Sigil Magik

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due to its simplicity, can be learned easily anduic!ly.Most important of all, none of the magical

techniques weknow of today is more efficient and will giveevenbeginners the immediate chance to convincethemselvesof its power and their own abilities. "hesereasons alonesupport a volume li!e the following to show thepossibilities of this discipline and to e#plain itstechni ues and its rationale. "he reader$thecompletetyro and the advanced practitioner ali!e$willreceive anintroduction which will accompany him%her inhis%her

magical practice for a long time to come. &ou will find in this edition in the followingchapter a reprint of my article 'Austin OsmanSpare and(is "heory of Sigils)) from the, alas, now$defunct*erman maga+ine nicorn, issue -% /. "hisissue hasbeen out of print for uite some time, but manyreaders)in uiries have shown that there is still muchinterest inthis article and it is increasing every day. Since



suggestions.Although Spare)s mysterious Alphabet of esirebelongs, technically spea!ing, to the pictorial

method andin some respects touches the word method, itmaynevertheless be considered the center of hismagicalachievement. nfortunately, his own commentsabout itare rather poor. "herefore, most writers, beingfamiliarwith the sub0ect on a theoretical level only, havecausedmuch confusion rather than clarity whendiscussing it.

&et, it seems to me that the basic principle ofthis magical

symbol language is ama+ingly simple if viewedinrelation to Spare)s system as a whole. "hechapter '"heAlphabet of 3esire,)) therefore, will not only offeracursory comment on fragments from Spare)sratherchaotic legacy but introduce a mature system of symbol$logic, accessible to everyone. "hiscertainly would have been Spare)s intent hadhe ever finished what has become !nownas the legendary !rimoire of "os , i.e., had he#ntroduction / xi



completed it with e#planatory comments for themagicians of his time.Albeit Spare)s personal philosophy 4which he

himself termed the "os $ia %ultus 5 is not thatimportantfor sigil magic itself, we should not fail tomention histechni ue of Atavistic nostalgia , which iscertainly one of the most fascinating applications of sigil magic.Furthermore, it mar!s its connection toShamanism andso$called 'primitive magic,)) two disciplinesfromwhich today)s magicians can only profit.

"he main topic of the last chapter will concern planetary sigils from the (ermetic "radition.Although

e#perts have been familiar with the method oftheirconstruction for decades, little or no relevantliteraturehas as yet been made available to a widerpublic. 2t,therefore, seemed pertinent to treat this sub0ectmatterhere.

"he reader will note that in this volume weconcentrate on creating personal , that is to say,individualsigils. "his is a completely different approach



olderterms, - has confused the minds of even highlye#perienced old hands. Such misinformation

should nolonger be tolerated.Of course, even 'wrong)) dogmas can developtheirown, definitely real, magical egregore in thecourse of time. 7ut we should no longer be interested instrugglingwith the astral garbage which others have beencreatingfor centuries. Spare has certainly opened$probablywithout an e#pressed intention to do so$oureyes to anatavism different from the one discussed in

chapter 8, forhe has shown us the origin of all magicalsymbolism$ thehuman soul itself' (is message is that thosemagical sigilswhich truly wor! derive from our ownunconscious andwill return again to their source to begin theirwor! afterbeing impregnated by our will. 1aturally, andthis appliesto all magic, one might gain the false impressionthat it



would be much less of a strain to get everythingorgani+ed and prepared straight from thehorse)s mouth of

a '*reat 2lluminated "rue Master of 9isdom,))but thishas nothing to do whatsoever with practicalmagicalsuccess. One could compare this to studying at a#ntroduction / xiii

university: anything you may have missed in thebeginning through idleness will have to be made

up for inthe end with triple effort. 7ut, you usually don)thaveenough time to catch up;.Spare states that 'sigils are monograms ofthought))and that they should be created in accordancewith theindividuality of our thin!ing. So please, view thee#amples given in this study for what they are$e#amplesonly. 3on)t use them la+ily and heedlessly. "hiscoulddefinitely be dangerous< At the beginning youwill need

perhaps a uarter of an hour or so for your firstindividualsigil, but by your fifth or si#th sigil it will ta!e youonly acouple of minutes. "his effort will certainly proveto be



worthwhile if you consider the probable success.As 2 said before, sigil magic is probably one of those magical disciplines that may be the fastest

andeasiest to learn. sually, you will need nothingmore thana sheet of paper and a pen. 9ith somee#perience,you will have finished the whole operation,includingactivation and subse uent banishing, within lessthanfive to ten minutes. "here is no faster way$eveninmagic<Chapter 1

Austin Osman Spare and

HisTheory of Sigils*

"he end of the nineteenth and the beginning ofthetwentieth century was a time characterised byradical

changes and great heretics. "he secret lore andthe occultin general were triumphant, and there weregood reasonsfor this: the triumph of materialist positivismwith its



claimed to have e#perienced while a child aninitiation of sorts by an elderly witch, one Mrs. Paterson who,

as faras we !now, must have been uite a 9iccan>li!echaracter. Spare found his intellectual andcreativevocation as an artist and illustrator, and heattended theoyal ollege of Art where he soon wascelebrated as aforthcoming young artist. 7ut he rebelledagainst abourgeois middle>class career in the arts.3isgusted bycommercialism, he retreated from the artisticscene soonafterwards, though he still continued editing

variousmaga+ines for uite a while. Austin -sman Spare and is heory of Sigils / 0

From -D/I until his death, he virtually lived as aweirdhermit in a Hondon slum, where he sometimeshelde#hibitions in a local pub.

People have compared his life with that of (. P.Hovecraft and certainly he too was an e#plorer ofthe dar!levels of the soul. Around the beginning of theFirst9orld 9ar, he released some privately published



well. 2ngeneral, people thin! of ))correct)) and'incorrect6 sigils.

"he grimoires of the late Middle Ages were oftenlittleelse but 'magical recipe boo!s)) 4the fre uentlycritici+edSixth and seventh 1ooks of Moses basicallyapplies thesame procedure of ))select ingredients, pour inand stir65,and these practitioners believed in the followingprinciple: to !now the 'true)) name and the))true)) sigil of a demon means to have power over it.Pragmatic Magic, which developed in the Anglo>Sa#onrealms, completely tidied up this concept. 8 Often

rowley)s revolt in the *olden 3awn$at first infavor of but soon against Mathers$is seen as the actualbeginningof modern magic. 2t would certainly not bewrong to saythat rowley himself was an important supporterof Pragmatic thought in modern magic. 7ut in theend, the Master "herion preferred to remainwithinthe hierarchical 3ogmatic system due to hisAiwassrevelation



in +iber Al vel +egis . (is !ey phrase '3o whatthou wilt shall be the whole of the Haw. Hove isthe law, love under wil-,)) as well as his whole

"helemic concept, prove him a 3ogmaticmagician. Austin -sman Spare and is heory of Sigils / 9

1ot so Austin Osman Spare. (e seems to derivefrom theindividual>anarchistic direction so that we maydescribehis philosophy, without undue e#aggeration, as

a mi#tureof Hao>"se, 9icca and Ma# Stirner.English magic of the turn of the century was alsoinfluenced by an important young science whichwouldactually achieve its ma0or triumphs only afterthe Second9orld 9ar$the psychology of Sigmund Freud.7eforethat. 7latvats!y)s #sis (nveiled and he Secretoctrine ,as well as Fra+er)s he !olden 1ough , had givenimportant impulses to the occult in general.9illiam

Kames)s comparative psychology of religion

influenceddeeply the intellectuality of this time, but Freud,Adler,and especially arl *, Kung eventually effectedma0orbrea!throughs. From then on, people started to



considerthe unconscious in earnest.

"his apparent digression, which had to be !ept

very shortdue to lac! of space, is in reality a veryimportant basisfor the discussion that follows. 9e will notanaly+e indepth by whom Spare was influenced. Hao>"seandStirner having already been mentioned, wemight notenumerous others from Swinburne to rowleyhimself, inwhose order, the A.).A.)., Spare had been amember atleast for a short while. ather, we will discuss hisgreatest

achievement$his psychological approachtowardsmagic.

"his leads us to magical practice proper. 2nSpare)ssystem there are no ))correct)) or 'incorrect6sigils=neither is there a list of ready>made symbols. 2tis of no: / Practical Sigil Magic

import whether a sigil is the 'correct6 one ornot, but it iscrucial that it has been created by the magicianand is



therefore meaningful to him%her. 7ecause s%hehasconstructed it for personal use, the sigil easily

becomes acatalyst of his%her magical desire, andsometimes it willeven wa!en this desire in the first place. "hisPragmaticapproach which dominates present>day Anglo>Sa#onmagic 42srael egardie, Francis Jing, 3avidStephenS!inner, 9, 7. *ray, onway, Hemuel Kohnstone,toname but a few relevant authors5 goes to showthatAustin Osman Spare, rather than Aleisterrowley,

should be considered the real Father of modernPragmaticMagic. I

2n the *erman>spea!ing countries, the situationisuite different. 9riters li!e Luintscher,*regorius,7ardon, Jlingsor and even Spiesberger allow butlittleroom to maneuver when creating magicalcoordinatesindividually. (ere the adept is e#pectedly growinto a



ready>made system instead of fashioning one, "his is acompletely different approach, the value or non>

value of which we will not discuss here. "he nearest thingtoPragmatic Magic, e#isting already in -D-I i.e.-D/- 4thedate of the second revised edition of his ma0orwor! onmagic as an e#perimental science5, wasStaudenmaier.

"he wor!s by Mahamudra, which have of latebeenreceiving some attention, are mainly of adescriptivenature and deal with traditions and newinterpretations,

thus remaining within the conte#t of *ermanmagicalheritage= however, they do ta!e heed of recentresults inscientific psychology and are, therefore, at leastpartiallyrelated to the Pragmatic approach.Pragmatic Magic will become more and moreimportant because today)s magicians have toface a

Austin -sman Spare and is heory of Sigils / ;

Psychologi+ed $ and psychologi+ing $environmentwhose philosophical relativism has been shaping



all of us,and still does. egardless of the significance oramount of

truth one concedes topsychology%psychoanalysis, we allare infiltrated by its way of thin!ing and itsvocabulary.So even we magicians will have to attain to acritical,sensible loo! at it. 2t will be left to another era tofinddifferent models of e#planation, description andpractice.(ow does Spare proceed in practice Sigils aredeveloped by fusion and styli+ation of letters4see Figure -5.First of all, a sentence of desire has to beformulated. Het us ta!e the e#ample Spare

himself givesin his 1ook of Pleasure , the declaration of intent:THIS #? "ISH TO O5TAI3 TH! ST@!3>TH O ATI>!@

"his sentence must be written down in capitals.1e#t, all the letters which appear more thanonce aredeleted so that only one of each letter remains.THIS #? "ISH TOO5TAI3 TH! ST@!3>TH O A TI>!@

"hus the following letters remain: ", (, 2, S, M, &,9, O, 7, A, 1, E, , *, F. "he sigil is created fromtheseletters= it is permissible to consider one part 4fore#ample,



M5 as a reversed 9 or, seen from the side, as anE.(ence, these three letters do not have to appear

in thesigil three separate times. Of course, there arenumerouspossibilities of representation and styli+ation.< / Practical Sigil Magic

'"his my wish to obtain the strength of a tiger.6Sigili+ed this would be:

"his is my wish

"o obtain "he strength of a tigerombined as one sigil or8igure )

Austin -sman Spare and is heory of Sigils / =

(owever, it is important that in the end the sigilis assimple as possible with the various letters

recogni+able4even with slight difficulty5. "he artistic uality ofthesigil is irrelevant, but for simple psychologicalreasons itshould be obvious that you should not 0ustscribble ordoodle it in haste. &ou should strive to ma!e it tothe bestof your abilities.

