The Cycle Breaker Sigil is all about breaking free from toxic cycles and patterns, and getting out of ruts so we have the opportunity to build better futures for ourselves. This sigil can be applied on a personal level to help break bad habits or addictions, on an interpersonal level to break free of toxic relationship dynamics or generational trauma, on a societal level to break down structural violence and systemic oppression, or anywhere else you see an ongoing cycle that is harmful to those stuck in it.

When I sat down to create this sigil I had shadow work in mind, an additional sigil to help with breaking the cycles that trauma survivors often get stuck in, which could also be helpful to anyone who was stuck in a rut and needed a boost to help make changes in their lives. What I ended up with almost immediately is a particularly simple looking sigil that can be applied to any issues where the established cycles and patterns are damaging and seem unavoidable or unchangeable.

To do this it uses both banishment and manifestation energy in balance to remove obstacles and create dramatic change even when it seems impossible to break free. It also encourages other people to leave the cycles by either becoming more aware and going with the changes you are instigating, or breaking free in their own direction.

Using The Cycle Breaker Sigil for Shadow Work

If you are using the Cycle Breaker Sigil to address personal cycles or patterns, be prepared for the possibility that you will also need to do shadow work to address those root causes of your cycle or pattern. Addressing and healing root causes, especially when those causes involve trauma or addiction, helps to support lasting change, and helps prevent falling fully back into old cycles and patterns.

Shadow work may also be needed if you are using the Cycle Breaker Sigil for interpersonal cycles and patterns, to help heal the wounds that have kept you in toxic or damaging relationships. This is especially true if those cycles involve close relationships, family, or generational trauma.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Cycle Breaker Sigil can be used to encourage increased awareness of social problems and tear down structural violence cycles and toxic cultural patterns. It can be added as a component to rituals and spellwork with social justice and social change in mind, or used in combination with other sigils that target specific problems. This won’t necessarily involve shadow work, but the intention to recognize root sources can potentially create the need for shadow work to challenge internalized narratives, privileges, and behaviors that support the cycles and patterns you seek to break. Creating lasting change requires changing those patterns both externally and internally.

Intentions and Symbology of the Cycle Breaker Sigil

The main structure of the sigil is a broken infinity symbol, to indicate breaking free from what seem like immutable and everlasting problems.

Awareness of toxic cycles and patterns

Before it is possible to make deliberate changes, you must first be aware that the problem exists. This is symbolized by the open eye, placed below the rest of the sigil to emphasize that awareness is the foundation of intentional, lasting change.

Recognize root sources

Once you recognize a toxic cycle or pattern exist, the next step is to recognize the root sources which are causing that toxic cycle or pattern. If you want to create permanent change, it is essential to address the root causes and sources of the toxic cycles or patterns. Finding those root causes is symbolized by the pentagram at the top of the sigil, where it can see everything involved and create enlightened awareness.

Strength to break from established cycles and patterns

It is not an easy to thing to break free from established cycles and patterns, no matter the scale. Inertia matters, and most people will gravitate to the familiar, even if the familiar is harmful, because the unknown is scary. This strength is symbolized in the pentagram, providing support on all levels, and in the shattered infinity loop that shows it can be done.

Wards against falling back into old cycles and patterns

Making dramatic changes is never a straight road. It always involves unexpected changes of direction and setbacks. It is very normal to find yourself drawn back into old patterns and cycles, or having relapses. That does not mean you failed. It just means the job isn’t finished yet, and more cycle breaking needs to happen. So, give yourself grace, have a rest if you need it, pick yourself up, and keep going.

This is symbolized primarily by the broken infinity symbol, which in being broken cannot resume in exactly the way it did before, even if you dip back into that rut for a bit before completely escaping. It is also symbolized in the two shoots flying away from the cycle and disconnecting from it entirely, leaving it in the past.

Facilitate dramatic changes

By the time we are stuck in a rut, it is usually long past the point where small, incremental changes will do the trick. Instead, it is drastic and rapid change that is needed, because small changes will just get eaten in the established cycle and barely create a ripple. This is symbolized by the dramatic turn of each line before it shoots off entirely away from the rut.

