Sigil Magick: How to Create & Activate
One of the greatest misunderstandings of magick in the modern world has to be that it has to be some long, drawn out, complicated effort or that you need a ton of obscure ingredients, put together in a very particular way, whilst chanting out an ancient text. I mean, if you want to practise magick like that, then I guess you can but actually I find magick to be most effective when it is simple and powered by the personal touch. Creating a sigil then is the perfect way to inject some personality into your magick.
What is a Sigil?
In simple terms, a sigil is a magickal symbol that you create using nothing more than a pencil, paper, an intention and a little imagination. Once created, it just needs to be charged and activated to start to work.
How to Create a Sigil
Start by choosing your intention. Intentions are powerful thoughts so it is important to pick carefully. The key thing is to frame your intention as if it is already yours so use the present tense rather than the future tense e.g. “I have the perfect job” instead of “I want the perfect job” or “I am with the perfect partner” instead of “I wish for the perfect partner”. Framing your intention in the future has the unfortunate effect of leaving you in a perpetual wanting phase so make sure your intention is phrased as if whatever you want is already yours.
I also strongly suggest avoiding intentions that focus on a particular person or object – by keeping it general we trust that the universe will manifest the best possible person/object for us, who will no doubt be a thousand times better than what we had in mind! We also avoid binding ourselves to someone or something that we later regret…
Now write out your phrase using your pencil and paper. Next, cross out all of the vowels. If we use the sentence:
“I HAVE THE PERFECT JOB”
Removing the vowels, this becomes:
“HVTHPRFCTJB”
Now take out any duplicate letters – in the example above, there are two “T’s” so we can take the second T out so we now have:
“HVTHPRFCJB”
Take these remaining letters and use them to doodle your sigil. You can use all or only some of the remaining letters from your intention phrase. Play around with writing them upside down, back to front, joined up, add in patterns if you wish, literally don’t think just move the pencil round the paper. If you don’t like the first sigil, try a different one until you find one that you feel symbolically represents your intention. It does not have to look like anything you’ve ever seen – that’s the beauty of it – it can be as random and crazy looking or as simple and basic as you please.
If you check out these sigil examples on Pinterest you’ll soon find that some have real artistic flair whilst others really are pure doodles. Personally I prefer the raw unique power of a doodle – there’s something of the primeval about those types of sigil.
Activation
Finally, it’s time to activate your sigil. Much of this will happen in the course of creating your sigil in the first place but to add some extra power and potency to your spell, you can also place it on your altar, surround it with crystals, leave it to charge under the moonlight, burn it or simply sit and meditate on the symbol you have created.
You have now created and activated your sigil.
Some like to leave their sigil in a prominent place where they can see it regularly whilst others prefer to dispose of theirs. I like to keep mine in the same box as I store my favourite tarot cards. This helps me forget it about it most of the time except for when I take out those cards when I always take a moment to look at my sigil and contemplate it briefly.
But Will it Work?
Like most things in life, if you really want it to work, you have to believe it will or there is little point in creating a sigil in the first place. Much of the power of this little symbol lies in the setting of the intention and trusting in your own ability to work with the universe to manifest your desires. You have to believe, not just wish, that you are powerful enough to create the life that you desire.
Creating the intention and then using your powerful imagination to turn it into its own unique symbol, is itself symbolic of your innate ability to turn your own goals and dreams into your own reality.
It’s also important to be realistic when it comes to timescales. You’re unlikely to wake up the next day, week or even month to the new reality you’ve decided to manifest. I created my last sigil when I was made redundant last year. Unsurprisingly I focused on finding the perfect job, hence the example above. I found a couple of temporary jobs that were far from what I had considered “perfect” when I created the sigil, but they were without a doubt, a step in the right direction. Fast forward 10 months and I’m now about to start a permanent role with a firm less than 3 miles from my home, on an increased salary that I had pictured at the time, doing the very job that I had envisioned at the level that I had hoped.
Sure, some might say that’s just coincidence and that all of this may have happened without the sigil being crafted but where’s the magick and the fun in that? I much prefer to live a life like Disney’s Peter Pan, one filled with “faith, trust and pixie dust”.
Happy crafting!
Holistic Living With Carla 