The Book of Shadows of a Broom Closet Dweller *EDITING*

Sigils

What is a Sigil?

A sigil is a symbol which has magical properties. Occasionally they are also used in the sense of a magical signature. Sigils are great for broom closet dwellers because they are portable magical items. Carry a notepad and a pencil and you can cast a spell anywhere.

Sigils work with your subconscious in order to achieve what you desire. Your subconscious doesn't understand words, only symbols, so we use symbols to communicate with it. These symbols are known as sigils.

There are 3 important things to remember when creating a sigil:

1. Your subconscious doesn't understand words like ''not'' and ''no'', so it's important that you state your desire in a positive way. So NOT ''I'm not sad anymore'' but instead, ''I am happy.''

2. Your subconscious doesn't understand time or tenses, so use the present tense when you create a sigil. Not ''I will be happy'', use ''I am happy''.

3. Avoid ''want'' statements. Instead of achieving your goal fully, you might achieve it, but you will never be satisfied by it. If you say ''I want to be happy'', then you will always feel like you want to be happy, never achieving true happiness.

Where did Sigils come from?

It can be argued that sigils originated with cave art. Many of the pictures found on the inside of caves depicted hunting and gathering and could very well have had a spiritual meaning as in trying to insure a successful hunt or harvest.

If you trace their use through history, you'll see them used in many civilisations to indicate ownership, royalty, protection, etc. (e.g. Egyptian hieroglyphs).

To explore today's use of sigils, we have to go into chaos magic. We owe it all to a gentleman by the name of Austin Osman Spare, considered the grandfather of chaos magic. Spare was an artist and occultist that lived from 1886 to 1956. Considered a visionary and philosopher, he contributed a great deal of thought to the view of the occult after his death when his works were discovered and published.  His works continue to affect the practice of chaos magic and the thinking of chaos practitioners to the present.

Sigilisation is part of Spare's psycho-magical philosophy. In his own words: "The use of sigils: Enshrine your desire in a short sentence; write out the sentence and then put down all the individual letters of which it is  composed, omitting any repetition of a letter. When the sentence has been reduced to a minimum number of letters, unite them graphically in one composite glyph which does not suggest the nature of the desire. Then—and this is of great importance—forget the desire and sink the sigil in the subconsciousness."

That's the very basis of creating a sigil. The single most important aspect of creating a sigil is your statement of intent.

How do Sigils work?

The subconscious communicates in terms of symbols; it doesn't understand words. Sigils are part of the vocabulary the subconscious understands.

It's important to communicate with the subconscious because that is where the act of magic actually happens. Your subconscious communicates your desire or intent to the collective subconscious to be acted upon.

How to create a Sigil

1. Write out your desire/goal.
2. Cross out all the vowels.
3. Cross out all the repeated letters.
4. Mash the remaining letters into a single (hideous) glyph.
5. Then start amending this glyph until it starts to look more pleasing. You can make it look organic or tribal or something else entirely. Ultimately it's down to personal preference.