What's underneath the Squiggle: An Exploration of Sigils

picture copyright Taylor Ellwood 2024

Lately I’ve been finding myself fascinating by sigils and symbols again. Whether you’re conjuring a spirit with a sigil or creating a custom sigil for the purposes of manifesting a desire into reality, what makes sigils so versatile is how they can symbolically represent and mediate specific transmissions of information. Yet what’s underneath the sigil?

What’s underneath is something the sigil can’t quite describe or represent. The sigil presents a face to the world that allows us to make sense of the intangible and give it a form we can relate to. It allows us to pack ideas and concepts into the shape and recall them and it allows us to send them out into the world, to create a path of manifestation that turns essence into form and imagination into reality.

Yet a sigil is more even than that. It is a structure that creates a container to describe the essence that is being worked with, whether that’s a spirit’s essence or the essence of a desired result. The sigil becomes a key to unlock that essence and also learn the essence and make it part of your being. The symbol internalizes the essence within you and it becomes manifest through you.

The reason sigils work so well is become of how they work through us. The sigils embed themselves in our consciousness which in turn is acted upon through our actions. It’s a chain of manifestation that acts on the path of least resistance. The sigils, as symbols, are accepted more readily by our consciousness and seed the mind with possibility which then becomes reality, by the convergence of the outer variables of the world and the inner actions of the person.

The sigil is a story as well. We can get to the heart of the story by meditating on the sigil. If the sigil is for the spirit then it becomes path to the spirit that allows the practitioner to interface with the story. If the sigil is for a possibility it speaks to all the variables of the possibility. What’s underneath the squiggle? A universe waiting to be explored.

The Role of Daemons in Necromantic practices

I’m currently doing a lot of research and magical work with daemonic spirits and one of the themes I’ve consistently noticed is how daemonic spirits are linked with necromantic practices. S. Connolly notably has several books exclusively devoted to necromantic work with daemonic spirits, which are insightful and helpful, in terms of introducing magicians to the spirits who can be helpful for necromantic workings. I also recently found an intriguing connection in Clavis Goetica by Frater Acher and Jose Sabogal, where they too note the role of underworld spirits as facilitators and allies for connecting with the spirits of the dead.

In my own spiritual practices I’ve done some necromantic practices over the years. When I first started out, I found that working with a spirit emissary was very helpful. My initial work was with Euronymous who’s continued to be an ally I work with for purposes of necromantic magic. I’ve also worked with Saturn, Bifrons, and several other spirits since then and each time what I’ve observed is that the spirits play an essential role as intermediaries in necromantic practices.

My definition of necromantic practices are practices done to communicate with ancestral spirits, the spirits of the dead in general, but also ritual done to assist a person in the process of dying, so they can pass over. My practices are done from a place of reverence and respect, both in terms of working with the daemonic spirits and the spirits of the dead.

My early workings with the necromantic practices focused around near death experiences. Euronymous played an important role in this work, helping to create a state of near death I could work with and apply to myself, which I ended up utilizing in several workings I’ve shared in Space/Time Magic. My later workings have focused more on ancestor work, specifically around letting my ancestors help me and inviting them to help me in my life, and that work has been facilitated with Saturn’s help.

It strikes me that one of the most important skills that a given spirit can bring to a working is how the spirit can play a significant role in facilitating connection with other types of spirits. I think this faculty is sometimes glossed over, but its a significant feature of spirit work and one that can be very useful, especially if you want to create a respectful relationship with all of the spirits involved. In general, this theme of spirit facilitation can be found with nature spirits, and connecting to the land through them, or connecting with underworld spirits or angelic spirits and it is an aspect that is almost taken for granted because it plays an implicit part of the work.

I’ve noted similar facilitation in my work with the Djinn. Initially an archangel is called on to mediate and direct the connection with Djinn. The grimoire traditions apply a similar approach in working with daemonic spirits by calling on angels initially. In some cases the facilitations takes a top down approach, which I don’t recommend, but I do think its important to explore and understand how spirits can be intermediaries for connecting with other spirits, especially on the initial contact with new spirits. You might, as an exercise, track your own experiences with spirits and see if this holds true.

