“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Skip to 3000 BC. A lot has happened since the primordial utterance of that initial life-giving statement. We have learned to walk upright, discovered fire, invented the wheel, and eventually evolved from nomadic travelers to farmers, formed cities, trade, and commerce. Through commerce came competition and the need to make others aware of our produce, crafts, or handwork. Communicating our needs through words or symbols to bring our desires to fruition is nothing new. In fact, one of the first known written advertisements in the history of advertising was found by archeologists in the ruins of Thebes, known to the ancient Egyptians as Waset. This papyrus was created in 3000 BC on behalf of a slaveholder who was trying to find one of his slaves. Translated made by James Playsted Wood, one can see how the writer surreptitiously slides in a plug about the quality of his cloth:

The man-slave, Shem, having run away from his good master, Hapu the Weaver, all good citizens of Thebes are enjoyed to help return him. He is a Hittite, 5′ 2″ tall, of ruddy complexion and brown eyes. For news of his whereabouts half a gold coin is offered. And for his return to the shop of Hapu the Weaver, where the best cloth is woven to your desires, a whole gold coin is offered.

Fast forward to the twentieth century for a moment. Instead of shouting our products and services in the physical marketplace or scribing them on papyrus, we mass print them in newspapers and eventually recorded moving pictures for television. Where once we could casually skim over the ads in the paper that were of no interest, we now have to physically get up and leave the room to refresh the popcorn and warm the butter.

Take another small step, into the twenty-first century, to today. We still have print ads in our magazines, billboards, and newspapers and continue to endure the advertisements on the television, but now we must scroll past them on social media as well. Whether Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or any other social platforms, advertisements will follow as certainly as will death and taxes.

Advertisers had to get creative and brief. People are busy, on the go, and don’t have the time nor the desire to read endless descriptions of products or services. Besides, there is so much competition and messages. How could they reduce their message to something absorbable, something that people would remember? Well, think about the Nike swish, the Christian cross, the Jewish star of David, or the road signs warning of animals, bumps, and upcoming construction. Who has time, not to mention the safety issues, of reading an entire sign along the roadside that reads, “please pay attention because you are about to drive through a heavily wooded area and animals may cross your path and cause an accident,” when a simple image of a dear is universal in getting that full message across. Now, with the World Wide Web, algorithms, target marketing, and other clandestine methods for analyzing human buying habits abound and can be electronically customized for each individual. Try talking about something random in earshot of your phone for a few days, something that you don’t use or need like horse ear fly repellent pink goop. Regardless of the mediums used or how many new ways to reach people we discover, the basic idea of slimming a message to a crystal clear, easily remembered statement, sigils, or symbol has not changed in a thousand years.

Semiotics Theory

Needless to say signs and symbols have been, and remain a main element of communicative behavior. A sign is not just a sign; it represents a language itself. Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist, and semiotician, identified two prominent roles of signs and symbols:

Signifier – signifies an object, image, or text
Signified – what the signifier is referring to, which can only be defined by the recipient of the signifier.

Take, for example, the poutine depicted in a fast food advertisement. The signifier is the physical presence of the poutine– golden fries covered in melted cheese curds, then smothered in gravy. The signified is the mental concept. The poutine represents different things to different receivers. For some, it may signify an unhealthy mix of bad fat and carbs, while others may feel hunger or a craving.

Advertisers and marketing departments seek to invoke a positive action or desire with the use of semiotics. They use both visual and verbal cues to accomplish this outcome with cues which include Logos, Tag lines or slogans, the use of colors (think red and yellow, fast food, and hunger triggers or the calming blue used in many doctor or dentist offices), famous individuals, etc. As described by the Great Semioticians website, semantics refers to the relationship between signs and their meaning. Syntactics are signs that relate to formal structures, such as how an advertisement is sequentially constructed. Pragmatics refers to how signs influence people who use them. All three areas work together in a compelling advertising message to accomplish the desired goal. It is essential to understand and analyze their effect on potential customers.

SIGIL MAGICK is likely the most simplistic form of magick around. Magick, like any energy, will assume the path of least resistance, just like running water meandering down the side of a hill or electricity. When used intelligently, it can enhance your chances of a desired outcome. When used unintelligently, it can also enhance your chances of that outcome, just not by enough. The materials – a pen and paper – are readily available to virtually anyone, anywhere, and are much less daunting, intimidating, and “occulitish” than digging out engraved bronze chalices, bejeweled wands, anointed candles, all the while drawing the blinds to hide from prying neighbors. Magick, or intention, manifestation, whatever one chooses to call it, is much like a steroid; it enhances probability. For a regular person or someone out of shape, steroids are not likely to lead to the realization of an Olympic dream – it is also illegal – because the competition is just too steep. Sometimes, moving closer or enhancing the probability simply is not enough. But once you get past the idea of winning the lottery, becoming a world champion, or going to the moon, magick starts to not only make perfect sense but become unexpectedly practical.

To get a crystal clear message to your unconscious mind, which does not distinguish between positive and negative or exists within limitations like time. In fact, it doesn’t really know the difference between reality and fantasy, which is precisely why visualization is key or why dreams, even the most outlandish, can disturb or uplift us.

Before taking the pen in hand, know your desire and genuinely want it. Meditate on it for a time and want it badly. Visualize having that desire fulfilled and how wonderful it will be. Genuinely experience it, what would it feel like, imagine feeling the happiness, the satisfaction, or sense of freedom. Imagine the feeling of it under your fingers or the sounds. Use all of the senses to experience it as if it were in the present moment. Now, open your eyes and start making your sigil:

1. Clearly and briefly write out your goal in the present tense as though it is accomplished. For example, “I enjoy driving my new Mercedes,” not “I wish to have a Mercedes,” or “It is my desire that I have a Mercedes.”
2. From left to right, cross out all of the vowels.
3. Again, cross out all the duplicate consonants from left to right, keeping only one of each letter remaining. You can circle them to keep track.
4. Combine the leftover letters into one symbol, glyph, or sigil, and work with it until you are comfortable with its appearance. (There is no right or wrong way to do this.)
5. Activate your sigils by meditating on each one individually. By now, you have likely mixed them up and can’t remember which is which. That is fine. Hold one between your fingers and stare at it deeply for approximately 10 minutes. Truly drink it in. Let your eyes go in and out of focus, tracing the lines from beginning to end and back again in a relaxed and detached manner. Let your peripheral blur and your vision warp the squiggles.
6. Depending on your school of thought, you can either destroy the sigil and forget about it (burn it, toss it in the river, etc.) or pin it somewhere you will walk past each day. Try it both ways and see which one works best for you. Read and research the reasons behind each method. Personally, I destroy mine. I brought my desires and thoughts into the real world. I have no further attachment to a piece of paper and know it is now real.

That is it.