A SIGIL IS A SYMBOL USED IN MAGIK

A sigil (pron.: /sdl/; pl. sigilia or sigils; from Latin sigillum "seal") is a symbol used in magik. So what exactly is a sigil? In a nutshell, it's you writing a sentence expressing your deepest desire which you then turn into a symbolic picture, fill with energy then forget about - and wait to see if your deepest wish comes true. Christians, Wiccans, Buddhists, Jews and even Atheists all believe in science (magik is an unexplained science to many) - Christians and Wiccans and Atheists can all work magik according to their tradition(s). Working magik is about respecting your environment and turning your life into an adventure with limitless possibilities; something the URBAN SHAMAN does. Here is a step-by-step guide to making a sigil - a form of magic that brings you your heart's desire. All you need is a pencil and paper... Unlike complicated shamanic and magikal rituals, all you will need: * A pen or pencil. * A piece of paper. To make a sigil, you're going to do five things: (1) Write down our desire as a statement of intent (2) Turn it into a picture (a sigil) (3) Simplify that picture and make it look more magikal (4) Charge the picture up with magikal energy (5) Ground yourself, forget about the sigil and go and do something else - confident that the sigil is now in your unconscious which is going to do all the magical work for us. So that's what a magikal sigil is! 1. Create a statement of intent First, write down your desire very clearly, like this: THIS IS MY WISH TO SEE A TALL WOMAN WITH PINK SHOES 1a.Scan the letters and cross out any repeating ones, as follows:

THIS xx MY Wxxx xO xEx A xxLx xxxxN xxxx PxxK xxxxx Which leaves us with the following letters remaining: THISMYWOEALNPK There. Now you've done the first stage - creating your statement of intent, and simplifying it. Magikal notes: What lies behind creating a statement of intent? What you've just done is taken a conscious desire and broken it down into something your conscious brain doesn't recognize any more: a meaningless string of letters. The more energy you put into turning your sentence into something unrecognizable, the more you leave your annoying conscious mind behind and hammer the message into your powerful subconscious. The creation of the Statement of Intent is really important. Austin Osman Spare preceded all of his magikal statements with the prefix "THIS MY WISH..." followed by the description of what he desired. Maybe you don't have to, but it does make the exercise feel more formal and special. You could also use THIS MY INTENT, or THIS MY WILL - whatever works for you. Also, the statement of intent must be expressed only in positive, not negative terms. The subconscious has the annoying habit of perceiving everything positively. For example, if you want to pass an exam, do not express it as "I will not fail my exam" -- the deep mind ignores the "not" and hears this as "I will fail my exam"! Instead, express it as something like "I will pass my exam with flying colors". Also, sigil magik is simple and powerful. A good way to begin is to choose some simple, unimportant result -- one to which you aren't personally attached, so your conscious mind doesn't care what the results are. Like: IT IS MY WILL TO SEE A TALL WOMAN WITH PINK SHOES Such a wish is entirely unimportant, but not something that one runs into every day, so it's a good test. See how long it takes for the wish to manifest. The practical side of such exercises is that success increases one's confidence that MAGIK WORKS, which in turn makes success more likely for more important objectives. There is no way to prove if sigil magik works (or not) except by trying it yourself. Never believe the hype. Create your own. Moving on... 2. Turn your Statement of Intent into a Magikal Sigil So far, you've got your simplified Statement of Intent: THISMYWOEALNPK You're now ready to go on to the next stage and turn this string of letters into a picture - your magical sigil.

You can go to www.sigilgarden.com to see some examples of sigils. On your piece of paper, make a basic, rough sketch linking the various letter shapes together, combining some of them as you go along (for example, an "M" is a "W" upside down, "I" is contained in "T", "F" is part of "E", "P" sits snugly in "B", etc.): (See the image attached.) Most homemade sigils look a little spooky or alien - like UFO writing or witchy wall-scratchings. There are no rules as to how your sigil should look as long as it works for you. Magikal notes: What lies behind turning a statement of intent into a graphical sigil? Your goal is to make a shape that your mind can easily visualize. You also want it to look artistically impressive and somehow special - like a magical logo. Again, this is for ease of visualization later. However, what you're aiming for is a design that can be easily recalled by short term-memory, but not by long-term memory - you'll want to forget about the sigil. So too much simplicity is not a good thing. Easy enough to visualize in the ritual, easy enough to forget later on - that's the key to a good sigil. 3. Charging the sigil Charging the sigil means infusing it with your energy. You have to get yourself to a point where you are full of energy but not really thinking anything, and then pour this energy into your sigil. There are several good ways to charge your sigil: a) Meditation The simplest form of meditation is to hold the image of the sigil in front of your eyes and stare intently at it at the peak of gnosis and, to use Spare's description, 'drink it into the mind'. Try to get into a state of "not-thinking" but at the same time obsessively concentrating on the image of the sigil to the exclusion of everything else. Not the meaning of the sigil, but simply the graphic image itself as pure abstract, unconnected to any meaning - a picture and nothing more. 4. Ground yourself Destroy the sigil (ie burn the bit of paper that it's on). Now do something completely different. Do the washing up. Go for a bike ride. Do something completely grounded in reality. The sigil is over, done with. You don't care any more. Your subconscious might care (the bit that's still doing the magic) but you and your conscious mind are now totally uninterested. 5. Forget about it Finally, it's important to separate yourself from the magical ritual you've just done. Don't do any meditation, other magical operations, or talk about the working with anyone. At least, not the first time you do a sigil - you need to find out what works for you. The idea is to shut the doors to the subconscious. It also keeps it from easily floating back into the conscious mind until the short term memory dumps it,

which according to psychologists takes about three hours. So just sit back, get on with life, and in a few days or weeks, you'll probably pass your exam, or see a tall woman with pink shoes. Congratulations! You just made a sigil!