The Letter Method — Spare's Classic Sigil Creation
- May 4
- 7 min read
The Letter Method: Spare’s Classic Sigil Creation
This is the technique Austin Osman Spare wrote down in 1913, and the technique nearly every modern sigil tradition descends from. Chaos magicians use it. Modern witches use it. Tumblr witches, TikTok witches, and practitioners who would never call themselves witches at all use it. There is a reason it has outlasted nearly every other encoding method that has appeared since. It is direct, simple, and remarkably effective once practiced a few times.
The entire technique can be learned in an afternoon. Mastery takes longer, but the threshold for getting started is low enough that a practitioner can create a meaningful sigil tonight.
Starting with the Statement of Intent
The method assumes the practitioner has already completed the work from the previous module. A statement of intent has been written. It is specific, written in the present tense, focused on a single desire, and refined into a sentence that carries weight and meaning.
The task now is to transform that sentence into a symbol.
Begin by writing the statement in capital letters.
The reason is practical rather than mystical. Capital letters share a more uniform visual structure than lowercase letters. Their shapes are easier to compare, overlap, and combine into a unified design. Lowercase letters contain ascenders, descenders, loops, and irregular forms that make them harder to integrate. They also retain a stronger sense of word identity because we spend our lives reading them as language.
Capitals create a small but important degree of abstraction. They remain letters, but they are one step removed from the sentence they came from.
For example:
I AM WORKING FULL-TIME AS A THERAPIST WITH A STABLE CLIENT LOAD AND AN INCOME ABOVE EIGHTY THOUSAND A YEAR
This is the final moment the practitioner engages with the sentence as language. From here, it begins to dissolve.
Step One: Remove the Vowels
Cross out every A, E, I, O, and U.
Some practitioners also remove Y. Others keep it. Either approach is acceptable as long as the same rule is applied consistently throughout one's practice.
The purpose is straightforward. Vowels are part of what allows words to function as recognizable language. Removing them disrupts readability and pushes the phrase toward symbolic material rather than verbal meaning.
Using the example above:
I AM WORKING FULL-TIME AS A THERAPIST WITH A STABLE CLIENT LOAD AND AN INCOME ABOVE EIGHTY THOUSAND A YEAR
becomes:
M WRKNG FLL-TM S THRPST WTH STBL CLNT LD ND N NCM BV GHTY THSND YR
In this example, Y has been retained as a consonant.
At this stage, the sentence still contains traces of recognizable words, but its character has already begun to change. What was once language is becoming raw material.
Step Two: Remove Repeated Consonants
The next reduction removes duplicate consonants.
There is a small divide among practitioners here. Some preserve repeated letters because they view repetition as reinforcing the intent. Others reduce everything to a single occurrence of each consonant.
The more common approach, and the approach taught here, is complete reduction.
Working through the example leaves something similar to:
M W R K N G F L T S H P B Y D V
The exact sequence may vary slightly depending on how duplicates were identified, but the principle remains the same.
What remains is no longer a sentence. It is a collection of symbolic components waiting to be shaped into a sigil.
Step Three: Build the Symbol
This is where the actual sigil emerges.
Take the remaining consonants and begin combining them. Rotate them. Mirror them. Overlap them. Allow multiple letters to share the same line or stroke.
An M may become part of a W. The vertical line of an L may become the backbone of the entire design. Curves, angles, and intersections begin merging into a single visual form.
There is no formula for this stage.
The process relies on experimentation.
The first draft often looks awkward. The letters remain obvious. Shapes feel stacked rather than integrated. That is normal.
The second draft typically finds a few places where letters can share structure. The third often discovers a dominant shape that organizes the rest of the design. By the fourth or fifth draft, the original letters may barely be recognizable.
Eventually, the design stops feeling like letters arranged together and starts feeling like a single glyph.
That is the moment the sigil begins to take shape.
Step Four: Refine Until It Stops Looking Like Language
This stage is where many beginners stop too early.
A successful sigil should not read as language. If someone can easily identify the original phrase from the finished design, the transformation has not gone far enough.
The purpose of the technique is to conceal the verbal statement from conscious recognition while preserving it symbolically.
Refine the design until it develops its own visual identity.
Many practitioners describe effective sigils as looking alien, mysterious, or self-contained. Grant Morrison famously described them as looking "witchy." The important point is not the style itself but the degree of transformation.