Even now, with my own necromantic practices I still find it to helpful to connect with a spirit that facilitates contact with the dead. It enhances the overall connection because the daemonic spirit naturally has an affinity toward what death represents which is a breakdown and transmutation of life into something else. This isn’t to say a person couldn’t do necromantic practices on their own, because its certainly possible, but in my own experience this work is enhanced by the facilitation of the process with other spirits.

Sound and spirit: How singing and chanting creates connection

In Holy Daimon (Affiliate link) the author shares how spirits love the sound of humans singing. When I read that it reminded me of a statement what William G. Gray shared in Magical Ritual Methods (Affiliate link) about invocation and how he uses sound to setup the connection between the magician and the spirit. In my own work with spirits, and magical work in general what I’ve discovered is that sound is powerful medium that conditions the receptivity of the human consciousness while also establishing a specific space in the environment around you. Frater Acher shares the following in the first aforementioned book:

“The spoken word is the sword blade of the magician. It forms the bridge between the realm of the spirits and the realm of matter. It is itself a hybrid power, half born from flesh, half born from spirit. Singing - making our voice carry particular melodies and vibrations that express intent not only in the words spoken but also in the meaning of the melody”

When I sing or chant to connect with spirits, I infuse vibration into the singing because it serves to harmonize the connection through the energy of the vibration. The vibration aspect is essential because I use it to find the frequency of the connection. The sound of the words form the essence of the desired connection and provides meaning to the human mind, while the vibration calls forth to the spirit and invites it to connect and work with me. The sound also mediates the shared essence of the practitioner and spirit, creating a relationship between them that enables communication. That communication can come in the form of visual or auditory experiences, but in my experience is more succinct and powerful as a spiritual transmission.

This principle isn’t new, but it is worth coming back to and exploring in depth in your own practice. The sound of the spoken word, the naming of a spirit is a power into itself and this concept of sound and connection underlies what is happening when we call to a spirit. It also can play a role in the naming of a space. For example, my partner and I name our home and the name of the home speaks as much to our relationship as it speaks to what we cultivate in this home and in our interactions with each other. The name is significant but the sound plays a role as well. When I say the name of my home, I’m evoking through the sound of the name all the experiences that have occurred as well as calling for more experiences.

Singing has another effect as well. It elevates us emotionally and energetically. It’s important, as a result to consider what energy you want to bring into your interactions with the spirits you’re connecting with. When I sing or chant, I do it from a place of joy for the experience of the magic as well as for the opportunity to connect with the spirit. I like to make sure that I put myself in the right frame of mind and emotion because I want to give myself over to the experience and showing up with anything less than my best effort is a disservice to myself and the spirit. Singing creates the space, the emotion, the energy, and the presence when you fully invest yourself in it.

How do you incorporate sound into your connection with spirits? Comment below.

What makes a spirit a spirit?

I've been thinking about the question, "What makes a spirit, a spirit?" 

I'm currently writing Walking with Nature Spirits, and in the writing of this book I've been thinking about this question because of how I approach the work with nature spirits, but also because of the stereotypical imagery associated with nature spirits, which usually has them set up with imagery of gnomes, undines, slyphs, etc., basically humancentric shapes and appearances.

The benefit of the humancentric shapes is that it makes easy for us to identify with those spirits. The downside however is that we all too often get stuck filtering our experience of a given spirit on the basis of the human oriented shape we associate with it. This isn't limited to nature or elemental spirits either. 

We see this same tendency to humanize the appearance and experience of spirits with Daemonic spirits, angelic spirits, and any other type of spirit out there. This tendency brings with it a kind of entitlement as well: Namely the entitlement that the spirits are really here to serve or work for us. It's a naïve belief that isn't fully accurate and can create potential problems when we adhere too strongly to notions of what we think spirits are or are not. 

