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• 1 History Toggle History subsection
  • 1.1 The Lesser Key of Solomon
• 2 Methods of construction
• 3 Austin Osman Spare
• 4 Chaos magic
• 5 See also
• 6 References Toggle References subsection
  • 6.1 Citations
  • 6.2 Works cited
• 7 Further reading
• 8 External links

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Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Magical symbol This article is about symbols used in magic. For other uses, see Sigil (disambiguation).

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Sigil" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A sigil (/ˈsɪdʒɪl/)[1] is a type of symbol used in magic. The term usually refers to a pictorial signature of a spirit (such as an angel, demon, or deity). In modern usage, especially in the context of chaos magic, a sigil refers to a symbolic representation of the practitioner's desired outcome.

History

[edit]

The term sigil derives from the Latin sigillum (pl. sigilla), meaning "seal".[2] In medieval magic, the term sigil was commonly used to refer to occult signs which represented various angels and demons which the practitioner might summon.[2]

The Lesser Key of Solomon

[edit] Further information: List of sigils of demons

Magical training books called grimoires often listed pages of such sigils. A particularly well-known list is in The Lesser Key of Solomon, in which the sigils of the 72 princes of the hierarchy of hell are given for the magician's use. Such sigils are considered by some to be the equivalent of the true name of the spirit and thus granted the magician a measure of control over the beings.[3]

Methods of construction

[edit]

A common method of creating the sigils of certain spirits was to use kameas, a special use case of magic squares—the names of the spirits were converted to numbers, which were then located on the magic square. The locations were then connected by lines, forming an abstract figure.[4]

The word sigil [...] has a long history in Western magic. The members of the Golden Dawn were perfectly familiar with it ("combining the letters, the colours, the attributions and their Synthesis, thou mayest build up a telesmatic Image of a Force. The Sigil shall then serve thee for the tracing of a Current which shall call into action a certain Elemental Force") and it was used in the making of talismans. The sigil was like a signature or sign of an occult entity.[5]

Austin Osman Spare

[edit]

English artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956) developed his own unique method of creating and using sigils, which has had a lasting effect on modern occultism. Spare did not agree with medieval practice of using these, arguing that such supernatural beings were simply complexes in the unconscious, and could be actively created through the process of sigilization.[6][5]

Spare's technique became a cornerstone of chaos magic.[7] It also influenced artist Brion Gysin, who experimented with combining Spare's sigil method with the traditional form of magic squares:

Calligraphic magick squares were one of the techniques most commonly applied by Gysin. He would reduce a name or an idea to a "glyph" and then write across the paper from right to left, turn the paper and do the same again, and so on, turning the paper around and around to create a multidimensional grid... The same techniques and consciously driven functional intention also permeated his paintings. In a very real sense, everything he created was an act of sorcery.[8]

Chaos magic

[edit]

In chaos magic, following Spare, sigils are commonly created in a well-ordered fashion by writing an intention, then condensing the letters of the statement down to form a monogram. The chaos magician then uses the gnostic state to "launch" or "charge" the sigil—essentially bypassing the conscious mind to implant the desire in the unconscious.[9][7] To quote Ray Sherwin:

The magician acknowledges a desire, he lists the appropriate symbols and arranges them into an easily visualised glyph. Using any of the gnostic techniques he reifies the sigil and then, by force of will, hurls it into his subconscious from where the sigil can begin to work unencumbered by desire.[9]

After charging the sigil, it is considered necessary to repress all memory of it. In the words of Spare, there should be "a deliberate striving to forget it".[6]

In modern chaos magic, when a complex of thoughts, desires, and intentions gains such a level of sophistication that it appears to operate autonomously from the magician's consciousness, as if it were an independent being, then such a complex is referred to as a servitor.[10] When such a being becomes large enough that it exists independently of any one individual, as a form of "group mind", then it is referred to as an egregore.[11][12]

Later chaos magicians have expanded on the basic sigilization technique. Grant Morrison coined the term hypersigil to refer to an extended work of art with magical meaning and willpower, created using adapted processes of sigilization. Their comic book series The Invisibles was intended as such a hypersigil.[7] Morrison has also argued that modern corporate logos like "the McDonald's Golden Arches, the Nike swoosh and the Virgin autograph" are a form of viral sigil:

