Revised details and instructions for sigil activation. Please keep in mind that this is an experimental working. I am looking for feedback on the process and particularly results for anyone using this process. Please document your usage and tag me in the post. This work is available for use and adaptation by creative commons share-alike license.
The Creation Process
For each sigil working I begin with a meditation upon the intent to be placed into the design. During this meditation an image of the sigil becomes clear in my mind’s eye. Once clear, while maintaining trance, I draw the design of the sigil out upon a chalkboard surface on the bottom of a bowl. I then hold the bowl up before my eyes and continue to meditate upon the visual image and recite a mantra somehow constructed to contain the intent. When the meditation is complete I photograph the sigil in the bowl. The sigil has been charged through the focus of the meditation and I may then charge the sigil within the bowl again using sexual method or other approach as feels appropriate.
Once the initial design and charging work is complete I work from the photographed image and ink the sigil within a circle onto paper. This inking process is also done in a trance state which arises naturally from the work. An inner circle is linked to the design as it was linked to the bowl in which it was drawn. An outer circle acts as a barrier to lock in the energy of the working. Around the outside of the outer circle I then place four elemental markers. Earth to be oriented towards oneself, Fire away, Air to the dominant hand, Water to the other.
Here is an example showing a sigil for receiving love
The Activation Process
The recommended process of activating the sigil includes using a drop of your blood upon the outside ring. First you will need to determine where the drop should be placed. You will need a pendulum. If you don’t have one, any weight hanging from a string or chain should work so long as it can swing freely. With the sigil laying on a flat surface, hold the pendulum over the center. Focus on the sigil until the pendulum begins to swing and you get a sense of the sigil’s energy. What you are looking for is a clear angle of back-and-forth motion. It may directly towards a pair of elements or between them. This is indicating the appropriate method for the sigil to materialize for you. Roughly, fire is materialization through events. Earth is through physical state, such as things coming to you. Air is through understanding. Water is through emotion. Once you see the direction you will need to make a choice as the angle of the pendulums swing will cut across the entire circle. It may feel clearly like one direction of the swing is the forward swing and the other the back swing. If so, then the forward swing indicates the appropriate point on the outer circle. This may be directly towards an element or any position between elements.
If the pendulum does not resolve to a clear direction then this means the sigil should not be used. It may be that the timing is not right, such as it needs for you to use it on a particular moon phase, or it may be entirely wrong. You may choose to either store the sigil for later use or see notes on destroying the sigil working below.
With the position selected, you’re ready to place the drop of blood. I recommend using a sterile lancet for this. These are the sort you should be able to find at a local pharmacy for checking blood glucose for diabetes. The ones I include are travel lancets, which are self-contained and spring loaded, not requiring any tool to use. These lancets include a purple cap that you twist off. Give it five or so complete twists before gently pulling the cap out, otherwise you will damage the spring.
Simply hold the lancet to your fingertip then depress the button on the side.
You should get one small drop of blood. You may press below the end of your fingertip with your thumb to coax a bit more out.
Place the drop of blood at the location indicated by the pendulum.
Next take a pen with black ink. Touch the tip briefly to the tip of your tongue and then to the corresponding spot on the inner ring. Like connecting a circuit you are going to connect the sigil energy to yourself through that spot of your blood. Take a deep breath in then slowly, while exhaling continuously draw a short line connecting the inner to the outer and your blood.
The sigil is now activated. You should keep the physical copy for at least three days, though it can be kept indefinitely. During this time watch for effects. You can lock-in and accelerate the working by burning the sigil. If the working appears to be going astray, then see notes below about destroying the working.
Destroying the Sigil Working
Some care must be taken in how the sigil working is destroyed. Burning a sigil is a common way to activate a sigil. When destroying in order to abandon the the sigil working you will want to be sure that you do not activate it!
If meditation upon the sigil using the pendulum indicates that it is not right and you have not activated the sigil, then draw four symbols for electrical grounding, one in each quarter, connecting into the inner ring. First connect each to the outer ring, and then connect each to the inner ring. The sigil can down be safely burned with the energy going to ground.
If you have already begun the sigil working, then use a hole punch, knife, or scissors to cut out the paper which contains your blood. Then draw in the grounding symbols on the quarters and burn the sigil.
I’ve heard that there are other ways of activating sigils without blood. But they haven’t been specified. Does anyone else know any other way of activating sigils? I’m not fond of the idea of pricking my finger for blood and I don’t want to wait until I’m on my damn period, either.
There definitely are other ways… This is chaos magick after all 😉
For context, the word “activating” was specifically chosen here rather than “charging”. The sigils in this working were each already charged. I charged each of them using a sigil bowl, that is a bowl with a chalk board bottom, where I drew the sigil then used meditative and sexual gnosis techniques to charge the sigil. First meditative to achieve gnosis by calming the mind to a single point while gazing at the sigil then by ecstatic gnosis to launch and detach the energies. The sigils were then redrawn onto the paper shown in this post.
The activation described here was the procedure I devised to connect the sigil to oneself while also allowing an way out to disconnect from the working. So “activation” in the sense of turning it on and also because of the related possibility of “deactivation”. Other workings may use the word “activation” to mean something like charging, but here they were distinct. One step to charge but leave the energies contained then another to activate.
It was a good structure, though I never received feedback on how these worked out :-/
I do invite everyone who likes to use or adapt this procedure to their needs.
