Sigil Witchery

by Laura Tempest Zakroff

[Jo]

I've been interested in using sigils in my craft for a while now, but I didn't much like the more common way of creating them. They just never looked great to me, and I didn't really enjoy the process of creating them. In response to the way Black Lives Matter protestors were being treated after the murder of George Floyd, Laura Tempest Zakroff shared a number of sigils on Instagram created in her workshops that could be used in spellwork to protect those who were protesting, and for the dissolution of hate. Using them in my own spellwork, I realised these were the kind of sigils I imagined when I thought "magical symbol", and when I realised Tempest Zakroff had written Sigil Witchery, I snapped it up.

Sigil Witchery is absolutely fantastic! The heart of this book is Tempest Zakroff sharing with us her method of creating sigils. Instead of the chaos magic style of creating sigils which I'd tried and didn't like - writing out your intention, crossing out vowels and repeated consonants, and using the shapes of the remaining letters to create a sigil - Tempest Zaroff's method is rooted in the marks and symbols the humans have been using to communicate since the dawn of civilisation. The whole first chapter is absolutely fascinating, taking us through history and the various marks and symbols our ancestors used, how they evolved, how they would have different meaning to those in different parts of the world, and so much more. I have to say, my initial attraction to Tempest Zakroff's sigils was aesthetics, but the idea of creating sigils using the marks that meant something, both mundane and sacred, to our ancestors really appeals to me. They're just so steeped in history, which to me just adds more power to them.

And the rest of the book goes into just as much depth. Tempest Zakroff talks us through all the different marks and symbols, and what they mean to her, but with space for readers to write down notes on what those symbols mean to them, our own associations and ideas. Following on from this is a chart with common words used in intentions where we are to create symbols for those words ourselves. So we have Tempest Zakroff's and our own basic meanings of symbols and marks, and then our own base to jump forward from with these list of symbols for specific words that are unique to us that we can incorporate into our own sigils. I love how nothing is set in stone, and how the emphasis is on our own sigil making.

But there's also so much more! Tempest Zakroff talks us through application and acknowledgement of our sigils, and suggestions of various ways we apply and acknowledge them. Application refers to actually using the sigil; you've created the sigil, but now the sigil has to be used in some way to work it's magic. There are so many suggestions - with reasons why certain suggestions might work better for specific intentions than others - like drawing them on the bottom of your shoes or on the bottom of a chair, sewing them into clothes, planting seeds in the shape of the sigil, and so many more. Acknowledgement refers to activiating the sigil over time, if necessary, which can simply be having it in your eye-line, tracing the sigil with your eyes or finger, anointing them on skin, or ingesting them, through drawing the sigil into food or tea with a spoon, among so many more. And then there's a whole chapter on how to design your sigil, with suggestions of art supplies the reader may with to use in designing their sigils.

There are even exercises towards the end with a number of scenarios where people are requesting sigils made for specific reasons, and we're encouraged to work through those scenarios and create those sigils before looking at Tempest Zakroff's own solutions, where she explains what she focused on in the scenario, and how she translated those elements into particular symbols, and then created the sigil from them. But she emphasises how there is no right or wrong - your sigils will probably look different to hers, but they will, and they ought to. It's about using the knowledge you have to start actually creating those sigils, feeling confident in the process and your ability, to create your own in your magical practice.

Sigil Witchery is just brilliant. For it's length and how much information we're given and the details Tempest Zakroff goes into, it's quite a quick read, meaning it won't take too long until you're creating powerful, beautiful sigils full of history and intent. It's such a fantastic guide! And I loved Tempest Zakroff's voice so much, I'm really eager to buy her Weave the Liminal, her latest book which goes into Modern Traditional Witchcraft, her own practice which she touches on in Sigil Witchery. It sounds right up my street, and if it's written anything like Sigil Witchery, it's going to be engrossing.

If working with sigils is something that you're interested in, I'd highly recommend Sigil Witchery as a different method of designing and creating magical symbols full of history and power.