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Is This An Occult Symbol?

Roland Deschain

All things serve the beam
Joined
Sep 8, 2015
Messages
518
I found this symbol while walking the dog. It was on a gate leading into woodland. We're a bit provincial round here and our yoofs don't go in much for tagging. I'm sure it has a prosaic explanation but I can't think of one.

image.jpg
 
It may be a sign used to indicate a geocache.
You know, that treasure hunting lark some adults do when they get bored.
 
Might be a forestry management code? Who owns/maintains that land and its paths?
 
It may be a sign used to indicate a geocache.
You know, that treasure hunting lark some adults do when they get bored.
I'd never heard of that. I just tried searching google images for geocache and symbol but couldn't find anything even close but even so it seems quite possible.

Might be a forestry management code? Who owns/maintains that land and its paths?
It's a country park, also a SSI, a SSC and an AONB. The trees may get a little gentle management but they're not farmed.

Sword & 13. Advertising a Witches Coven?
I must admit that was my first thought - I often find little piles of twigs and branches bent into arches in the less trod places, one in particular near this symbol.
 
Am I right in thinking that is your drawing of the symbol, or is that image actually it?
If not, how was the symbol described on the gate? Pen? Carving?
That is a photo of the symbol. It was in marker pen on the reverse of a plastic warning sign.
 
Sorry to seem like I'm just firing questions at you Roland, but what was the sign a warning against?
 
Sorry to seem like I'm just firing questions at you Roland, but what was the sign a warning against?
No problem, it's an instruction/warning to put dogs on leads as the gate opens onto a track that gets motor vehicles on it. Walkers can't see vehicles coming and visa versa because of the trees and bushes.
 
Promoting "Smoke pot, everybody smoke pot"? 13 was a popular symbol for a while, back in the 70's, because M for marijuana is the 13th letter. I even wore a pretty green patch with a 13 in Jr High. But is ever 13 used anymore for pot popularity?
 
I wonder if it's a hand-drawn improvised orienteering control point marker, using symbology that's similar to that used on the sport's maps? Just a theory...

Maprunner-IOF-control-descriptions.jpg
 
There's two possible avenues of enquiry.

1) Ask whoever is responsible for the land - Forestry Commission, council, etc. - to see if it was put there by them or someone hired by them.

2) Write to the local newspaper. If it's a slow news day (no people stepping in puddles or new Tesco branch opening on the high street) they may look into it. Local newspapers love little mysteries and might print it with the typical headline "Dogwalker baffled by mystery sign" and ask the public for input.
 
I was tempted to think it might be a glyph to give the direction and strength of mobile phone signals but I can't find confirmation that any such symbols are in use.

Could it be a marking made on the back of the sign at the factory or depot, indicating its function and where it was to be situated? :confused:
 
Write to the local newspaper. If it's a slow news day (no people stepping in puddles or new Tesco branch opening on the high street) they may look into it. Local newspapers love little mysteries and might print it with the typical headline "Dogwalker baffled by mystery sign" and ask the public for input.
But the satanists may come after me, I've read Dennis Wheatley you know :twisted: ;)

Could it be a marking made on the back of the sign at the factory or depot, indicating its function and where it was to be situated? :confused:
No the symbol appeared long after the sign went up and lasted a week or two before it was wiped off/weathered away.

Looking at Ermintrudes key the thicket symbol could fit with the land as viewed from the gate which makes the geocache/surveying/orienteering thing the most reasonable albeit mundane answer. Still wondering about the sword and 13 though.

I have seen a few new age goings on at this spot, it is beautiful and atmospheric with many natural clearings. My suspicion of occult meaning to the symbol wasn't entirely random!

Many thanks for the suggestions, any further info appreciated.
 
Still wondering about the sword and 13 though.

Ditto-snap. Although, the marker pen felt nib sweep has given the 'cutlass' a possibly-propitious handguard that may be more implied than intentional. Granted, too, that a 'Marker Point 13' requires at least a Number 12 or 14 in order to lose it's quasi-occult cachet.

('Quasi'....an under-used prefix that sounds, now, terribly last century. Perhaps it deserves a minor relaunch....)
 
The 'sword' looks like it may be a centre-line indicator - a 'C' written over an 'L' ('over', as in superimposed, rather than above). Certainly used a lot in carpentry, and other disciplines which involve measurement. I tend to use the CL, but very often a simple vertical line is used instead of the L.

Because it's so commonly used it often comes out as a bit of a scrawl.
 
It doesn't look like the usual sort of occult marker sigil, at least not like any I've seen. Could be prank nonsense just to frustrate people trying to decode it.
 
Speares and Jackson number 13 snow shovel?
 
Speares and Jackson number 13 snow shovel?

So maybe you're seeing that as a sort of symbolic snow shovel shape....with the snow rumpling-up in the lower right-hand corner, as it scoops...towards..you?

Not getting the tool manufacturer logo-linkage....the suggested company in question (sp.?) has a logo that makes me think of Scandanavian surgical appliances.
spear-jackson-colour.png

(incidently....that S&J logo above...which is the .australian PTYpe...I do see certain shape similarities, perhaps. And, that diagonal swoosh, as an aside, is in actuality a zoom-in on the Union Jack flag segment from the UK version)
 
I have stared at it for too long. Now I'm beginning to imagine the 3D effect of the marker was intentional!

What about the inward-curves of the sides? They do tend to suggest a snow-shovel. The artist - or her appointed apprentice in this craft - can make vertical lines if required. The fact that the curves are both inward suggests this is deliberate and not a bias of the artist, the pen or the surface.

I now tend to see the ' after the 1, which seemed to imply a measurement of 1'3" without the " as the downward terminal point of the "handle." The glyph-maker was able to erase most of the line which lay inside the square but did not get too close to the 3.

The single stroke across the North West corner and the triple hatching of the South East one correspond to the digits on the square and might there be a comma between the numbers, making them coordinates?

We have yet to address the short stroke across the blade, the lunar symbolism of the handle and the mysterious irregularities in the South East corner.

Join us tomorrow for another exploration of The Glyph That Presages Mania. :mad:
 
2015-11-30 08.41.34.png

Dammit. Even after using an overscribed version in a search run through TinEye and Imageraider, it still doesn't unearth anything. Does anyone majorly disagree with the relative accuracy of my brass-rubbing?
 
Maybe a plan of the field? The bottom right is the gate?
And it's not a sword surely - who draws a cutlass for a sword? Unless...if it was PIRATE'S treasure map!
 
It doesn't look like the usual sort of occult marker sigil, at least not like any I've seen. Could be prank nonsense just to frustrate people trying to decode it.
That my first thought too doesnt look like a sigil.
 
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