On Sigils (TM)
One of the primary tools used by Chaos Magicians are so called sigils which are essentially symbols that are created on an individual basis and which are thought to affect/effect the ‘unconscious’ components of the body/consciousness mechanism. Sigils/symbols used in a ‘magical’ context have been around for about as long as humanity has been able to create basic drawings, but their more recent utilisation by Chaos Magicians and the methodology whereby such sigils are created and made use of have mostly been inspired by the English artist-Magician Austin Osman Spare.
One way of creating sigils would be to create a statement of intent, and to cross out any signs that occur more often than once. One can go further and establish rules such as that no vocals (A, E, I, O, U) may be part of the statement until it is reduced to just a few basic consonants. These letters are then artistically formed into an abstract symbol, which is believed to represent the original statement of intent while ridding it of its consciously intelligible message by getting rid of any intelligible cyphers such as syntax or alphabetical form while retaining its meaning exclusively in the practitioner’s memory.
Since Austin Osman Spare, Chaos Magic as a whole as well as its traditional sigil method were all heavily influenced by the theories of Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud, the process of sigil magic naturally does not end here. It is believed by practitioners that to affect an ideal result, the practitioner has to forget even the last remnants of the meaning that is still accessible via conscious memory. By doing so, the sigil’s meaning is believed to enter the ‘subconscious’ or ‘unconscious’ mind while becoming inaccessible to the conscious mind, as its meaning is no longer consciously accessible when such a state of conscious forgetting has been achieved. From here on the sigil may be utilized consciously as a direct link to a ‘complex’ that has been ‘installed’ in the unconscious. The sigil which has been created and its meaning consciously forgotten, may now be utilised in ritual setting and its mechanism be ‘charged’ by combining it with a process known as Gnosis which can be either inhibitory or excitatory.
Common problems with Sigils
Sigil magic poses a number of problems for practitioners serious about deriving results from applied Chaos Magic over an extended period of time.
Sigils do not necessarily deliver practical results. This can occur to beginners as well as to advanced practitioners. While some practitioners seem to have immediate results in the form of fitting coincidences¹ or desired outcomes which are in line with their sigilised statements of intent, others experience practically no discernible effect at all. Due to the inherent reward/extinction mechanism in this process, those who seem to derive results will typically stick to the Chaos Magic paradigm, while those who do not, will due to a lack of reinforcement move on and pursue other fields of interest. Since this lack of results may occur not merely to beginners, it is certainly a risk factor in long term practitioners’ levels of dedication.
Extinction can usually be avoided by recording one’s successes in a magical diary so that whenever there is a lack of results, one may refer back to results one may have gotten in the past and derive motivation from there.
Sigils can contribute to passivity and laziness as well as various forms of mental maladjustment such as different forms of narcissism or megalomania. Practitioners with an idealist outlook are particularly at risk, since these risk factors are inherently built into their top down consciousness centric model of the world. This problem may be one of the more dangerous ones, as it can lead to serious problems with the outside world, stall one’s progress in life and ruin one’s social life among many other factors inherent to personal wellbeing. The reason these factors apply to sigil magic, is that it is a low entry barrier, quick fix type of magic which can be done by practically anyone, anywhere and at anytime so long as they understand the basic methodology. Instead of getting work done, sigil magicians may instead rely exclusively on doing sigils to achieve material results. Rather than resolve personal issues, they may do sigils to resolve those issues. Whether or not sigils work or not is relatively irrelevant when applied to this problem, as the overall detachment from reality which they can induce poses a real danger.
The mechanism may be flawed. Sigils may or may not work. The evidence for the basic underlying tenets of sigil magic is thin to say the least*. Most of Freud’s theories pertaining to the subconscious or unconscious minds are not scientific and have not been proven by science. This is not to say that science has not proven the existence of unconscious mechanisms or discovered areas of the brain which can produce such phenomena as could be called unconscious (see for example the amygdala), but it is to say that Freud’s theories, if not entirely disproven are most likely never going to be empirically verified. Thus the entire theoretical system upon which sigil magic is based rests on a weak structure which may explain why many people find it hard or impossible to derive results from sigil magic alone.
Advantages of Sigils
Despite their problems and the fact that use of sigils rests mostly on belief rather than evidence, sigils also bring us a number of advantages.
Aesthetics often play an important role in magical rituals in general. The reason for this is that aesthetics can stir the imagination, focus the will and generally heighten emotions. These are all components that can be useful in pretty much any magical system and it is probably for this reason that sigils have been employed by magical practitioners since time immemorial. Medieval grimoires would practically be unimaginable without their use of unconventional aesthetics, which are largely derived from sigils.
Sigils can provide an important psychological stand-in-mechanism for a magical link. It is quite difficult to find a material base resembling a Demon or an Angel or other fantastical beings which are called forth in magical evocations. Sigils can act as a rather uncomplicated material link as well as a focal point for the practitioner. Hence why grimoires often abound with sigils pertaining to each of the Demons described therein. These sigils are then used by the magician to establish a link to the entities that are to be evoked without having to keep strange animals, resort to taxidermy or use any other sort of bizarre link to entities one may want to evoke.
The creation of Sigils by use of the Austin Osman Spare method described at the beginning of this article can be great to focus the mind on one’s desired outcome for a lengthened period of time. In this way, the mechanism of sigil creation is similar to building ‘thought-forms’, which is commonly thought possible by magical practitioners. In addition to this extended focus, the very mechanism of sigil creation itself tends to enhance one’s belief that the result will come about. The mystery, the secrecy, the aesthetics, the history of the method all tend to enhance the creator’s imagination. In addition to this, Magic often seems to bring about results by physically doing things for one’s goal. The process of creating a sigil, depending on how focused one is and how much it stirs the imagination and one’s belief, may in fact contribute to the result one desires by and of itself.
¹ often referred to as synchronicities after Carl Jung’s definition of the term
*Holmes, D. S. (1995). The evidence for repression: An examination of sixty years of research. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
