At the start of each year, the admin team of The College of Psychic Studies gathers in the Library for a very special meeting. We meditate on how we hope the College can serve our community in the highest and best way. Then, we seal our heart-felt hopes with a sigil. A sigil is a magic symbol or design that represents our specific intentions. It helps to focus the mind and bring energy to our intention. We find it to be a heart-lifting, affirming culmination to our new year ritual, and we wanted to share with you a little more about it, including how to make a sigil, what magic sigils are used for, and why it's such a powerful practice.
What does a magic sigil look like?
A magic sigil probably won't look like much if you didn't choose or create it. Sigils are very personal. We can make a sigil in a wide variety of ways – it might be a simple drawing of a star or a circle with a dot in the centre. It can be a purpose-created sigil taken from a grimoire. Alternatively, it can be a phrase that encapsulates our intention. The letters of this phrase are distilled and compressed into a symbol.
What the magic sigil looks like is less important than the energy and intention that it carries. A magic sigil may mean very little to an onlooker, but to the creator, it is pregnant with meaning. Once we make our sigil, we must then charge it with energy through various techniques that include visualisations, meditations or mantras. This process of charging the sigil is what gives it all its power. Once the sigil has been charged, it is ready for its magic work.
Learn more in this Sigil Magic workshop:
Sigil magic and chaos magic
Sigils have a long history in occult and mystical traditions, although we cannot pinpoint the exact individual or cultural source. The use of sigil magic is commonly associated with the work of the occultist Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). However, as Marco Visconti pointed out in his recent talk at the College, Aleister Crowley did not, in fact, use sigil magic. Crowley's associate, the British occultist and artist Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956), did. Spare is known as the grandfather of chaos magic. He used symbols in intentional practice, and thus the popularity of sigil magic was sealed.
How to make your own sigil
In their talk at the College in 2021, artists Allyson and Alex Grey described how they made a sigil for their beautiful Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in Wappinger, New York They shared with us how they wrote down a manifesting phrase and distilled the letters into a singular symbol. They placed this symbol on their altars, their clothes, even on necklaces that they both wear. It worked – they manifested their extraordinary Chapel of Sacred Mirrors!
Wondering how to make a sigil? The key is to always trust your intuition. Making a sigil is a personal process. However, it involves several steps: setting a clear intention; choosing or designing a symbol that represents that intention; and, the most important part, charging the symbol with energy to manifest the desired outcome. Here's how to create a sigil based on Allyson and Alex Grey's method described above:
- Set your intention: Think carefully about what you want to achieve or manifest. Write down your intention in a clear and concise statement. Make sure to phrase it positively and in the present tense.
- Simplify your statement: Remove all the vowels and repeating letters from your statement. This will help to create a simpler and more abstract symbol.
- Create a design: Use the remaining letters from your statement to create a unique and visually appealing symbol. You can arrange the letters in any way you like, combine them, or even add extra lines or shapes to create a more complex design.
- Charge your sigil: Once you have created your sigil, you need to charge it. This means we infuse the symbol with energy to manifest your intention. Without this charge, it carries no power.
- Release your sigil: After charging your sigil, it is important to release it and let go of any attachment to the outcome. This allows the universe to work its magic and manifest your intention in the most effective way possible.
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