"he finished sigil, which in the beginning willprobably ta!e a few attempts to construe, willthen be



fi#ated. &ou may draw it on parchment, onpaper, in thesand, or even on a wall. According to SpareNs

shortinstructions, it should be destroyed after itsinternali+ation. "hus, you will either burn theparchment=wipe it out in the sand, etc. SpareNs basic idea isthat thesigil, together with its meaning, must be plantedinto theunconscious. Afterwards, the consciousness hasto forgetit so that the unconscious can obey its encodeddirectionwithout hindrance.Formulating the sentence of desire and drawingthe sigil should be done with the utmost

concentration. 2tma!es the following activation 4'charging65much easier.9hen the sigil is ready, it is activated byimplanting itinto the psyche. "his is the most difficult part inthisprocess, and Spare offers only very few hints onpracticalprocedures. (owever, it is crucial that the sigil isinternali+ed in a trance of sorts. "his may ta!eplace in astate of euphoria 4for e#ample, by means of



drugs5, inecstasy 4for e#ample, se# magically bymasturbation,

se#ual intercourse or a ritual5, or in a state ofphysicalfatigue. For the latter e#ample, eyes and armsmay betired by the magician folding his%her armsbehind thehead while standing in front of a mirror andstaringfi#edly at his%her image. "he important thing isthat it)> / Practical Sigil Magic

should clic!, meaning that the sigil must beinternali+edspasmodically, which, of course, re uires somee#erciseand control. "his procedure may be supportedbyrepeating the sentence of desire rhythmicallyandmonotonously li!e a mantra, becoming fasterand faster=in doing so, one must stare fi#edly at the sigil.42n our

e#ample of loo!ing into the mirror a magicalmirror maybe used, too , it is useful to draw the sigil ontothe mirrorwith water>soluble paint.5After spasmodical internali+ation, the symbol



mustbe destroyed and deleted from the consciousmind. As

mentioned before, from now on it will be theunconsciouswhich has to do the wor!.2n my own practical wor! 2 have discovered thatitmay even be useful to !eep the sigil on you,such aswearing a ring engraved with it, etc. 7ut this willdependupon the magicianNs individual predilection, andeverybody should find his%her own way.Occasionally, itmay prove necessary to repeat the wholeprocedure,especially if the goal is a very problematical one,

re uiring an outstanding amount of energy.1evertheless,e#perience shows that it is of prime importancenot tobring bac! the meaning and aim of the sigil intoconsciousness at any time. 9e are, after all,dealing witha techni ue a!in to autosuggestion= thus, therules are thesame as with autosuggestions themselves.

"herefore, youmay not use negative formulas such as '"(2S M&92S(



1O" "O...6 because very often the unconscioustendsneither to recogni+e nor understand this 'not,6

and youmight end up getting the opposite result thanthat whichyou originally desired. 2f you see a sigil everyday,perhaps on a wall or engraved on the outer sideof a ring,this should only ta!e place unconsciously, 0ust asone

Austin -sman Spare and is heory of Sigils / =

might not consciously notice an ob0ect which isin use allthe time. Of course, you should !eep youroperationsecret, for discussing it with s!eptics or evengood friendsmay dissolve the sigilNs power.

"he advantages of this method, of which only ashort summary can be given here, are obviousC2t istemptingly easy, and with only a little practice itmay beperformed at any time and at any place 2t does

not call forany costly paraphernalia= protective ircles andPentagram rituals are not re uired 4thoughsometimesthey may prove useful, especially withoperations of



magical protection5, etc.People who tend to psychic instability should,however, be cautious. Although the threshold to

schi+ophrenia is not as easily crossed with thismethod aswith common evocations, it does involve cuttingdeeplyinto the ecology of the psyche, an act whichshould beconsidered carefully in any case. "he psycho>magicalconse uences are sometimes uite incalculable.As iswell !nown, the real problem with magic is notso muchthe uestion whether it wor!s, but rather thefact that itdoes .

sed with responsibility, this method offers themagician a tool which provides him%her with alimitlessvariety of possible magical applications.iBue /aemon .

.

. iBue /eus .

.

.)* / Practical Sigil Magic

Footnotes-. (orst 7. Miers does not mention him at all inhisHe#i!on der *eheimwissenschaften 4Freiburg,



"heA uarian Press, -DI/ ff5.8. "his term, which was coined by the author of

thisstudy, describes a certain type of magic which isbased onsub0ective empiricism, or individual e#perienceswithoutprior postulates. "he opposite is 3ogmaticmagic, whichdemands a fair amount of faith from itspractitioners,

Austin -sman Spare and is heory of Sigils / )0

such as belief in the hierarchy of astral entities,correspondences, gnostic dualism, etc 9e arenot sayinghere that these concepts cannot be found at allinPragmatic Magic but merely that they are onlyconsideredas possible models of e#planation amongstothers of e ual value. "he Pragmatic magician is perfectlyfree toabandon them if s%he achieves the desiredsuccess without

their help. S%he is, therefore, independent of so>called'revelations6 of many a charlatan. On the otherhand, of course, s%he cannot claim his%her e#periences tobe



universal 'truth.6 "his prevents$at least ideally$themegalomania very common to practitioners of

magic. Adetailed discussion of these concepts remains tobecovered by a larger, more speciali+ed volume.I. A facile way of loo!ing at a sub0ect li!e thisuite oftendemands the use of illustration rather thandifferentiation.

"hus, for e#ample, the problem of receptioncannot bedealt with here. 2t would certainly be ane#aggeration tosay that Spare influenced Pragmatic Magicdirectly.ather, Pragmatists found him to be one of their

il!.1either do we want to state that there are no3ogmatistsleft in the Anglo>Sa#on countries. 7ut theaforementioned writers, as is commonly !nown,areconsidered to be the leading thin!ers of themagical sceneof *reat 7ritain, anada, Australia and the SA.. "he formula '"(2S M& 92HH "O...6 has provedto bevery powerful in practice. Of course, it may bechanged



according to taste or even completelye#changed by anyother formula. Practice has shown, however,

that it isuseful to begin every sigil wor!ing with the sameformula)7 / Practical Sigil Magic

because in the course of time the unconsciousseems torespond to this with refle#ive receptivity.Chapter 2Further !ploration ofthe"ord #ethod

"he article 'Austin Osman Spare and (is "heoryof Sigils,6 contained in the last chapter, has

alreadycovered the basic principles and bac!grounds ofsigilmagic, but it could not go into more depth dueto thelimited space characteristic of maga+ine articles.Also,SpareNs sigil magic has seen some furtherevolutionduring recent years, especially by English haosmagicians as manifested in the variouspublications of the2O" order 42O" today Q he Magical Pact of the



illuminates of hanateros 5. "hus, ever>growingdivergences from SpareNs own methods andintentions

have become uite common. "o illustrate the word method 4i.e., theconstructionof sigils employing the letters and words of asentence of desire5, Figure - of the preceding chapter givessomee#amples. "he whole procedure occurs asfollows:-. "he sentence of desire must be formulatedand writtendown in capital letters.)9): / Practical Sigil Magic

/. ?epeated letters are deleted so that everyletter

will be used but once.Ba. Several parts of the sentence are sigili@edintoseveral single sigils.O :Bb. All letters of the whole sentence arecombinedinto one general sigil .Ca. Single sigils are combined into one generalsigil .O :Cb. "he general sigil constructed in Bb issimplified%



Figure / or: Figure B9ith a little bit of e#perience, you will be able tocombine steps B and C into one single operation,

especially if you have developed your ownpersonalartistic 'sigil style.6 A. O. Spare, who practicedthistechni ue throughout all of his life, had anadvantageover the average sigil drawer because he was ahighlytalented and ac!nowledged artist who coulddevelop verybeautiful and attractive sigils. 1ut artistic talentis nocriterion for the success of sigil magic $ TH#OST I#%ORTANT %OINT IS THAT &OU CR ATTHSI'I(S FOR &OURS (F)Our glyphs may even loo! a bit 'ugly,6'primitive,6 'rough>hewn6 or 'handmade,6 andsometimes this may even be an added bonus.7ecause of their 'unrefined6 image, they will appear to ourunconscious 4which will have to struggle withthem5much more 'magical6 or maybe 0ust 'lessordinary.6 2nother words, a so>called 'ugly6 sigil differs a lotfrom our



standardi+ed and smoothed>up everydayenvironment of glossy machines and industrial pseudo>

aesthetics. Sincewe are wor!ing with Magis , or the originalmagicalpower which belongs, according to currenttheories, to a8urther 6xploration of the ord Method / )=

praeter>conscious, i,e., 'primitive6 stage ofbeing,

everything which reminds us of the times ofamateurishhandicraft will awa!en primordial impulses in ourreptilian brain. "his will virtually automaticallyliberatethe magical power in this section of the brain orawa!en itin the first place.Of course, all this depends largely on themag ourelings 4i.e., your intuition5 rather than in ruleswhichother magicians have set up according to theirownsub0ec

but more fre uently it will provo!e total failure,My ownicianNs personal paradigm. So place your trust inyfetive biases, disaffections and tempers. 2f you



preferputting a lot of effort into a sigil, wishing tocreate a 'real

piece of artwor!,6 you are, of course, perfectlyfree to doso. 2t is recommended, however, for reasons tobediscussed at greater length later, that youshould notspend too much time consciously creating asigil. "his isbecause, among other arguments, it will bemuch moredifficult to forget the sigilNs outline and contentsor topush it out of the consciousness, which is soessential forits proper wor!ing.

7efore we start our discussion of the techni uesforactivating sigils, 2 would li!e to give you a fewmorepractical tips.

"he first recommendation involves the methodof constructing a sentence of desire . Sigil magic isprimarilysuccess magic. 2t aims at achieving verytangible andverifiable results. Accordingly, sentences of willshould



be concrete and specific. Ambiguity will confusetheunconscious and may lead to only partial

Success at best,*> / Practical Sigil Magic

ll is advantageous since the in0unctiongiven7E OME 2HH,6 but say '"(2S M& 92S( "OEMA21(EAH"(&.6ans and amulets is commonly defined in

that te#perience has shown, as mentioned in chapter-, that itis advisable to begin each sentence of desirewith thesame formula= in our e#ample it was '"(2S M&92S(...6 One might also simply say '2 92S(;6 or'2"2S M& 92HH;6 or something similar. Specificallymentioning the wito the unconscious is clearer and easier tounderstand. Feeble phrasings such as '2 9O H3H2JE

"O;,6 '2 9O H3 92S( "O;6 or '2 S(O H39A1" "O;6 lac! conviction and should be

avoided. 2nthe end, you will always have to learn from yourowne#periences and find your own optimal formula.9e !now from various other systems of manipulation of consciousness that negative



formulas areusually not properly comprehended by theunconscious.

9hile the unconscious is capable ofunderstanding themetaphorical language 4and sigils constructedwith theword method are really nothing else5 ine#pressions li!e'eradicate,6 'remove6 or 'avoid,6 it does seemto ignorewords li!e 'not,6 'none,6 'never,6 etc., for mostpeople.

"herefore, do not say '"(2S M& 92S( 1O" "O2nterestingly enough, this does not apply to allareas of practical magic. For e#ample, thedifferencebetween talism

alismans arefor

something while amulets areagainst something. "hus, a talisman may beconstructedfor health = however, an amulet would beconstructedagainst illness . 7ut even with amulets one willusuallyrestrain from using negative formulations 4e.g.,'P O"E " ME F OM AHH 2HH1ESS,6 or somethingsimilar5.8urther 6xploration of the ord Method / *)

hy and overly specific formulations.Hater on, when we loo! at the theories whichpurport to e#plain how sigil magic wor!s, we will



reali+ethat this mechanism has less to do with negativewording

than with the general problem of how to getaround the'psychic censor.6 "he e#periences of somemagicianswho have achieved success with negativeformulas haveconfirmed this point of view. 7ut this is ane#ception tothe rule, and you should try to avoid any ris!,especiallywhen starting with your practical wor!.