One of my main purposes for writing the Walking with Spirits series is to present an alternate perspective to spirit work that is rooted in building a collaborative relationship with the spirits, but also recognizes that to experience the spirits we must be willing to experience them on their terms as much as possible. 

What does that look like?

When I work with a spirit what I try to do is engage the spirit on the level of experience that it chooses to show up at. What that means is that instead of expecting it to show up a specific way or in a specific form, I open myself to the experience of the spirit as it chooses to show up.

Sometimes that still includes a human form and human communication, but sometimes the experience is more direct, the feeling of sensations as the spirit makes itself known sensually. For example, I might be walking down a path and feel the spirit show up and connect with me emotionally or through physical sensations. I might experience a transmission of information.

We've gotten so used to spirits showing up in ways that are easily understandable to us, but I'm interested in what gets lost in the translation as it were, because I think that some of what a spirit could share does get lost in translation.

This brings me back to that question of what makes a spirit a spirit?

Is a spirit defined by the categories and taxonomies that we put it in or by the shapes it takes on and becomes for our benefit? Or is the spirit something we can't quite define because it doesn't fit our conventional human experience?

I don't have an answer to these questions...just observations and experiences that help me connect with the spirits, but also help me realize how filtered and biased that connection can be. I recognize that even with the approach I've taken which is a much more sensorial approach I can't necessarily remove all the bias and filter that comes with the human experience. I can be aware of it, but it is still a part of me, a part of the reality of my life, and perhaps it is something that the spirits find value in.

I wonder if they ask a similar question...what makes a human, a human?

How to Build a Relationship with your Land

You can build a collaborative relationship with your land. I discuss how to build that relationship and share what it can look like, especially as you get to know the land and develop a communication and dialogue with the spirits that live on the land.

The Daimonic as the voice of the Divine

I’ve lately been reading a fascinating book on Daimonic spirits. I share what I’m learning and some ideas it brings up around the nature of the divine and how working with these spirits can help us connect to the divine nature within ourselves.

Psychology and Religion and their role in Spirit Work

I recently finished reading Joseph Lisiewski’s Howlings from the Pit (Affiliate link), which is a collection of essays about grimoire magic and of curse his particular argument as to why you have to do spirit work with daemons in a specific way. I don’t agree with Lisieswki’s approach and I’ve gotten efficacious results through my own system of spirit work, but I do think he makes some interesting points that are worth considering, both in regards to spirit work and magical work in general.

Point 1: You have to honor the original religious/spiritual belief system you were raised with - Lisiewski makes the argument that if you were raised in a different religious/spiritual system than the current religfious/spiritual system you are in, and you want to do spirit work, you have to honor original religious/spiritual system at least once or twice a year. I disagree with the author on this limited belief and think it speaks more to his religious/spiritual issues than being an actual and effective axiom.

I was raised episcopalian and was a born again Christian for a time and I never found that I needed to go to a sermon or make some kind of offering at a church in order to do effective spirit work. When a person makes a rule or axiom around any magical work, we ought to carefully consider the subjective nature of such rules. What works for one person may not work for another and may not even be relevant.

Point 2: If you put your power in magical tools this takes away from the power you bring to rituals. - This is an interesting argument that I find myself agreeing with in some ways. Lisiewski is specifically referring to the creation of tools for the Golden Dawn rituals and how part of that process involves embedding your personal energy within those tools, which ends up taking away from the efficacy of your work with other magical systems.

I do think its possible to invest a lot of yourself into a given magical tool, which is one reason I recommend not relying on any given magical tool too much. A magical tool is meant to be an aid and representation of something you are working with. It can help you access certain frames of mind and being, but it should never be something you rely upon so much that you can’t do anything without it.

Point 3: If you don’t do the magical working the right way, you can suffer adverse effects (aka his slingshot method). I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to do magic, but you can definitely tell if a given process or methodology is working by the results that are being generated with that process. Keeping careful track of the results, consequences, and adverse effects that come with magical work is a good idea because it helps you recognize what is working or what can be improved upon.

