Today at Hogwarts

What fun! This is the second week of our special intensive “In Quest of the Inner Image” workshop and it’s off to a great start. We often joke that our school, the Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts is a lot like Hogwarts. We’ve even figured out which character from the Harry Potter books most of us are – I’m still unsure for myself though…. hard to label as usual. Going from memory, I thought I was a bit like Luna Lovegood – a bit socially isolated, but not caring / very perceptive – an observer / strong faith in what she wants to believe in / loyal friend. I just read her description on Wiki, however, and I’m not sure if she’s the best fit. Those of you who know me and remember Harry Potter characters better than I do, who do you think I’m most like?

Ah, but I digress. Forgive me. What I wanted to say is that today’s class was a lot like one that might have been taught in an art class at this famous school of Witchcraft and Wizardry (yes, yes, I know it’s fictional). After our opening meditation and chanting, we delved into the world of sigils (sign or images considered magical / secret alphabet with personal manifestation powers). It’s like infusing an image with personal meaning and manifestation (yes, like casting a spell) – something I did once in a painting with powerful effect, so I was definitely interested in learning more about it. We looked at hieroglyphic alphabets throughout history and in the work of modern visionary artists (like Allyson Grey) before working on developing four of our own personal symbols based on one of many possible creative processes.

Write out a statement of a specific soul desire (not too general and not a Viennese pastry, even thought that crossed my mind during my lunchtime walk, but I resisted and went instead to watch the dogs playing in the dog park for 20 minutes – oops, I digress again).
Eliminate all the letters that are repeated.
play with the designs of the letters that are left; for example, mirror them.
put them together into one character
refine, simplify, stylize repeatedly until it feels right (this usually took 8-12 times for me today for the 4 manifestation statements we came up with.
copy the final sigil on a separate page and ceremoniously destroy the process pages
create a design frame around the symbol
activate the symbol: gaze into the image for a long time without blinking; close your eyes and imagine what it feels like to have your desire materialize, gaze again and imbue your image with that energy; repeat the initial statement several times, but saying “I am grateful… ” instead of “I desire”. and keep on activating until it feels right.
place your sigil where you can gaze upon it periodically – your unconscious will immediately associate the symbol with the initial statement of desire – an image is much more powerful than words.