What Are Sigils?
Sigils are symbols which represent an intention without making a direct reference to it. They can be visual, auditory, kinetic. The Magicians explores the supreme effectiveness of a movement based sigil, where spellcraft is literally at the magician’s fingertips.
The Rules
For a sigil to be succesful, it must adhere to certain rules.
First, all elements must closely resonate with the desire by using concise, relevant figures ,drawings, or sounds.
Second, once the sigil is created, it must be sent to the brain’s subconcious to prevent doubts from the thinking mind.
The third and most important rule is having a sense of unwavering certainty in the outcome.
Examples
For instance, say your wish is to increase your income by 200%.
Write out : DOUBLE MY INCOME
Take out the vowels : DBLMNCM
Take out double letters: DBLMNC
Your sigil may look like this,
Now, to give it power, the magician must concentrate on the symbol as a whole, sending strong energies. Action based sigils are similar in theory. Like the visual ones, they must conceal the obvious intent but still retain a strong, subconscious connection.
Let’s use another example: the desire to travel to another country.
We have, TRVLNHCY.
Now for each letter we do a relatively simple action. T – tap left toe, R – right toe, V – right heel tap, L – left, N – shift foot inward, H – outward. C – jump off the ground, Y – double heel click.
Congratulations! We’ve made a foot spell that will send us abroad!
Relevance to the Magicians
In the books , the finger movements are difficult enough to shift the magician’s focus into perfecting the motions. Potentially intrusive thoughts are put on the wayside as the mind transforms into an empty,thoughtless vessel where magic can effortlessly enter. Under this state of uninterrupted flow, the hand sigils are powered up. Then, as the magicians master these physical sigils, they become adept at using them in perilous situations while still retaining their “empty” focus on the spell.
Thanks to the TV show, we can see this in action! Take Quentin at the Welters game against the naturals. His hands turn into a diamond , close off to make double almond shapes signaling an expansion of a force now condensing , doubling its destructive force. This then causes the “eye of the storm” spell.
Frankly, this can mentally taxing which is why Brakebills recruits only the brightest of the lot. Only those who condition their mind to combine open receptivity, narrow concentration and an inherent trust in something , such as magic, or their own abilities, make the cut.
sleepysirren
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This is an interesting post. I am curious where you got your information about sigils. The “Legos” of magic have always interested me: intent combined with will, etc. The most important part being a subconscious understanding of what is taking place. For the conscious mind doubt will always seep in, but subconscious thought has no doubt, but runs on what it perceives should happen.
There are other extremely famous people that talk about having little doubt and telling a mountain to move and it shall.
HumbleIcarus, from personal experience with chaos magic, being classically trained by a High Wiccan Priestess and research. To be honest, it is so mentally difficult to have almost no doubt in something, which is why magic tools like sigils can work so well!
I have delved into Wicca in the past and am familiar with some of the concepts behind it. This type of magic that was posted about is actually archetypal magic. That’s why I was curious about the post – because I could see real knowledge coming from the post.
While I don’t follow Wicca, I do believe magic is real and possible; although I think magic is just one of the many names given to the conscious/subconscious manipulation of energetic bodies.
“His hands turn into a diamond, close off to make double almond shapes signaling an expansion of a force now condensing , doubling its destructive force.”
I am curious about your analysis of the hand gestures done in the show, you said you had personal experience with sigils and chaos magic so is the analysis of Quintins hand gestures just guesswork or is the analysis informed from your experience?
Lots of great info here, you know your stuff. Thank you
Definitely an interesting read, I would like to read more posts like this, if possible.
Thank Dragonskinny! I’ll start writing more posts real soon!