Sometimes you will experience adverse effects with magical work. These may show up as synchronicities indicating the confluence of possibilities lining up to manifest the result or spiritual forces showing up to help or hinder the work involved. The key is not read too much into anything, and continue doing the work until you’ve finished the operation.

Point 4: Your psychological, spiritual, ideological values play a role in your magical work. This point is a bit similar to point 1, but also distinct. What we believe and think about ourselves, other people, and the world around us plays a role in the magical work we do. It’s important to acknowledge the internal reality and the role it plays in our magical work. In my own experience the majority of the time a magical working doesn’t work is because of the internal reality of a person and what is out of alignment with that internal reality and the desired result the person is going for.

Point 5: You have to do specific activities at specific times with specific items. Ironically, one of the points the author made in contradiction to point 2 was that you need to use certain items at certain times in order to get results. I won’t argue that a given system of magic may speak to specific necessities around magical tools, times, etc., but what I find personally powerful about magic is that you can come up with your own systems and processes and get results that are consistent and powerful. You can also do this with a pre-existing system, but you do operate within the constraints of that system. Either way can work, but its important to figure out what works for you. The beauty of magic is that it provides a versatility that can be explored and experimented with, provided we’re willing to question the underlying narrative that magic has to be done a specific way in order to be effective.

Why you don't want to be an archetype

I find it fascinating when a person overly identifies with a role they’ve taken on in their lives or profession. Part of the fascination is based off my pop culture studies, where I’ve noted how the persona in pop culture takes on a life of its own. The person who makes up the base identity of the persona is overshadowed by the persona and the attention and energy directed toward it by the people who are interested in the persona.

However this isn’t the only way that identity can be eclipsed by a persona. Identity can also be eclipsed by taking on an archetypal identity and overly associating with it. While there can be a lot of value in working with a given archetype, because of the patterning that the archetype provides, there can also be a limitation involved when you overly associate your identity with the archetype.

When I apply this awareness to my own life I consider that while I practice magic and write books (among other activities) overly associating with the role of magician or author would be very limiting. There are times to take on those roles because they serve a specific purpose and put me into a specific identity, but inhabiting that identity all the time would prevent me from experiencing the richness of my life.

Consider your own life and the archetypal roles you take on. How do those roles serve you? How do they limit you? Do you want to inhabit that role or is something you can outgrow and let go of?

For a long time I have identified myself as a magical experimenter. It’s been a good role to play, but as I continue to walk my life path, I also think about what other roles I might step into as well as what value might be discovered in the process. I will always experiment with magic, but it’s not the only purpose of my life. When I recognized that I was able to step into other roles and let go of some of the attachment I’ve previously held with the magical experimenter role.

We ought to consider carefully who we become as it relates to the archetypes we connect with. Each archetype has a purpose, but we also have purpose beyond the archetype. Getting curious about the overall purpose of your life and being can be just as empowering as any other role you might take on.

The Role of Boundaries in Spirit Communication

When we don’t establish the right kind of container with the proper boundaries, spirit communication and work can become problematic. I discuss the importance of setting clear boundaries in your magical work and share why this can benefit you.

If you want to learn more about my upcoming class Advanced Spirit Communication, go here.

The role of somatic meditation in spirit communication

Somatic meditations can play an important role in spirit communication, helping us to connect with the spirit through the medium of our bodies and in the way the spirits interact with the body. I discuss that this experience can be like and why it can help you improve your communication with spirits

5 common misperceptions about communicating with spirits

One of the questions I see frequently asked by other practitioners is how to test and verify if a spirit is on the up and up as it were with the information it provides. Another question I see asked is whether anyone has ever seen a spirit manifest in physical form. These types of questions are valid ones to ask but what they often indicate to me is that the person is caught up in surface level details and is missing out on the subtleties of spirit communication. This brings me to the topic of this article…

5 Common Misperceptions about Communicating with Spirits

The first misperception that many practitioners have around communicating with spirits is an expectation that spirits will communicate using the verbal language you are used to hearing. Naturally we want spirits to communicate with us in the language that we are used to using every day and some spirits may choose to do that, but more often than not I have found that spirits communicate in much more subtle ways, and through what I would consider to be a transmission of information, which acts as a download. Spoken and written language, in comparison are very limiting.