"he uestion as to whether one shouldformulateprecisely or a bit 'ha+ily6 is arguable. 2n mye#perience,

it is not sensible to dictate overly detaileddirectives tothe unconscious. Sentences li!e '"(2S M& 92S(

"OMEE" F A1R 7A 3O1 O1 "(E -I"( OFO "O7E A" B:B/ P.M. 21 S(A J&NS 7A 6 not onlyma!e great demands on your own Magis 4or, as2ndianshamans would label it, on your 'control of thenagual65but also presuppose a rather generous, goodwilledunconscious. One should never put too great a



strain onthe universe. 7ut this is a general problem inpractical

magic, and the sigil magician is not the only Onecompelled to tac!le it, as it also applies to theceremonialmagician, the sorcerer and the theurgist.E#perience shows that it is uite feasible toincludethe time factor in the sentence of desire. Fore#ample,'"(2S M& 92S( "O 7E OME (EAH"(& A*A21#S M-B ,6 etc. 7ut an overloaded psychic

timeschedule in manager fashion would definitely betoomuch for our magical faculty. 2n the chapter '7ut(ow

3oes 2t 9or! 6 we will ta!e a closer loo! at timefactorsand control of success.

"hus, you should try for a proper balancebetweenwishy>was** / Practical Sigil Magic

A sen

up with a writandtence of desire of the '"(2S M& 92S( "O 7EA"(E 9EHH6 format is somewhat too vague,foreven if the sigil did produce the desired success,



bit, as long as you are emotionally satisfied withthe result of your drawing.

Het us loo! at a new e#ample. "he sentence of desire '"(2S 2S M& 92S( "O EA 1 F2 E( 13 E3 PO 13S "OMO O96 leaves us withthefollowing letters:

", (, 2, S, M, &, 9, O, E, A, , 1, F, , 3, P "his long list of letters can form the general sigil:8igure ;

ince this is far too complicated, we will want tosimpliSfy it:8igure <8urther 6xploration of the ord Method / *9

e certainly wonNt find it difficult tod at the same time for a as well asr a 3.

&ou will note that we have left out uite a lot,butwe have also added some embroideries orsupplementse.g., the vertical line drawn through the middleof the

whole sigil and the hori+ontal line cutting thewholecircle in half. 9hat is important$at least in thebeginning$is that we are theoretically able torediscoverall our basic letters in the sigil 4 even in its



styli@edversion 5 1ow wrecogni+e the letters ", (, 2, &, 9, O, E, , , 3,

and P,especially if we !eep in mind that the same linesmay beinterpreted in several different fashions. "he arc,fore#ample, may stanfo8igure = 8igure )>*: / Practical Sigil Magic7ut what has happened to the letters S, andM Andwhere is the A 2f we want to !eep the basicform of thissigil as it is, we will have to 'cheat6 a bit:8igure ))8urther 6xploration of the ord Method / *;

1ow, it may be argued that nearly any lettercouldbe rediscovered in nearly any glyph with thismethod, if you only had enough chee! and a vividimagination. "osome e#tent, this is certainly true, but the mainpoint isthat you are constructing the sigils so that allotherpossibilities become irrelevant.TH! *@OC!SS O SI>I CO3ST@ CTIO3 ITS! IS#O@! I#*O@TA3T THA3 ITS >@A*HIC @!S TD



Of course, we do need the finished sigil, i.e., thegraphic end result, for otherwise we could notcharge or

activate it. 7ut it would be of no use to you at allif youhad not constructed it alone, without anyoutside help.49e will discuss some e#ceptions to this rule inourchapter on the pictorial method5 "he above>mentionedmnemonic is little more than a rephrasing of ane#hortation which you will hear fre uently fromRenmasters$'"he way is the goal;.6Perhaps we should now deal with how todecoratea sigil. 9e have already seen that it is important

that thesigil stri!es us as being 'magical,6 'out of theordinary6

"his will mean different things to differentPeoples Myown style of sigil construction, which 2 havedeveloped inthe course of more than -/ years of practice,prefershori+ontal glyphs with s uiggles and trianglesfordecorations So 2 would the sigil from the laste#ample in this fashion :



Admittedly, M and S might loo! a bit better, but,after all, we merely want to illustrate how toproceed with

abstractions.decorate4Figure -/5*< / Practical Sigil Magic8igure )*

"hese embroideries do not have a meaning inthemselves 40ust as a sigil no longer has anyconsciously

'recogni+able6 meaning5= they serve the solepurpose of creating the right atmosphere or giving the sigila'magic6 touch 4or, for the more romanticallyminded, atouch of 'mystery65. "his can enhance its effectsubstantially, and 2 strongly advise you toe#periment.Chapter %The #agi al Tran e +

A ti,ating the Sigils(aving finished the sigil with much effort, go to

bed with it. Masturbate and, during se#ualclima#,concentrate on the graphic sigil. 2f you have awelltrainedimagination, you might as well visuali+e the sigil,but beginners are advised to stare at the glyph



withwidely opened eyes. 2t is crucial that you placethe sigil in

front of your eyes during orgasm ./O 3OT THI3E O ?O @ S!3T!3C! O /!SI@!O@ TH! CO3T!3TS O ?O @ SI>I AT THIS#O#!3TD*=

"he following can be applied e ually to the wordand the pictorial method. 9ithin limits, thevarious

techni ues are pertinent to the mantrical spellmethod aswell, but this mode shall be e#plained separatelyin moredetail in a later chapter.Re ommendation for a lightning- harging4for people who are always in a hurry50> / Practical Sigil Magic

2deally, you should have forgotten the originalurpose for which the sigil was created. 4"oachieve this,ou can put the sigil aside for a couple of days orwee!sn and then ta!e it out in a uiet minute tothis, of course, could hardly be termed alightning ritual.65sh the sigil . "hehter. 2t does notyou can thin! of 2mmediately afteranishing by laughter, think of something



completely ifferent . "he easiest way of achieving this is byswitch

e#ual ethicsble fact that sigilsre best internali+ed in the easiest, speediest andleastprobles6 of all sorts, it wasommon to spea! of 'sacrificing the orgasmic luston theat all costs avoid the e#plosive orgasm 4i.e.,e0aculation5 during sacred ual intercoursebecause,pyafter constructioactivate it. 7ut

'Afterwards, you will have to banibest method of banishing is roaring laugmatter if this may seem a bit artificial= if a good 0o!e now, even better.bding on the " , dialling the tal!ing cloc!, listeningto the latest lottery results, 0umping up anddown on oneleg for half an hour, etc.One may argue endlessly about sand%or se#ual fears, but it is an undenia



amatical way during se#ual clima#. 9e will get to!now various other methods, too, but

e#perience hasshown that orgasm provides the most effectiveof magicaltrances. 3ebauchees with glittering eyes may,however,be warned that this branch of se#ual magic haslittle ornothing to do with se#ual 'fun.6 2n the past,when it wasstill trendy to wor! with 'sacrificecaltar of "ranscendence,6 etc Obviously, this hasa lot todo with "antric and "aoist ideas, which state thatthe

male shouldse#he Magical rance / Activating the Sigils / 0)

accordm after se#ual intercourse 4inheterothe first chapter it was mentioned that sigilsshould be internali+ed spasmodically . "his can

be done inseveral ways. Our goal is always the same: toform analtereding to these doctrines, loss of semen means lossof



power 4and, by e#trapolation, longevity5. "hisapproachwhich has for various reasons never become

particularlypopular in the 9est, led even one of the ma0ormasters of se#ual magic, Aleister rowley, to concentrateondrin!ing his sperse#ual intercourse, the mi#ed male and femalesecretions$ rowleyNs infamous 'eli#ir65. "hisdigression aside, we may note that lecherousse# maniacswonNt have too much when dealing with thisbranch of se#ual magic, as these operations can be ratherstrenuousand not too pleasurable.

2nstate of consciousness in which the censor hasbecome 'soft6 and in which s%he will no longer orcannotprevent direct communication between theconscious andthe unconscious. Hi!e the magical or gnostictrance ingeneral, consciousness is not entirely switchedoff, whichmeans that you arenNt aiming for a hypnotic fulltrance.Such 'threshold states6 / may be achieved either



bywithholding sleep, by overe#ertion, bye#haustion, or by

activating intense emotions li!e anger, fear,pleasure,ecstasy, etc. B (ere again we can see why these#>magicalcharging of a sigil 4which, of course, can also beperformed during intercourse with a partner5 isso mucheasier than all other methods. First, most peopleare uitefamiliar with willed orgasms, which can hardlybe said,for e#ample, of willed, controlled trances ofe#haustion0* / Practical Sigil Magic

One techni ue which is fre uently uoted interature, but hardly ever e#plained in detail, isSpareNsso>calor horror. Second, the effort to achieve a se#ualclima# isso much less than to achieve a trance throughfasting, foranother e#ample, which would ta!e several days

of starving oneself, or a fear trance, for which youmighthave to hang half of your body out of thewindow on theseventeenth floor of a building. 4Of course, a



high ride ona roller coaster might do the tric! as well, butcan you

really control your acrophobia enough to chargea sigil 51evertheless, you should get to !now as manydifferentcircumstances for sigil charging as possible towiden yourscope of magical techni ues considerably.liled death posture . 9hereas Pete arroll in +iber Bull 4p. B-5, following on from other writers,basicallysees it as a method of 'holding oneNs breath inanuncomfortable position until one nearly dies,6:Jenneth

*rantC

regards it as belonging to se# magic. (esees thedeath posture 4referring to Spare himself5 as atechni uewhereby the conscious mind is switched off 4thatis tosay, 'intermediately slain65 by se#ual activity,whichmeans that all conscious thoughts will cease.Anyway,the crucial point, as with most magical trances,is that youcan achieve a state of non>thin!ing or no>mind



this way,whereby the conscious mind collapses for ashort span of

time 4sometimes, as with an orgasm, only forseconds5and leaves free a direct channel to theunconscious. 2n thefollowing te#t, two non>se#ual variants of thedeathposture, which have proved themselves well inpractice,particularly for people who are new to magic andwhohave little or no training in magical trances, aredescribed.he Magical rance / Activating the Sigils / 00

longer. "hen,hortly before reaching the point of fainting, openwideour eyes and stare$while breathing in and outfreshair$a/!ATH *OST @! 9Fersion 1<

"his version may be performed both in astanding or asitting position. For your first attempts, 2

recommendsitting before a table on which you have placedthe sigil.After a deep breath, bloc! your eyes, ears,mouthand nose, using the fingers of both hands.



oncentrate onthe internal tension in your body 4do not thin! ofthe sigil

or its aim<5, and hold your breath until youcannot bear itany longer. ontinue holding your breath untilyou trulycannot bear it anymore. "hen you should stillhold yourbreath until you cannot bear it at all anysyt the sigil. 2f you do this correctly, you will findyourself in a state of almost panic>stric!en no>mind$aform of magical trance where your unconsciousis moreresponsive to and more receptive for sigils.

