Ritual · “Repetition Rewires”
The Word Method
Take a positively-phrased sentence of desire, delete every repeated letter, and fuse the survivors into one stylised glyph that no longer reads as words — a teachable, paper-and-pen procedure for slipping an intention past the conscious ‘psychic censor.
Word Method (Frater U∴D∴): Write your desire as one positive present-tense sentence in capitals. Delete every repeated letter, keeping one of each. Merge the survivors into a single hand-made glyph that no longer reads as words. Charge it in a blank/peak state with full attention, then release — and forget it as fast as you can (burn or hide the paper, drop all craving). Read honestly: a focused intention-setting and outcome-release ritual that slips a positive wish past ordinary conscious doubt.
What it is
The Word Method is the letter-reduction sigil technique as systematised by Frater U∴D∴ (Ralph Tegtmeier) in Practical Sigil Magic (1990) — the book that turned Austin Osman Spare’s idiosyncratic art into a clear, repeatable, beginner-friendly procedure.
Where Spare left the method scattered through dense prose, U∴D∴ broke it into named methods (the Word Method, the pictorial method, the mantrical method) and gave each a clean step list. The Word Method itself: write your desire as a single sentence, delete every repeated letter, and combine the leftover letters into one abstract glyph.
U∴D∴’s organising idea is the “psychic censor” — the conscious, self-monitoring mind that second-guesses a plainly-stated wish (“will it really happen?”) and, in his model, blocks it from reaching the unconscious.
Abstracting the wish past recognition, charging it, and then forgetting it is how you smuggle it past that censor. This entry covers his construction procedure; his mantric/acoustic route is a separate practice, as is his pragmatic belief-switching (see Cross-links).
The Method
U∴D∴’s Word Method, faithfully described (short quotes only):
- Formulate the sentence of desire — positively, in capitals. One concrete aim, present tense, e.g. THIS MY WISH TO OBTAIN THE STRENGTH OF A TIGER. U∴D∴ stresses positive phrasing, because the unconscious ignores the word “not”: frame it as “remain healthy,” never “don’t become ill.”
- Delete every repeated letter, keeping one of each. Strike through each letter the second time it appears, so you are left with a short, unique set of letters. (Some practitioners also drop the vowels first; U∴D∴ presents the repeated-letter deletion as the core move.)
- Combine the survivors into one stylised glyph. Overlap, rotate, mirror and merge the remaining letters into a single composite design, recombining until it no longer reads as words and looks like pure abstract shape.
- Make it yours. U∴D∴ insists the symbol be hand-built and personally meaningful: “it is crucial that it has been created by the magician and is therefore meaningful to him/her.” Simplify or decorate until you are satisfied.
- Charge it in an altered state. Bring the mind to a blank/peak condition and fix full attention on the glyph at that moment, then release it. (U∴D∴’s own activation menu — death-posture no-mind, spasmodic/sexual peak, or mantric stupor — is detailed in Section 3 and the mantric companion technique.)
- Forget it — fast. His rule: “the faster you forget the sigil, the more effective it is.” Burn or hide the paper, avoid deep trance for a few hours, and drop all craving for the result, cultivating a “neither/neither” non-attachment (Spare’s term he adopts). (Sourcing note: a faithful step-summary of the Word Method from Practical Sigil Magic; “psychic censor,” “the faster you forget the sigil, the more effective it is,” and the meaningful-to-the-magician line are attributed quotation/close paraphrase, not full reproduction.)
Source & Lineage
Frater U∴D∴ (Ralph Tegtmeier, b. 1952) is a German occultist, translator and author, and a founder of the continental “pragmatic magic” and chaos-magic current.
Practical Sigil Magic (1990) is widely regarded as the definitive practical handbook on sigils; it explicitly credits Austin Osman Spare as the source of the underlying art and presents itself as making that art teachable.
U∴D∴’s named activation methods include a death-posture no-mind route (block the senses and hold the breath, then “shortly before reaching the point of fainting, open wide your eyes and stare … at the sigil”), a spasmodic/sexual peak route, and a mantric route. → originator node; source art (Spare).
The Traditions' versions
The same logic — abstract the wish past recognition, charge it in an altered state, then forget it — runs through a tight family of practices; U∴D∴’s Word Method is the standardised, teachable codification of it:
- Spare’s original sigilization — the fountainhead U∴D∴ is systematising; more art, less procedure.
- Generic chaos-magic sigil method — the broad family entry.
- Carroll’s gnosis — the inhibitory/excitatory charging state.
- Spare’s Death Posture — the no-mind charging state U∴D∴ adapts.
- Neither/Neither — the non-attached “forget it” ground.
- Autosuggestion (Coué-style) — implanting a suggestion in a receptive state; the sigil abstracts the suggestion to dodge the censor.
Common refinements
Negative phrasing. “Don’t be anxious” plants anxious; the unconscious drops the “not.” Phrase the aim positively.
- A glyph that still reads as the wish. If you can decode it at a glance, abstract it further — the whole point is to bypass conscious recognition.
- Skipping the forget step. Re-checking reintroduces craving; U∴D∴’s rule is the faster you forget, the more effective. Burn or hide it.
- A half-hearted charge. A distracted glance does little; the altered/peak state matters in the method’s own logic.
- Vague or compound desires. One muddled sentence makes one muddled glyph; keep a single clear aim.
- Treating it as a substitute for action. Sigils set direction; they don’t replace the steps toward the goal.