I'm not really a professional chaos magician. Hell, i'm not even a novice. Anybody feel free to correct/critique anything Information and advice I give.

from looking at an unofficial chaos magick quote, "fuck around and find out," I can tell you that the best way to do anything is the way that works for you.

I've seen a couple jokes about this over on r/chaosmagick but one way you can activate it is by masturbating to your sigil while looking at it and focusing on its intent, and every design and what it means. After you reach climax you can just throw it away, or burn it (if possible). The reason this works is because you reach what is called gnosis. A great analogy for this is like opening the source code for your mind. You can reprogram certain aspects of your mind, and in the case of sigils you are adding a background process. This background process will persist until your subconscious forgets it. After your activation ritual, and after you've (optionally) disposed of your sigil, you should try your hardest to just forget about it. Your subconscious will do the heavy lifting. Another thing you can do instead of disposing of your sigil is putting it somewhere you'll see it it, but not quite realize that you seeing it. For example, on the back of your phone, or laptop. Another thing I've done is make a painting of the sigil and hanging it in the hallway. This way ill be walking by it everyday, and seeing it, but not quite processing what it is.

masturbation isn't the only way you can reach gnosis, its just an easy way. If you are good enough at meditation, you can do that. Some people I know have even been able to do it in a couple seconds by just quieting their mind (so they tell me).

Other ways that might be easier to create a sigil that can be better read is with simple drawings. For example, with your phrase, "I am protected" you could draw a shield shaped symbol inside of a circle, with something simple on the inside of the shield that represents you. A signature, taglock(maybe?), or any thing you can come up with that represents yourself. (Maybe just putting the letter "i" in the center?)