"Sigil Magic" :
In a way, the technique represents the basics of the Chaos approach, in that it is simple, results-oriented, and is effective regardless of one's beliefs or metaphysical speculations in general.
Sigilisation is one of the simplest and most effective forms of results magick used by contemporary magicians.
Once you have grasped the basic principles of sigilisation and experimented with some of the most popular methods of casting sigils, you can go on to experimenting with forms of sigil magic that are unique to you.
The basic process of Sigil Magic can be divided into six stages, which I will explain using the acronym
S.P.L.I.F.F.
- S—Statement of Intent
- P—Pathways available?
- L—Link intent to symbolic carrier
- I—Intense Gnosis/Indifferent Vacuity
- F—Fire
- F—Forget
STATEMENT OF INTENT
The first stage of the process is that you should get your magical intent clear—as precise as possible without, at the same time, being too overcomplicated.
Vague intentions usually give rise to vague results, and the clearer the initial statement of intent is, the more likely you are to get accordant results.
An acquaintance of mine once did a sigil to manifest a lover and gave very precise details on how this paragon should look, what kind of car he should drive, etc.
Needless to say, her 'desire' manifested exactly as she had specified, and she discovered too late that she
had forgotten to specify 'intelligence' in her sigil, and that her 'dream lover' could only talk about himself and his car, to the extent that she found him completely boring!
One of the byproducts of the process of Deconditioning discussed earlier is that it becomes progressively easier to disentangle your own habitual patterns of thought and emotion, desires, and fantasies.
There is a popular idea that magicians are continually casting spells and performing rituals to bring to them all that they desire.
This is a misconception of magic, and magicians tend to enchant for desires selectively and carefully, being mindful that hasty enchantments may often bring complications that were not considered beforehand, as the above example shows.
Here are some techniques which can be of use when you are deciding how to deal with a desire or intent.
DIVINATION TECHNIQUES
Using a divination system can be very helpful when examining your own motivations underlying a desire.
What type of system you use is very much a matter of individual taste, and Tarot, the
Runes, or the I Ching seem to be the most popular.
Here is an example of how divination can be useful. Shortly before writing this book, the computer which I use for writing suddenly 'crashed' to the extent that it required repair.
This left me in a pathetic state which any hardened computer-user will surely sympathize with. Suddenly, the thought struck me that this would be an ideal opportunity to 'upgrade'—to buy a new system.
I immediately began to try and generate strategies that would allow me to purchase a new model, without overburdening my financial resources.
At the same time, I began to cast around for suitable models at a good price. I rapidly created a situation where the desire to gain a new computer was prominent in my mind for a good deal of the time. Soon, the situation became frustrating.
My bank declined to loan me the money I required, and other possible routes for generating the money required were not immediate enough—I wanted a computer now!
Having enmeshed myself in this tangle of desires and become frustrated and annoyed, I decided to see what my tarot cards had to say about the matter. The result was very explicit and shocking.
The tarot cards pointed out that me trying to sustain a loan at the moment would have poor long-term consequences; that I really didn't need a new computer anyway, and that it would be more
realistic to repair the current machine.
Looking at this reading, I felt a great sense of relief and amusement at myself. This incident also gave me an insight into how we let our desires 'take control' of a situation and blind us to alternative possibilities.
If you perform divinations, you must be prepared for answers or perspectives that do not necessarily fit in with what you 'want' to see.
A useful way to regard divination systems is that they are old and trusted friends—people whose views you respect and whose advice you would readily accept.
By ignoring the results of divination, you are fooling no one but yourself, demonstrating that you were not really interested in having another perspective on the situation in the first place.
PATHWAYS AVAILABLE
Generally, sigils are excellent for bringing about precise, short or long-term results, which makes them excellent for works of results Magic-—healing, habit manipulation, inspiration, dream- control, and the like.
It is generally considered useful if you 'open' a path for the intent to manifest along. There is a standard
magical example about working for 'money' that goes along the lines of Frater Bater does a spell for money and waits for the multiverse to provide him with the cash.