Afterwards,as already mentioned, you banish by laughterand byconcentrating on something completelydifferent, themore secular the better.One version of this techni ue has already beendescribed in chapter -. 2t is performed bystanding infront of a mirror on which you have drawn yoursigil withwater>soluble colors. (ere again, physical over>e#ertion



split secondis uite enough as long as it very intense. "hismay sound

a bit difficult at first but with a little practice youwill!now precisely what is right for you.1ow you may continue by twitching the musclesof your upper anus, following with your chest,hands andarms up to your scalp 4which may be a purelysub0ectivehe Magical rance / Activating the Sigils / 09

e#perienced it once you will !nowow to do it properly5. 9ith a little practice, thewholeprocedyour organism is only ashuman as you are, but with a little bit of effortyou willeaning of the word:lightnrfirst ation, it is advisableto let

feeling, but havinghure should not last longer than about half asecond.So, your entire body is rac!ed by a short spasm,and at



the clima# you open your eyes even more widely4whilestill staring at the sigil5, 'inhale the sigil6 with

your eyes,laugh loudly while closing your eyes, and thatNsit< 4"hen,once again thin! of something completelydifferent, etc.53onNt despair if you should encounter someminorproblems in the beginningmaster this techni ue in the true ming>fast. Also, you will have a method of sigilactivation in hand which wor!s even faster thanthe se#magicalone< 2 have seen wor!shop participants whomanaged to get the effect of the sigil minutesafter thei

ttempt, and this is uite common.Bote5 After charging a sigil, you should avoidmeditation and all other trance>inducingtechni ues 4e.g.,trance dance, drugs, brain machines, etc.5 for atleastthree hours. As you have firmly 'shut the lid6 ofyourunconscious by banishing and distracit rest for a while to forgo the possibility of thesigils floating into your consciousness again.0: / Practical Sigil Magic

e importancein this form of magic will be illustrated later



when weta!e a loo! at possible e#planation models forthis

magical method. After havingactivated%internali+ed asigil, you should not thin! of the glyph itself norof itscontent. Since most people have a rather badmemory forcomplicated symbols and glyphs 4painters,graphic artistsand others who are particularly visually gifted orwor!ingin this field e#cepted5, forgetting the sigil itselfwonNtpresenpleTH! AST!@ ?O O@>!T TH! SI>I =TH! #O@! ! !CTIF! TH! O*[email protected] with talismans, amulets and magical rituals ingeneral, the intent to forget a desire or magicaloperationis one of the greatest tas!s for a magician if s%hewants toe#perience success uic!ly. E#perience withmeditationand thought control will certainly pay off now.

&ou mayhave heard the story of the man who came tohis guru andas!ed him what to do to become enlightened.



'1othing,6the guru answered 'Kust go on living as you didbefore.

Oh, yes, there is one thing, though: avoidthin!ing of themon!ey.6 ery pleased, the man than!ed hisguru andreturned home. 7ut while on his way home, histhoughtsbegan circling remorselessly: '2 must not thin! ofthemon!ey, 2 must not thin! of the mon!ey...69hy forgetting a sigil is of such primt too much of a problem, unless the glyphNsdesignis too simple. 4"o forget a s uare or trianglecould proverather difficult.5

Forget the contents of the sigil and the sentenceof desire. 2f sigils or sentences of desireune#pectedly popup into consciousness, recharge and banishthem againCMost of the time itNs enough to simply distractyourattention from the 'mon!ey6 by laughter, fore#amhe Magical rance / Activating the Sigils / 0;

4wh neof twith t



right until you get so accustomed to thenote tic o

he best techni ues of e#orcism anyway5.h, as pointed out several times in +iber Bull , is &ou should definitely !eep a diary for your sigilwor!, if only to chec! on your successes at alater date,but you should also conceal the sigils, sentencesof desireand other details 4e.g., by placing a sheet ofpaper overthe relevant sections5 so that they wonNt comebac! intoyour memory accidentally when you open yourdiary orleaf through it. As with the formulation of thesentence of

desire, you will have to find a compromisebetweenpermanent memory and complete loss of anydocumentation.As to awaiting the success of the operation,donCt do it' "his is also the best way of ma!ing surethat youwill forget about it. 2f this is too e#treme for youand if you have problems with forgetting, try tocounter thishat state of consciousness which Spare termed



the'1either%1either.6 ay Sherwin tags it'1onattachment%1on>disinterest,6 or, more

precisely,'positive 1on>desire.6 8 "his again is more auestion of practice and self>discipline than of techni ue.

"here is yet one other techni ue for forgetting asigil, namely getting used to it until you nolongerperceive it consciously. &ou may be familiar withthisprinciple from personal e#perience. &ou decideto dosomething special every day and, therefore, youhang anote in a prominent place as a reminder. For afew days

this will wor! allhat it does not serve as a reminder, so youfinallyend up where you began. &ou 0ust donNt see thenote andits message anymore. "his may even become anunconscious act of sigil magic achieving thedesiredsuccess. More li!ely, however, the wholeprocedure was0< / Practical Sigil Magic

ing this verypatternto draw your final sigil on before it is



charge it se#magically, you may put some se#ual secretionliva5 on it for support after activation. After

banishing, you can roll up the paper orparchment andwrap some yarn or sil! thread around it.3epending uponwhich school of 'isolation techni ues6 youbelong to, youmay either seal this roll with pure beeswa# orsew it intoa piece of sil!, linen or leather, etc. 2f you wantto wearthe amulet or talisman, it is advisable to ma!e itinto anec!lace or tie it to a thong. (aving served itspurpose,the magical tool has to be burned, buried or

thrown inwater. 7efore doing so, you can discharge itunderrunning water with a suitable suggestion.he Magical rance / Activating the Sigils / 0=

rmed withoutuch complicated and time>consumingconsiderations, as

imes. "his will !eep youon the ball, ready for action and versatile.is usually those'magito do withouthis%her talisman, for e#ample, after having been



shoutthe loudest that a 'correctly protected6 magicalweapon

never would get into the wrong hands in the firstplace.nfortunately, this is not necessarily the case.Every beginner in ceremonial magic learns thathis%her rituals will attract astral entities 0ust aslight willattract moths. 9ith magical weapons, talismans,amuletsand other appropriate tools, the case is uitesimilar:some people are fascinated by them beyondsensiblecontrol. 2t is of little use to warn people never totouch themagically charged tools of a sorcerer without

his%herpermission, for proscriptions will usually ma!ethe wholething seem a lot more attractive. 2t is of farlesserimportance that a magician may have7> / Practical Sigil Magic

it. "he

elop a definite,indepewhole situation can be compared with thepositionof an Army Luartermaster: he is responsible forthe



safe!eeping of his arms and ammunition, not somuchbecause any loss of gear would wea!en his

arsenal4which, of course, is another aspect not to beignored5,but mainly to ensure the safety of others whomay not beaware of the danger of such tools$and whomight haveto pay dearly with their lives or physical orpsychic healthfor their ignorance or innocence. 2t is no secreteither thatsome magical instruments do tend to devndent life of their own, and the history of magicisfull of e#amples to prove the point.

9hen using non>physical sigils, you donNt havetoma!e tiresome last provisions concerning whatshould bedone about them after your death so that theywill beproperly deactivated or handed over to theproper magicalheir, etc. 9hile sigils might show up again inyourconsciousness sometimes, this is uite harmless2 havenever observed sigils developing a totally



independente#istence, going off on their own, etc., li!eamulets,

magical daggers, and the li!e are sometimeswont to do.1ow, what about controlling your own success7asically, the same rules are applicable here asin morehe Magical rance / Activating the Sigils / 7)

moment you reali+eyour s

sman Spare could bring forth a cloudburst withininutes with the aid of sigils. (e also succeeded,usingis method, in evo!ing demons at a flinch.1evertheless,would be presumptuous to ascribe this to sigilmagicnd its techni ues alone. ertainly, themagicianNsersonal talent, the power of his%her own Magis,the inneronsistency of his%her magical universe, theualities of agical time 4which shamans label 'moments ofpower65

nd some degree of probability may play animportantart in instant magical phenomena, which shouldnot beundereconventional magic. Sigil magic is certainly not



use of sigils in chapter .For didactic reasons 2 chose to start off with theword method of sigili+ation to escort you to

practicalwor! immediately, without initially giving anyconsideration to other methods of sigilconstruction. 2ndoing so, we avoided overburdening you withtechnicalities at too early a stage, parts of whichyouwould only understand through practice anyway.Anotherreason is that most readers will probably want tostart off with the word method becauseplicated one. "he other methods of sigilconstruction follow. Points which have alreadybeen

discussed and which are also applicable forthese types of sigils will not be repeated, but, of course, 2 shallclarifydistinctions in procedure.Chapter )The %i torial #ethod arly to voodoo doll magic, youmight draw a figure with his initials 4see Figure-B5.

"hen you may stic! an 'astral acupunctureneedle6 into



his stomach area through which sealing energyis fed intothe affected part of the body 4Figure -C5:70

As opposed to the word method and themantricalspell method, the pictorial method of sigilconstructiondemands neither language nor specificallyformulatedsentences of desire. 2ts advantage lies in the fact

that youare able to use the image language of theunconsciousdirectly, provided that you are able to transcribepreciselyyour sentence of desire into such imageswithout utili+ingwords .2magine that you want to heal a friend. Het usassume his name is (an! Miller and that he issufferingfrom stomach pains. Simil77 / Practical Sigil Magic8igure )08igure )7he Pictorial Method / 79

"his sigil must now be simplified and styli+ed aswith the word method. See Figures - and -8.8igure )97: / Practical Sigil Magic8igure ):he Pictorial Method / 7;



suchbasic symbols. "hus, we must choose from therich

treasury of our history of occult symbols. Het usassumethat the spirit: a5 should be hard wor!ing= b5should havestructural awareness and the ability tomateriali+e itself=and c5 it must furnish you with financialadvantages. 9ewant to utili+e the symbols of Earth and Saturn.SeeFigure - .9e may also want to create a spirit from theSphere of enus for erotic purposes. "o this end,wemight use the symbols in Figure -D.

a7< / Practical Sigil Magiche Pictorial Method / 7=8igure )<8igure )=9> / Practical Sigil Magic

ombined, these symbols may form one of thesigils in Figure /G.8igure *>

"he following sy be used to form a sigilfor achieving mystical insight into infinity:mbols mayhe Pictorial Method / 9)

See Figure /- for completed sigils:9* / Practical Sigil Magic



ebrew letters, tattwaymbols, or any geometrical symbols you prefer.4"here

are very few glyphs which have not beenattributed withsome meaning.5 7ut as pointed out before, youshould not

0ust copy some symbols out of boo!s which haveno lifefor you or are not vivid to you. 1aturally, youmay live inthe paradigm that these 'ancient6 symbols havealreadydeveloped a life of their own, having beenvitali+ed bylegions of magicians before us, but even in thatcase youwill first have to create an inner contact to the

glyphsyourself, e.g., by employing them fre uently in apertinent magical conte#t.One could ob0ect that this techni ue contradictsthebasis of SpareNs system because it does notwor! withindividual sigils. (owever, this is only partlycorrect. "heindividual elements ma!ing up such a sigil mayconsist of established symbols, but the end result isdefinitely



individual because of the selection of the basicsymbolsand the simplification%styli+ation and decoration,

which ise#ecuted here again. "he sigils from our laste#amplescould be enlarged in the manner of Figure //.Het us not forget that alienation is a significantelement of sigil construction.1ow that we have covered the importantaspects of the pictorial method, let us ta!e a loo! at themantricalspell method.Of course, you may also use (she Pictorial Method / 90

Chapter $

The #antri al Spell#ethod

"he mantrical spell method basically employsacoustic sigils. "he principle of constructingmantricalsigils is uite simple: the sentence of desire is

transformed into a mantra devoid of any obvioussense ormeaning. "his may be done most easily bywriting downthe sentence of desire in a uasi>phoneticmanner, i.e.,



words as spo!en. "his may demand someingenuity, butany magician needs this, and, here again,

practice alonema!es for refinement. Het us ta!e an e#amplefrom +iber Bull 4p. /-5:a5 Sentence of desire:2 9A1" "O MEE" A S 7 S 21 3 EAM

"his sentence, in a uasi>phonetic 4acoustic5spelling,becomes:b5 2 9A( 1A ME3A S J 7 S21 3 EEM99

/ Practical Sigil Magic

5 1ow, all double or multiple letters areeliminated5 asith the word method:9:

cw2 9A( 1A ME3A S J 7 S21 3 EEMd5 "his leaves us with:@29A( 1NME 3NS J enatedven more, and you are free to add some vowelsso thate end product does not become a tongue twisterbut cane easily vocali+ed:ternali+ation of #antrical Sigils4'short



which are sometimes sigili+ed, as we shall seee5 "he sentence from d5 is now rearranged, or alie

thb(A92 EM1E J SA3 4completed mantra5For the use of mantrical sigils, you will needsomelinguistic agility and an ear for rhythm. "he sigilmantrasshould sound euphonic 4meaning 'nice65 as wellas'somehow magical.6 At the same time, theyshould bealienated enough so that you wonNt be able torecogni+ethe original sentence of desire.Acti'ating&In

nli!e word or pictorial sigils, sigil mantras areusually not activated%internali+ed spasmodicallyand intense65= instead, they are repeatedrhythmically andmonotonously. An e#ception to this rule are the'wordsof power6later on.@"he letter b is missing in Peter arro ample$an obvioustypesettingmista!e which we have not corrected f e sa!e of correct uotation.

