. My nation. Why limit the magic to one nation? Why not leave the cap off the jar, so it can spread as far as it can?
Liberal Democracy with liberty and justice for all.
Liberal and Liberty are awfully similar. And should we limit our phrase with a form of government specified here? Aren’t there other kinds of governments that have liberty and justice?
Liberty and justice for all.
Now remove the conjunctions which just dilute the message.
Libery Justice All
THAT is a statement! It’s concise and it captures the energy of the goal. When I see those words, I see the Statue of Liberty, and I see a reign of terror lifting. I see beautiful people of all skin tones, emerging from their homes, no longer afraid. I see all the Whos in Whoville joining hands and singing around the tree. I see Marjorie Taylor Green’s heart growing three sizes! It’s happening, people!
Ahem, that was a bit of a digression.
The psychological part
As we purify our statement, crossing out limitations on the paper, we are crossing them out in our minds. When we delete negative words in the statement, we delete mental blocks between us and our goals. When we simplify the statement, we clarify and focus our goal in our mind. You see?
The more times we go over it, and improve it, the more strongly we solidify it in our minds. This has a direct impact, adjusting the wavelength of our vibration, the energy we emit all the time, to match the energy of the goal (More specifically, but a little bit brain-melty, we adjust our energy to match the version of us who is living the goal.)
Changing the statement into a sigil
Our statement is Liberty justice all.
Once we have a simplified statement with negatives, limitations, and redundancies eliminated, we do more honing by first, eliminating all the vowels, and keeping only the consonants.
Now our statement looks like this: Lbrty jstc ll
The next step is to remove any duplicate letters.
So: lbrtyjsc
Here’s what I came up with combining all those letters into a sigil.
Finally, taking just those letters, place them over, under, and around each other so each letter is touching at least one other, but more than one is better, linking them together.
A Non-Traditional Method
This is the traditional way. HOWEVER (you know I can’t help but buck the system, right?) I would posit that vowels are more receptive energy oriented, what we used to call feminine energy, and I don’t think that’s inaccurate. We all have both. Receptive energy is associated more with the goddess. Consonants seem much more projective energy, what we used to fall masculine energy. We all have that too, and it’s more associated with the god.
So I could make an argument for trying this by eliminating all the CONSONANTS and keeping only the vowels. Let’s see what that looks like, shall we?
Liberty Justice All with consonants eliminated looked like this: ieyuiea. (I’m keeping the y. The y is bi. They can be vowel or consonant.)
Now we eliminate dupes, so we’re left with Ieyua.
I could argue that this is a magic word proposed I-ee-you-ah. A magic word conveying the energy of liberty and justice for all.
Here’s the sigil I designed using those vowels, ieyua:
Refine the design
I’m happy with the first design, the consonants. On the second, I think I’d extend the middle arm of the e all the way to the back of the u and would make sure the other cross-lines are complete to the U’s back as well. Otherwise, I’m happy.
Note: There’s no reason not to create both sigils for this goal, use both on spells, rites, and charms devoted to this goal, invoking the balance of god and goddess energy, projective/fertilizing and receptive/forming-shaping energy.
Charging the Sigil
Meditate on your sigil. Try repeating the phrase on each exhale as you count your breaths, while sinking into your connected, relaxed state. Spend time with it. Trace the lines, calling out the words for which they stand.
This step further aligns your energy with that of the goal. As you mull on this, feel the energy of liberty and justice infusing you. Feel the sigils tattooing themselves on the palms of your hands, and on the place over your heart and in the very center of your forehead. Feel the sigils tingling there. Really absorb this energy, really BECOME liberty and justice energy. Feel the goddesses Libertas, Eleutheria, Columbia, the Lady of the Americas, and the energy of our lady Liberty herself filling you up. Beam the light of her torch with every breath, word, thought, and deed more than you have before. Crank that energy up a notch. That’s what magic is for.
So as you meditate with the sigil, feel the feeling of living the goal. imagine a world of true liberty and justice for all, and how good it would feel living being a part of it, being one of its creators, one of its architects.
Using the Sigil
Carve the sigil or sigils into a candle, when doing candle magick.
In petition magic, where you write the spell on paper that is later buried or burned, draw the sigil or sigils to seal the spell.
In air spells, draw the sigil in the air with the burning herbs or incense, or apply it to a prayer flag. You could even improvise kite magic, putting the sigil designs on a kite and then flying it high to spread its energy.
When preparing moon water for any rite, you can add this energy by “drawing” the sigils in the water with your wand or finger.
Draw the sigil in the air at a moment’s notice, then project it toward those who are violating liberty or committing injustice.
For magical cooking, stir the pattern of the sigil into whatever you are making, or draw it with sprinkled herbs and spices before stirring in.
You can think of a thousand other ways to spread the magic if you put your mind on it a little bit.
And while my sample spell here is pretty specific—I swear it’s not like I want every witch out there to start using it every time they pick up a wand or anything like that—you can use any phrase for any magical goal. Positive ones will even work!
Happy casting!
Do you know who has penned enough holiday romances to give the Hallmark Channel a real run for their money?
This little elf right here, that’s who!
