Signs, Symbols, and Societies
Before we explore some wonderful examples from several symbol systems, let’s take a moment to think about some words. Symbol, sign, sigil, seal, motif, design, and image are usually all found as synonyms. (I’ll be using them throughout the text so that in some places you’re not reading the same word over and over again.) They all connect seeing something visually and assigning it meaning or importance, but there are some nuances worth noting:
• A sign represents or points to an idea in a fairly straightforward way. Think road signs, ads, etc.
• A symbol is similar to a sign, but it tends to represent something more profound, complex, or abstract than itself, and may have a hidden meaning or truth.
• A sigil is a carved, drawn, or painted symbol that is believed to have magical properties or power.
• A seal is a mammal that lives by the water. (Just seeing if you were still paying attention!) A seal is a mark that displays authenticity, demonstrates authority, or keeps something safe or secret.
• A motif is a recurring and distinctive form or shape that is repeated in a design or pattern.
• A design is a thoughtfully organized structure of elements in a work of art.
• An image is a physical likeness or otherwise visual representation of a person, place, thing, or idea.
I’m introducing these subtleties to you so you can consider them as you view the upcoming illustrations and think about how each culture uses their art.
I feel it’s also very important to note that I’m not showing you the following examples from symbol systems to say “These are sigils” or “Make stuff like this culture.” I’m including them in order to demonstrate the similarities in line, mark, shape, and usage between diverse cultures and time frames. You can appreciate the work without appropriating it, and recognize its commonality. If you are interested in any system (either the ones introduced here or others), I thoroughly encourage you to do more research on the cultures surrounding them. Also, if you have roots in a system shown here, I hope you find new inspiration and perspective—maybe a new angle or area to study on your path.
Simple Yet Sophisticated, Sacred, and Secular
Whether considering symbols in cave paintings, medieval manuscripts, or modern art, it’s vital that we understand that essentially the same brain made them all. Despite the advances in science and technology and the exploration of thought over the passage of time, we are not physically or mentally more advanced in the present day. We are just as prone to superstition today as we are capable of logic. Thinking of our ancestors as less advanced or intelligent is just as farfetched a notion as romanticizing people today who look or live different from ourselves. We may have different experiences and appearances, but we’re all human—and we often turn to symbols for the very same reasons.
So even if we can’t determine exactly why cave paintings were made, I think it’s safe to say that the symbols held deep meaning to the people who made them. And those people weren’t that different from us. Why? Because when we find similar symbols elsewhere in the world, still used by living societies, they’re inherently complex and highly sophisticated despite their apparent simplicity.
To understand this relationship, we will first look to the art of the Aboriginals—the indigenous people of Australia. According to numerous archaeological discoveries, for at least the last 50,000 years a multitude of diverse tribes have flourished on the continent and surrounding areas. Much of their art and its meanings have managed to survive, despite the effects of the last two hundred years of white colonization. The concept of having certain people specialize in making art is a newer idea to the Aboriginals—art had always been such an intricate part of daily life that all people were involved in the process of making it: baskets, weavings, carvings, body painting, sand drawings, tool making, dancing, etc. These traditions continue to evolve today through modern Aboriginal artists in both traditional and new media.
Many of the symbols found in Aboriginal art clearly have a basis as signs relaying important survival information. There are the marks fashioned after animal tracks: a chevron with a center line to represent emu footprints, opposing J shapes for kangaroo prints, and a fringed serpentine line to represent the impression left by the goanna (a large lizard). Other symbols represent the bodies of the animals themselves: groupings of small dots for ants, larger ovals for eggs, thick wavy lines for snakes, and connected rings to represent grubs. Then there are the signs that mark landscape features that are important to survival. Concentric circles and spirals are used to mark the locations of watering holes, and they’re connected by parallel wavy lines if there’s running water between them. Meeting places are also marked with concentric circles, but are surrounded by diagonal lines that point toward the center. There are also the symbols for hunting equipment, based on simplified outlines of spears, shields, and boomerangs. Other symbols are much more stylized, such as an inverted U to symbolize a person, which is then paired with various configurations of vertical lines to represent a man or a woman, as well as their age.
For the majority of symbols found in Aboriginal art, their similarities to recognizable tracks, features, and animals—as well as the fact that we’re dealing with a living culture with a long history that still uses these symbols—might lead us to believe that the meanings are pretty straightforward and consistent. Culture is constantly evolving, and Australia is a huge place, with different landscapes and challenges in each area. Some symbols gain new meaning as hunters and gatherers become farmers, doctors, and lawyers—and others lose meaning. It’s also important to recognize that these shapes become the inspiration for patterns of decoration and elements of magick and rituals. Dots may build from the shape of a tiny ant and can signify the presence of ants, but ants can also represent colonies, movement, and small things have a larger impact over time. Concentric circles and spirals can mark the physical location of a watering hole, but they also symbolize the life-giving power of water, the ebb and flow of life, and a place where everyone gathers. The multiplicity of meaning illustrates the importance of not taking everything so literally. We must also remember that although symbols can look similar, they may have different meanings to other people.
