What Sigils Can do for You
The meaning behind a custom symbol may not be unique to one person alone, but each of our journeys paints the path and our needs differently.
Transforming generic into something
special and individual
We all have things we are trying to remember.
I’m not talking about facts or appointments, but something more personal we want to hold. Like a version of ourselves we are working toward, a truth we know on good days and lose on difficult ones, a person we love but has since moved on or even a season of life that has changed everything. These are some of the things we carry, but carrying is not the same as keeping them close. Life is fast and loud, and the things that matter most sometimes end up becoming silent to us without us even noticing.
I think about this a lot. About how we reach for reminders. A photograph we keep in our wallets, or a word we've written on a sticky note and moved from mirror to desk to a drawer for years. Something a person said to us once that we have never quite let go of. We are always, always trying to find a way to keep what matters nearby. What if we could have something simple that speaks for itself without effort? Something that, at an instant glance, reminds us of what is important?
A sigil can be that
something
The creation of a sigil takes what you want to hold close and transforms it into a unique symbol that becomes a language of its own that only you and the artist know…or until you decide otherwise.
When someone comes to me for a sigil, I don't start with a design. I can’t; it isn’t special enough without you. It lacks meaning and importance. What makes the symbol unique is you, the person who creates the content. I will start with a few questions to help get the ideas flowing, like, what do you want to keep near? What are you working towards or past?
It sounds simple, but it rarely is…
There are sessions where the answer arrives quickly, like a goal someone has been working toward for years, or a belief they want to stop abandoning when things get hard. Other times we sit with it, circle it, and find that what was assumed to be the thing they wanted of the sigil was actually sitting on top of something deeper, something unnamed.
Sigils can be created from:
A new beginning
A birth
A move
A chapter of life someone finally felt brave enough to step into.
A person who is gone but not finished shaping someone.
A goal still in progress that needs remembering
A truth that needs repeating like:
Don't overthink it
Love is my religion
Kindness is my compass.
While these are not unique needs to one person alone, each of our journeys paints the path and our need differently.
What a sigil becomes
Once a symbol exists, it can have a myriad of “lives” in your world and space.
Some clients frame their original art and place it somewhere they will see it every morning. Next to a mirror, in the kitchen, or on the nightstand beside the bed.
Others carry a small handmade ceramic piece through the day. It becomes something to reach for when the internal noise gets loud. One client told me he reaches for his when anxiety starts to rise. That small contact… the weight of it in his hand, the feeling of the carved symbol only he knows the meaning of… is enough to bring him back.
A sigil can become permanent, brought to a tattoo artist to live on the body as something you never have to set down.
It can become an oil painting that hangs in a room, a prominent abstract artwork that visitors will never know what it means.
It can rest on a coffee mug, a notebook, a keychain… woven into the ordinary objects of an ordinary day so the reminder is never far.
The object matters less than what it holds. What matters is that it is yours. That it was witnessed and made with care. That every time your eyes land on it, something in you remembers.
What do you want to keep near?
I came to this work through my own need for it. Years of drifting from creativity, from the thing I actually needed, before I found my way back through symbols, clay, and the patience found in nature that is always practicing whether we are watching or not.
I know what it is to carry something important and still lose the thread of it. I know that pit…the feeling of almost but not quite, of knowing what you want and still forgetting it in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday.
A sigil will not solve that, but it gives the thing you are working toward a home.
Somewhere visible.
Somewhere yours.
This is the symbol that says…
"This matters to me, and I will not forget.”
I’ll leave you with this:
Take a moment to sit with the idea of having a symbol hold space for you. There is one question…a question that might be harder to answer than you think.
What is it that you want to keep near?
By your side,
Beth
Curious about the process of creating your own custom symbol? Click here to learn more. It would be my honor to guide you on your journey.
