HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
 1
|
A sigil (pronounced /\'sɪdʒ.ɪl/ or /\'sɪg.ɪl/; pl. sigilia or sigils) is a symbol created for a specific magical purpose. A sigil is usually made up of a complex combination of several specific symbols or geometric figures each with a specific meaning or intent.
The term sigil derives from the Latin sigilum meaning "seal," though it may also be related to the Hebrew סגולה (segulah meaning "word, action or item of spiritual effect"). The old Norse binding rune is an example of the idea. A sigil may have an abstract, pictorial or semi-abstract form. It may appear in any medium -- physical, virtual, or mental. Visual symbols are the most popular form, but the use of aural and tactile symbols in magic is not unheard of.
Contents |
In medieval ceremonial magic, the term sigil was commonly used to refer to occult signs which represented various angels and demons which the magician might summon. The magical training books called the Grimoires often listed pages of such sigils. The most notorious of these lists is found in the Goetia, in the Lesser Key of Solomon, in which the sigils of the 72 princes of the hierarchy of hell are given for the magician\'s use. Such sigils were considered to be the equivalent of the \'true name\' of the spirit, and thus granted the magician a measure of control over the beings.
Sigils are commonly found in Jewish mysticism and Kabbalistic magic (being an especial focus of Sefer Raziel HaMalakh and other medieval Jewish mystical sources) upon which much of Western magic is based.
Sigil magic is a common form of magical work among practitioners; symbols and signs have always been a tool of magicians and alchemists. In modern uses, the concept was mostly popularized by Austin Osman Spare, who published a method by which the words of a statement of intent are reduced into an abstract design; the sigil is then charged with the will of the creator. Spare\'s technique, now known as sigilization, has become a core element of chaos magic. The inherently individualistic nature of chaos magic leads most chaos magicians to prepare and cast sigils in unique ways, as the process of sigilization has never been defined rigorously and the magician is expected to \'fill in the blank spots\' by his or her self. Sigils may be used for any purpose or desire, no matter how trivial or important. Symbols also appear on Led Zepplins fourth untitled album.
A Modern Personal Sigil
A hypersigil is an extended work of art with magical meaning and willpower, created using adapted processes of sigilization. This contextual meaning has been popularized by Grant Morrison, who claims that his comic series, The Invisibles, is a hypersigil.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
