I am hoping to get some advice with this, as maybe some of you have experience with this. For some crazy reason, my eyes are just determined at this point to not cooperate at all. As soon as I begin looking at a sigil or square, my eyes immediately begin to water terribly. I have tried to tough it out, but it just gets worse, to the point where my eyes are burning and and tears are pouring down my face. I am very nearsighted and have tried the following: relaxing my gaze, eyes half closed, placing the sigil on my lap so as to relax my gaze at a downward angle, with glasses and without glasses, eye drops, placing the sigil at some distance across the room, regular light, natural light, candle light, near complete darkness.
I have to say, this is frustrating me to no end. I have even approached this with “it is just a state of mind, I will ignore it, it will go away”, type of attitude. I would love to hear if anyone else has experienced this, and what you might recommend. I would really love to be proficient at opening sigils and squares.
Well, you seem to know most of the techniques, so there’s not much I can say other then: don’t try to fight blinking with your eyes. gazing is not the same as staring.
You’re right on that Bran I actually did find myself staring when I first started trying to open sigils, but figured out real quick that wasn’t going to work. In my mind Im cool with blinking, but having to squeeze my eyes shut every couple of seconds and wiping my face down with a towel is definitely breaking my concentration, lol! Thanks for chiming in with that though, I do think it is a mistake many beginners make.
Y’know, Beboe, what I see is you being really hard on yourself about the technique … maybe a better approach would be to modify the technique to overcome your specific dilemma.
Have you considered looking at the sigil intently enough to memorize every detail of it, then CLOSING YOUR EYES? I believe one can just as easily open a sigil with the Inner vision as with physical vision - and perhaps in your case even easier.
Continuing to struggle with a technique that is not working for you robs you of confidence, and more importantly results. I think once you stop putting pressure on yourself and relax into a modification that works ~for you~ there will be quicker results!
And like Bran said - you’re obviously understanding the principle & technique, so you’re halfway there already! Zoe
Thanks Zoe! I had not considered opening the sigil that way… I think I will try that tonight and just see what happens. I mean, it makes perfect since. When I have been somewhere where I could not do ritual, I have gone to my “mind temple” and done ritual there and have had tremendous results, often times better/faster results. I know it isn’t really about the physical tangible things that make ritual work, so opening sigils with eyes closed may be just what I need to work on. Thanks so much!
I actually have a different method of opening sigils, I trace over them with my demonic dagger, then I touch the tip of the dagger tot he sigil and focus all of my will and intent into it about what I want the sigils entity to do. Usually I’ll feel some sort of energy tingle when I do this.
Great suggestion Zoe.
In fact, the more familiar I become with a certain entities sigil, the less I actually write it out. I do just this. I will project the sigil in front of me, or I’ll close my eyes and project it behind my eyelids. I find it to be much more effective any way. It seems to bind to the astral much faster and activate nearly immediately. So yeah - I’m going to have to agree with Zoe on this. It works quite well . In fact, it’s my method of choice once I become familiar enough with the sigil to be able to do it.
Beboe, thought I’d throw another suggestion out there. I often find myself naturally doing a half-gaze. Where my eyes are half shut and relaxed. I blink normally throughout. When the lights are low and you’re half-gazing, it seems all you can see is the sigil. Just a kind of sleepy stare. I too had a similar problem at one point. This helped out quite a lot.
i know this thread’s a little old, but i have a suggestion i’ve found works really well for me.
before opening any sigils, enter trance by whatever means you prefer, attain a sense of omnipotence (i draw purple light down through my head on inhalation, then force it through my body on exhalation) then when the mind is still, gaze at the sigil. allow your eyes to unfocus just a little, then focus only on your breath. although you’re looking at the sigil, think of it as simply where your eyes are directed at that point in time. you’re not looking AT the sigil, you just happen to have your eyes pointed its way. breath in for a count of four, hold, then out for four. counting silently in your head works really well. concentrate gently, but entirely on your breath and forget about the sigil you just happen to be staring at. after about three breaths, the sigil will flash and disappear completely (for me, anyway). if i try and find the “right” way of looking at the sigil to make it flash, it NEVER does. as soon as i count my breaths (and even keep imagining the light above me), it opens right away.
this is the only way i’ve found to open sigils successfully, but it’s also a very easy method.
i know this thread’s a little old, but i have a suggestion i’ve found works really well for me.
before opening any sigils, enter trance by whatever means you prefer, attain a sense of omnipotence (i draw purple light down through my head on inhalation, then force it through my body on exhalation) then when the mind is still, gaze at the sigil. allow your eyes to unfocus just a little, then focus only on your breath. although you’re looking at the sigil, think of it as simply where your eyes are directed at that point in time. you’re not looking AT the sigil, you just happen to have your eyes pointed its way. breath in for a count of four, hold, then out for four. counting silently in your head works really well. concentrate gently, but entirely on your breath and forget about the sigil you just happen to be staring at. after about three breaths, the sigil will flash and disappear completely (for me, anyway). if i try and find the “right” way of looking at the sigil to make it flash, it NEVER does. as soon as i count my breaths (and even keep imagining the light above me), it opens right away.
this is the only way i’ve found to open sigils successfully, but it’s also a very easy method.
hope this helps someone:)
kind regards, james.[/quote]
Thanks alot james ! This is the easiest to understand method I read so far
no problem. hope it helped. the cool thing is, once it flashes well and you’re in a good state of trance, you can look directly at the sigil with eyes focused, clear as day, and it will keep flashing and eventually disappear completely. if you can convince yourself not to be amazed at the novelty of it, it really looks like you’re holding a blank piece of paper. eventually you break concentration and it starts to come back, but it’s an amazing experience.
before i moved to college, i had a great ritual setup where i could get this to happen all the time. where i am now, i’m struggling to get it to flash at all (i.e, no candles/incense policy on campus). when you do it a couple times, the sigil seems less like it’s just charged and more like it’s an actual gateway you’re holding in your hand. like a wormhole that just sucked all the ink on the page into the void, connecting you to wherever the spirit lives. it may just be a psychological trick, but how often do you see an image on paper disappear while you’re holding it? it’s extremely useful for deepening trance and making stronger connections.
Something similar hapened to me recently. I had my eyes half closed but still they started to water and then the focus in the sigil just just stoped flashing.
It seems sometimes i can sometimes i dont. Even i already successfully opened a sigil (first the lines start like to vibrate which is very interesting, then they flashed, and desapeared and i felt all this vibrating energy around) But this time dont. Somehow it was being difficult cause it seemed the sigil never opened completely or only parts…
I have only made few sigil openings so far, perhaps is because of that…
I actually did find myself staring when I first started trying to open sigils, but figured out real quick that wasn’t going to work. In my mind Im cool with blinking, but having to squeeze my eyes shut every couple of seconds and wiping my face down with a towel is definitely breaking my concentration, lol! Thanks for chiming in with that though, I do think it is a mistake many beginners make. 