Someone wrote in [personal profile] ecosophia 2024-12-23 05:09 am (UTC)

The mystery of the Cool S

Hi JMG, I was thinking about sigils and I remembered the strange S glyph that every kid in the 90s drew in school. If you haven't seen it, here it is:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/S-cool.svg

This symbol has been drawn countless millions of times on notebooks, binders, backpacks etc., and what's most interesting is that no one can figure out the origin. It's taught by children to other children, and it's appealing for the reason that you can easily draw it by starting with two sets of three parallel lines, made even easier if you have notebook or graph paper.

You've mentioned before how sigils are vulnerable to counterspells by people who know what the letters stand for creating another reading that mocks or denies the original. If someone could convince children around the world to draw this symbol without giving away its meaning to them, could it fuel a powerful sigil working? Particularly since the symbol is drawn by people around the world out of enjoyment, not mass-produced as a form of advertising or merchandise.

I also just found that in 2020 a guy trademarked the symbol to sell goods with it. Given the symbol's status in the public consciousness what do you think will become of an effort to control its use for profit? If it is indeed a sigil created for a specific purpose, can you foresee any particular backlash to the trademark?

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