In The Darkening Gate Trilogy, I refer to sigils that are used to open the Gates to demons. Each demon has their own unique sigil, and can be used to either summon demons within the sigil, or to open the doors to them to let them out. It’s very dangerous magic.

I didn’t come up with this on my own. When it comes to creating grimoires and demons and dark magic, my main source is The Lesser Key of Solomon, also referred to as the Ars Goetia. The grimoire chronicles 72 different demons of Hell, and each demon has a unique sigil, which you can actually look up:

In essence (to me, anyway), they kind of look like a demon’s coat of arms. And they are quite intricate.

I wanted the demons Isabelle and Aineiron in The Name and the Key, so I commissioned an artist and practitioner based out of Turkey to design custom sigils for the characters. She did an amazing job, and they will be added directly to the books:

I used depositphotos images for the backgrounds, but the sigils were created entirely by Ecems. At left is Aineiron’s and at right is Isabelle’s.

Anyway, even though my books in the trilogy are fiction, I want the magic to feel as real as possible to the readers out there, which is why I didn’t commission just anyone to do these. They were created with intention and care. And I love how they came out!

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The next big commissioning project I’m working on is artwork of my main characters, Lily and Andresh. I’m working with an artist I’ve commissioned before, Juhaihai, who always does incredible work. But this particular project is going to take quite some time, because while I have adjuncting work confirmed for spring semester at ZSC, I need to pace myself and my spending. But I’m so excited. I’ll probably blog about those portraits separately.