A Successful Sigil

During the first week of July I posted a sigil and asked my readers to assist me in its activation (you can read the original post here). In that post I stated that I would, after the month had ended, reveal the intention of the sigil and relay whether the sigilized intention was or was not made manifest. So, here is what it was all about.


THE SIGIL AND THE INTENTION

The sigil was created by writing out my intention, discarding all the repeating letters and then using the remaining letters to form the symbol that appears within the original post. Unfortunately, I am now unable to find the sheet of paper that contained my intention but it ran something like - “I will that at least five new individuals begin to follow my blog before the end of July, 2010.”

I chose the words "at least five" to indicate that five followers would be the minimum accepted. I chose the words "new individuals begin to follow my blog" to preclude the four readers I had at the time from being counted among the five. I chose the words "before the end of July, 2010," to limit the experiment to the month of July and prevent its activation by future readers (e.g., being activated in July of 2011, 2012, etc.).

RESULTS

The sigil experiment was a success. At the time I activated the sigil and asked others to do so as well, there were four followers of my blog. Within three weeks time The Magical Lotus had three new followers. All I needed was two more. On July 30th something rather strange happened. My Blogger account reported that two more followers had been added, but only one visibly appeared on the Google Friend Connect application on the blog itself. In other words, my account said that I had X number of followers whereas my blog showed X-1 followers. If this discrepancy is to be explained by someone anonymously following the blog ( I don’t know if this is possible), then the number of new followers during the month of July would have been at least five on the 30th. Irrespective of this dilemma, another individual began to follow my blog on the 31st. With this additional follower the Magical Lotus clearly and without a doubt received at least five new followers within the month of July (I say at least five because I have no way of knowing if anyone started to follow my blog during the designated time by way of methods other than Google Friend Connect and NetworkedBlogs. For instance, anyone who is following my blog by direct link cannot be accounted for. This did not occur to me at the time I fired the sigil, however. Funny though...in retrospect I got exactly what I asked for).

SOME THINGS THAT MIGHT HAVE HINDERED THE EXPERIMENT

Even though I consider my sigil work to have been a success, several factors had the potential to thwart my intent. An important component of sigil magic is the idea that one should, after firing a sigil, avoid bringing the sigil and its intention into conscious awareness. The idea is to let the sigil sink deep into the subconscious where it can be effective. Because I was still working on the blog itself at this time, I inadvertently came upon the sigil several times, thus breaking the rule of “sigil avoidance.” Also, my doubts regarding the effectiveness of sigil magic certainly had the potential to hinder the experiment (that this doubt persists is strange given that I have had some success with prior sigils). My general feeling on the subject is that sigils are more likely to be effective with Self-Magic than with bringing about external events. In addition, I chose to have the sigil activated by means of a method I myself devised. The method of activation itself had the potential to be ineffectual. In spite of all this, the sigil worked like a charm!

WHAT I LEARNED

1) Sigils often work in spite of the many potential obstacles to its success.
2) Even the most basic of magical experiments can weave a nebulous web of events that are hard to interpret if notes are not taken along the way. So... TAKE NOTES NEXT TIME, KARMAGHNA!