Mage Haven

From Mindful Education.

“we’re enemies - last week you tried to rob a bank”

“i got us a groupon for that new thai restaurant”

“you stole it!”

‘you didn’t make that, the girl scout you stole that from is crying right over there!’

“well i thought you’d be thirsty from trying to stop criminals.”

“you’re the one doing the crime!”

“is this because i didn’t come to your slam poetry night? i was in jail”

“please, she’d never get caught with me”

“you get caught all the time!”

“i really hope this isn’t going to be used as evidence in your next trial”

He didn’t fail. He succeeded at being what he wanted to be, which was ‘the respected partner of Rose aka an alien war general’ and ‘Steven’s dad’. He still makes music in his spare time and loves it, but his priority #1 (by choice NOT because he isn’t good for anything else) is Steven.

He was Steven’s primary caretaker until he hit the limits of what he could teach (aka gem stuff), and he gave Steven a loving, nurturing life full of physical affection, musical tutoring, family traditions and outings.

I don’t think the gems pay for Steven’s cell phone subscription. I’m pretty damn sure that Greg thought a phone with music storage capacity for his son was a better use of his cash than anything for himself. He’s content living in the van, I think – he strikes me as being pretty zen– but he does have needs.

He always puts those needs second for Steven, except the once, which was such a huge anomaly we got an entire story arc about it.

Reviewers make a lot of how Steven seems to have ‘inherited’ Rose’s kind nature– bull. Bull and shit. Yes to some extent he does have Rose in him, but to ignore how much of his nurturing and forgiving nature he LEARNED from Greg is just lazy.

Greg Universe’s lover laughed in his face when he asked her if she respected him and he stuck around and talked it out like a goddamn adult.

Greg Universe had his home wrecked because he helped the Crystal Gems fight off Lapis and never turned his distress on them.

Greg Universe got pushed off a fucking roof because a badly socialized tech support agent wanted to see if he could fly and immediately forgave her because she didn’t know any better.

A way to commune with your ancestors.

Gather: - Rosemary for remembrance - Yew for spirit calling - Cypress for longevity - Yarrow Root for contacting relatives - Anisette Liqueur for ancestor summoning - spring water

Let the name of the loved one be repeated by the preparer of the spell. Burn the herbs in a cauldron and spill the liqueur into a glass of pure spring water. Lay in the cauldron a treasure of the loved one, should one be available.

Using safe, sterile equipments prick your finger and add your blood to the cauldron, calling the name of your ancestor and saying:

The method I have stuck with the longest goes something like this:

I write down my statement of intent, in present tense (”I am” versus “I will”). I prefer to use longer sentences to make sure I get exactly what I want and need out of the sigil, though just using a couple words can work just as well. I’ll use “I am safe and protected in my city" as an example - a sigil I made ages ago on thesigilwitch.

From there I remove any letter that repeats more than once. Some say to remove the vowels as well, but I like to keep them; that feels very much like a personal preference thing to me, anyway. So “I am safe and protected in my city" becomes “IAMSFENDPROTCY.”

Once that’s done, I generally break down those letters into smaller, basic shapes. So A would become / - \, D is just | ), and I think you get the point. :p This is very much a personal preference step. I find my sigils more aesthetically pleasing when they don’t look like the English alphabet - they look more mysterious and arcane, which is a huge draw for me, and basically what made me want to start working with sigils in the first place. (Besides the fact that they looked super easy, not so draining of one’s energy, and the least likely to cause negative backlash, but I digress.)

After that, I doodle. I keep my statement of intent in mind as I draw, constantly thinking and repeating it to myself. Sometimes I use all the pieces of the letters, sometimes I use only one of each, sometimes I just wing it. This is the part of my creation process that is the most fluid, which I find hilarious. I spend the time to write out the statement, break it down as far as I can, and then most of the time I don’t even use the pieces xD There are times when I don’t even break down the statement of intent - like my [”Amulet Coin” sigil] - and others when I rid the duplicate letters but never break it down any further than that - the [”Bring Rain” sigil] is a good example of that. It basically just depends on my mood, and what I’m feeling for each particular sigil.

Anyways, back to the creation process. I generally get a design I like in one to three sketches, but that’s because I’ve spent over a year doing this and I’ve gotten my style nailed down pretty tightly. Sometimes it takes a while to get a design that you like - last year I spent an hour and thirty designs for one sigil, that was brutal. It’s fine if it takes some time, just keep trying until you get something you really like the look of. 

The design I went with for “I am safe and protected in my city" looked like this:

When I have a sketch that I like, I “digitalize” it. I draw a bit outside of sigil work, and most of my work is done with digital art programs, so I started neatening up my sigils that way as well. It’s super aesthetically pleasing to me, plus they look really nice uploaded to Tumblr when they’re digital like that. I scan the sketch, then use PaintTool SAI and Adobe Photoshop for digitalizing my sigils. This sigil, “I am safe and protected in my city,“ looks like this when drawn in PaintTool SAI, and made transparent in Photoshop:

And that’s my process. Sometimes I play around with other methods, just to see what I can get / if they’ll work as well. I find experimentation pretty important when working with sigils (they’re a part of chaos magic, which heavily recommends playing around and trying new things with magic). It also really depends on the kind of mood I’m in, and how much time and/or energy I have to make a sigil. If I need to pump one out really fast, I generally just focus on my statement mentally and just let the pencil lead the way.

I’m including some links to other sigil creation methods, so you can get an idea of how they vary and how you can personalize your method to suit you and your needs. :)

[Basic Sigil Creation]

[A Beginner’s Guide to Sigil Craft]

[Creation & Activation]

[Creating a Sigil]

[An Essay on Sigil Crafting]

[Frater U∴D∴, Practical Sigil Magic]

[How Caito Makes Sigils] and [A Clearer Explanation]

[How Simon Makes Sigils]

[How I Make My Sigils]

[How I Make Sigils]

[How I Use the Keyboard on My Phone to Create Sigils]

[How to Create a Sigil]

[How to Make Sigils]

[How to Make Your Own Personal Sigils]

[How to: Making Sigils]

[Magick Squares, Sigils and Planetary Seals]

[Magic/Sigil Circles]

[My Sigil-Making Process]

[A Peek at the Process]

[Pokécraft: Unown Sigils]

[Sea Witchcraft: Maritime Signal Flags as Sigils]

[Sigil Crafting Guide]

[Sigil Crafting Method One]

[Sigil Creation with Planetary Magic Squares]

[Sigil Magic. Making a Magical Sigil]

[Sigil Language]

[Sigil Making Process, by Richtor]

[Sigil Making Process, by Rook]

[Sigilisation]

[Sigilmaking with Lee]

[A Small Guide to Sigils]

[Steps to Make a Sigil]

[Three Sigil Design Methods]

[What Are Sigils?] (an ask)