Sigil Powder

I’ve felt the need lately to become more connected to my path through crafting, through making things with my hands and understanding the purpose and the process to that purpose. Oftentimes I think the ‘crafting’ in witchcraft is sometimes forgotten. With today’s get-it-instantly society, artisan crafting and creation is even more important. As I re-evaluate where I am heading, I find myself trying things I may not have necessarily thought about trying. I’ve found myself creating recipes for products for particular things that I would never have dreamed would become part of my journey; and through this I am beginning to feel more connected to the Self.



One of my experiments is Sigil Powder. It is a take on the Santeria Cascarilla powder. Truthfully, I’m not a follower of Santeria, so I felt it would be a little strange to create something faithfully to the original recipes. I want to use it for sigils, typing in the term ‘sigil powder’ gave some interesting alternatives so I continued on adapting and adding to create my own version. Some use just cornflour (the cornmeal type not the wheaten), others add talcum powder, salt, chalk or white eggshell (from the original Cascarilla). I went for a little of everything as well as adding herbs for their protection and cleansing properties, I can even say my eggshells are free range (we buy only free range eggs in my house). Some of the original recipes call to add water to form a chalk





Now many argue for the tradition of grinding down the eggshells using a mortal and pestle. I’m not that strong, so I crushed them down in a bowl using my pestle as it is heavy granite. Once the eggshells were crushed I put them in a chopper to grind them down further before finally powdering them in a coffee grinder. I have to say, eggshell getting worked over this way doesn’t smell particularly pleasant but it was fine. The herbs and salt were ground up to powder as well and added with the shells and cornmeal. 



The powder can be used for marking boundaries when laying the compass or casting the circle. It can be used to draw sigils on the ground when working outdoors. It is good for creating sigils when petitioning spirits, when collecting dirt from cemeteries or crossroads, it can be used to bless the home or ward it against negativity and also as a protection powder. I may end up selling it in my eBay store, although I'm of two minds. I've been considering devoting my eBay store simply to herbs and using Etsy or an actual website to sell the handcrafted wares.

Comments

  1. I like your crafting!!
    Your e-bay store is coming along nicely - haven't been there for a while so I went to have another look and wow, a lot more stuff on there!!
    Very nicely done and I hope you get a lot of buyers…
    I will share it on facebook to a few of my witchy friends xx

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  2. Nice article!
    I hope this does not offend you but I wanted to offer a thought and then a suggestion that might be useful to you & your endeavors:
    I wanted to comment because you spoke of some people using talcum powder (sp?) in the mixture. Because talcum has man-made chemicals in it, I would be concerned that the chemicals would lessen the "vibration" / energy / power of the mixture. All of your other additives looked great to me! :)

    You mentioned the strong odor when grinding the egg shells. A way to lessen the smell--or get rid of it altogether--is: prior to grinding the shells, collect rain water, soak the shells in the rain water (swirl the shells around in it), IMMEDIATELY remove the shells from the water, allow the shells to dry in the sun and then grind the shells up. An added step to ensure the shells have been cleansed is to use more rain water--VERY small amount--and add to the powdered shells. You end up making what looks like a paste. Set it in the Sun, impurities will rise in the paste (almost as if the impurities were being "pushed out"). When dried, you can scrape the impurities off & use as you'd like!

    Also, if you do not mind me asking, what herbs/resins do you add to the cascarilla?
    Prosperous year to you!
    thelearnedone

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    Replies
    1. Hi, I added Rosemary and Sage to the powder. I tend to like to keep my formulas relatively simple, plus I love these herbs as cleansing/protective herbs.

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