Have you ever thought about crafting a sigil to guide your entire year? We tend to think of sigils for manifesting certain things (a new job, to draw love, to help finish a project) or performing designated tasks (protection, luck, healing). But they can be designed and employed to help guide us for bigger tasks as well. If you're unfamiliar with sigils, let me introduce them to you. A sigil is a symbol, sign, or design that is believed to have magickal properties. It can be carved, drawn, painted, or inked on to any surface. Sigils are fairly simple in that their main ingredients require just you, a pen or pencil, and something on which to write. You first consider what it is that you wish to manifest, then translate and combine those ideas into a symbol. Why design a sigil for your entire year? Think of it as a way to help focus and guide your path throughout the year. It's like making a list of New Year's resolutions, but actually employing a system to help you achieve those goals. In Sigil Witchery: A Witch's Guide to Crafting Magick Symbols, I outline a 4 step process to creating sigils:
There are several ways you could go about Steps One and Two. Here are some ideas:
So after you've chosen your approach and made your list of words (and/or numbers), it's time for Step 3: design your sigil. To give you an example, I'll lead you though a sigil I might create for myself using option #4. As I mentioned, my age will add up to 4 in 2018, so I looked at the Emperor card. From it I decided I want to focus on structure and organization in the coming year, because there are some areas of my life that could use some assistance in those regards. I'm going to take the Justice card at face value, and hope that socially/politically the year will bring justice and balance. I'm also inspired by the High Priestess, so for my artwork, I'm going to the idea of considering potential. So my design elements include structure/organization, justice/balance, and potential. I can also pull from the numbers 4, 11, and 2 for inspiration. For structure, I am choosing an equilateral triangle, point up, base extending out to give a horizon line or sense of foundation. To represent justice, I added a pair of parallel lines going perpendicular to and through the extended base of the triangle. Next I made the resulting crosses into asterisks, representing inspiring energy and balance. From the top of the triangle, I extended a single line up, and topped it with a star, to signify potential. I bisected that single line with two chevrons, directing the energy upward. Finally, on the base of the pyramid, I made 10 small hatch-marks, combining with the single larger line to make a total of 11. They also enhance the sense of organization and structure. So now we have crafted a sigil for the year, which means we've reached Step 4: apply and acknowledge the sigil. Here are just a few ideas for how to put your sigil into action for the year.
I hope this exercise gives you new inspiration for the coming year. Happy sigil-making! (For more ideas and sigil witchery techniques, check out Sigil Witchery: A Witch's Guide to Crafting Magick Symbols!) |
Laura Tempest Zakroff (she/they) is a professional artist, author, performer, and Modern Traditional Witch based in New England. She holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and her artwork has received awards and ...