Sigils For Dummies, a little confused Options

I'm not sure it I am in the right place but, I have been studying traditional witchcraft for about a year and a half now. Its working out fine but I thought--is this really the path I should be on? So I am looking around now and came across, Intro to High Magic, Frater AD.
I have been reading on simple word sigils and I'm ok with making it and charging it. Its the forgetting part that's a problem. Do I need to forget the sigil itself or the reason I made it in the first place. If the later that's too bad since I can't forget something I think about constantly. Maybe I just don't get it, can someone explain?

It's the hardest part. Best thing to do is let it go all together. Forget the sigil, and forget the intention. At the moment that you charge the sigil and then either destroy or pack it neatly away for good, know that the intention will come to pass, and that you don't need to keep 'waiting anxiously' for it to happen. It's a confidence thing, but also a mental discipline. It's hard to just let something go. For me, all the magic involving ritual, sigils, etc., I do in a space where I have 'shed' my 'waking' self and it all takes place in a separate reality all together. So, it's easy for me to forget what goes on there until I go back there. Something like that is a good idea, in my opinion, because then you don't really have to forget anything in a way.

Other than that, out of sight out of mind. The sooner you forget about it the faster it will work, and with less interference from you while you mill over how you hope the intention of the sigil will manifest. You might consider some kind of negative reinforcement to create a mental block. Snapping yourself with a rubber band whenever you catch yourself thinking about your sigil, for instance, until you brain stops recalling sigil related memories in order to avoid the negative stimuli. Doing something completely unrelated afterwards, as though you'd never done a ritual in the first place is another way - tricky, but a lot of people will do their work, then leave the space and journal about it, or otherwise recall and revisit the experience for a while whether as a matter of recapitulation or just self gratifying "i just did magic" ego-petting. Better to do any journaling before you leave the space and then leaving it all there.

The art of forgetting, aka, letting go, is good for almost all kinds of ritual magic in general. The memory of the ritual is a connection to it, and if you maintain it even after the banishing and closing, if you do such things, you'll still kind of be affecting the ritual itself with hopes, fears, desires, intentions, etc.

Hope that sheds a little light.

peace

I don't think its the room; its me. I want to lose the extra weight I put on this winter so I can't really get away from the thing since I am the thing, but yes--I like the rubber band idea very much. I just flicked a fingernail across my cheek--ouch! I am probably very used to chanting and visualizing over and over for a long period of time, but this is a different process. Thanks, this is a huge help.

I was having trouble with understanding this concept as well im glad that this was posted.

I have to say this went just perfectly. I still was not sure I was doing it right but exactly seven days later I lost two pounds as willed! I'm so happy this worked out I can't wait to do another.

I have to say this went just perfectly. I still was not sure I was doing it right but exactly seven days later I lost two pounds as willed! I'm so happy this worked out I can't wait to do another.

Congratulations. Be very careful about hacking your own physiology, however; that can have messy results. Two pounds within 7 days was probably all right, but much more than that would not have been. Do not do things like anatomical enlargement sigils, either; they can have bad repercussions with the endocrine system.

Always remember that the raw material to do something, especially something physical, has to come from somewhere. If you do not provide it explicitly, the body will try and provide it on its' own, and can exhaust itself in the process, leading to damage.

I've only just begun working with Magick, Chaos Magick in particular, and this bothered me too. However I find that working with Magick each day, or multiple times a day, makes this much easier. This is for the simple reason that the more you do, the less of it you remember, and so the more that can work in the background without the interruption caused by you thinking "Hmm is my Magick working yet? Why not!?"

Another trick that's worked for me is to make rather long specific aims for the sigil, for example, rather than: "I will get a job", your intent could be something like "I will get a job in the IT industry repairing computers for a large company earning a good regular wage and working short hours each day" - the longer and more specific the aim the better. The reason for this is that while you might not forget it, chances are you won't remember it word for word.

This post has been edited by Royaltramp: Nov 19 2010, 08:07 AM