Gardiner’s Sign List: A Magical Addendum
written by Venita Wessex
Looking for a quick and easy reference for the uses of magical hieroglyhics? Look no further. Authors Arkaeus and Olin Baldric have created an excellent field guide for curse-breakers, magianthropologists, magiarchaeologists and more.
Last Updated
05/31/21
Chapters
31
Reads
15,384
A. Man and His Occupations
Chapter 5
A2 (Man with hand to mouth)
n/a || Eat, Drink, Speak, Think
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Has been used in scribal spells to cause the targeted papyrus to absorb liquids. Can be paired with Y4 to absorb ink or N35a to absorb water.
A5 (Man hiding)
n/a || Hide
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Often refers to invisibility, though not necessarily of a person. Also common to see combined with or used in shadow curses.
A13 (Man with arms bound)
n/a || Enemy
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Can indicate the presence of an ancient variant to the Incarcerous Spell, but can also indicate petrification.
A25 (Man striking with stick in one hand)
n/a || Strike
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: cast, spell, magical person
Anecdotes/Comments: Rarely, but occasionally, A24 is used for this purpose instead. It may be a cultural variant (e.g. a variant used in the Theban cult, but not in the Memphis cult) but more research needs to be done on this topic.
A29 (Man upside down)
n/a || Upside Down
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Can indicate the presence of a nasty curse that affixes you to the top of the structure you’re in. These tombs can get pretty tall and when you’re yanked that hard, even the most veteran curse-breaker can’t be blamed for losing grip on his wand. It’s why we work in pairs.
Anecdotes/Comments: Sometimes this is used as a method of negation of other magical glyphs in the spell. Does not have to be used in conjunction with a purely magical glyph. Example: Archie and I ran into a spell that used this alongside D4, the eye. The result was a Blinding Curse.
A35 (Man building a wall)
n/a || Build
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Used to strengthen enchantments.
A59 (Man threatening with stick in one hand)
n/a || Drive Off
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Similar to A25.
Anecdotes/Comments: More often seen as a reference to offensive magic.
n/a || Eat, Drink, Speak, Think
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Has been used in scribal spells to cause the targeted papyrus to absorb liquids. Can be paired with Y4 to absorb ink or N35a to absorb water.
A5 (Man hiding)
n/a || Hide
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Often refers to invisibility, though not necessarily of a person. Also common to see combined with or used in shadow curses.
A13 (Man with arms bound)
n/a || Enemy
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Can indicate the presence of an ancient variant to the Incarcerous Spell, but can also indicate petrification.
A25 (Man striking with stick in one hand)
n/a || Strike
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: cast, spell, magical person
Anecdotes/Comments: Rarely, but occasionally, A24 is used for this purpose instead. It may be a cultural variant (e.g. a variant used in the Theban cult, but not in the Memphis cult) but more research needs to be done on this topic.
A29 (Man upside down)
n/a || Upside Down
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Can indicate the presence of a nasty curse that affixes you to the top of the structure you’re in. These tombs can get pretty tall and when you’re yanked that hard, even the most veteran curse-breaker can’t be blamed for losing grip on his wand. It’s why we work in pairs.
Anecdotes/Comments: Sometimes this is used as a method of negation of other magical glyphs in the spell. Does not have to be used in conjunction with a purely magical glyph. Example: Archie and I ran into a spell that used this alongside D4, the eye. The result was a Blinding Curse.
A35 (Man building a wall)
n/a || Build
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Used to strengthen enchantments.
A59 (Man threatening with stick in one hand)
n/a || Drive Off
Magical Uses, Meanings, and Pairings: Similar to A25.
Anecdotes/Comments: More often seen as a reference to offensive magic.