An Imbolc Sigil With the Blood and Ink Tarot

Where were you at this time of year two years ago? I remember February 2020 as that precious, ignorant, time when we were just on the cusp of everything changing. I think we had an idea that it was coming, but no idea that it would last THIS long.

This was the time of Blood and Ink’s birth of course; and despite the confinement and difficulties of the pandemic, my life was completley changed in many positive ways by magical actions I set in motion at that time. Two years! So I turn my thoughts again to the immense potential for change available at Imbolc and decide to concretise and clarify this potential by creating a sigil.

I share below a sigil making technique that I frequently use incorporating a consultation with the cards with the symbol sets found in the images.

The altar and the tarot cards

I ask my cards: what can I access now at Imbolc that will serve me well over the rest of the year? Because I’m looking longterm, I prefer to keep the line of enquiry quite broad. Experience has taught me, in this case, to keep avenues as open as possibile to allow the magic to find its own path of working through my life.

I draw three cards, Le Bateleur/The Magician, La Justice and Le Chariot. They rest in the altar space before me encircled by the red thread of fate (as I have consecrated it). I thread through the hole of a hagstone where it gathers the elemental forces of creation and emerges from the other side to close the circle. I spend time gazing at the cards in meditation.

My intent here is not the ‘read’ the cards but to allow the images to dance within my vision and to notice what lands in the space around me. The Magician is dynamic and I’m struck by the precision of her magic wand raised high in the air but more importantly the flow of her wide-brimmed hat which crowns her and covers her whole form in its shade. There is a patina of enchantment here. The magician says to me one word, very direct: “Activate!”

Justice sits in contrast very still and open. She has been an important ally this year for me, so I feel embraced to be in her presence here. She reminds me of the felt sense of my right relationship with self and others and how clarity tends to reveal itself when I’m in alignment. I hear my calling. Her sword stands out most for me. It tells me to be precise, be clearand decisive, and guard this as a sacred calling.

The Chariot appears offering horsepower – the endurance to keep moving, the assets outside myself to assist and the vehicle for manifestation.

Creating The Sigil

Now I have three visual elements that stood out to me. First, the swoosh of the Magician’s hat. Second, the decisiveness of Justice’s sword and last, those sharp, V-shapes of the horses’ heads. The trick is to now incorporate these into one visual representation which captures their energy and form.

After doodling a bit with possibilities, I arrive at the what you see below…

It’s important for each stroke to be full of consciousness and focus. “Activate my right alignment in the world” “Activate my calling and move me forward” These phrases go round my head as I ink the sigil on special handmade paper reserved for magic work.

Moving from left to right, I start with the long, wave-like line representing the magician’s hat. Then, my brush travels quickly and lightly, diagonally back to the left as if I am drawing with the fine tip of Justice’s sword. The jagged V’s of the horse’s head are added with strong, fast, strokes calling in the speed and power of the horse’s. The final stroke up and to the right acts to cast the entire sigil off to the universe where it will sit and guide me for the rest of the year.

Three final words remain.

It. Is. Done.

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