A sigil is a painted or inscribed symbol that represents your intention, prayer, or hope for an outcome. It can be something you want to manifest, feel, accomplish, or become.
My "Sigil for..." series was created with homemade mulberry ink, India ink, herbal tea, Mississippi river water, and salt from the Pacific ocean. The tools used in mark-making consisted of obsidian chunks, wildfire charcoal, and pine needles.
Sigil for Moontime Blessings
Sigil for a Smooth Birth
Sigil for Finding Strength in Motherhood
Sigil for Crone Alchemy
My statement for my Sigil series:
A sigil is a painted symbol considered to hold magical power. The blood gates of womanhood need to be honored. We are met with constant transition, cycles, rebirth, and with each new beginning, we crave guidance through these universal yet taboo experiences. In modern times we are disconnected from the cyclical rhythms of life, it was all once considered sacred and elders illuminated the way. I created these paintings to serve as meditations for those powerful cycles, so that each time the wheel of my life turns and I am met with rebirth, I will have a magic to guide me through. Each symbol holds an intention and guidance. Color and emotion bleed across the paper to convey a soft power, a vibration, so that the viewer may be held at whatever stage they find themselves in.
How to make your own sigils with nature
Like I said before, a sigil is a symbolic representation of a desired outcome. Sigils have been historically used in magic but they can be used as a creative goal-setting tool. You can form an empowering phrase into an image, using artistic expression, that manifests in a personal symbol for reflection and meditation.
Step 1: Gather your tools. Walk the earth, ask permission, choose with intention and give thanks.
-Water: from river, ocean, stream, or rain.
-Ink: of berries, mushrooms, walnuts, tea or coffee, even your moonblood.
-You may use dirt or wildfire charcoal to mark the paper.
-Sticks and driftwood make for good handles and moss, herbs, leaves, pine needles, and flowers for the brush bristles. You may use twine or whatever is on hand to attach them.
-I even used the smooth curved edge of an obsidian chunk dipped into the ink as a way to apply free-flowing marks.
Step 2: Create your sigil. Write a phrase or a few words you find empowering. Perhaps to get you through birth, a tough time, or something to act as a sort of personal compass. If you are creating art with items from the land you may wish to create a sigil for your relationship to a specific place, or the earth herself.
Write out your chosen words on a scrap of paper. Then begin to cross out any letters that are repeated until you are left with only a few. Combine the letters to form a symbol. The letters should not be recognizable, they should become more fluid and abstract. The words are no longer important because your sigil is now all about the energy it holds. This process may take some time and creative manipulation. Once you feel your symbol is complete, practice writing it until muscle memory takes over and you are comfortable writing it.
Step 3: Making the artwork.*
On your paper, you may lay down a base of tea, color, or whatever you'd like. Let the paper dry and then use your homemade “inks” to dip, splash, scratch, scrape, draw, etc with your newly made tools. (Keep in mind that you will draw your sigil over these to finish.) I also used India inks in all colors to create my series of sigils. There are no rules! Paint in an expressive and unrestrained state. Be unattached to the outcome. When it sets into the paper and you are finished, use dark ink or paint to mark your sigil over the top. For painting my sigil I used a traditional paintbrush to give me more control.
Step 4: Now what? Place your sigil on your altar, hang it in your home, bury it under a hawthorn tree, send it down the river, hide it away in a book and forget about it, or set it ablaze on the full moon. Do as you see fit.
*Remember to ignore my instructions completely if they do not fit your process. Remember that creativity is in you! Permit yourself to let go of stories (yours or others) that you don't know how to express yourself creatively. That's bullshit. Have fun!
Comments