In the following months, he gains financially after the sudden deaths of relatives, receiving industrial compensation after falling into a combine harvester, and so on.
Had he made sure that there was a possible pathway or route for the result to come in on, like writing a book (ha! ha!), applying for a new job, or entering a lottery, he might
have had a better time of it.
This is the way magic often works, and shows that the multiverse, if nothing else, has a slappy sense of humour.
LINK INTENT
Once you have decided upon your intent, it can then be turned into a symbolic code—a signal on which you can focus varying degrees of attention on, without recalling your initial desire. The two most common approaches to this are:
(a) Monogram—write out your intent, knock out all repeating
letters, and from the rest, design a glyph.
(b) Mantra—write out intent, scramble into meaningless
phrase or word, which can then be chanted.
Alternatively, you could rearrange the letters of your statement of intent so that it becomes another sentence, which can be used as a mantra. For example: "I Desire Assistance in House-Hunting" could become "The Sun can Sing." In addition to the above, you can also use other media such
INTENSE GNOSIS/INDIFFERENT VACUITY
Sigils can be projected into the multiverse via an act of Gnosis— usually, but not necessarily, within some kind of ritual/magical context.
Popular routes to Gnosis include spinning, chanting, dancing, visualisation, sensory overload or sensory deprivation, and sexual arousal.
The other 'altered state' is that of Indifferent Vacuity—a sort of 'not-particularly-bothered' state.
FIRE
This is simply the projection of the sigil into the void or multiverse at the 'peak' of Gnosis/Vacuity. Examples of this include orgasm, reaching the point of blackout from hyperven- tilation or being asked a question about the boring talk that you were supposed to have been listening to.
The projection of a sigil can, of course, be the main theme of a more-or-less orthodox magical ritual. Less orthodox methods include visualizing a sigil glyph as you feel a sneeze about to burst from your nose; or projecting a sigil at the moment when, after holding your bladder to the point where the need to urinate becomes physically painful, you let go and feel the absolute bliss of relaxation.
A popular approach to empowering a sigil is during the peak of physical orgasm (or at the point where pain becomes pleasure)
As you peak into orgasm, visualise the sigil glowing brightly and then shooting off into the depths of space (photon torpedo!).
If you are trying to influence a particular person, you can try imagining the sigil glowing on their chest (or whatever organ you find easiest to visualise).
Note that sexual partners don't have to know what's happening—it does help though if they can give you the necessary stimulation!
FORGET
Once your sigil has been fired, you're supposed to forget the original intent and let the Butterfly Effect take its course. Forgetting what you just did can often be the hardest part of the process.
It's not so bad if the intent is something you don't really care about (hence beginning with sigils for things you aren'treally too attached to is a good way to begin experiments), but is more difficult if it's something you really want to happen.
Aslong as you don't dwell on the thoughts when they arise, iT shouldn't matter too much. Time for another analogy.
The ever-changing tangle of desires, wishes, fears, fantasies, etc. jostling around in or minds can be likened to a garden, albeit a somewhat unruly and overgrown one; flowers, weeds, creepers, and the occasional buried gardening rake.
Going through the sigilisation process can be likened to becoming suddenly enthusiastic about tidying the garden up.
You isolate one plant (i.e., your intent), separate it from the others, feed it,water it and prune it until it stands out from the rest and is clearly visible on the landscape, and then suddenly get bored with the
whole job and go indoors to watch television.
The trick is, next time you look at the 'garden', not to notice the plant you so recently lavished attention on.
If the intent gets tangled up with all the other stuff in your head, you tend to start projecting various fantasy outcomes— what you'll do with the money when it comes, how will it be with the boy/girl/anteater of your dreams, etc. and the desire will get run into all the others, thus decreasing the probability of it manifesting in the way you want it to.
A useful attitude to have when casting sigils is that once you've posted one off to the multiverse (which, like Santa,always gets the message), then you're sure that it's going to work, so that you don't need to expend any more effort on that
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