Historical Veritas / V-Society Magick Articles archive
Article metadataArchival notice: This is an archival republication of a historical forum article. The text is preserved for research, citation, and continuity; authorship remains with the original forum author where identifiable, and dates/replies/views reflect the surviving capture or Wayback-era ledger where available.
- Author: XIII
- Original post date: June 19, 2006, 06:57:51 PM
- Author quote / captured profile/signature line: Pirate of Veritas Bay / Veritas Teacher / Posts By Osmosis / Veritas Mentor
- Article title: Sigils
- Length: 1628 words (~8 min read)
- Replies / views: 10 / 1704
- Last visible board activity: July 16, 2006, 10:38:24 PM
- Source archive: Forum topic archive
- Local capture source: res/Sigils.rtfd
- Archival flag/tag: historical archive; Veritas Society; Magick Articles; preserved forum post
Additional archival context
- Archivist abstract: A treatment of sigil construction, symbolic compression, charging, and use of emblematic forms in magical operations.
_________________________________________________
XIII
Most have had a fleeting glimpse of that one picture that strikes the mind uniquely, and stands out from the rest. Whether it is a simple picture of a forest scene, or a sinister symbol of death, they both could qualify as sigils. A sigil is any form of media representing a certain intent that is energized to perform that intent. I use the term media loosely to say any form of representational material. Take this, for example:
Look at it closely. Examine it. This looks like a random doodling. No intricate magical significance, yet it captivates the mind. It makes one wonder. In reality, this is a sigil, which in looking at you have just charged a little bit more. This sigil, created for the purpose of this article, exists in all three of the planes of the world, like most other sigils. Sigils store their energy from the top of the three planes, the celestial. The intent of the sigil, the programming, lies on the mental plane, intermingling with the energy as it travels the planes. The sigil itself lies, at one point or another, on the material plane. It acts as the vessel for the intent and energy to combine and act. This particular sigil's intent is somewhere along the lines of helping this article along.
As a sigil is symbolic in nature, it is obvious that a picture could be used as a sigil. Pictorial sigils are often abstract, though they are not limited to abstraction. A sigil may be a picture of anything, though energies already associated with the picture may have some direct effect on the sigil itself. For the present purposes, I advise the beginner to stick with abstractly created sigils until they may acquire more knowledge on the subject.
As sound can be interpreted to represent an ideal in the human psyche, it can be charged and programmed with intent. Sound sigils come with the opportunity to be compounded in a specific order, as sound moves in a path along time. As an example, the first half of a song could be energized towards projecting a specific event or feeling, and the second half energized to a specific event after or before the first, helping the effects of it along.
Hypersigils, the term possibly invented by Grant Morrison, are sigils as entire works of art. His comic book series, The Invisibles, was created as a hypersigil to "jump-start the culture in a more positive direction". A hypersigil can be a book, music album, or any comprehensive work. Its creation is, in essence, the same as a normal sigil, but immensely more complex. To delve into this would require another article, as it is a rather lengthy subject.
Note that I have only delved on these types of sigils for their adaptability to creation. A smell, a texture, a taste, may all be used as sigils, if one wishes. The only thing holding one back would be how to create them. Every other aspect is the same, it is simply the vessel of the energies that is different.
As most people have heard or seen of runes in media, it isn't a big jump from sigil to rune. Sigils can be likened to actual runic systems such as Futhark, a set of runes supposedly given to the Norse god Odin near the beginning of civilization. a set of Norse symbols used as its own magical system. Applying the laws of sigils to the runic systems it is easy to see how these systems are upheld and used, regardless of legend. In the system of Futhark, for instance, each rune is assigned a virtue of the universe. Through continuous use throughout the span of the world, the runes are charged, and their intent becomes clearer and more focused, though they come into being through a more complicated process. Although intriguing, runic systems by themselves are their own branch of magic, and fall outside the scope of this article. I highly encourage any aspiring adept to study the runic systems, as they're both useful and a good subject to learn.
