Ryan Loyd

The Storyteller Way Blog – storytellerway.com
Ryan’s YouTube Channel – youtube.com
Feral Alchemy – facebook.com
Spoken Word – bandcamp.com
The Chaos Magick Learning Annex – facebook.com

This week, we talk to Ryan Loyd: writer, storyteller, creative problem solver, artist, artificer, weaponsmith, occult advisor…and WIZARD. I had to split this interview up into two parts due to the ridiculous number of topics we covered. Ryan has a lot of experience and has done much to push the boundaries of magickal practice. In this half of the talk, we covered a number of projects that Ryan has spearheaded and speculated on a number of concepts. You’ll find a lot of jumping-off points for your own lines of inquiry here!

We talked quite a bit about sigil magick and I realized that some of you may not be acquainted with the practice, so following the interview, you’ll find Part 1 of Nightgaunt’s Quick and Dirty Introduction to sigils. Here, as promised in the podcast, is the text version with pictures:

We discussed the “Spare Method”, so I’ll start off with that. It’s named for Austin Osman Spare, an English occultist and artist who lived from the late 19th to early 20th Centuries. The Spare Method is pretty straightforward and can be broken down into steps.

First, come up with a statement of intent. The example we’ll go with here of a statement of intent will be “MY WILL TO FIND A QUARTER ON THE SIDEWALK”. Personally, I dispensed with the “My Will To” bit a long time ago. It can get a bit tedious after a while and my sigilization style tends to be fairly minimalist. But if it feels right to you, by all means include it!

So now you have your statement of intent. Now, you’ll cross out all repeating letters. Some people, including yours truly also cross out the vowels, but again, do whatever turns your crank. Still using the quarter example, you should now have “M Y W I L T O F N D A Q U R E H S K”.


Next, take all of those letters and sort of mash them together in whatever combination you like to make a little abstract picture. Copy and recopy it a few times, altering bits here and there until it doesn’t just look like a bunch of letters stuck together anymore.


Here’s the difficult bit. Because your conscious lust for result can interfere with the efficacy of the working, according to Spare, you have to forget what your sigil symbolizes. The best way to accomplish this is to create several sigils representing different statements of intent, and leaving them alone long enough that you forget which one does what. This also helps to circumvent the psychic censor that I talked about a few episodes back.

Now, you’ll need to fire off the resulting sigil. This can be done through a combination of visualization and reaching a state of “no-mind” (known as “Gnosis” in chaos magick circles) subsequent to a build-up of energy and “firing” the sigil in that moment by releasing that pent-up energy through the sigil. This can be done through breathing exercises, dancing, drumming, chanting, pain, orgasm…whatever. Visualize the energy flowing through the sigil in whatever way suits you.

It takes a bit of practice, but after a bit of trial-and-error, you’ll come up with your own variations that work best for you. Next week, I’ll go over some other techniques and uses and talk a bit about some new things I’ve been trying.

Finally, this show is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend, Rick Lemanski who lost his battle with ill health this week. Rick was the kind of guy who would always have your back. A pillar of the Detroit Goth scene, he was a generous, kind-hearted, and gentle soul…and he’ll be sorely missed. His nom de guerre, “Prick”, was amusing because he was anything but. Humble, self-effacing, thoughtful, and deeply intuitive, Rick will live on in the hearts of everyone who knew him until we’re all reunited in whatever discarnate reality awaits us. Fair travels, Rick. Know that you were loved by those whose lives you touched.