How To Use Sigil Ashes: 2 Advanced Sigil Magick Techniques

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Sigil ashes are not just magical trash! You can use them to empower other spells and even future sigils. So don’t throw them away, keep them in a bottle and employ them in some advanced sigil magick techniques!

The most common way of charging a sigil is burning it. Sure, there are other ways, but this is the first technique taught to most chaos witches and features heavily online and in every book about chaos magic.

Most people let those sigil ashes out into the wind or simply throw them away, but I’m hear to tell you that those ashes can be used!

What Is A Sigil?

A sigil, at its most simple, is the combination of letters in a word or sentence of intent to form a new symbol. This symbol magically represents your intention. Similar to concepts in the law of attraction, the sigil relies on your willpower, your magical energy, and / or the power of the universe to make magic happen.

The term sigil derives from the Latin sigillum, meaning “seal” and it is the root of many other English words such as “signature,” “sign,” and “signal.” Historically the term sigil referred to a type of pictorial signature of an angel, daemon, or spirit. (arcane-alchemy.com)

Sigils can become much more complicated than that, but that’s the beginner’s definition. If you want to see practical sigils in action, look at some brand logos. Many of them are made using the same techniques as magical sigils, and possibly some of them have a magical aim in themselves.

The creation of word sigils originated with English artist Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956) and his development of Zos Kia Cultus. (thepeculiarbrunette.com)

Austin Osman Spare refined the use of sigils in his Zos Kia Cultus. He turned his sigil designs into physical yoga-like poses. This allowed for whole body magic, and is an extremely powerful tool. If you want to improve your sigils, studying Austin Osman Spare is critical.

“The law of sorcery is its own law, using sympathetic symbols.” Austin Osman Spare once said. “Art is never decoration, embellishment; instead, it is a work of enlightenment.”

He was a proto-surrealist and an extremely charismatic and important character in the occult revival of the 19th and 20th century.

Aside from Austin Osman Spare, Rune Soup has many amazing blog posts about sigil creation.

Any magical intent can be written out, and the letters scrambled to form a picture, mantra or neologism, which can be repeated or concentrated upon until gnosis ensues. (iflcm.wordpress.com)

The Sefer Raziel HaMalach

The Sefer Raziel HaMalach is an early example of magical symbols and sigils. This book was eventually discovered by the prophet Enoch before he was transformed into the archangel Metatron.

Jewish tradition says that Raziel stood so close to God’s throne that he could hear everything God said; then Raziel wrote God’s secret insights about the universe down in the “Sefer Raziel HaMalach.” Raziel began the book by stating: “Blessed are the wise by the mysteries coming from the wisdom.” Some of the insights that Raziel included in the book are that creative energy begins with thoughts in the spiritual realm and then leads to words and actions in the physical realm. (learnreligions.com)

This book was then passed to Adam and Eve after they were removed from the Garden of Eden. These sigils and symbols form the foundation of sigil magic even to this day.

Sigils And The Unconscious Mind

The magic of sigils comes from the power of the unconscious mind. What you’ve magically done but no longer think about consciously still makes ripples throughout reality. Over a period of time, that quiet willpower that exists in those personal symbols and the subconscious mind makes your desires real.

Essentially you need to smoosh your sigils past your conscious mind and down into your unconscious… really ram them down there… like you’re making pan-dimensional foie gras. (runesoup.com)

Sigils are more than just an abstract symbol. They are the physical form of magic itself. Even the simplest, fastest sigil is powerful enough to move mountains. Whether you make permanent sigils or a destructible sigil, and no matter how you activate them, you’re harnessing very powerful energy.

Why Do We Burn Sigils?

If you’ve ever seen a movie where someone burns something, chances are they’re trying to destroy it. They may burn an old letter, a picture, a piece of clothing, or even their own hair. 

Sigils, on the other hand, are burned to charge and empower them with your will and magical energy. The flame gives the symbol power, the smoke sends the scent of your wishes to the universe and the gods.

Burning a sigil releases all of these things into the air around you and starts the process of making your wish, or magical intention, come true.

In most books about chaos magic, the most basic form of charging a sigil is usually burning it once you’ve forgotten its purpose.

Forgetting the purpose of the sigil allows you to forget the desire, therefore saving your spell from the complicated energy that comes from wanting something so bad it hurts.

But the purpose of those sigils remains even in the sigil ashes. That’s why you should reuse them! Don’t let any part of your magical practice go to waste.

Boost Your Spells With Sigil Ashes

If you shoal your sigils, or keep them for a long time to burn all at once in a great ritual, you should keep them separated by purpose. For instance, keep together the sigils for love, but keep them separate from sigils for money. Keep curses well away from blessings.

This way, as you burn your sigils, you can bottle the sigil ashes based on their purpose. 

Adding some ashes from your love sigils to a love jar spell is an excellent way to give those sigils even more strength and power up the jar spell, too.

I also give my ashes to my deities now and then, as offerings. My curse sigil ashes all go to my black Santa Muerte, for instance.

Any spell can be improved by adding a pinch of sigil ashes from relevant sigils. 

Write New Sigils With Sigil Ashes

You can mix a pinch of the ashes into ready-made ink that you then use to write future sigils. Again, I would keep these inks separate by purpose and never cross them except for specific, special cases. 

You could use money sigil ashes in an ink for sigils of love if you’re trying to send money to your lover, for instance.

Using the ash ink for your sigils is as simple as filling the ink into a fountain pen or brush pen of your choice.

For permanent sigils, there’s an interesting technique in tattoo art where you can mix ashes into tattoo ink. This is perfect for a ritual tattoo or a tattoo dedicated to a deity.

This is most often for cremation ashes tattoos. However, a tattoo artist that can make ashes ink for tattoos can probably mix some up with your sigil ashes, too. I’d just make sure to call ahead, make it obvious what you plan to do, and make yourself easy to work with.

Essentially, a ritual tattoo is one where a small amount of cremation ashes are added to regular tattoo ink, to create an ash-infused ink solution. (neptunesociety.com)

Skin issues can be a problem with this ink and tattoos made from ashes require extra care and cleaning.

Since the bulk of what your tattoo artist is using is regular tattoo ink, your tattoo should look and feel the same. (smartcremation.com)

As we can see, by adding a pinch of ash from the relevant sigils to the spell, the result will be much better than without it. Ashes can be used in many ways for magical purposes, and don’t need to be regarded as mere magical trash.

We can add a pinch of ashes to our rituals; we can use them as part of our spells; we can offer them to our spirits; we can leave them on altars. And they can even be added to ritual tattoos that we wear for the rest of our lives.