The formulation of intent is, of course, an important part of sigil work, as intent plays a large role in mostly all magical workings. In sigil work, intent programmed into a sigil is charged with the energy devoted to said sigil, putting the intent into action. A statement of intent is needed for the sigil to work in the manner desired. Note that a statement of intent needn't be an actual statement, as one can eventually translate intents into pure feeling as time progresses. For beginning purposes, it is wise to create a simple, well-laid out sentence with the intent clearly stated. A sigil is meant to represent, so make sure that what it represents is clear. When making a sigil for, example, good weather on a particular day, do not show any sign of the negative. Instead of "The weather will not be bad on Tuesday", the intent should be "The weather will be good on Tuesday". Leave no crack in the door for the negative to happen, and it will not be able to push its way in.
Logically, the creation of the vessel for the intent and energy is a crucial part of sigil work. Without this vessel, the intent would have no place to intermingle with the energy gathered, and would do nothing. The vessel is the aspect of the sigil on the material plane, whether it is pictorial, acoustic, or any other sense. Its creation is often portrayed as some form of manipulation of the statement of intent (e.g. re-arranging the letters in the statement of intent to form a pictorial sigil), or a rigorous system of notes for sound sigils. Sigils created like this, to me, feel too systematic, too linear. A sigil, to properly connect with energy and intent, should flow in the same way as the intent, so as to properly harness and bind to it. To properly create a sigil, I put forth this method. One must properly understand all aspects of the statement of intent to be able to connect it to the sigil clearly, so contemplate the intent and what it is meant to accomplish. Meditate on this intent, and feel what it means symbolically, down to its very core. After the intent is nothing more than a feeling, create the sigil. Clear the mind, know nothing but the feeling of intent, and go through whatever process you've chosen to create the sigil. If you've chosen a pictorial sigil, go doodle. If you've chosen an acoustic sigil, go play whatever instrument you've chosen to create your sigil (Chanting, guitar, keyboard, any musical instrument). Using this method, the intent automatically links to the sigil, from the mind translating the intent to feeling, and feeling being translated to the sigil. Simply put, the intent has become the vessel itself, leaving only the charging to be done.
The charging of the sigil, the last step in creation, depends on the type of sigil being created. Sigils may come in two forms: static and dynamic. A static sigil is a sigil created and charged in a bit of a big bang, used once and thrown out. These sigils are good for short-time, single event uses, such as winning a competition or helping a ritual. Dynamic sigils are long-term sigils, made and charged over a period of time. Dynamic sigils are good as representational sigils (a sigil used to represent a servitor or magician, like a name), or long term events, such as protection of a place or energizing a servitor. To charge a static sigil, a great deal of energy must be worked up, invested in the sigil, and fired off into the ether, to do it's deed. Gnosis is often referenced, which is just trance accompanied with frenzy. Emotion is often worked up, usually one of the more active emotions (e.g. anger, happiness, hate), and invested in the servitor by lightly focusing on the servitor whilst seething with energy. After enough energy has been charged and stored, a last kick of energy is needed in the working through working up to the breaking point. At this point, one must let go of all the energy, ejecting it off into the world, to perform its intent. The process of charging a dynamic sigil isn't restricted to one ritual, as dynamic sigils grow and become more powerful over the course of time. The vessel is created, and may be charged as a static sigil, though it isn't fired off. The sigil simply exists, and is charged again and again over time. Note that static sigils may be charged more than once, and fired off after more energy is accumulated. A dynamic sigil will slowly trickle off energy to its purpose, feeding the intent and keeping it alive. An ingenious aspect of dynamic sigils is that, as they can store energy, they can be planted in various public places, such as business cards, dollar bills, and other locations seen by many people. Each time the sigil is seen, it is charged a little bit more, and energy is invested into the sigil without any toll on the magician.
And thus ends this work on sigils. Make note that, though this article is over, there is much more to the work of sigils. Keep your eyes open, and your mind accepting, and the arts will come naturally.
« Last Edit: July 05, 2008, 01:07:44 AM by XIII »
Logged
(17:38:23) (lidwen) cheznips, wicca is run by pedophiles?
(17:38:40) (@Prophecy) Yes. Yes it is.
(04:16:47) (@kobok) And if you push hard enough, you can shove quite a lot into a chicken.
_________________________________________________
Captured article media: This capture included likely body media. Upload these files to phpBB as attachments or replace with public image URLs before final publication:
- assets/026-sigils/articlesigil.png
_________________________________________________
Archivist note: Preserve corrections as appended notes where possible. Avoid silently modernizing terminology, spelling, or claims unless a moderator intentionally creates a separate edited edition.