Collection of Aboriginal Signs and Symbols
It’s also important not to fall into the trap of perceiving Aboriginal art (or any of the art we will talk about) as “primitive.” There is nothing primitive or simplistic about abstracting the world around us. Eurocentric anthropologists, archeologists, and historians have done a spectacularly horrid job over the last several centuries of diminishing the work of cultures not found on their continent. While making accurately representational art may seem like it requires a lot of skill, it takes a deeper sense of creativity to see the world in non-representational terms. This deeper vision includes everything from using shapes, colors, and patterns to express spiritual and dreamlike experiences to elongating and exaggerating bodies to express movement and divine presence. Making an accurate representation of something takes careful observation, while creating abstraction requires a significant use of imagination.
A great example of abstract use of Aboriginal symbols outside of depicting daily activities and living is when they are used to describe what is known in English as “the Dreaming.” The Dreaming is an idea that encompasses a way to describe all that is known and liminal, the origin and subsequent mythology of the people. It explains life, living, being, and dying, and how everything is interconnected. In his book Images of Power, David Lewis-Williams remarks that art making is integral to Aboriginal religious experience and aesthetics. He writes that the “great theme of Bushman art is the power of animals to sustain and transform human life by affording access to otherwise unattainable spiritual dimensions.” 3
It’s interesting to note that in some instances of exploring the idea of the Dreaming, symbols are meant to be lasting marks, and
in other uses they are meant to be temporary. There are signs engraved in stone or painted on canvas to tell important stories, physically signify or mark sacred sites, and describe mythic forces. But those same symbols—such as spirals and wavy lines—can be found painted on bodies, for both decoration and ritual use. There are also large-scale ground paintings created especially for ritual use by the practitioners. Again, commonly utilized basic symbols and images may be used, but it is believed that they become supernaturally enhanced during the ceremony and should be destroyed afterward. But that only happens with those certain ritual processes. The same symbol drawn for another purpose isn’t changed metaphysically and doesn’t need to be destroyed.4
This duality means that although a symbol might be used in the context of sacred ritual, Aboriginal artists use the same symbols in the mundane world as well. They’re not tied exclusively to sacred application because there isn’t such a hard line between the spiritual and the secular. Lewis-Williams explains: “For the Bushman, religion is not a separate part of life to be indulged in only on certain solemn and ritual occasions. It is part of the fabric of everyday existence: no clear line is drawn between sacred and secular. This is one of the reasons why their beliefs about and attitude toward the supernatural are important for a proper understanding of their art.” 5
I think one of the most valuable lessons to take away from Aboriginal art is the accepted fluidity between mundane and spiritual images. A single symbol can exist in both worlds; its meaning and application is inherent to the person making or using it. It is their belief that guides the meaning for that moment or application—and that can be as obvious and concrete or as spirit-driven and mysterious as the maker intends it to be. This relationship between the symbol and the artist is one you’ll want to keep in mind when it’s time to get down to some sigil witchery.
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words ... or at Least One
One of the primary benefits of symbols and signs is that they simplify complex ideas. A single picture can represent a whole situation and be quickly understood for those who are in the know. Those early symbols on cave walls most likely were not meant to be letters of an alphabet or random scribbles, but rather were probably part of pictographic or ideographic systems. The symbols become signs and messages not just for the people who make them but also for others to see later and respond to.
We can look to language to get a glimpse into the connection between symbols, words, meanings, and usage. Over time, pictograms may have evolved into logographic writing systems, where glyphs represent words and sounds rather than the things they resemble. For example, with Egyptian hieroglyphs, you have a line of glyphs that clearly look like an animal or item, but they don’t read as “ibis, man, duck, eye, scarab, staff, staff.” How each glyph is placed—what it is located next to or what it is above or below—alters the meaning.
This makes context all the more important to consider. You can’t just pull a single symbol out of a group to grasp its complete meaning; you need to see the whole picture and the interrelations. It’s also fascinating to note that both ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and early Chinese scripts have this structure in common. Especially with Chinese characters, we can observe their long preserved history as they evolved from originally looking like the things they stand for. They became increasingly stylized and streamlined as time progressed, which essentially cut down on the amount of time required to make each character. In the illustration shown here of the evolution of the Chinese character for cart or wagon, note the resemblance to an actual cart on the left, and how it becomes more stylized as it evolves to the right.
Evolution of the Chinese Character for Cart or Wagon
Very rarely does a single glyph from a logographic script represent a complete idea like a crafted symbol or pictogram does. It’s more like a letter, a sound, part of something much larger. Keep this in mind when crafting sigils. A dot, line, or star gains more complex meaning as it relates to the other shapes and marks placed around it.