Corporate sigils are super-breeders. They attack unbranded imaginative space. They invade Red Square, they infest the cranky streets of Tibet, they etch themselves into hairstyles. They breed across clothing, turning people into advertising hoardings... The logo or brand, like any sigil, is a condensation, a compressed, symbolic summoning up of the world of desire which the corporation intends to represent... Walt Disney died long ago but his sigil, that familiar, cartoonish signature, persists, carrying its own vast weight of meanings, associations, nostalgia and significance.[7]

See also

[edit]

• Apotropaic magic – Magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences
• Behenian fixed star – Application in medieval astrology
• Ceremonial magic – Variety of rituals of magic
• Dictionary of Occult, Hermetic and Alchemical Sigils – Occult text of sigils and symbols
• Icelandic magical staves – Symbols believed to possess magical properties
• Runic magic – Ancient or modern magic performed with runes or runestones
• Seal of Solomon – Signet ring attributed to the Israelite king Solomon
• Sigil of Baphomet – Sigil of the material world
• Sigillum Dei – Seal of God, or Seal of Truth, according to John Dee
• Sympathetic magic – Type of magic based on imitation or correspondence
• Veve – Religious symbol commonly used in different branches of Vodun

References

[edit]

Citations

[edit]

1. ^ "sigil". The Chambers Dictionary (9th ed.). Chambers. 2003. ISBN 0-550-10105-5.
2. ^ a b Weschcke & Slate (2011), p. [page needed].
3. ^ Peterson (2001), pp. xi–xviii.
4. ^ Greer (2003), p. 438.
5. ^ a b Baker (2011), p. [page needed].
6. ^ a b Spare (2005), p. [page needed].
7. ^ a b c d Morrison (2003), p. [page needed].
8. ^ P-Orridge (2003), p. [page needed].
9. ^ a b Sherwin (1992), p. [page needed].
10. ^ Hine (1998), p. [page needed].
11. ^ Rysen (1999).
12. ^ Emerson (1997).

Works cited

[edit]

• Baker, Phil (2011). Austin Osman Spare: The Life and Legend of London's Lost Artist. Strange Attractor. ISBN 978-1-907222-01-6.
• Emerson, Gabriel (1997). "Egregore Definition Compilation". Chaos Matrix. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
• Greer, John Michael (2003). The New Encyclopedia of the Occult. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications. ISBN 978-1-56718-336-8.
• Hine, Phil (1998). Prime Chaos: Adventures in Chaos Magic. New Falcon Publications. ISBN 978-1-60925-529-9.
• Morrison, Grant (2003). "Pop Magic!". In Metzger, Richard (ed.). Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult. Red Wheel Weiser. ISBN 978-0-9713942-7-8.
• P-Orridge, Genesis (2003). "Magick Squares and Future Beats". In Metzger, Richard (ed.). Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult. Red Wheel Weiser. ISBN 978-0-9713942-7-8.
• Peterson, Joseph H., ed. (2001). The Lesser Key of Solomon: Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis. York Beach, ME: Weiser Books.[ISBN missing]
• Rysen, Fenwick (1999). "The Fluid Continuum --or-- What the f***'s an Egregore?". Chaos Matrix. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
• Sherwin, Ray (1992). The Book of Results. Revelations 23 Press. ISBN 978-1-874171-00-3.
• Spare, Austin Osman (2005). The Book of Pleasure: The Psychology of Ecstasy (Facsimile ed.). I-H-O Books. ISBN 1-872189-58-X.
• Weschcke, Carl Llewellyn; Slate, Joe H. (2011). The Llewellyn Complete Book of Psychic Empowerment: A Compendium of Tools & Techniques for Growth & Transformation. Llewellyn Worldwide. ISBN 978-0-7387-2986-2.

