Ask An Evangelical: What is Your Opinion on Sigils

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By Scott McIntyre

What is your opinion on sigils, specifically the sigil of the archangel Michael. What do you think about people carrying it around and opening themselves up to it? thanks!

I’m sure there is tremendous power available to humans using sigils, but it’s not a power source I want to tap into. 

I had never heard of the term before receiving our reader’s question but after some research, it seems that a sigil is, most commonly considered, a symbol used in magic.  That sets off a loud warning signal in my spirituality, one I don’t want to ignore.

I want to reference some Biblical passages but, before I do, I think an explanation of my take on the nature of Scripture would be important.

The Bible is a combination of styles of writing by many different authors, which would normally magnify the potential for mistakes and even ‘false’ teaching.  However, it’s my understanding that each individual author was directly influenced by God’s Spirit as to what to write.  That’s one of the reasons many, including myself, call the Bible ‘God’s Word.’

That premise sets up a ‘Triple If’ that has staggering implications.  IF, the Bible truly contains the words God wanted mankind to read and follow, and IF it’s been accurately translated into our everyday language and IF we are correctly understanding what it says, there could be ‘hell to pay’ for ignoring it.  So how does that relate to our question today?

Magic, in Scripture, is not identified as something humans should follow or practice and divination, fortune telling, interpreting omens, seeking wisdom from the dead, and other similar practices, are all tied to magic.  And it’s not just an Old Testament thing, as you can tell by reviewing some of these 100 verses about magic.  But the problem with opening ourselves up to the sigil of the Archangel Michael doesn’t stop there.

Angels are powerful beings but throughout Scripture, those that are correctly aligned with God, act on His behalf when instructed to do so.  An article I enjoyed reading for this piece, on the ‘Purpose of Angels’, goes into this in greater detail.  In general though, it says angels do God’s bidding.  They don’t act independently, so we are to take our needs to God, not angels.

There’s one other thing that concerns me about the sigil of Archangel Michael.  If what I’ve learned from the Bible and my research for this article are correct, then seeking his assistance through this ‘magical’ means may backfire. 

Some power becomes aware of a person’s need through their use of a sigil, and provides an answer to prayer or a solution to an issue.  There are a couple of possible explanations to this that I can think of…

1. If the power is in fact Michael the Archangel and angels don’t act on their own, Michael has to take the request to God before fulfilling it.  But when the answer or help comes without clarification that it was truly from God and that Michael wasn’t the source, then confusion is created in the mind of the human.  That doesn’t sound like something God would allow, so I would tend to discount this option as correct.
2. Some other power becomes aware of a person’s need through their use of a sigil and provides an answer to prayer or a solution to an issue.  The recipient is grateful and thankful to the being they think is God’s angel Michael.  In reality, neither God nor Michael had anything to do with the response.  In this case, a human is actually following something or someone not associated with God, and that can mean being lead farther away from the truth into something potentially spiritually dangerous or even physically harmful.

Since No. 1 doesn’t seem logical to me, and I can’t come up with another possible explanation, I can only conclude that No. 2 would apply to the situation described, and that brings me back to my opening sentence…this is a power I would want to avoid.