For HoldAll: My lust for desire always got to me, it always inhibited me. I’ll take your advice on taking a more casual approach and thinking it already worked when I finish the ritual, and also Im good at distracting myself. So what I understand is:
1. I start off by saying something like “and so it begins”, make my sigil in the future tense, it has to look pleasing to me and it’s up to me how I do the whole sigil process, I know you state that sigils work best when they are for one time changes instead of long term conditions or processes but the sigil I’m making needs to last possibly a week or two.
2. I should keep the vowels
3. Should I still visualize my desire while making the sigil?
3. Once I’m done visualizing it I stop thinking about it and justI lose myself in the sigil, admiring it, instead of rigorously focusing on it
4. I understand there are many ways to charge a sigil and I heard it has to be in a state of trance/state of heightened emotion. Like meditating on it or putting yourself through pain, intense fear, etc. But I’d like a little more insight on that if you may.
5. Once I’m done, I say a phrase like “It is done” and just forget about but not burn the sigil and just keep it somewhere else.
But as you said, it’s up to me so for now I’ll take advice from you, the books I’ve read, the videos I watched and I’ll just wing it. And HoldAll, I didn’t know it was up to me how I would do it so now I feel more motivated with less worry of trying to get it right, no dusty guru or book can limit my imagination and creativity.
Also sorry, two more things. You know any good books on chaos magick? How long did take you to know all this anyway?
What it really comes down to is what I'd like to call "creative reality engineering". So for example, if you're looking for a favourable decision by some authority or court, sigil magic might work; it may have long-term consequences for your life but hinges on a single one-time decision. If, on the other hand, you decide to become healthier and lose weight, sigil magic might not be so suitable because there will be constant temptation in the form of junkfood, lack of motivation to go to there gym or just general backsliding. Then again, you could try to use sigil magic to cut out chocolate, for example, using sigil magic to make that stuff suddenly unappealing or even disgusting to you. Some authors like Peter J. Carroll also say that the more improbable the result is, the more psychic energy you have to expend in order to make it occur. Some situations or developments just have so much momentum behind it that it is almost impossible to stem the tide. I don't fully subscribe to that 'brute force' approach anymore, I'd rather try to break down the whole process into several stages, going from the general to the specific, working on the framework conditions first and then narrow my focus on the particular problem in question. More skill than muscle, so to speak
Like I said, it's a creative process so I think one should spend enough time to carefully craft one's sentence of desire to ensure you will get precisely what you wand. You don't have to visualise your desire as such, just cooly analyse the overall situation before pouring the wished-for outcome into a single sentence. Then comes the fun part where you play around with the letters, trying this shape or that, maybe adding a couple of squiggles (for example, I would put an exclamation mark in front of the sigil to denote urgency), turn some letters upside down, merge some others into one, etc. You won't have much free mental capacities in order to visualise your desire during that time anyway due to that creative concentration so I'd recommend going into some natural dream state, like a child playing with its favorite toy and forgetting everything around it.
I'd separate sigilisation from the charging process unless it's really urgent. Just put the sigil away for a couple of days - you won't forget your desire, of course but maybe the exact wording of your sentence of desire. In this way, you will be able to start off fresh instead of still thinking about the desired outcome somewhere.
Chaos magic burst on the occult scene in the Seventies and Eighties very much like punk rock. It was wild and unruly and knocked over the staid complacency of traditional ceremonial magic. Accordingly, the recommended charging methods were pretty wild to, from flagellation, auto-asphyxiation and drugs to physical exhaustion and masturbation - it was all about raw energy, not so much about skill. Adepts were encouraged to go into some altered state of mind ('gnosis'), charge their sigil 'spasmodically', e.g. at the point of orgasm, and then banish everything, typically with laughter, to help them forget the whole operation and their desire. These days, I'd rather use a more gentle method with a formal ritual opening (e.g. by performing the LBRP) and closing, aiming at creating an out-of-the-ordingary, trance-like atmosphere and then trying to 'inhale' my sigil, imprinting it on my brain, so to speak.
I'm more into angel magic now. Like I said, I've had mixed results with sigil magic but as they say, you learn more from your failures than from your sucesses - troubleshooting will teach you a lot. One thing I remember was the phenomenon of 'scattering' from my unsuccessful operations, i.e. unwanted side effects that were sometimes hilarious and sometimes unpleasant. I was still trying to work out how to avoid them when I gradually began to slip out of the whole occult paradigm because of discovering other real-life interests, only recently re-entering it again.
Mind you, in the last couple of decades there has been a backlash against chaos magick because some chaotes had take their antics too far, for example evoking Lovecraftian monsters for fun, or invoking Scrooge McDuck for increased wealth to no avail when good old Jupiter or some spirit would have easily done the trick. But sigil magic still stands as a valid method, in my mind. I'd still use it for pressing, more specific issues or for emergencies.
I'simply experiment if I were you. Eventually, you'll hit on a charging method and/or ritual framework that you feel comfortable with and that works for you. I used to love the high drama of magic, the mystery, also the danger, but I've changed over the years. Chaos magic is DIY, eclecticism. Nowadays, some authors (esp. the Gallery of Magic) take a more enlightend stance and say, "It's fine to experiment, just don't overdo it" and urge readers to not throw the rulebook away altogether.
As for books, there are enough of them in Book Shares, just use the search function. Some are mainly wild speculation without practial value, you can just feel the authors revelling in their new-found freedom from tradition. Personally, I'll always carry a torch for Peter J. Carroll because he was the one who really got me into practical magic back in the day. The chapter on sigil magic in Liber Liber Null & Psychonaut is quite short so I'd rather recommend reading Frater U.D.'s book first. He is an erstwhile collaborator of Carroll's and knows what he is talking about.
Book – PDF - Practical Sigil Magic: Creating Personal Symbols for Success Frater U∴D∴
Book – PDF - Liber Null and Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll 2022 Edition
More accessible than Liber Null & Psychonaut and less dogmatic, if there is such a thing in chaos magick:
Book – PDF - Liber Kaos: Chaos Magic for the Pandaemonaeon - Peter J. Carroll (2023, Revised & Expanded Ed.)