The practitioner should reach a stage where even she struggles to identify the original letters hidden within the design.
Finding Your Own Aesthetic
There is no correct visual style for a sigil.
Some emerge sharp and angular. Others become fluid and curved. Some are dense and intricate. Others consist of only a handful of strokes.
Certain patterns often appear naturally:
Protection sigils frequently feel armored or angular.
Love sigils often develop softer curves and openness.
Clarity sigils often become simple and clean.
These are tendencies rather than rules.
The most effective approach is to allow each sigil to develop according to its own logic rather than forcing every design into the same aesthetic template.
Trust the eye.
When the symbol feels complete and self-contained, it usually is.
Why Multiple Drafts Matter
Few strong sigils emerge fully formed on the first attempt.
Sketching, testing variations, abandoning failed approaches, and revising are all part of the process.
When the final form appears, redraw it cleanly on the paper that will be used in the working.
This clean copy matters.
The act of redrawing marks a transition from experimentation to commitment. The practitioner is no longer exploring possibilities. A choice has been made and embodied through the hand.
The finished drawing becomes the sigil.
The rough drafts can be discarded, archived, or stored however the practitioner prefers.
Common Beginner Mistakes
The Sigil Still Reads Like the Original Phrase
The practitioner has completed the letter reduction but has not fully integrated the letters into a unified design.
The solution is simple: continue refining. Rotate, overlap, combine, and simplify until the original wording disappears into the form.
The Sigil Is Just Initials in a Circle
This is a common shortcut.
A few initials enclosed within a ring may create a symbol, but it is closer to a monogram than a true Spare-style sigil.
Return to the full reduction process and work with the complete set of remaining consonants.
The Design Is Cluttered
Some practitioners try to preserve every letter and every stroke.
The result often lacks a visual center.
A cleaner design with fewer well-integrated elements will usually be stronger than a crowded design filled with competing details.
The Sigil Was Rushed
A hurried design rarely feels complete.
The design phase deserves time. Twenty minutes is not excessive. An hour is not excessive.
A carefully crafted sigil will generally outperform one created impatiently, regardless of how elaborate the charging ritual becomes afterward.
Personal Style and Individual Authority
One of Spare's most important insights is that there is no universally correct sigil.
There is only the sigil created by the practitioner.
Its authority does not come from matching an external standard. It comes from the relationship between the symbol, the desire, and the person who created it.
Over time, consistent practice naturally produces a recognizable personal style. Certain visual preferences begin appearing across multiple sigils. The hand develops habits. The eye develops preferences.
This does not need to be forced.
It emerges naturally through repeated work.
Preparing for the Next Step
At this stage, the sentence has been transformed into an encoded symbol.
The conscious mind can no longer easily read it. The desire has been compressed into a visual form.
The sigil now exists as an independent glyph, drawn cleanly and complete in itself.
What remains is the next phase of the practice: charging the sigil and bringing it to life. That process belongs to the next module. For now, the work of creation is finished. The sigil sits on the page, self-contained, symbolic, and entirely the practitioner's own.
Internal Family Systems & Parts Work Integration Practice
IFS Parts Art
The letter method begins when words start becoming symbol.
For this practice, take five to ten minutes, or longer if desired. Gather a blank page and whatever you have available: colored pencils, crayons, markers, pen, or pencil.
Write one short word somewhere on the page.
Choose a word that feels simple and workable today, such as peace, courage, clarity, rest, focus, trust, or another word your system chooses.
Now write the letters of that word again in a different part of the page.
Begin playing with them as shapes.
You might stretch them, overlap them, turn them sideways, mirror them, combine them, simplify them, or let one letter become part of another.
Notice what parts of you respond as the word becomes less readable.
A part may feel curious, playful, awkward, perfectionistic, impatient, frustrated, embarrassed, or surprised.
Let those responses be included while your hand keeps exploring.
When the image feels complete, pause and look at it.
Notice whether the word still feels like a word, or whether it has started to become a symbol with its own shape.
If you want to go deeper, write a few notes beside the image.
You might write about what your parts noticed while making marks, what felt easy or difficult, or what helped the design feel more like yours.
When the writing feels complete, put the pen down. Take a final moment to acknowledge and thank the parts of you that showed up for this practice.
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