Sigilectation

Sigilization is a ritual that aims to initiate a self-cleansing, self-healing process on the mental and spiritual planes. It can also be considered a performance because of the way it is carried out. The ritual was performed with my girlfriend Csenge Szalontai. Due to the intimacy of the subject, it was a "private ritual", during the process we painted the symbols on each other's bodies, the outside world can only gain insight into the process through the photo and video documentation. As a first step, we made a note of the problems we needed to solve. We grouped them into physical and mental-spiritual categories. Then we used Jacques Martel's The Complete Dictionary of Ailments and Diseases to organize the notes. The book is a lexicon that associates a mental and/or spiritual problem with every physical illness and problem. The body is believed to be connected to the human mind and soul, and there is a mutual flow of energy between these layers. With the help of the book, we have attached to each of our physical problems a definition of the problems in the book. Once we had mapped out the negative hotspots, we went back through the notes and put all the problems in the opposite, positive light. Our goal was to determine what emotions and energies could be used to heal the problem. An example from the drafting of a note on positive polarity: there is a negative focus around my left calf, I have been injured here several times over the years, and before I entered university I instinctively blew the skin. According to the book, it indicates a problem of not being able to slow down my pace and wanting to stop upcoming events because I am afraid of the future. So to help me solve this problem, I wrote down the following keywords: progress, future, and confidence. We did the same for all the hotspots. To create the symbols to be painted on our bodies, we used the book Visual Magick by Jan Fries. The book aims to develop vision, imagination, and creative magic. To do this, the author uses various methods, one of which is the creation of visual symbols called sigils. The aim of the sigil is to move the practitioner's life in a positive direction. The schematic process of creating a sigil: First, we need to consider what we want. It is important that the imagined desire is not burdened by ego excesses, we need to visualize something that will promote healing in inner processes, emotions, burdens, and problem-solving. Once this has been done, the desire should then be written down in a clear and concise form, be it a sentence or, even better, a single word. In our case, we used the notes we had previously made, writing down several expressions for one symbol. The repeated characters in the word are then merged into each other. The aim of simplification is to create as concise an image as possible, which can be seen as a symbol that contains the desire to be achieved. The resulting image can be used as a meditation object. On the day of the ritual we ate only partial meals and drank detoxifying herbal extracts. The aim was to physically cleanse the body before the ritual. To start the ritual, I removed all the hair on my body except my eyebrows. Hair on the body is often associated with a decorative role, it is difficult to let go, and by removing it I set the stage for the process of being able to let go of my problems, as a kind of proof to myself that I am ready to stop holding on to things too tightly. I also think this is important because my depilated body can be analogized to the pure, uncorrupted state of a child. This step was necessary in my case (Bokody Ákos) because of the thick, animalistic fur covering my body. Then we washed our bodies with a chamomile-lavender decoction. Chamomile and lavender have a positive effect on sensitive skin, cleansing and soothing it. The final step was to paint the symbols on each other's bodies. The deciphering and interpretation of the symbols written out during the performance remains a challenge: it remains an open question for us, requiring constant re-readings.