This week's divination post piggy-backs off of the themes of the last divination post. Glyphs in most any situation are a way to express an idea in a concrete fashion. They come in a dazzling array of designs and that is before you begin talking about an artistic glyph or letters from other languages. Typically they're used as a form of short hand to express the idea as quickly and simply as possible.
Language that is written is a form of using glyphs that most people don't think about. Literacy is so common in the Western world that we have forgotten the power of words. I think people are drawn to ancient languages because they don't seem so common and that lack of commonality evokes a sense of mystery. There are many people who don't want to hear that Latin is about as complicated as using a computer generated spreadsheet program. It is tedious to learn, but once you grasp it, using it is very straight forward. The same is true for most of the languages derived from Latin. (This position has been espoused by quite a few Latin teachers and others who teach languages like Spanish that are derived from Latin. I still have nightmares of worksheets on proper verb endings in Spanish.)
When most people think of glyphs, they are thinking not about letters but artistic glyphs (which are often based upon long forgotten languages). These type of glyphs condense the idea expressed to a single image. This image can be called a pictogram, though that term is better suited for language components that have a resemblance to the idea expressed. Japanese is an excellent example of a language that uses pictograms in complex fashions. For example, the Japanese kanji for the word trouble (which I can not pronounce or spell phonetically) is a simplistic image of two women under one roof.
Artistic glyphs can be used to create cyphers and codes (the first thought that comes to mind is the infamous Zodiac killer's cypher based upon the glyphs of the zodiac). These cyphers and codes can be used like normal letters to spell out the intent of your spell work or the ideas you wish to impress upon your creative work. Or you can incorporate the use of a cypher wheel (most often seen with the English alphabet on it, it is a wheel of letters that you can draw a shape that spells your keyword). In this fashion glyphs can be turned into sigils.
Most of the glyphs on my oracle deck are artistic glyphs that serve the short hand purpose accompanied by the English word for the concept they embody. I feel that my artistic glyphs are too simplistic and lack emotional depth. Some of them I am considering completely reworking. I am debating incorporating background imagery to convey the concept of the card visually as well. This leads me to wondering if I should use traditional techniques and imagery or if I should use abstract. It's a tough debate.
