Broadcasting in the Æther

A Handbook for antenna design for use in sigil magick by William Greenwood.

BitÆ is an idea that has stuck with me for a long time. Originally written as a research paper, then later a zine (2022) and finally a radio package (2023)

The radio package can be found on my Soundcloud, or streaming on XMDV Radio.

Abstract

The growing popularity of neo-paganism, specifically “technomancy”, has seen many new technologies used for magical means. One that I believe has been overlooked in this regard is antenna design. While its esoteric and non-intuitive nature makes it perfect for sigil creation, it also makes it largely difficult to grasp for the layman.

In this introduction to antennas as well as some facets of sigil magick, we will discuss the effectiveness as well as the practicality of the use of antennas in modern-day worship.

The antenna

An antenna is a device used to create electromagnetic waves that can propagate through space. It is fed a carrier-frequency signal (an alternating voltage) by some kind of transmitter. With antennas, it's important to understand amplification. 0dB is the strength of the input signal, with no amplification or deamplication. You measure the amplification in a certain direction from the centre of the antenna, for example an antenna may have a forward-amplification of upwards of 10dB. The amplification (or “gain”) can be mapped as the distance from the antenna centre, this is called the “far-field.”

A single point is a perfect antenna, in that it evenly receives and transmits on all frequencies and in all directions at 0dB with 100% efficiency. This may seem perfect, but it's not. Because antennas are just pieces of metal, they cannot “charge” a signal or change its energy, instead they work by shaping the far-field. By negatively amplifying the signal directly upwards or downwards, they increase the amplification horizontally. This can be done because, practically, a radio station does not need to broadcast in these directions.

The amplification in certain directions can be affected by the shape of the antenna. This is because of resonance, just as a tuning fork vibrates at a certain resonant frequency, so does an antenna, but since everything in and around the antenna (nearby pieces of metal, the ground, the metal the antenna is made from) all affect each other, the calculations involved get incredibly complex very quickly.

The antenna amplifies by resonating with the carrier frequency provided by the transmitter; this happens because the signal reflects inside the antenna, if the phase of the reflection matches with the phase of the input signal, they interfere constructively and less energy is wasted by waves destructively interfering with each other.

Many antennas are very simple monopoles, but because of the high power requirements of television, most homes use an antenna called a "Yagi-Uda". They're heavily directional and were invented only 96 years ago. The far-field, in this case, is restricted not only vertically but horizontally as well, leaving a single forward facing “bulb” of very high amplification, meaning it has to be pointed directly towards a transmitter.

The construction of this is largely un-intuitive, it usually consists of more than 4 horizontal bars that get progressively shorter and closer together. The last bar, usually at the mounting point, is called the reflector, it is tuned to resonate slightly lower than the carrier and isn't directly electrically connected to anything.

The second to last one is the actually electrically connected antenna element and is tuned for the carrier frequency. All the other forward bars are called directors, they're tuned to resonate slightly higher than the carrier and are not directly electrically connected to anything.

Its very non-intuitive that most of the antenna is not actually connected to anything, but they make a huge difference, and it feels very magical-in-nature to me that a very specifically shaped metal object placed near some other very specific objects can massively affect the electro-magnetic field, or in this case, the æther.

Usually in low frequency electronics, you can split a circuit up into smaller calculable pieces, but this is not the case in the Yagi-Uda, where it is impossible to calculate an optimal design with some kind of formula, instead a evolution method is used, where the dimension of the elements are subtly changed until an assumed optimal design is reached.

The Sigil

A sigil is a packet of information, a physical representation of an idea or goal (a “seed”), within which information is encoded, usually taking the form of a symbol. It can be created through many means. Mediaeval sigils such as the ones present in many grimoires, for example, were constructed by converting a word to numbers and then drawing a continuous line between those numbers on a magical square. A new era of sigil magick began, though, with the popularisation of Austin Spare’s method. To create the sigil, a word is selected and double letters are removed, each letter can then be combined into one coherent final symbol.