The second misperception is the expectation that spirits will appear in a physical form that you can see. This is one of those tropes of modern occultism where there’s a perceived value in a spirit manifesting physically even though said manifestation doesn’t accomplish much if anything meaningful. I’ve never had a spirit manifest in a physical form yet I’ve had efficacious workings with the spirits. The need for a physical manifestation is a vanity and ego play in occultism which keeps the practitioner from accomplishing real work with the spirit.

The third misperception is the expectation that spirits have the same types of desires and needs that we have. This is reflective of a tendency to humanize spirits. We do this because we want to ascribe motivations and desires to the spirits that we can understand, but these motivations and desires are out of alignment with the nature of a spirit. A spirit may have desires and needs, but those desires and needs are based in the experience that spirit has, which is significantly different from our everyday experience.

The fourth misperception is a tendency to focus on specific aspects of what a spirit can do or provide without considering the bigger picture. This misperception is rooted around the tendency to focus on specific aspects of a spirit, such as its elemental correspondence or domain of influence, because you want the spirit to do something specific for you. It cherry picks the spirit for what is convenient for you and ignores other aspects that either might be helpful or detrimental…or may cause you to ignore other possible spirits to work with.

The fifth and final misperception is around the understanding of power and potential versus form and manifestation. Spirits don’t have the same material awareness or form that we have, but they have access to more power and through it potential. What they provide is possibility and influence which can be directed to help manifest a result, but we bring something essential to the equation as well. We bring the ability to manifest potential into reality through our material and manifest form. If you want to turn a possibility into reality you necessarily sacrifice power for manifestation.

If you want better communication with spirits, where you get consistent results that transform your life then you’ll want to sign up for the Spirit Communication class, where I’ll share my tried and true techniques for connecting with spirits.

Can you get results with spirits?

One of the questions that I see asked a lot about spirit work is whether or not you can get results with spirits that are tangible and real. Today I share my own thoughts on doing spirit work and what the results can be. I also discuss what your role and the spirit’s role is in this work.

As I mentioned in the video I’m teaching a class on spirit communication and how to get better results with spirits. If you want better results, sign up for the class!

Why do people want to communicate with spirits?

Communicating with spirits is an activity that fascinates people, regardless of what they believe about spirits. I share some thoughts on why people want to communicate with spirits and why spirits want to communicate with people and discuss the importance of building reciprocal relationships.

The rules of Spirit Summoning

Photo by Farzad Sedaghat: https://www.pexels.com/photo/mysterious-shadow-behind-dark-backdrop-3809379/

Lately I’ve been reading books on how to work with Daimonic spirits, as research for my next book in the walking with spirit series. One of the subjects I find fascinating about the books is the rules that the authors provide for summoning spirits. From what I can tell most of these rules are arbitrary rules, personalized to the theories and ideas that writers come up with as a way of explaining how to safely call forth the spirits. While there is some consistency in regards to utilizing angels to help in the process of summoning the spirit, the process itself seems to vary from purely psychological and symbolic workings to elaborate ceremonial and ritual magic.

The question that arises in my mind is how much any of these rules are essential and how much of them are arbitrary, based on cultural and religious assumptions and modalities that create a narrow and limited perspective of what it means to work with a spirit. When we step outside the Western informed framework of spirit work what is discovered is a multiplicity of perspectives on working with spirits, all of which provide valuable insights and perspectives about how to work with spirits without necessarily employing everything that is brought into play with the Western model of spirit work.

One of the assumptions that we ought to question carefully is what we believe about spirits versus what we know about them versus what we are told about them. Take a piece of paper and write down what you believe, what you know, and what you have been told. Where did each of these perspectives come from in your life? What informs your beliefs, the facts, and your experiences?