One way to see this in action is in Egyptian cartouches, which started to appear early in the Fourth Dynasty during the rule of Pharaoh Sneferu. A cartouche is a group of hieroglyphics encased in an elongated shen ring (an oval-like shape with a single flattened end), and originally signified a royal name. Cartouches are found on amulets and are carved as protective seals on tombs. The closed shape of the oval surrounding the hieroglyphics acts as a border of sympathetic magick—it protects the name, therefore it protects the bearer of that name. Nowadays you can get your own name made into a cartouche (even if you’re not considered royalty) to bring you protection and good luck.
Egyptian Cartouche
If we consider the word hieroglyphic, we also get a hint of divine inspiration. It originates from the Greek hieros (“sacred”) + glyphe (“carving”). Therefore hieroglyphics could be viewed as sacred writing/images. An instance where we might see a connection between hieroglyphics and the sacred power of words is with the Hebrew alphabet. It is considered to be one of the most ancient alphabets and has long been associated with having a sacred context in Jewish culture. The actual history between the Jews and Egypt is a hot topic of debate both in biblical and archaeological circles, but the similarities between the symbols and letters are quite apparent.6
What’s most relevant here though is the use of the Hebrew alphabet for magic—in both an ancient and a modern context. There are many examples of supernatural workings in the Torah (the holy texts of Judaism), but most people are familiar with the stories of King Solomon from the Book of Kings. There are numerous tales of his magical exploits, but the one most relevant here was about his God-given ring that bore a special seal, giving him the power to control djinn (or spirits or demons, depending on the translation). King Solomon’s story also provides inspiration for Jewish mysticism and other magical texts much further down the line that seek power through symbols such as those found in the Kabbalah and the Key of Solomon. The term Kabbalah refers to a branch of Jewish mysticism believed to have emerged in France and southern Spain in the twelfth or thirteenth century. It focuses on “the inner structure and processes taking place within the divine realms, on whose metaphysical dynamics the Kabbalists tried to exert influence.”7 Kabbalistic principles suggest that since the Hebrew language has divine origins, one can take a specific name, note the characters that make up that name, and use mathematical correlations and geometry as a formula to implement magic with that name. It is likely that the work of the Kabbalists influenced the writer/s of the Key of Solomon, a grimoire that surfaced around the fourteenth or fifteenth century during the Italian Renaissance. The Key of Solomon serves as an instructional manual on the magical arts—and there is also the Lesser Key of Solomon, compiled around the seventeenth century with a similar intent. Kabbalistic theories and sacred geometry as well as both Keys can be seen as greatly influencing many traditions of ceremonial magic for the last five hundred years. It’s through those various orders that a number of sigil practices developed, so closely linked with Hebrew magical theories that in many a modern ceremonial magic grimoire you’ll still find sigils with Hebrew characters incorporated into them.
But let us not fall down into the ceremonial magic rabbit hole! (There are links in the “Bibliography and Suggestions for Further Research” section if you’d like to study any of these historical documents online.) Let’s circle back to the power of the word, symbol, image—and religion.
So in Egypt we have the development of picture-words alongside a rich history of sculpture, murals, and other pictorial arts. Representational images were commonly made both to honor the gods and to record daily life, and the Egyptians have an extensive timeline of pictorial art making. Despite its early connection to hieroglyphics, the Hebrew alphabet distinctly moved away from recognizable images. This stylistic development is likely linked to the second of the Ten Commandments, which prohibits the making of “graven” images and the worshiping of id
ols. A similar ban is found in Islam against portraying the human form, as it borders on idolatry. Instead, both Jews and Muslims put their mystical artistic energy into the written word, and the power of symbols. In Judaism, there is a rich history of ritual objects (chalices, scroll casings, reading implements) being heavily engraved or carved with symbolic designs based on Hebrew letters to make them pleasing to God—setting them aside as sacred objects. In Islam, we see words combined with sacred geometry to create elaborate designs and motifs that evoke the divine in everything from architecture and vessels to rugs and jewelry. If we look at the Arabic alphabet, it too (like Hebrew) is not designed to remind us of images, yet it is incredibly graceful and beautiful to look at. Whole mosques are covered with sacred words and combined with geometric designs to form patterns, instead of using representational images. Even when religion tries to forbid it, humanity still finds ways to use art to expand consciousness and connect with divinity and the world around us.
Embodying Symbols
If we move westward from Egypt and the nearby Arabian Peninsula, we will find the Amazigh people, more commonly known as the Berbers, who are indigenous to North Africa. They live throughout the entirety of the region and are believed to have resided there since at least 10,000 BCE. There are numerous cave paintings and rock art in the mountains of Algeria and in the Sahara that were most likely created by the ancestors of today’s Amazigh people. Although the majority of modern-day Amazigh are Sunni Muslim, the practices in some regions point to pre-Islamic religious beliefs rooted in polytheism as well as animism and ancestor veneration. Many of the tribes are or were nomadic, so they have been traders of culture and art for much of their existence. It is possible that through their amazing symbolic art, we can get another peek into history.
Sigil Witchery Page 3
