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What is a Sigil? And what is a Sigilhouse? A personal perspective. |
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At its simplest, a Sigil is a symbol.
In the secular context a sigil may merely
be a device such as a personal or agency
seal, such as that of the University of Freiburg shown here.
But it is in Magic that sigils come into their own.
Sigilisation works on the principle that our minds have an unfortunate facility that works against our wants and needs - that on some level we crave failure. Spare developed a technique that involves the designing of sigils (a number of informative and accessible articles explaining the technique are kept here) which sum up desirous outcomes, but which become the obscure focus of our desire, imbuing the desire with the power to succeed 'anonymously' - that is sneaking the desire under the radar of our judgmental and proscriptive awareness, so that it might have a crack at success in the Deep Mind. Spare's technique requires that once empowered - or 'charged' - sigils should be forgotten (or at least their specific meaning should), an obvious way to do this being to destroy them after charging. Later interpretations of the technique suggest they might be kept, but in such a way that their actual meaning in conscious terms would be forgotten (for instance worn as a tattoo on a part of the body not casually visible to the wearer, or kept in a special box with many other sigils collected over many years). Thee Sigil Garden provides an online space for sigils to be uploaded or 'planted' and displayed amongst others where they might survive - if nothing else as works of art, but perhaps drawing energy from those who access the website to view / connect with / enjoy them. The 'rules' of Sigilisation as a specific technique aside, making (casting?) a sigil is undoubtedly a creative process: it is a melding of magical and creative art. Drawing power from both, it can energise and intensify the artistic process, and result in an artefact which - if not destroyed, if instead gifted, or displayed, or broadcast or published if made in a medium lending itself to these formats - continues in tangible form the mix of intention / direction / current / emotional and intellectual energy, and so on, into the future, for the creator and the work's audience. Am I saying then that any work of art or craft can be a sigil in a magical sense? With the possible proviso that magical intent is attached to the work - either (preferably) by its creator, or perhaps later by an audience (who may become co-creators by discerning in / instilling the work with / sharing in and working with its magical significance 'after the event'?). This opens up a whole can of worms re the question of authenticity and deserves deeper consideration at another time, but the idea that works as diverse as writing, music, performance, and publishing can be sigils is not so new. Comics 'auteur' Grant Morrison has called his comic The Invisibles a 'hypersigil', and compadre counterculturalist writer and publisher Richard Metzger is supposed to have called his Disinformation project a sigil; and though I did not know this particular fact before setting forth on The Sigilhouse (or indeed naming it) it makes perfect sense to me and crystalises my thinking in coming this far.
Owllegory 21-05-06 (with later semantic afterthoughts 16-10-06)
Some More Leads: Phil Hine writes: "Symbols are defined as non-linguistic graphic figures, which represent a more abstract quality, idea, principle or concept. [...] they are encapsulations of experiences, which 'contain', bound into their structure, emotions, memories, and other associations. All of which can be 'freed' when the symbol is focused upon. Symbols play an important role in Magic, as they are the common 'language' which is shared by both Waking Awareness and the Deep Mind. [...] Magical exercises, for example, meditation on Tarot card images, serve to 'fix' symbols in our minds, and the Deep Mind often clothes itself in those symbols to communicate insights and information to the waking mind. Some magical symbols, such as the pentagram and hexagram, for example, appear in many different cultures. It does appear that some symbols are 'universal', in that the understanding of them is not limited to cultural barriers." [Phil Hine Condensed Chaos (New Falcon, 2005)] The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary states:
"One entry found for sigil. and two subsets of meaning:
"1 : SEAL, SIGNET Wikipedia states that "A sigil [...] is a symbol created for a specific magical purpose. The term sigil derives from the Latin sigilum [sic] meaning "seal," though it may also be related to the Hebrew [...] segulah meaning "talisman" [...] The old norse binding rune is an example of the idea. However, sigila differ from runes as they are designed not to represent an alphabet but are created to form a glyph, composed of a variety of symbols or concepts which carry intent and inherent iconic meaning. A sigil may have an abstract, pictorial or semi-abstract form. It may appear in any medium, physical or virtual, or only in the mind. Visual symbols are the most popular form, but the use of audial and tactile symbols in magick is not unknown." In Sigil Magick, A personal perspective (Part 1 of 2) - held on Thee Sigil Garden - Soror Osira writes: "a sigil is a seal or sign an analogic example of any words or name or emotion. [...] Shamans, witchdoctors and tribesman, have used sigils and painted them on their bodies. Have you ever daydreamed and scribbled something on a pad of paper, or was mad and drew dark circles with your pen or pencil? These are sigils. They are uncharged or usually destroyed once your paper is thrown away, but they are sigils just the same." And: "Sigils are used in advertising and our daily world of subconcious programming. Just think of the Golden Arches, or Arm & Hammer. Glyphs are used everywhere in street signs, colors are also powerful programming tools [...] Sigils and glyphs have a powerful effect on our everyday mundane world, so much so, a magician can use similar methods to program his or her mind and cause desired changes."
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But I would like to continue to expand the sigil concept... The overlaps between areas such as Myth and the making of New Myth, and finding Meaning or making Meaning, and Artworking and Magical working, and Living Magically and Living Creatively and Spiritually, these are the kinds of preoccupations which have led to the setting up of The Sigilhouse, and sigils in their broadest and most evocative sense have their place in all of these areas. Sigils as signs, symbols, keys, references or correspondences; sigils created but also found in nature or in life and the day-to-day of Being... There is a story that in the 1600s