"his doesnot, however, invalidate the e#ample as a whole.llNs e#or thhe Mantrical Spell Method / 9;



ons longe psychic sensor is softened upt free. 1aturally,

mantras play a Mantra>&oga, "antra 4of (indu and 7uddhist origin5, 7uddhismg 4for e#ample, 'OM MA12 PEMEM,O " "heyl sigils, it is not strictlyutrightitioning,ogma, etc.5 incapable of wor!ing with any butonesigil by repeating it over and over again, forhours on end, if possible. "he monotony of thisprocedurees occur even after2n Eastern cultures mantras are also employed

toinduce magical trances and mystical states of consciousness etc., because they tend totran uili+e thec cious mind when monotonously repeated overaperiod of time. "hus, thand direct access to the unconscious is severy important part in42ncluding Ren<5, and many other Easternphilosophies.

"hese mantras may be more or less free ofrecogni+able



sense 4for e#ample, '( AM ( 2M ( M65, ortheymay carry a meanin

( 6 which, as you may !now, appro#imates'(A2H " (EE KE9EH 21 "(E HO" S 7HOSSOM65.may e#press a certain form of worship andheightening of awareness. 2slam 4especially Sufism5 !nows itsmantras,as does atholicism, which uses them, fore#ample, in itsrosary litanies, and shamans all over the worldare !nownto wor! with different forms of mantras.9hile a sound !nowledge of mantra theory canbeof help when using mantrica

necessary. Sometimes it may even prove to bean oobstacle if you are for some reason 4e.g., conddspecial, established system.Our sentence of desire has been tuned into amantra bymanipulating its sound elements, and we cannotrecogni+e its meaning anymore 4as is also thecase withword and pictorial sigils5 &ou can now activatethisacoustic



will guide you into a !ind of 'mantra>stupor64this willfollow naturally and may sometim9< / Practical Sigil Magic

only as:few minutesN chanting5= thus, your directive fortheunconscious, which is now concealed in theacousticsigil, can pass the censor to thrive in the depths

of thepsyche and go about its wor!. &ou may supportthisprocedure by a trance of e#haustion, achieved,fore#ample, by fasting, pro longed lac! of sleep ore#tremephysical e#ertion- &ou might even useautohypnosis byplaying the mantra on a tape recorder duringyour sleep4best use endless cassettes5, but e#perience hasshownthat this is not really re uisite e#cept as anau#iliary

measure.After charging the mantra, banish by laughterandimmediately distract the conscious mind asdescribed inchapter B.



"ords of *o,er2nstead of fashioning lengthy sigil mantras, asingle

'9ord of Power6 may be formed using the sameconstruction techni ue as described above. Hetus ta!e thee#ample of the aforementioned succubusevocation. "hefinished mantra in the end wa(A92 EM1E J SA39e might ta!e the first syllable from each wordand construct a new word:(A EM J Q (AEMJhe Mantrical Spell Method / 9=&Internali+ing "ords of *o,erhen charging, you may proceed as you wouldwith longer sigil mantras by chanting itmonotonously fora long time.proceed spasmodically with the wordr pictorial method, using the techni uesdescribed inchaptese thisrives away all disturbing thoughts and eveninterrupts

the entire ability to thin! for the duration of the#clamation. (ere again, donNt forget to banishtheoperatamous 'death cry6 of theustralian aborigi-es is based on a very similar



principle. "he only disadvantage of the mantrical spellmethod is that it is not particularly silent.

"herefore,9e could also ta!e the last syllable of eachword:92 1E SA3 Q 921E SA3Other possible combinations in this e#ample are:921E J , MA1E SA3, J 1E 92, SA3EM(A, etc.

&ou will reali+e that the possibilities offered bythis techni ue are practically unlimited.Acti'ating9Or, you mayor B. 2nstead of an optical internali+ation, youperform an acoustic one: at the pea! of thetension4regardless of whether you use se#>magicaltechni ues orthe various versions of the death Posture5 youshout aloudthe word of power$the louder the better, becaudeion by laughter and then distract your attention.

"he techni ue of the inf A:> / Practical Sigil Magic

usually you will have to be alone when using it,unlessyou are luc!y enough to live with people who are



cuite complicated. "hese hints, however, shouldenable you to e#periment with uite a nu

mthleast in a very similar, manner. AlbeithHatin or (ebrew, and even though most of theother spells have almost certainly beenconstructed viacabbalistic gation6 of sorts, there are a number of formulasandbarbarous names of evocation which cannot bee#plainedas such etymologically. (owever, this has toremain purespeculation for the time being.

2t will largely depend on your own temperamentand on your predilections whether you use theword,pictorial or mantrical spell method. 9hereas 2myself favor the word method and, occasionally, thepictorialmethod, 2 must admit that the mantrical spellmethod hasborne the most ama+ing and speediest results.Perhapsprecisely so because 2 personally do not li!e itvery



much< "hus, it is certainly advisable toe#periment withhe Mantrical Spell Method / :)

.All three methods. "he sigils energy uality orthe waythe sigil 'feels6 is completely different frommethod tomethod. After a short time, you will !now e#actlywhichmethod is most promising for any given

operation. 7einga true magician, you will not tolerate one>sidednessbecause you !now that in the course of yourmagicalcareer you will be challenged too often and willbeconfronted with the most varied of problems. 2tis alwaysbeneficial to !eep oneNs arsenal of possibilitiesandweapons in good shape as well as to stay inpractice with'remote6 techni ues

"he ultimate sigil is surely silence itself, but of

thisnothing can be said. For 'the "ao that can bedescribed isnot the 3ivine "ao.6Chapter -



the moree#perienced sigil magician.7asically, 2 shall describe two main forms of

approachand ways of dealing with the alphabet in thischapter: -5the Alphabet of 3esire as a principle of structureembedded in a framewor!= and /5 the Alphabetof 3esirehe Alphabet of esire / :9

>!nown

laconi3esire arroll divides hisF S" A"2O1. Additionally, there are fourcategoriesas a mirror of the psyche created by chains of associations. Although some overlappings mayoccuroccasionally, one should not be misled to forgetthat theseare truly two entirely different approaches.The Alpha et of /esire as a StructuringprinciplePete arroll has presented us, in his wellc and precise manner, with this model in +iberBull

4pp. I8> I5. nfolding his system, he does notbase it$as did Spare$on purely se#ual functions. Strictlyspea!ing, his system is more of an 'Alphabet of Emotions.6 "hese emotions he arranges as'complementary dualisms6: F 2*("%A"" A "2O1



le:33ES" "2O1 noncategory%emotion5 Q

SET 4generic term5 QH S" noncategory%emotion5 QFor further details, please refer to +iber Bullitself.

"he above notes should illustrate the structureof human emotions. Any number of other systemsof ordermay be used and developed. For e#ample, thefourelements Earth, 9ater, Fire and Air may beemployed asma0or categories, as well as the ten sephiroth,the //paths of the cabbalistic "ree of Hife 4an approach

may befound in +iber Bull , pp. II and 85, the - /energyualities of the +odiac, "imothy HearyNs an

:< / Practical Sigil Magic

s own, trulyorigino the basic structures of the human psyche, i.e.,

rchetypal patterns which should alwaysimplement inagic anyway. 2n other words, it does not reallymatterdepends upon the structures of erception as influenced by the construct e brain



r hormones. 9hat is important is the fact thatwe canhuman beings

nd thus in every psyches 4E#perts onecclesiasticalistory will be pleased to remember in thisconte#t theood old nom holasticism= butour unresolved !arma will alwaysaunt us$even as a collective entity$to theumpteentheneration...5!ing and perception,dependent of their cultural or civili+ationalbac!ground,f political, historical, economical or socialfactors, etc.and

philosattempting for thousands of years to understanditself, itsenvironment and life in general in structuralterms 4'*odcreated the world according to measure andnumber65, itprobably wonNt be all that easy to find oneNal scheme of order which is entirely differentfromall former systems. At the same time, this givesus aninsight int



a wemwhether or not the pattern

p ion of thofind some of these patterns of order in allahg inalism s uabblings of scthen, it is a truism thathgHet us ta!e dualism, for e#ample. Most peoplearefamiliar with polari+ed thininoEven the ontological monism of many religions

ophical systems is a convention of revolt againstthis polar%dual view, thus defining itself bydenying it. 2tis of no conse uence at all that most systems4includingthe purely magical ones, not to mention those of mysticism5 loo! for a synthesis and dissolutionof thepolarities. "his uest for the *rail is essentially aproof for the e#istence of dualism, at least whenviewed as anontological problem.he Alphabet of esire / :=



1ow we understand that the Alphabet of 3esirehasdeveloped into a significant instrument of the

dawning of consciousness merely by having been created. 2fyouwant to construct your own alphabet followingthestructuring method described above, you willhave tofigure out those elements which you want toinclude andwhich can personify the energies of your own

psyche . Kust listing them is not good enough, however. &ou willhave to find a proper framewor! for them.Het us start with a modest e#ample. For reasons

of simplicity, we will e#periment with the fourelementsEA "(, 9A"E , F2 E and A2 . "his is a systemwithwhich most magicians will be at least somewhatfamiliar.As a further framewor! we will choose 3 AH2SMforthe reasons mentioned. Hoo!ing for emotionalandcharacter ualities which form dualities, weassign them



to the elements as follows 4this, of course, is butone of many possible e#amples5:;> / Practical Sigil Magic

1ow 2 will discuss a sigil language, a canon of symbols, the particular use of which we willcome tolater. One possibility is to develop the chosensigil,perhaps by applying the word method 4wherebythe

chosen word itself serves as raw material5 andcombiningit with the glyph of the ma0or category. "he four#amples of Figure /B clarify this process. &ou willobserve that we are ta!ing the basic symbol andcombining it with the letters of the term.Of course, these relationships are open toargument. For e#ample, one could assign pain totheelement of F2 E, which would imply a strong,nearlyspastic feeling= pain within the element ofEA "( wouldtend to be dull and lethargic, etc. One may alsowor! with

sub>elements such as EA "( OF 9A"E , A2 OF9A"E , F2 E OF 9A"E , etc. se your ownintuition.

