Sigil magic for beginners: history and how to make a sigil

About Sigil magic for beginners

A sigil is a small sign that carries a wish. You write the wish as one clear sentence, turn the sentence into a shape, give the shape a moment of full attention, and then let it go or keep it close. That is the whole method, and it is simple enough to try tonight with a pencil and a scrap of paper.

On this page I explain what a sigil is and is not, where the idea comes from, and how to make your first one step by step. The other pages in this section go deeper into the history of magical signs, ten design methods and charging a sigil safely.

What a sigil is (and is not)

Pulling the threads together, this site uses sigil in two senses.

In history, sigil is a broad word for the magical signs of many traditions: charaktêres, seals, planetary characters, staves, and modern designs. Each is described in its own context, with its own history.

In practice, a sigil is a sign you design yourself, from a clear statement of intent, by one of ten methods, and then use with care: charging it, releasing or keeping it, and recording what follows. That is a modern practice, built from historical materials, and it is the one this site teaches.

The difference matters. When you copy a historical seal, you are working with someone else’s sign and the beliefs that came with it. When you make a personal sigil, you are making something new. Both can be done respectfully. Neither needs to be done fearfully.

A personal sigil also has a simple, practical shape that the pages in this section fill in. It begins as a wish, which you turn into one clear sentence. The sentence becomes a sign. The sign gets a moment of full attention, and then you either let it go or keep it close. Finally, you write down what you expected and, later, what happened. Wish, sentence, sign, attention, record: if you remember those five steps, you will never be lost, whichever method you choose.

From seals to sigils: a short history

Historical People have used written signs for magic for a very long time. The Greek magical papyri of Roman Egypt are full of charaktêres, strange letter-like signs drawn on amulets and curse tablets. Medieval astral magic, such as the Arabic treatise known in Latin as the Picatrix, gave signs to planets and stars. In 1533 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa printed his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, with number squares for the seven planets and seals traced from them.

Historical The grimoires carried this further. The Lesser Key of Solomon, whose first part is the Goetia, gives each spirit its own seal. You can read about those signs, with their history and context, on the page on grimoire seals.

Modern The personal sigil, made from your own sentence, comes from the artist Austin Osman Spare, who described his letter method in The Book of Pleasure in 1913. From the late 1970s, chaos magicians such as Peter J. Carroll took up Spare’s method and made it popular. Almost every beginner’s sigil today descends from that line. The full story is on the history page.

How to make your first sigil

Here are four guidelines that most beginners find helpful. Each comes with its reason, so you can decide when to bend it.

1. Present tense. Write as if it is already true or already happening: “I sleep through the night,” not “I will sleep through the night” or “I want to sleep through the night.” Many practitioners believe the present tense helps the sigil act now rather than always in the future. Even if you do not share that belief, the present tense has a practical benefit: it describes a state you can recognize when you are in it.

Some people prefer Spare’s older form, “This my wish,” or Carroll’s “I wish to.” That is fine too. Choose one form and use it consistently, so your sigils are comparable in your journal.

2. Positive. Say what you want, not what you want to avoid: “I speak calmly in meetings,” not “I don’t panic in meetings.” The reason is partly psychological: a sentence built around “panic” keeps panic in front of you. It is also practical: a positive statement points to an action you can take.

3. Specific. Say what, and, where it helps, when or how much: “I finish the first draft of my essay by the end of the month,” not “I’m a good writer.” Specific does not have to mean long. “I drink water with every meal” is short and specific.

4. In your power. The statement should describe something you can do, choose, notice, or practice, not something that depends entirely on other people or on luck. Write “I apply for three jobs this week,” not “I get hired at the company I like.” This is both an ethical rule and a practical one. A sigil about your own actions gives you something to do. A sigil about someone else’s choices only gives you something to wait for.

Letter reduction, step by step

This is the most widely used method today. Its root is Spare’s 1913 idea of combining the simplified letters of a sentence into a single sign. The rule of eliminating repeated letters comes from Peter J. Carroll’s Liber Null (documented in the 1987 Weiser edition, and probably in the first edition of 1978), and the optional step of removing vowels is a later variation.

