Sigils are magical images often made by combining letters into symbols. this sigil says “Contact”. I made it to represent communication in all forms, especially from outer space to our planet. This one is my favorite sigils because it also looks like a radio telescope, Similar to the ones at Green Bank, WV, about an hour away from my home. You can see the “C” in the curve of the telescope, and the “N” & “T” are created in the lines made at the intersection of colors. Sigils are interesting as magical tools and also as artistic ones. they give us the opportunity to see the connecting threads and the shapes of things. They provide a series of "rules” for our art brains to stew over. They’re a low-stakes way to play, and anyone can make one. I’ll show you how!

First, write out an intention. If it’s for something you’d like to have happen, write it out in present tense. (I.E. “I am buying a house filled with comfort and love.”) If you want to honor a feeling or an object, feel free to ignore that rule (I.E. “Orange lifesavers,” “art as a practice of channeling grief”). 

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Then, take that phrase and remove all the vowels. Take the remaining letters and remove any duplicates. These are the letter you’ll work with.

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Your last step is to find interesting ways to combine the lines of shapes of the letters into a new piece of art. I tend to work with the shapes of letters, and use different colors to help create lines. You can also make sigils like the one below, using only line work. Get creative — there’s no wrong way to do this.

Sigils are magical symbols, and they work best when you start to forget the original intention behind them. (This hasn’t been difficult in my process of making 90!) Don’t be afraid to let the words go and let the sigil exist as its own art piece. You can hang yours up around your home, or stitch them on a piece of clothing, or draw them on your hand and let water wash it away throughout the day. (I learned that trick from Erin Alise of The Hollow Valley.) Make them your own.