&ou may also utili+e the pictorial method. HO E,for e#ample, might be or 4symbols of 'union65,e



he Alphabet of esire / ;)8igure *0;* / Practical Sigil Magic

but these symbols might e ually stand for SET

for thesame reasons. "his leads us a bit further into thearea of philosophical and psychological cognition andevaluation. 2f, for e#ample, you consider HO E asan allembracingprinciple 4which need not necessarily beendorsed by everybody<5 , you could perhapschoosethis sigil: . (A"E could then$for you$be itsnegation4for e#ample: 5 Or its dissolution: .For you, KO& might be the bundling of energiesintoecstacy: , or else it could be the blowing up or

overcoming of fetters: or . &ou will note that the construction of your ownAlphabetof 3esire demands not only a lot of thin!ing andintuitionbut great effort and hard wor! as well.Het us now discuss the advantages and thepossibleapplications of this sigil language before wetac!le thesecond construction method of such analphabet.First of all, dealing with the Alphabet of 3esire



trains symbolic thin!ing and perception. "his isof specialimportance for ceremonial magic, but it also

enhancesany wor! with omens and symbolism in general.As iswell !nown, the ceremonial magician operateswith agreat variety of symbols, glyphs and images4pentagram,he#agram, elemental weapons, figures ofarchangels,etc.5, even if s%he may generally prefer sigils li!ethe oneshe Alphabet of esire / ;0

7ut the real value of the Alphabet of 3esire liesinarecan be e#plained only to a point inveryday language, which is why 2 must beg youtoore than antative ap h towards something essentially

"o start with, we should !eep in mind thats thenconsci s, vide the effects of positive thin!ing,

antra usage. Ourantric sigils wor! he same principle. 7y theeloped the sigilfor thedesire.

"his m



then combined with other parts of his sentencesof ay suffice as an e#ample of reusable sigils. Since

we cannot deal with the whole of SpareNsmagicalphilosophy here, 2 donNt want to go further intohisnumerous abstract sigils, which can only beunderstood inconnection with his rather comple# system 4e.g.,sigils forthe 'empirical Ego6 or the 'possessive 7eing65.(owever, it must be mentioned that there is farmore to asymbolic language than a purely mechanicalcollation of ;7 / Practical Sigil Magic

of siginouns mounted in images. &ou will also needverbs li!e'doing,6 'healing,6 'destroying,6 etc., andcon0unctionsli!e 'and,6 'therefore,6 'but,6 etc., will provethemselvesvery useful in practical wor!. As to these latterglyphs,

Spare employed sigils 4or, rather, moreaccurately, partsls5 such as 4for plural forms5, etc.Het us assume that you want to perform a sigilfollowing sentence of desire:

"(2S M& 92S( FO 7. "O O7"A21 (EAH"( A13



beapplied li!e all the other types of sigils discussedhere, a

which pleases many a magician 4dependent onmperament5. 2ts possibilities are not e#haustedin thelightest by this. 2n general, it can be said thatthelphabet of 3esire should not so much serveconcretee its structure inimages. Since the Alphabet of ost li!elyconsist of philosophical terms li!e 'truth,6'cognition,6'!arma,6 etc., with which th iliarbecause of their abstract uality, a repeated ormultipleusage of the sigils of the alphabet will, as

e#perience hasshown, assure success more surely than whenused withthe more uncomplicated sigils discussed before.Spare himself has made a point in his 7oo! of Pleasure 4p. G, comment B5 ethods of constructing sigilspsyche. nfort s anyfurther. 2n practice, you will see that this iscertainly thecase in that different methods of constructingandcharging sigils have a dissimilar feel to them,



whichmeans that they have different energy ualities.2n my

"his would be the finished sigil or, moreaccurately, the sigil sentence.Activation%internali+ingfollows the usual method. "heoretically, theseveralof the sigil may be merged and simthis effort would hardlyd

preferably most simple end sigil finds itslimitationpointtesA

success magic but enhance e#perience 4andcreation5 of oneself, of the internal univers and of 3esire will me unconscious is less famthat different mwill activate different levels of theunately, he failed to enlarge on thihe Alphabet of esire / ;;opiniowe willemplomagical means. &our sentence of desire could beformulated li!e this: '"(2S M& 92S( "O PASS



n it is as yet too early to develop hierarchicalstructure and graded models for the theory ofsigils at this

stage of e#ploration as long as there is notenoughempirical material available covering, as itshould, thee#periences of a large variety of sigil magicians.Mostli!ely, as with the structuring principlese#plained in thischapter, a far more personal, individual schemawill becalled for in this area. 7ut only time will tell.Het us now ta!e a loo! at the associationtechni uefor constructing the Alphabet of 3esire and itsfunction as

a minor of the psyche.The Alpha et of /esire as a #inor of the*syche

"he techni ue of association is basically ami#tureof automatic writing , pictorial method andmeditation/intuition From the very beginning wecan dowithout a scheme of order li!e the one we haveseen inthe last section. 2nstead, we will proceedaccording tosituation, meaning that we will develop our sigil



alphabetas we go along, combining the process with abare

minimum of conscious construction. Of course,y some rationale in places, but generally we willproceed 'chaotically6 4one could even say'organically65rather than utili+ing ratiocination, let alonedeliberation.Het us loo! at two e#amples.1st !xample

&ou want to succeed on an academice#amination by;< / Practical Sigil Magic

nd one for'9EHs be !ept as simple as possibleanyway so as to enhance its symbolism and benearer toits sym onale.5should use in the future for th (2S M& 92S(.6Jeephis method of ommunication. (ere again, the completion oftheesire re uires a great deal of patience and

ffort. epeat this procedure until you aresatisfied withM& ETAM21A"2O1 9EHH.6 7ecause you are fondof e#perimenting, you decide to use the Alphabetof 3esire



and develop it with the association techni ue. &ou getinto a state of active meditation where you

'implant6your uestions. 9hich uestions "here will beseveralbecause you will need a series of different sigils:one forthe segment '"(2S M& 92S(,6 another one for'ETAM21A"2O1,6 one for '"O PASS,6 aH6 42n a symbolic language li!e this, usually youmay abandon 'M&6 with impunity. Jeep in mindthat thelanguage should alwaybol>logic rati1ow concentrate on the uestion of which sigilyoue words '"

your pen on the paper and close your eyes. 42fyouprefer, you may write the words in capital lettersat thetop of the paper5 Empty your mind, thus creatinga stateof non>thin!ing. 42f you want to proceed preciselyandcarefully, you might as well construct amantrical sigil foryour uestion and ta!e it into your state ofheightenedawareness, achieving the latter by prolonged



chanting.5After a while, the pen in your hand will startmoving,

seemingly by itself. 9hen the movement stops,returnfrom your meditation trance and open youreyes. &oumay find nothing but a scribble since yourunconscioushas yet to get ac uainted with tcAlphabet of 3ethe result. &ou donNt have to scribble on thepaper forhe Alphabet of esire / ;=

hours= a few minutes will do. &ou may also cutaroundparts of the 'scribbling6 and form a sigil as inFigure/C:8igure *7Admittedly, this sigil might not seem verysimple,but you are free to e#periment until you comeacross a

more satisfying form. 7ut do not, 2 repeat, do nottry tocontrol the process consciously<epeat this procedure with the other segmentsof the sentence. Het us assume that eventually you



effectively than the most carefully !ept Magical3iary.Once you have mar!ed several do+ens or

hundreds of sigils along with their respective meanings inyour'dictionary,6 you have also ac uired a completeoverviewof your magical wor! to date. "his might sound abittrivial, but if you ta!e a loo! at your list afterthree orfour years of practice, wor!ing it throughsystematically,you will be surprised how much insideinformation itactually contains. "his will beat many ameditation

session< &ou should also meditate fre uently upon thefollowing: do most of your sigils reallycorrespond towhat you want from life and magic 4(ave a loo!at thefre uency with which you use them by !eeping atally53o you notice any imbalance 9hich terms%aims appearleast fre uently 9hat shoul according to yourpersonalphilosophy, be emphasi+ed, at least



theoretically 9hat ismissing 9hich emotions have you avoided andwhy

"hus, you can !ill two birds ith one stone bycombiningpragmatic>empirical practice with individualethics.2n time, you will spend less and less effort onconstructing4or 'receiving65d,w<7 / Practical Sigil Magic

"he Alphabet of 3esire is at its best when itcomesto usefulness and variety of applications and notonly, asalready mentioned, in the areas of self>recognition,growing !nowledge and self>analysis but also inwor!ingwith what Spare tagged 'Atavistic nostalgia.6

"he ne#tchapter will be dedicated to this mostfascinating aspectof sigil magic.

Chapter "or0ing 1ith Ata,istiNostalgia

"he term Atavistic nostalgia is another name for



that we carry in us the entire heritage of all lifeforms andthat we literally incorporate it. "his 'carrying in

us6 has<9<: / Practical Sigil Magic

roved, for the most part, by modem genetics aswell asy anthropology, physiology and other disciplinesof uman biology, although 3arwinNs theoriesunderwentsformations and challenges within theFor e#ample, the human brain did not developseveral addedthe course of s6 brains in ourive in pail from very early stages of volution, eg-, the socal-ed 'interbrain6

4diencephalon5,r 'reptilian brain6 or brainstem. Once again, itwouldlead um aside. Luite thecontrapbhtremendous tranlast - G years.steadily and smoothly. 2nstead, it showsvariations in the form of 'accretions6 in



evolution so that in fact we unite 'various!ull- "hese dere

os away from the matter at hand to discuss theprosand cons of 3arwinNs theory or repeat all theob0ectionswhich have been raised against 3arwinism 4e.g.,by thepartisans of the rival theory of Hamarc!5. 2n ourconte#t itis merely important to note that in SpareNsparadigm our entire evolutionary history is still organically

present inus . 2n other words, it is not as if we werecompletely

finished with our former evolutionary stages, asif we hadtotally overcome them and laid thery, in fact. "he information of these earlierstagesof our deve-opment is stored in our genes up tothepresent day and, according to Spare and manyothermagicians, it may be revitali+ed and tapped.4"heparallels to arl *. KungNs concept of thecollective



unconscious$at least in one of its possibleinterpretations$should be obvious.5 "his ise#actly what

happens with atavism, which in biology denotesaretrogression of sorts into earlier stages ofevolution.

"he term nostalgia calls for some clarification.orking with Atavistic Bostalgia / <;

to old *erman ginesan of the samemeani

h a#perienceand a strong psychic stability. And let us notforget thatSpare uses the English word nostalgia 41ewHatin nostalgia 5,deriving from the *ree! notos Q 'homecoming6and algos Q 'pain6= thus, 'homesic!ness6 is oneof itsmeanings. 2t is also related to Old Englishgenesan . Q'survive6 andng= *othic ganisan Q 'being saved 4healed56alsoreveals SpareNs frame of reference when using

this term.(e does not use the word so much in the senseof 'longing for something 4the source5,6 althoughthis maybe included as well, but rather employs it to



FreudNsdemand '9hererl *. KungNs terminology, to the challenge of the

'shadow6 and thus to individuation itself. 7utyou shouldalways reali+e that you are dealing withe#tremelyha+ardous powers, and if you have the slightestdoubtwhether you are ready for this, by all means!eep awayfrom it, unless you are !een to e#perience onehellish tripafter the other.Spare did not leave us any accurate directivesonhow to deal with Atavistic nostalgia, but hismagical

pictures and steles 4to which he usually addedhandwritten e#planations and reflections5 giveus someidea about his possible mode of approach. As isto bee#pected, he achieved these changes inconsciousness byemploying sigils.