The overall idea here is to encode or distil a wish or desire within a symbol that is disconnected from the desire itself. This is because a desire does not always resonate with every part of yourself, so by disconnecting the actual desire the sigil can be focused on fully and by your entire being. An example of this would be confidence. The more reserved part of you may not wish for more confidence, so while trying to focus on that you may find some part of you resisting. But by disconnecting the focal point from the seed, you can allow your whole body to focus on some idea with no resistance.

Sigils can also be communicated by Gods or other non-physical entities, in this case, the symbol is communicated to a person who wishes to worship said entity through their unconscious mind where it can then be physically marked. The sigil represents a gap, or a weakness, in reality through which the will of a non-physical entity or the entity itself can physically manifest in some way to complete a goal.

Importantly, after being created, a sigil must be charged. This can be done in many ways, but generally involves infatuating it with emotional or physical energy, sometimes involving the destruction of the sigil (eg. drawing the sigil on a piece of paper which is then burnt, where the act of burning charges the sigil.)

Use of antennas in worship

The large amount of similarities between the physical and electromagnetic field properties of antennas and the wiccan practices described above could make them perfect for ritual magick. After deciding on a broadcast frequency, a basic sigil shape could be designed that encompasses a goal, through any method that works best for you. At which point the antenna could be digitally designed and simulated to test its amplification in a relevant direction. The design software can then be used to refine and evolve the sigil by slowly manipulating its shape to increase the amplification in said direction. This takes a relatively large amount of time, energy and processing power depending on the starting parameters and how the process is set up.

It should be noted that the frequency will massively affect the size of the antenna, but will also affect the range of the transmission. For a smaller sigil, you could use 2.4GHz which can be plugged into a modem and will produce an antenna smaller than a A4 piece of paper. For a larger signal a lower frequency could be used, such as the commercial frequencies around 100MHz, producing an antenna around 3m wide. The reach would be far higher but it would be a lot more work to construct and transmit through.

When the sigil is significantly evolved, it can be constructed as an antenna, or even just used as a regular “enhanced” sigil. After construction it can be powered, my proposed way of doing this is to hook it up to a transmitter and physically transmit your goal into the electromagnetic field, amplifying and broadcasting your goals in the designed direction. This could be done by transmitting your goals as spoken word or recorded music as a AM or FM signal or even some commonly used encoding methods such as morse code or DTMF. 

Where traditionally emotional and physical “work” was done to charge the sigil, with this method pure, measurable electrical energy can be used to pass a goal directly to the non-physical (the Spirit, or “Æther”) through the sigil while simultaneously directing it upwards towards the relevant gods or towards the intended target.

This method could also be used with a regular sigil that has simply been created out of any conductive material. Although I would suggest that the antenna is modelled first so that impedance can be predicted and then matched to ensure the transmitter used is undamaged.

Conclusion

Due to the expenses of high-frequency RF transmitters, the use of a sigil as an antenna may not be viable. If the antenna was designed incorrectly or improperly impedance matched it could damage equipment and, depending on the strength and frequency of the transmission, get you in legal trouble. The iterative generation method could still be used, however, to create an enhanced sigil which could then be charged and used as a normal sigil would be.

Another option could be to use a far more practical frequency, a sigil with a designed frequency of 2.4GHz could easily be connected to a modern, inexpensive, modem through which a message could be transmitted. This antenna would be more economical to construct for the average person out of salvaged copper wire, foil or even conductive paint than a 3m long 100MHz Yagi-Uda. The means of modifying a modem to solely broadcast the desired signal is outside of my expertise as well as the scope of this handbook, but could be a topic for further research.

The modem could even be used as is, the sigil acting as a protection spell for all the information that passes through it. Or a dedicated modem could be procured to constantly transmit a more hands-off magician’s messages.

There are a handful of free programs out there that can model antennas, but for my research, I used a modelling software called “4nec2”. Despite a steep learning curve, I managed to get the hang of it in a couple of hours, although I suspect existing knowledge of antenna design helped a lot with this. It is free and with some practice, I believe it could be a viable sigil generation tool for any technically inclined magicians or technomancers. It also has a couple of python implementations, maybe allowing for some future procedural sigil-antenna generator.

I would highly recommend the personal experimentation in using antennas for sigil magic to someone more spiritually inclined and knowledgeable on the subject. And I really believe that being able to transmit directly and measurably into the Æther could be a very useful tool for any magician.