Further reading

[edit]

• Carroll, Peter (1987). Liber Null and Psychonaut. Weiser Books. ISBN 0-87728-639-6.
• El, Moorpheus (2011). "Secret of Secrets: Reality is Programmable". Matrix-Five. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
• Marik (1998). "Servitors: Part Two of Sigils, Servitors, and Godforms". Chaos Matrix. Retrieved June 7, 2018.

External links

[edit]

• The dictionary definition of sigil at Wiktionary
• Media related to Sigils at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Chaos magic
Key concepts	Cut-up technique Egregore Entheogens Gnosis Initiation Kia Playback Scrying Sigils Symbol of Chaos Synchromysticism
Notable figures	Genesis P-Orridge Grant Morrison Lionel Snell Peter J. Carroll Phil Hine Ralph Tegtmeier William S. Burroughs
Influences	Aleister Crowley Austin Osman Spare Discordianism Kenneth Grant Postmodernism Robert Anton Wilson
Organisations	Illuminates of Thanateros Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth

v t e Magic and witchcraft
Types	Region Africa Azande Yoruba Democratic Republic of the Congo Makonde Ndau Ghana Witch smeller Asia Jhākri Philippines Europe Italy Akelarre Benandanti Cunning folk Greece and Rome Seiðr Völva Brujería en España [es] Meiga [es] Witch-cult hypothesis Anglo-Saxon England Britain Latin America Middle East Ancient Jews Oceania Mākutu Form Chaos magic Goetia Hoodoo Mantrik Medieval Neopagan Etsy witches Wicca Renaissance Solitary practitioner Warlock Witch doctor
Practices	Animism Apotropaic magic Black magic Black Mass Ceremonial magic Magical formula Coven Curse Anathema Damnation Jinx Demon Divination Entheogen Evocation Familiar Gray magic Incantation Jinn Love magic Magic word Mediumship Moon magic Necromancy Occultism Shamanism Black Regional Yellow Sex magic Sigils Spiritism Spiritualism Sympathetic magic Witches' Sabbath White magic
Objects	Amulet Kuman thong Koan kroach Athame Broom besom Censer Cloak of invisibility Crystal ball Flying ointment Goofer dust Grimoire Incantation bowl Incense Julleuchter Kitchen witch Love charm Magic carpet Magic circle Magic ring Magical weapons Magic sword Mojo bag Nkisi Nkondi Poppet Potions Sator Square Talisman Wand Witch ball Witch's ladder
Folklore andmythology	Agamede Aradia Baba Yaga Circe Dayan Drude Elbow witch Hecate Huld Kalku Medea Morgan le Fay Muma Pădurii Nine sorceresses Obayifo Pasiphaë Sebile Sorginak Spearfinger Three Witches Witches of Benevento Witch of Endor Yama-uba
Majorhistoric treatises	Witchcraft and divination in the Old Testament (8th–2nd centuries BC) Directorium Inquisitorum (1376) Code of Ordinances of the Àneu Valleys (1424) De maleficis mulieribus (1440) Formicarius (1475) Summis desiderantes affectibus (1484) Malleus Maleficarum (1487) De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus (1489) Laienspiegel (1509) De praestigiis daemonum (1563) The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) Newes from Scotland (1591) A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts (1593) Daemonolatreiae libri tres (1595) Daemonologie (1597) Magical Investigations (1599) Compendium Maleficarum (1608) A Guide to Grand-Jury Men (1627) The Discovery of Witches (1647) Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants (1751)
Persecution	Modern Jamyi Witch hiring controversy accusations against children India Nepal Papua New Guinea Witch camp Early Modern Americas Maryland New York Salem Virginia Eastern Europe Hungary Northern Moravia Poland Russia Northern Europe Baltic Denmark England Finland Iceland Norway Scotland Sweden Western Europe France Geneva Italy Spain Basque Classical Witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire Related Witch hunt Witch's mark Pricking List of people executed for witchcraft
In popular culture	Magic in fiction Witches in fiction
Related	Witch (word) Witch (archetype) Christian views on magic Magical organization Maleficium Left-hand path and right-hand path Feminist interpretations of witch trials in the early modern period Folk religion Adept

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sigil&oldid=1324168981" Categories:

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