Sigil

Lore & Background

The term sigil derives from the Latin word for 'seal'. In medieval magic, sigils were occult signs representing angels and demons that a practitioner might summon. Grimoires like The Lesser Key of Solomon list sigils of 72 princes of the hierarchy of hell, considered by some to be equivalent to the true name of the spirit. English artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare developed a method of creating sigils by condensing an intention into a monogram, then charging it in a gnostic state to implant the desire in the unconscious. In chaos magic, a complex of thoughts that appears autonomous is called a servitor; a group mind independent of any individual is called an egregore. Grant Morrison coined the term hypersigil for an extended work of art with magical meaning, and argued that corporate logos like the McDonald's Golden Arches are a form of viral sigil.

In Their Own Story

The rain in Sigil does not fall so much as drift, suspended in the thin, colorless air of the Outside. You stand at the edge of the Bazaar, watching a merchant hawk potions beside a woman selling a single, unidentifiable key. The disc stretches in every direction, its rim dissolving into the black nothing beyond. Somewhere at the center, behind a wall of silence, the Lady of Pain sits in her throne room, blind, patient, waiting for someone to walk in with too much on their person. You check your pockets. You check your mind. You walk.

Reader's Guide

The source article does not provide a guide for using sigils in a game or fictional setting.

Did You Know?

• The Lesser Key of Solomon contains sigils for 72 princes of the hierarchy of hell.
• Austin Osman Spare believed supernatural beings were complexes in the unconscious that could be created through sigilization.
• In chaos magic, after charging a sigil, it is considered necessary to repress all memory of it.
• Grant Morrison's comic series The Invisibles was intended as a hypersigil.