“Throughout my childhood and adolescence I was an avid reader of folklore and mythology…it’s very apparent that this interest had a huge and long lasting impact on my life and the path it’s taken.”
-Darragh Mason
International travel these days seems like a thing of the past, a dream known only by faint remembrances or sudden flashes of insight, those heaven-sent, twilight moments conjured up by music and pictures. Darragh Mason, who has journeyed across continents in pursuit of knowledge, is one of those fortunate few who have tasted of this now rare, inspiriting elixir. An award-winning photographer, Mason has spent years imbibing and engaging with cultures across the Near East, Africa, and Eastern Europe. More recently, however, Mason has devoted his energies to two new projects: Spirit Box, a podcast; and Sigil Engine, an instant sigil generator. Sigils, which come in many iterations, have a long history. As power-focusing or willpower-enhancing devices, they’ve appeared in numerous works of art and literature, from the Solomonic texts of medieval magi to the gorgeous, cerebral creations of Austin Osman Spare.
Mason’s Sigil Engine, a kind of “technomagic” endeavour, is inspired by and serves to popularise this ancient and long-lived tradition. Co-produced with David Tidman, the Engine so far has yielded impressive results.
“We’re close to 250,000 sigils in just over a single month,” Mason told The Thinker’s Garden.
Mason originally appeared on The Thinker’s Garden in 2017. We spoke to him to learn more about his future plans and current pursuits.
The Custodian : Could you tell us more about your cultural background and the spiritual influences that continue to inspire you?
Darragh Mason: I’m Irish so that’s my primary cultural background but eastern philosophy has had a huge influence on my thinking in that it seemed to make far more sense to me than the Catholic worldview I was brought up in. Throughout my childhood and adolescence I was an avid reader of folklore and mythology and when I look back at my life it’s very apparent that this interest had a huge and long lasting impact on my life and the path it’s taken.
Over the last ten years Hinduism and Islamic mysticism have been an area of study for me and a major influence in my spiritual development. More recently I’ve come to Western occultism, primarily through Thelema but I have a deep affinity for practical spell-work. That’s quite a patchwork quilt of influences but I imagine most people with this calling have similar stories.
C: What gave you the idea for the Sigil Engine? How, in a nutshell, does it work?
DM: The idea for the Sigil Engine didn’t really come from identifying a need but more from artist exploration. I wanted to see if magick could work via modern technology. The very first sigil created using the engine was for a successful launch and we’re close to 250,000 sigils in just over a single month. We’ve also had a lot of success stories from users so I think I can say it has made a strong case for digital magick.
I brought this up in the pub with my friend, creative technologist David Tidman and the project was born.
There are a few sigil generators out there but they are primarily functional in build and execution. We wanted to “encode” into the sigil engine a sense of wonder to give it potency.
So the individual would experience something special when the engine created the sigil for them so we created the animated drawing. So the goal of this project was to make the process of creating sigils authentic and magickal, through a carefully considered digital experience. Art is of course magick and this project is a participatory piece of art.
Each element of the design has an esoteric thought behind it. The project itself is in honour of Babalon hence the blood red design and the use of Liber Cheth through which each sigil passes. Symbolically, the black loading screen and starry particles are a reference to Nuit and each sigil is born out of the vast expansive emptiness through Babalon.
In practical terms, the the tool derives a unique normalised floating decimal point from each letter you type by the way you type, the speed and intervals at which you type, their frequency and weight once distilled and referenced against the text of Aleister Crowley’s “Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni”, so no two sigils are alike.
C: What do you enjoy most about your new podcast Spirit Box? Is it always something you wanted to do?
DM: The Spirit Box was the natural evolution of my YouTube channel and the best bit about it is I get to talk to really interesting people, like yourself! The idea behind it was to build a breath of knowledge on the spirit world in its absolute broadest sense, from people who have had direct experience or are very knowledgeable in that area. To be honest I’m just delighted people listen, I’m still quite surprised.
C: You’ve travelled all over the world for your photography projects. Where to next?
DM: There has been no travelling for the obvious reasons but once things change and travel becomes possible again I’m planning to go back to eastern Turkey and visit Mount Nemrut which has an incredible tomb at the summit. The last time I was in Turkey I missed getting there because of bus delays and got within 10 miles of it but had to turn back to get my flight the following day. I would like to travel further east to Armenia. My dream trip is to travel around the Caspian Sea and then head inland to Samarkand but that won’t be for some time.
C: Any other forthcoming talks or exhibitions you’d like to share with us?
DM: I’ll be talking at AvalonCon in Glastonbury this coming July . The event is the brainchild of Marco Visconti and his partner Rhiannon. There are some fantastic speakers including Damien Echols, Greg and Dana Newkirk to name a few.
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