Encourage others to follow suit

It is important for other people to also see the root problems and take steps to destroy toxic cycles and support beneficial changes. If you are using the Cycle Breaker Sigil on a personal level, this is important so those in your life can understand and support the changes you are making. On a relationship level, this is important so that other people in the relationship can also make beneficial changes and the relationship can grow instead of dying. On a social level, this is important because without mass awareness and action, we will not be able to create lasting changes.

This is symbolized by the multiple arrows rushing to escape the cycle. They are flowing in two separate directions to indicate that not everyone who escapes a toxic cycle will go in the same direction. There are multiple arrows in each direction to indicate that when one person breaks a cycle, there are very often other people who will follow the new path as well after seeing what is possible.

How to Use the Cycle Breaker Sigil

You can use the Cycle Breaker Sigil in any way that is in line with its intent and makes sense for your practice. Focus on the specific cycle or pattern you wish to break when you use it.  Some ideas are to:

• inscribe it on a candle
• print it or draw it on a piece of paper and place it on your altar or somewhere you see regularly
• put a copy in your wallet
• use it as the wallpaper, login background, or screen saver on your phone, tablet, or computer
• make something crafty and include the sigil in your creation
• use it as a focus for meditation
• draw it on the body using salted water, anointing oil, an herb blend, makeup, body paint, henna, markers, temporary tattoo pens, etc.
• print it onto temporary tattoo paper and apply it to your body
• and so on

Your rendering of the sigil does not need to be perfect.  Intent is what matters, so do not worry if you cannot draw it “perfectly”.  As long as all the elements are there, you are good.

Like any sigil, it will be most effective when it is used in conjunction with real-world actions.  Be sure to do what you can to break the cycle or pattern you are targeting.  The sigil alone is not going to fix everything, but it can give a powerful boost to the actions you take, and help keep you focused on your goals.

Please read On the Care and Use of Sigils for more information about how to use sigils.

Tattoos and Body Art of the Cycle Breaker Sigil

If you want to get a tattoo of any of my sigils, you do not need to ask me for personal permission.  Permission is granted.  However, I do recommend that you carefully consider whether or not the sigil in question is actually something you need working on you constantly for the rest of your life.  If the answer is no, temporary body art is probably the better way to go, even if you recreate it on a frequent or semi-regular basis.

I also strongly recommend using a temporary body art method to test-drive any sigil before getting it permanently inked.  This can let you test the impact of the sigil, including how placement changes the effects.  This isn’t just some cool design that you like.  It is a piece of magic and will have impact beyond aesthetics.

If you do decide getting a tattoo of one of my sigils is the way to go, I would love it if you showed me how it turned out!  You can send me a message through my website or social media.  If you post the photo to the internet, please tag me on social media so I can see.

Print-on-Demand Purchase of the Cycle Breaker Sigil

I have set up the Cycle Breaker Sigil print-on-demand in my RedBubble shop, so it can be more convenient to use for those who do not have the time/skills/energy to redraw or recreate the sigil. I have set the items in the shop to 0% commission, so the prices you see are the base prices. Due to my own health problems, I am incapable of doing order fulfillment or running a business, and as a spoonie witch I want the convenience of purchasing for myself as well.

Print-on-demand is provided purely as a convenience, not as a business endeavor. That means I am unlikely to rush to meet any requests for available items or sigils, and I have no control over RedBubble’s order fulfilment processes. I have not purchased or tested the vast majority of products available from RedBubble, but I have set them up in ways that I hope will be issue-free.

Sharing the Cycle Breaker Sigil

The sigil graphic does contain enough text to help clarify it when it is shared out in the wilds of the internet, but best practice is to include a link back to this article.  That way others who see it can find out exactly what it is intended to do, in detail.  Sigils are most effective when the user understands the symbology and knows exactly what they were created to do, and that is also the only way they can be certain this sigil is right for them and their situation.

This sigil is Creative Commons licensed:

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as they credit Sidney Eileen and license their new creations under the identical terms.

Want to Make Your Own Sigils?

I use the method described in the excellent book Sigil Witchery, by Laura Tempest Zakroff.  You do not need to consider yourself an artist to make your own sigils.

Want More Sigils?

Go to my Sigil Magic page to find all of the sigils I have created and shared publicly.