Touch of Magick Shop · Beginner Foundations
← Beginner Foundations library
Sometimes a few lines can hold an idea more gently than a long sentence. A personal sigil gives an intention a visual form. You can approach it as spiritual symbolism, a small creative ritual, or a reminder of something you want to practice in everyday life.
What do we mean by a personal sigil?
Here, a sigil is a mark you design to represent your own chosen intention. The Spanish term is sigilo. Our exercise uses ordinary letters and pencil lines. It does not claim to reproduce an ancient seal, an initiatory teaching or a sacred symbol from another tradition.
You do not need drawing experience. A plain shape that means something to you is sufficient. The mark’s purpose in this guide is to give your attention a place to return; it cannot guarantee an outcome or override someone else’s choices.
A named modern source
Artist and occult writer Austin Osman Spare described sigils in The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love): The Psychology of Ecstasy (1913). In its sigil section, he discusses simplifying and combining alphabetic letters into a form connected with desire. His explanation belongs to his own magical philosophy, including claims about the subconscious that should not be mistaken for established psychology.[1]
William Wallace’s University of Kent doctoral study examines Spare’s books as interconnected works of art and writing, emphasizing how images and text work together. That scholarly context helps us approach Spare as a particular artist and thinker, rather than treating every modern sigil instruction as an unchanged ancient rule.[2]
The gentle method below is Touch of Magick Shop’s adaptation for beginners. We use a visible reminder and a practical action. It does not reproduce Spare’s full system, require altered states, or ask you to suppress your thoughts. Your intention can remain clear and readable in your journal.
Choose your symbolism
These are optional design choices created for this shop exercise, not universal correspondences. Keep them, change them or use plain graphite throughout.
| Design choice | Our suggested meaning | Practical use |
|---|---|---|
| A small open circle | Room to reconsider | A reminder to pause before agreeing |
| A short steady line | One manageable step | A reminder to begin a task |
| Two separate curves | Connection with boundaries | A reminder to ask and listen |
| Your own combined letters | Your chosen intention | A mark whose meaning you record yourself |
Original shop practice: a mark for one small action
Gather scrap paper, a pencil and a notebook. Work on a surface where drawing is permitted. No oils, candles, herbs, skin marking or special materials are needed.
- Write a short intention about your own behavior. Try “I pause before I answer” or “I make time to practice.” Choose something you can actually do.
- Check consent. Replace an intention about making another person love, obey or contact you with one about your own communication, boundaries or openness.
- Select three or four letters from the sentence. They need not be secret or chosen according to a fixed formula.
- Overlap, rotate or simplify their strokes into one small mark. Make two sketches, then choose the one you find easiest to recognize.
- Write the full intention and today’s date beside the sketch in your notebook. On a separate card, copy only the mark.
- Look at the card briefly and name one concrete next step. For the intention about pausing, that could be allowing a moment before replying to your next routine message.
- Keep the card in your own notebook. Later, review whether the reminder was useful. Revise or recycle it when it no longer serves you.
A misplaced card or imperfect line does not undo your choices. Do not draw on another person’s belongings or hide a mark in their space. Keep pencils and loose materials safely stored. If the exercise starts to feel compulsory, set it aside; a practice should leave room for freedom.
Journal prompt
What action gives this symbol meaning, and how will I recognize that I have practiced it without demanding a perfect result?
Sources & further reading
- Austin Osman Spare, The Book of Pleasure (1913), “Sigils. Belief with Protection” — Primary text transcription; consulted for historical context, not as a safety or scientific authority.
- William Wallace, Austin Osman Spare: the artist’s books (1905–1927) (University of Kent, 1993) — Doctoral research on the relationship between Spare’s images, writing and magical theory.
Continue your Book of Shadows
Writing an Intention · Candle Colors · Personal Altar · Beginner Foundations library