"here are several methods of Atavistic nostalgia.For e#ample, we may shift our consciousnessinto that of different animals by constructSpare is fond of the term karma in this respect,



21 A 1A"2O1S 21 2" AH. "he !ey words 'reptile incarnations6 show thatwe

oving close to another techni ue of regression$reincarnation therapy. 7ut the intention of thesigilmagician is different insofar as s%he employsatavisms tocharge sigils further or to start magicaloperations. Fore#ample, a talisman charged while one is in a'reptileconsciousness6 will wor! more powerfully than atalisman charged while in a state of normalmagicaltrances Of course, we must bear in mind that allof theseatavistic states of consciousness have their own

shortcomings and strong points. 2t would bedownrightfoolish to demand highly intellectual wor! from areptilewith its small, barely developed braiwonNt be suitable to give us a lot of !nowledgeabout life underwater, and the !arma of a fish isnotresponsible for problems of hunting in thesteppes orbuying a car 4though it may be e#cellent forbuying asubmarine<5. 9e have to learn to choose and to



employthese specialists in the optimal manner.orking with Atavistic Bostalgia / =)

animals has a long magical traditionnd mmagical mental training in his boo! #nitiationto inate attention was given ine time of the 2n uisition. Modem technology haslargelyrt has nearly disappeared in our

culture. On the other hand, we.9or!ing witha ost 'primitive6 peoples still do this. Even a'citymagician6 li!e Fran+ 7ardon recommends it onthe fourthlevel of 'in ermetics . Su00a SuNaN1o>ta also covers it in thefirstpart of her boo! Element>Magie. emember thewitchesNfamiliars to which such inordthsucceeded in subduing the animal aspects in our

lives. "hus, this magical acan, with its help, create agood counterbalance to the modem tendency ofoveremphasi+ingartificiality and technology2t will usually ta!e years and decades of practice



until you are ready to wor! with Atavisticnostalgia in apredictable and reliable way. As a species, we

had tostruggle much too hard for evolution, so ourconsciousness and our censor will not stand byunflinching y and watch as we scratch off ourcivili+ingvarnish, ris!ing the possibility of destroyingeverythingagain. One reason why true mastership in thispracticecan only be achieved after many years lies inthe fact thatduring this period a stabili+ation of the wholepsyche hasto be achieved. 2f not, our brain could neverhandle

e#periences which are dead, similar toHovecraftian talesFurthermore, if we endorse the evolutionarymodel, anew step in evolution must always beguaranteed or ourown genetic alarm mechanisms would destroythe wholesystem of our organism. Finally, in evolutionaryterms weare little more but parts of a general organismwhich=* / Practical Sigil Magic

canno



heer unlimited!nowledge to be gained from this practice.Atavism leads

us bac! to the source of all life, regard> less ofwhetherwe cat afford to allow uncontrolled regressions to alargere#tent. "herefore, we will have to 'offer6something tothis general organism 4when seen as apersonification5 forits collective development. Only then will 9e beable touse its huge power resources.3espite all the dangers which are entangled withthe use of specific or less specific animatedatavisms, a

small number of magicians will always considerthis to bethe crown of their art and one of their highestaspirations.

"oday is the product of &esterday, and if we areinclinedto ta!e the gnostic uestions '9ho am 2 ,6'9here do 2come from 6 and '9here do 2 go to 6 seriously,wecannot afford to do without the sll it the 7ig 7ang, *od, Ain, 7ythos, haos, orwhatever we li!e. 2n this respect, the magic of



the 'reanimatedatavisms6 also represents a mystical andphilosophical method, a method which chooses

the path'directly through the flesh6 instead of, as isregular9estern practice, employing the spirit only,withoutappreciating the vessel which enables itse#istence in thefirst place. "o complete the picture, it must bementionedthat sigil magic is not the only magical way.

"hus, the'path of carnal memory6 may easily becombined withpurely mental and mystical paths, if this ispreferred.

Atavistic nostalgia offers us a variety of aspectswhich have yet to be e#plored. (ere we findvirgin landwhich has been waiting for millions of years tobediscovered and charted<Finally, 2 would li!e to mention that presente# orking

with Atavistic Bostalgia / =0ar to be so to us5, but, of coursefore#perie#perience has shown that sigils created with



the pictorialmethod as well as the Alphabet of 3esire dobetter

in Atavistic nostalgia than other glyphs. "hereason forthis might be that these methods are somewhatmore'pristine6 4at least they appe, this may only correspond to sub0ectivestructures.1evertheless, 2 urgently advise e#perimentingwith theAlphabet of 3esire in this field because here itsabilitiescan be developed to the fullest and because itsenergyseems to be best adapted to this line of magic.9or!ing

with a structured alphabet provides us with theadditionaladvantage that our e#perience may gain morestabilityand, in some cases, more substantiality On theotherhand, an associatively constructed alphabetoftenprovides us with very powerful instantlysuccessful, sigilsbecause its glyphs pop up even more 'directly6from theunconscious and the hereditary memory than



secondary part inthe overall process of magic. Spare even goes sofar as to

state that each evolutionary step has been anunconscious,literally 'corporeal6 act of will "hus, for e#ample,animals only started to develop wings whentheir desireto fly had become 'organic6 "his may seem aweirdproposition, but basically it is nothing but arephrasing of the old theory that all creation is based on anact of willof the godhead or of haos, or incarnated 9ill.

"he sigilis the 'flesh6 of the magicianNs will, so itssuccesses are

'incarnations6 of the glyph itself.2f we really want to e#plain why sigils start towor!, we would have to e#plain magic as awhole,=9=: / Practical Sigil Magic

ut, unfortunately, a lot of it is at si#es andsevens. 2tNsot as if there were no e#planatory models=indeed, theyeem to come cheaper by the do+en. 7ut they arenothingodels which do not really prove anything=, they only illustrate the process. 7ac! in



e earliest days of psychology 4which is stillstruggling#isted a model

hich has its. 2 am referringthe model of the %onsciousness , the censor andthenconscious . Furthermore, there is the #d, the Selfand theuper e.

"his may have been 0ustified in SpareNs days,andbnsbut 0ust that$min the best cases

thfor ac!nowledgment as a 'science65 there eof e#planation for the human soul wshortcomings but still serves us rather welltouS ego . Some writers differentiate even moreaccurately between the unconscious and thesubconscious , etc, but the modelconsciousness/unconsciousness/censor hasbecomeestablished nearly everywhere. 7ut this, as saidbefore, is



only a model and not a scientifically ob0ectifiedfact inthe sense of physics or any other 'e#act6

science. 1eitherFreud nor Kung went so far as many modemoccultiststend to do$to confuse an e#planatory modelwith a lawof nature.ertainly, Spare may be accused of having stuc!too closely to what was in those days 4-DGD>-D-B, whenthe 1ook of Pleasure was written5 FreudNs brand>newpsychoanalytic model. 2f we read SpareNsattempts at ane#planation, we get the 2mpression of a nearfanatic

hostility against the consciousness. 2n hisopinion, onlythe nconscious possesses magical abilities andpowers.

"his is the reason why he stresses so stronglythenecessity of forgetting sigils. "he consciousnessisconsidered a continuously lur!ing enemy whichhas to beparried all the tim1ut ow oes #t orkE / =;

maybe it still is. Many a sigil magician has cometo the



1ow, a and b 0oin to construct the sigil, whichthenhas to be implanted in d . 2f d refuses to accept

the sigil, itis probably because it does not understand it. "he reasonmay be that it is either too complicated or that aand b usesymbols, pictographs and ideograms which arenotcompatible with those of d . Sherwin points outthat,according to Aleister rowley, only a magicianwho iscapable of direct communication with the (*Awillachieve a direct connection to the unconscious.

"he

altered state of awareness,c

, mar!s the point of intersection between a , b and d . 2t may switchoff thecensor completely and thereby provide directcontactbetween these areas of the psyche.=< / Practical Sigil MagicSherwinCs Model

a Q Ego, 9ill, 7elief b Q Awareness, Perceptiononsciousness: 2ndividuality, Awa!eness(*A Q "he (oly *uardian Angel Q ensorshipMechanismeactive Mechanisms



c Q Altered onsciousness, 'liminal state ofconsciousness6d Q Sub% nconsciousness, Sleep, "rue 9ille Q Macrocosm, haos! Q Jia, Soul, 2ndividuality without Ego1ut ow oes #t orkE / ==

"o begin with, this model suffers, li!e mostmodlsdo, from being overly one>sided. 2t pretends thatthebarrier of the cens 'semi>permeable6membrane or filter which its movement in onedirection only 4from d to a/ oc!ing everythingin the opposite directions "his is certainly ane#aggeration because within this model wecould note#plain why conscious perceptions may bestored in theunconscious 4a fact which our dreams prove all

the timewith their digestion of the dayNs unresolvedevents= thesame can be said for our memory and ourprogrammedemotions, etc.5. Furthermore, it does not ta!einto accountthat the unconscious is engaged all the time andin allhuman acts, even when consciously constructinga sigil.After all, it is the only part of our psyche which isactive



magic can only be e#plained in psychologicalterms.Finally, 2 present another model, which has been

adapted from "heosophy 4and is still widelyappreciatedin magic5 and is oriented to the sphere structurewhilealso integrating the psychological pattern.Hevels, which have formerly been seen ashierarchically stratified, are now understood as'states of oscillation6 overlying one another which, ofcourse,cannot be illustrated in a two>dimensionaldrawing. "heprobes a are inlet ventiles which wor! in bothdirections.Point a N is a double probe through which not only

the direct, censor>independent ontact betweenconsciousness and unconsciousness is controlledbutthrough which the consciousness also gets indirectcontact with the mental sphere 4while avoidingthecensor>filter and the astral plane5. hannel c isonlypermissible in a state of 'altered awareness.6

"he two'dream levels6 of the consciousness and theunconsciousness have direct access to the astral



level.ucid dreaming would imply an intersection pointwith

the causes are planted by magical means, whichoften manifest themselves on the physical level4Hthe mental level, which is very rare.5 "o beeffective,sigili+ation should ta!e place in c 4the alteredstate of consciousness5. 7e aware that theconsciousness does nothave direct access to the causal plane and theunconsciousness has only got indirect access tothephysical level via the causal plane. According tothe

"heosophical model, the causal plane presides

over allthe other levels and controls them. On thecausal level,)>* / Practical Sigil MagicModel 1a Q 'ventile6 or 'probe6aN Q 'double ventile6 or 'probe6c Q channel of communication%altered state of

awareness1ut ow oes #t orkE / )>0

s 'une#plained miracles,6 'strangecoincidences,6 etc.$everything we understand as magic.Eventually, such models do not have any real



valueof cognition= all we are doing is trying to e#plainthe

un!nown 4in this case, the wthe suspected 4here, the structure of thepsyche5,achieving, however, little more but illustrations.1evertheless, such illustrations are uite usefulto satisfyour reason and to soften the censor, which inone way orthe other truly seems to e#ist. 4One could alsoterm it the'un!nown barrierN that ma!es it difficult for us tosei+eand manipulate the magical universe.5 Ofcourse, we mayuite consciously rape our own reason to

achieve agnostic trance. "his, for e#ample, is practiced bytheorder of the Kesuits with its magical techni ue ofthe'credo uia absurdum est6 4'2 believe in itbecause it isabsurd65, as does in+ai Ren with its !oans, butin doingso we are already returning to the field ofproceduraltechni ues, leaving the area of rationalcognition.



2f you find it fun to do so, you might developyourwn models of e#plaining magic. "his would have

thedvantage of establishing a stronger commitmenttoagic in your consciousness and unconscious 4toremainersistently within psychologism5, thus ma!ing iteasierr magic to b e integrated in everyday life . 7utdonNtrget that this is nothing but an$admittedly uitemusing$way of fiddling around.a bit disappointed now if youlanation for magic, life,that case, try to get over it with one of rowleyNs

aay in which magic wor!s5 byoampfofoa

&ou may perhaps behad e#pected to find the final e#pthe universe and everything in this chapter. 2n)>7 / Practical Sigil Magic

ve certainty over the



thefollowing order of numbers 4again from right toleft5 :

B%-%/%D%/%/.sually the sigil begins with a curlicue and endswith a stro!e. 2f any one number is covered twicainb

"o complete the picture, the followiconsist of the magical cameas of the planets to%onstructing Sigils with Planetary %ameas / )>=8igure *;))> / Practical Sigil Magic

7eside each numbered camea you will find as uare containing the (ebrew letters accordingto theirnumerical values, which may save you a lot oftrouble

constructing your sigils in e (ermetic tradition. "heillustrations are ta!en from grippaNs classic wor!e-cculta Philosophia 4/nd vol., - BB5.