And here’s another perspective to consider? What did your ancestors believe about spirits? You may be able to ask your parents or grandparents directly, but go back further. What did your ancestors a century, or two centuries or further back think or believe about spirits?

How Correspondences Work

In this video I talk about correspondence tables and what the real purpose of correspondences is and how this can help you with your magical work.

Inner Alchemy of Life: Physiological Magic pt 1

I discuss my systems of physiological magic and share how I came up with it and provide the basics of how it works in relationship to treating neurotransmitters and hormones like spirits.

The Scythe of Saturn: A consideration of cyclical aspects of Saturnic work

One of the themes of my inner work this year has been around Saturn, in terms of sacred masculinity, but also in terms of space/time magic. I've lately been reading the book Saturn in Transit by Erin Sullivan which explores the astrological influence of Saturn on the transits. One of the more intriguing points she makes is the following:

"The need to castrate our old oppressor in order to install a new order, then swallow out creative issue so as to preserve the status quo, is quite normal in the various stages of development. When we recognize that this is a process, and one, moreso, which repeats itself, we are freed to re-enact this scenario over and over again without reserve. Saturn is the planet that establishes our rites of passage from the one status quo to another and, as that functionary, should be regarded with respect and not with fear and dread. Furthermore, once we recognize that the revolution is originating from within, we are then more capable of conspiring and cooperating with the timing of the events precipitated by the transit."

What I've observed in my own work with Saturn is that there are cyclical aspects of the work that need to recognized in order to get the most out of the work. Once I recognized these cycles and started employing them, I was able to get a lout of the work that I had previously missed out on. So what are the cycles?

The cycle of Fear - Saturn connects us with our fears, because the fears we feel often play a role in the limitations and boundaries we experience. However the real depth of Saturn with fear is that Saturn shows us how we sabotage ourselves with our fears. The mythos of Saturn demonstrates this because of how Saturn sabotages himself with his fear off being overthrown. We can either allow our fears to control us and sabotage our possibilities or we can learn to be present with those fears and discover how to work with them in an intentional way that allows us to liberate ourselves and achieve our potential. Saturn challenges us to do the latter by causing us to experience the former.

Saturnic Wisdom and Inner Alchemy

Working with Saturn involves learning how you have limited and bound yourself and invites you to break free of the self-imposed chains as well as the chains others have put on you so you can evolve and grow. I share my own journey around this in relationship to Saturn.

My ongoing experiments with scrying

I discuss my ongoing experiments with scrying, my upcoming book Scrying the Divine and share how this work is helping me refine my spirit work.

How to Fuel your Magical Entities and get better results

Picture copyright Taylor Ellwood 2023

Recently I was asked a question about how I fuel magical entities. The person asked if I relied upon deities, elemental or planetary currents or other traditional forms of fueling that are typically used with magical entities. It's a good question to ask, because there are many different ways you can set an entity up, both in terms of how you fuel it, and in terms of other specifications and customizations you can make to the entity.

While I can and do draw on more traditional methods for fueling entities, these methods are only one part of my process for fueling entities (or doing any other kind of magical work that requires a fuel source). The benefit of drawing on more traditional sources is that they are tried and true. For example if you create an entity that's focused around love, it makes sense that you might draw on the Venusian current or seek the aid of a love deity to help you with empowering the entity to perform it's specific tasks.

On the other hand, one might rightfully ask why not just go directly to the source and work with the love deity or the planetary energy without drawing upon an entity for the purposes of doing the spiritual work? Certainly that's a good question to ask as well.

The reason I choose to work with a magical entity is because I can tailor the entity toward the specific needs of the situation, which can be useful, especially if the situation doesn't exactly fit within the domain of a given spirit's influence. Another reason I might create an entity is because I want some distance from the situation, but I still want a magical working to be done, but through a lens that focuses in on my understanding of the situation. A deity or more traditional spirit may not have the exact understanding of the situation that an entity can be programmed to have...and that can be very useful with specific examples.