Magick as art/craft?

Hello fellow Permies!

I hope I'm not flying in from a too weird of an angle...but, do you guys do any magick at all?
What I mean is not the performance-on-the-stage kind of magic, but the old ways (and perhaps new), private, real kind of magick.
For me it resides somewhere between art, craft and energywork.

I've discovered sigil magick, and have used it exactly two times in my life now.
The first time just short of three years ago - and right after that my whole life changed. For the better

In a wave of intuitive inspiration I just made my second sigil.

I don’t use the word magic or magick. But I wish to delve a little more into that realm.

I notice that when treating the whole world as animate and alive, things that people would describe as magical start occurring as a matter of course and something intuitive. It isn’t that they’re not already happening, but they get ignored or written off as coincidence and that reaction shuts down any thought process directed toward understanding these phenomena.

I think that the level of “magic” that all of our ancestors understood—not special magicians or healers but just the ordinary person may be something that we would see as surprising and astonishing. As we take the animate view of the world it just happens, and then they also get to hear stories of that sort going around.

Yes, I guess what I'm aiming at is to open a discussion that has been frowned upon for too long.
After my initial post I thought 'duh! I should have mentioned biodynamic farming in my post!'.

The intuitive / energetic (/magickal) realm is right there, all the time if we just want to slow down enough to look deeper.

I know not everyone likes to talk about these matters, but ...I don't like to talk about tractor engines, for instance, and others do.

I'd really love to share stories about how people perhaps include the unseen into their daily(ish) lives.

My roommate in college was a double major in both the Japanese language as well as religion.

Due to this, he spent quite a bit of time learning kanji. Part of his learning involved recreating the characters as well as learning the history behind them.

Some of the writings he made looked like art pieces. While the symbol holds a certain meaning, so did the individual brush strokes in a way.

In other words, there is some depth that can be appreciated on many levels. Your sigils feel like a similar experience.

Timothy Norton wrote:My roommate in college was a double major in both the Japanese language as well as religion.

Due to this, he spent quite a bit of time learning kanji. Part of his learning involved recreating the characters as well as learning the history behind them.

Some of the writings he made looked like art pieces. While the symbol holds a certain meaning, so did the individual brush strokes in a way.

In other words, there is some depth that can be appreciated on many levels. Your sigils feel like a similar experience.

Thank you!
There's an affirmation, made up of two short (poetic) sentences.
Then all the wovels are 'discarded'. Then every consonant that appears in the wish is used only once in the sigil. The rest is up to the artist.
So, for instance, this sigil has the consonants B, F, G, L, M, N,  P, R, S, T and W arranged within it.

I'm also making use of the little knowledge I have of handwriting and how a person's character/mannerisms can be deciphered from their handwriting.
One can reverse-engineer that and consciously alter one's own handwriting to better our manners.
For instance, I used to be quite daydreamy. To bring myself down to earth, I made a conscious effort to bring my handwriting ON the line - before, it used to float above the line. Sigil magic doesn't make use of a line, but has other tweaks

I have some background in calligraphy, and appreciate the 'negative space', or the emptiness around the mark that has been made.
That might be the connection between this sigil and the kanji characters. Plus, as every artist knows, different directions in 'movement' (vertical, horizontal, diagonal and in which direction) and weight have their energetic character.

So THIS is actually the art and craft behind the 'magick'!

As a teenager I used to do these things just for fun. I learned quickly to reserve it for serious matters only.

This is interesting, and different from magic I have encountered previously.

I read about the practitioner making an intense focusing or prayer upon the sigil. Is that what you do?

Maieshe Ljin wrote:This is interesting, and different from magic I have encountered previously.

I read about the practitioner making an intense focusing or prayer upon the sigil. Is that what you do?

Thanks, Maieshe, for the conversation!
I'm not a big fan of rules or guidelines, when possible I prefer to go by intuition.
So what happened here was, the sigil kind of came to me, through increasingly louder signs, until I couldn't ignore it any longer.
I didn't ignore it on purpose either, I was just busy with my daily things when the sigil creation asked for my attention.

The "intense focusing or prayer"-part would be the affirmation the whole thing begins with.
It takes some time to get the wording right, and as compact as possible.
I like it with as few consonants as possible - that saves time and trouble in the sigil creation phase.

I have to say, the longer I walk on this Earth (I'm now 50), the less patience I have with needlessly complex practices.
I like my magic strong, efficient and without frills :)  ...oh, and beautiful, in order to 'colour in' the energy according to my taste - optimistic, positive and with a smooth flow!