1. Write your statement in capital letters. For example: I SLEEP WELL.
2. Cross out repeated letters. Go through the sentence from the start. Keep the first appearance of each letter and cross out any later appearances. I SLEEP WELL has the letters I, S, L, E, E, P, W, E, L, L. Keeping only the first of each leaves I, S, L, E, P, W.
3. Optional: cross out vowels. Some practitioners also remove vowels, which leaves fewer letters and a simpler design. In our example, that would leave S, L, P, W. This is a matter of taste. Try both ways at least once.
4. Look at the letter shapes. Write the remaining letters in a row. Notice their strokes: vertical lines, horizontal lines, curves, diagonals, and which letters could share a stroke.
5. Combine. Start with the letter that has the strongest shape, often one with a long vertical stroke, and build the others onto it. Letters may share lines, overlap, be turned, flipped, enlarged, or shrunk. In our example, I, L, E, and P can all share a single vertical stem; the P’s bowl can sit on either side; S can curve beside the stem; W can sit above or below.
6. Simplify. Redraw the combined shape several times, each time a little cleaner. Remove anything that feels cluttered. You do not need to keep every letter visibly complete, as long as you know each one went in.
7. Stylize, if you like. Add a small circle at one end, a short bar at another, dots, or an enclosing circle. These are decorative choices with a long history, not requirements.
8. Draw the final version once, slowly and clearly, in pen.

In the drawing above, the letters of I SLEEP WELL have been combined into one design, with the S curving beside the stem. If you draw the S straight across the stem instead, the design suddenly looks very like a dollar sign, an odd thing to put on a sigil for sleep. That is exactly the kind of accidental resemblance the last section of this page asks you to look for.

Do not worry if your first attempts look clumsy. Expect to make several versions before one feels right.

Ten design methods

Letter reduction is only one way in. On the design methods page I walk through ten, each with its history and steps:

1. Letter reduction, the method above.
2. Tracing on a planetary square, after Agrippa.
3. The rose cross wheel of the Golden Dawn.
4. The circular letter wheel.
5. Pictorial sigils.
6. Mantra (sound) sigils.
7. Automatic and spontaneous drawing.
8. Monograms and letter ligatures.
9. Number sigils and the nine chambers.
10. Digital and vector sigils.

If you are not sure where to start, start with letter reduction. If you love history, try the planetary square next.

Charging without harm

Charging means giving your sigil a moment of full, undivided attention. You do not need anything dramatic. A quiet, focused ten minutes is enough.

Modern Carroll distinguished between inhibitory and excitatory states. In paraphrase, the inhibitory mode quiets the mind progressively until only one object of attention remains; the excitatory mode floods it with feeling or sensation. This site uses gentler language, quiet and active, and only safe methods of each.

Quiet methods suit most beginners, most rooms, and most nervous systems. They include:

• Gazing. Resting your eyes on the sigil, softly and steadily, for several minutes, until everything else fades into the background. The charging page gives a full method.
• Breath counting. Breathing at a comfortable, natural pace, counting each out-breath from one to ten and starting again, while the sigil sits in front of you or in your mind. If you lose count, start again at one, without judgment.
• Simple meditation. Sitting for ten or fifteen minutes with your attention on a single point, such as your breath or a sound, and then turning your eyes to the sigil for the final minute.
• Tracing. Slowly tracing the sigil with a finger, over and over, until the movement feels automatic.
• Drawing it many times. Copying the sigil carefully, ten or twenty times, on one sheet. The repetition itself can become absorbing.

All of these can be done at a table, in a chair, or on the floor, in silence or with quiet background sound, by daylight or by a candle.

I never teach sleep deprivation, substances, pain or breath holding as ways to charge a sigil. The reasons are on the charging page.

Launch, forget, dispose

Historical Modern Spare’s idea, as the history of sigils explained, was that a desire held in conscious thought gets tangled in doubt and longing, and that a sigil works best when it is pushed below the surface and forgotten. Chaos magicians made forgetting a standard step, and many modern witchcraft books follow them. In this view, checking on a sigil, worrying about it, or longing for its result keeps it in the conscious mind and gets in its way.

You do not have to accept that theory to find forgetting useful. There are ordinary reasons why letting go of a wish can help:

• constant checking for results is tiring, and can turn into the checking trap described on the ethics and safety notes;
• once you have committed to a goal, it often helps to turn attention to the next small action rather than to the goal itself;
• many people find relief in “handing over” a worry, whether to a sigil, a prayer, or a written list.

Here are some ways people help themselves forget:

• Make several sigils at once. Design four or five sigils for different statements on the same day, put them away for a few weeks, then charge them. By then you may not remember which is which.
• Let time pass. Put the finished sigil in an envelope and leave it for a month before charging.
• Destroy or hide it after charging (the rest of this page).
• Keep the statement elsewhere. Record the statement in your journal on a page you fold over or seal, so you can review it later without seeing it every day.
• Simply stop. When the sigil comes to mind, notice it kindly and turn to something else. Forgetting does not have to be perfect.