"he rule of mar!ing the beginning and the endof aplanetary sigil, namely to sta t with a curlicueand to endwith a stro!e, has not been followed throughout.

"hismay be due to AgrippaNs intention of preventingany



possible abuse. 7y mar!ing the beginning andthe end of such a sigil we have all the directional

informationnecessary to draw it in evocation 4with thee#ception of the composed sigils5. 2 have deliberately not'corrected6the sigils because 2 wanted to present thetraditional formwithout any changes of my own. Furthermore,thesecorrections might confuse those readersunfamiliar withthe sub0ect if they suddenly come acrossdifferentversions of one and the same sigil in othertraditional

boo!s. For practice, however, 2 advise you toredraw thesigils and correct them where necessary.thAr%onstructing Sigils with Planetary %ameas / )))6 MA!#%A+ %AM6AS -8 6 P+AB6 S 2F A1+6SG4

AB 6 S6A+S AB S#!#+S -8 6P+AB6 A?H P- 6?S, #B 6++#!6B%6S AB6M-BS.

4following Agrippa of 1ettesheim, e -cculta Philosophia , ol. /,- BB5Ta/le of Saturn1umbers (ebrew Hetters



Ta/le of the Sun1umbers (ebrew HettersSeals or haracters

of the Sun his 2ntelligence his 3emons3ivine 1ames in accord with the numbers of Kupiter3 /Fau= etter of the holy*rolonged He= etter of the holy name% !1 3the Sun- Sthe Sunum ers-.i'ine 3ames In He re,name-.

-. loh11. a hiel= Intelligence of--. orath= /emon of%onstructing Sigils with Planetary %ameas / ))9Ta/le of 5enus1umbers (ebrew HettersSeals or haracters

of enus her 2ntelligence her 3emonsivine 1ames in accord with the numbers ofenus3um e In He re,



)(. e of

1

enus

3rs /i'ine 3ames. AhaHagiel= Intelligencus

Fen1 $. Eedemel= /emon of Fenus

2%2. 5eni Seraphim=Intelligence of F

)): / Practical Sigil MagicTa/le of #er ury 1umbers(ebrew Hetters%onstructing Sigils with Planetary %ameas / ));

Seals or haractersof Mercury his 2ntelligence his 3emons3ivine 1ames in accord with the numbers of

Mercury3um ers /i'ine 3ames In He re,4. As oga= *rolongednum er eight



-). /in-). /ani2-8. Tiriel= Intelligence of

#ercury

2848. Taphthartharath=/emon or mercury

))< / Practical Sigil MagicTa/le of the #oon1umbers

(ebrew Hetters%onstructing Sigils with Planetary %ameas / ))=

of the Moon her 3emonsSeals or haractersher Supreme 3emon her Supreme 2ntelligence3ivine 1ames in accord with the numbers of theMoon3um ers /i'ine 3ames In He re,

(. Hod41. !lim%-(. Chasmodai= /emon of the #oon

%%21. Shed 5arshemath Sharthathan=Supreme/emon of the #oon

%%21. #al a eTarshishim ad5e @uah ShehaBim=Supreme Intelligenceof the #oon



)*> / Practical Sigil Magic

2ndividual s your first name5may be formed by using t,defined the numerical value of the name, thesigil is madeby going over the chosen planetary camea.Obviously, thesame name will have a completely differentdesign in theseven different cameas.1ow if we, for e#ample, assign the purpose of aspecial sigil operation to a specific planetarysphere, wean, with this method of construction, assume theidentity

magical name is ME H21. 2n (ebrew, this wouldbewritten in the following manner 4from right toleft5:4Final>51 1 &O3 HAME3 ES( MEMIGG -G BG /GG CGeam is basic matri#. "4after the proper reduction of the numbers5 in:S I/!3TIT? igils 4for e#ample,he same system. "o do so, the



name has to be transferred into (ebrew, which,of coursedemands some previous e#perience. Once you

havecof the chosen sphere. Het us ta!e a magicianwhose(e now wants to perform some aggressiveoperation, e.g., a magical attac!. "hus, he willchoose thc ea of the Mars sphere as h his resultsJ #A@%onstructing Sigils with Planetary %ameas / )*)

? ethod weay transfer reduced sentences of desire, wordsof system and sigili+e themwith the help of the camease#perience with planetary m gic, you willimmediatelyrecogni+e the vast possibilities of this procedure.(e might also use this sigil in combination withtheAlphabet of 3esire for his operation, or he mightintegrate it into a word or pictorial sigil, etc.

2f, however, he wanted to be successful in alawsuit, he would choose the Kupiter sphere andget thefollowing sigil on the camea of Kupiter:J *IT!@ I/!3TIT2t is always the same name, but with and in a



different planetary vibration. 7y the same mmpower, etc., to the planetary

. 2f you already have somea

Con lusion2 hope that 2 have provided you with amplepractical hints in this brief introduction so thatyou cane#plore on your own the vast, fascinating area ofsigilmagic. 3onNt start off in a dogmatic spirit,though. 3areto e#periment, ma!e changes where you feelthey may benecessary, and always aspire to develop yourown

techni ues and methods. Sigil magic lives by theindividuality of the magician= generally, peoplewho stic!to every letter of laws or rules ma!e very littleprogress.Even though one of its ma0or strong points lies inthefield of success magic, sigil magic serves theindividualNsspiritual development as well. 2t can opencompletelynew universes to us$an unlimited number ofuniverses



of e#perience$and eventually it will lead usbac! to thesources of magical power itself.

SA(5 AT6U 5A( $U2I6U DA #ON))) U2I6U D US))))*0

'lossary A . . A . . IAstrum Argentum or Silver Star. Amagicalgroup founded by Aleister rowley based on theteachings of the (ermetic Order of the *olden3awn.

Abramelin system $A potent cabbalistic systemof magic. 2t involves si# months in prayer, followingwhichyou achieve 'the Jnowledge and onversationof &our(oly *uardian Angel6 "his angel providesinformationon how to control demons so that they will bring

youwhatever you desire. Agrippa $(enry ornelius "heophrastus7ombastusAgrippa von 1ettesheim 4-C 8>- B 5 was afamous alchemist, astrologer and magician. (is



and strifein -DGe andumerous others.teros4 $"he Pact is a loose conglomeration ofgroupsand individuals practicing haos magic.ato found his own gO.".O. and became i, his magical system combined 9estern

abbalisticmagic with Eastern "antrism, "aoism, 7uddhismand &oga.f s on personal symbolism rather than atraditionalsystem. E#perimental and free form, chaos is thefield of potential from which we can tap magical forces.ogmatic magic $"his type of magic forces apractitioner to use symbols and systems that mayor maynot be part of the magic8raternitas Saturni $"he 7rotherhood of Saturn isa*erman magical Order. (ighly secretive, some oftheirteachings are 0ust coming to light.ermeticbG. 2ts importance is in its uni ue combining of numerous magical systems into a coherent whole.



2tsmembership included 9illiam 7utler &eats, ArthurMachen, Sa# ohmer, Mac*regor Mathers, 3ionFortune,Aleister rowley, 2srael egardie, A.E. 9aitn#- 2 he Magical Pact of the illuminates of hana

!lossary / )*;

tually became its soleaderhe !reater $ey of olom$"he philosophical belief thatabstractions, generalities or universals have noob0ectivereality-rder of 6asternemplars4 $ Founded in the late - GGs, itclaimed to$oans $A 7uddhist method for meditation, itinvolves giving the meditator an idea with nosimpleanswer on which to contemplate. "he mostfamous is'9hat is the sound of one hand clapping 6+ao3 se

$Founder of "aoism.Master herian $A name used by Aleisterrowley under which he wrote several of hismostimportant boo!s, including Magic in heory andPractice .



Mathers $Samuel Hiddell Mac*regor Mathers4- C>-D- 5 was one of the founders of the(ermetic

Order of the *olden 3awn and evenle . "hrough him came many of the uni ue andimpressive rituals and magical techni ues. "heboo!s hetranslated and edited on magic, including heSacredMagic of Abramein the Mage ,S on and he $abbalah nveiled, have helpedmanyto become magicians. (is autocratic nature leadtoschisms in "he *olden 3awn, and he eventuallyhadmagical wars with Aleister rowley. (e died inthe

influen+a epidemic that roc!ed the world after9orld9ar 2.Bominalism, e#isting only as names.-. .-. 2-rdo empli -rientisJ)*< / Practical Sigil Magic

be ass

ideas !nowns the "helemic current. 1umerous groups callingrecent years.nown as the "en Sephiroth and form a patterncalled the "ree of Hife. 2t is used by magicians forperson



opened by various means. eaching a higherlevel allowsa person greater personal and magical power, as

well asgreater awareness of the universe.ally pronounced '9ee> ha,6 it is the source forthemore common word witch . Many 9itches preferthe term9icca as it does not have all of tthword 'witch.6

Commentsth theameer member of the 2O"n a si

eiser, 2nc., -DI 5.)*=

- . One has only to thin! of the unfortunatedevelopmentwhich occurred to a name li!e Astarte 42shtar5 inthecourse of centuries$an erstwhile haldeanMoon

*oddess developed in the Middle Ages via theadditionof the plural ending 'oth6 into a male4<5 demonwin Astaroth . "odayNs evocatory magicians mightbe in



for uite a surprise or two, if, for e#ample, asupposedlymale demon li!e Jedemel from the enusian

spheresuddenly appears before them as a femaleentity 4Luiteobvious, actually, but who would have thoughtof itbeforehand 5/. ay Sherwin, writing as a formo milar connection in his e#cellent heatre ofMagic4Heeds: "he SorcererNs Apprentice Press5,introduces theterm 'Himinal *nosis.6B. ompare the section '"he Physiological*nosis6 andthe subse uent e#planations in +iber Bull 4&or!

7each,ME: Samuel 9eiser, 2nc., -D I5, p. BBff C. Jenneth *rant, #mages and -racles of Austin-smanSpare 4&or! 7each, ME: Samuel 9. 2ncidentally, this difficulty can even be usedconstructively should you encounter problemswithvisuali+ing or imagining ob0ects or persons Fore#ample,)0> / Practical Sigil Mag

if you donNt succeedSince it is financially unprofitable tomother cow or to induce an artificial



-B. ay Sherwin, he 1ook of ?esults 4Heeds: "heSorcererNs Apprentice Press5, p. B/ff

-C. See "imothy 3NArch SmithNs introduction toFrancis7arrettNs he Magus 4Secaucus, 1K: itadel Press,-DII5,pp. vi>vii. (is e#planation is a bit tric!y. "hemagicianplaces the figures of a magical camea in theirnumericalorder 4always from left to right, starting in thebottomrow5 in a camea. After this, he traces thenumbersfollowing their numerical order on the originalcamea.

"he result of the e#ample given in his

introduction, theSaturn glyph, is uite convincing. 7ut in the caseof

Kupiter and Mars, you need a good deal ofimagination torecogni+e the proper glyph as given in therelevantclassics in the resultinphave been made to obtain more or lesssymmetricalfigures. "hus,c



presentation of the construction of all glyphsfollowingthis model might have prov

p

Sigil Magik

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