Sigil

 A symbol that represents or holds magickal powers.

Sigils are magickal representations of power. They can include personal designs or predetermined forms that have gained as accepted representations of specific meanings. Many popular pagan writers like Scott Cunningham have given examples of sigils, then as the books are read, the shapes that have been identified for specific purposes.

Some recognizable and agreed upon sigils in the neo-pagan faiths include:

• Heart = Love
• $ = Money and Finance
• Smiling Face = Happiness
• Triangle = Manifestation
• Circle = Completeness
• Peace Sign = Peace
• Eye = Psychic Awareness

These are just some samples of sigils that are commonly seen in neo-pagan and Wiccan practices. These shapes can be used in magickal workings including candle magic, visual manifestation, personal tatwas, and spell crafting.

Other occult practices also acknowledge sigils and their power. Ceremonial magicians use Hebrew and numberic sigils that represent higher consciousness and points on the tree of life. Additionally, below are details other commonly practiced and yet obscure sigil practices within neo-pagan practices.

Creating a Magickal Sigil

Personal sigils are created by Wiccans and neo-pagans. A commonly used individualized and intuitive practice includes creating a glyph of your name, power word or even a spell. To make a personal sigil, the practitioner will usually take the the letters from the word or phrase that they are using and then reorganize them into a inspired form. This can be done with a simple word, turning the letters into a creative form that will no longer represent the word. On a larger scale, personal sigils are sometimes created out of song and spellwork. To do this, you would reduce all of the letters in the spell or song so that they only appear once.

For example a simple spell for love may look something like:

Bring love to me, by my Will, Diana! So mote it be!

This would reduce to the letters:

BRINGLOVETMWDAST

You could then arrange these letters into a creative symbol, using your own imagination and visualization to place the letters into a shape or form that you choose.

Once this is done, the sigil can be put onto jewelry and used as a talisman, burned in fire in order to manifest the spell and increase the speed or even as a mental focus point for future rituals on love.

Chaos Magick and Sigils

Chaos magicians, also known as Chaoticians, spend much time with sigils in their practice. The use of the sigil is combined with Gnosis. Popularized by Austin Osman Spare, the practice includes placing special importance on a sigil and then utilizing this visual manifestation in powerful times. This could be at the peak of meditative consciousness, upon sexual orgasm or during a ritual designed with an intended purpose.

Necronomicon Sigils

One of the most recognizable of the sigils of modern neo-pagan practices is the Gate of Yog-Sohoth commonly seen as the Necronomicon gate. The book utilizes other sigils as well including the Arra Star, which is a standard pentagram and is described not as a representation of the elements but represents the pictogram of the word UB. The sigils within Necronomicon practices are seen as links between the physical understanding of the world and the other worlds.