A reminder from the ethics and safety notes bears repeating: a sigil cannot be ruined by a thought. If you remember it, you remember it. Nothing breaks.

Burning safely

Modern Burning is the most dramatic way to release a sigil, and the one most often shown online. Carroll mentions that a sigil may be burned, buried, or cast into the sea, and many modern practitioners like the finality of fire. It is also the method that most needs care.

Burn a sigil only if all of these are true:

• you have a heat-proof, non-flammable container, such as a metal tin, a ceramic bowl, or a cast-iron pan, and a heat-proof surface beneath it;
• you have water or a damp cloth within reach;
• the paper is small, plain, and uncoated, with no plastic, glitter, foil, or lamination;
• you will stay with the flame until it is completely out, and never leave it unattended;
• you are indoors near an open window or under a working range hood, or outdoors on a calm day with no fire ban;
• no children or pets can reach the flame, and no birds or other pets are in the room, since smoke can harm them;
• the rules where you live allow it. Many rentals, dorms, and shared houses do not.

Do not burn a sigil if any of these are true:

• you are tired, unwell, or have been drinking;
• the wind is up, or the ground and vegetation are dry;
• there is a fire warning or burn ban in your area;
• you would have to cover or disable a smoke alarm;
• you are using a candle you would have to hold the paper over while leaning close.

If burning is not possible, choose a quieter way to let the paper go. Tearing it up and recycling it is just as complete.

Ethics and safety

Consent

The single most important ethical rule on this site is simple: do not make sigils aimed at another person’s will, feelings, health, body, choices, or property.

That rules out sigils to make a particular person love you, call you, forgive you, leave you, fail, fall ill, or change their mind. It rules out “binding” sigils on other people, curses, and sigils meant to influence someone without their knowledge. It also rules out sigils “for someone’s own good” that they have not asked for, such as a sigil to make a friend stop drinking or a relative change their politics.

There are three reasons.

Respect. Other people have the right to make their own choices. Trying to override that, even symbolically, treats them as objects in your story rather than people with their own.

Your own wellbeing. Sigils aimed at others tend to keep your attention fixed on them. A sigil to make an ex call you is, in practice, a way of thinking about your ex every day. That rarely helps.

Honesty about what sigils can do. This site does not claim that sigils change other people. If you believe they can, the rule protects them. If you believe they cannot, the rule protects you from wasted hope.

What you can do is make sigils about yourself: your own courage, focus, habits, healing, or ability to let go. “I speak honestly to my sister” is about you. “My sister forgives me” is about her. The guide to writing a statement shows you how to turn the second kind into the first.

If you want to do something for another person, ask them. A shared sigil, made with someone’s knowledge and agreement, for an intent you both choose, is a different matter. So is telling someone you are thinking of them, which often does more.

When symbols start to feel too loud

Sigil work asks you to give a symbol intense attention, sometimes in a focused or emptied state of mind. For most people that is calming and interesting. For some, at some times, it can become too much.

Pause and seek support if you notice any of these:

• you feel that your sigils, or other people’s, are sending you messages, watching you, or controlling you;
• ordinary signs, numbers, license plates, or logos start to feel as if they are speaking directly to you, and the feeling is frightening or hard to switch off;
• you are sleeping much less than usual and feel driven to keep working;
• you hear voices, or feel that a sigil or spirit is telling you what to do;
• friends or family are worried about changes in your thinking or behavior.

These experiences can be signs of stress, sleep loss, or a mental health condition that deserves care, and they are nothing to be ashamed of. They are a reason to stop practicing for now and talk to a doctor or mental health professional. If you have a history of psychosis, mania, or dissociation, consider talking with your care team before you start any practice involving altered states, and stick to the quieter methods on the charging page. If any of these experiences is part of the picture, please talk to a doctor, counselor or crisis line.

If you ever feel unsafe or in crisis, contact local emergency services (112 in Europe, 911 in the US) or, in the US, call or text 988.

A simple sigil worksheet

Copy this into your journal or onto a sheet of paper. It is all you need for your first sigil.

1. My wish, in my own words: …
2. My statement (present tense, positive, specific, in my power): …
3. Letters after reduction: …
4. My sigil (draw it here, then redraw it cleanly).
5. How I charged it (date, time, method): …
6. How I let it go or kept it: …
7. Later: what I expected, and what happened: …

You will find more free printables and guides on free resources. If you want to keep sigil work private, my book The Closet Witch has ideas for quiet, discreet practice.