The Languages of Magic: Transform Reality through Words, Magical Symbols, and Sigils
By (Author) Toby Chappell
Foreword by Stephen E. Flowers
Afterword by Don Webb
Inner Traditions Bear and Company
Destiny Books,U.S.
4th June 2025
United States
General
Non Fiction
Witchcraft and wicca
Magic, alchemy and hermetic thought
Witchcraft
133.43
Paperback
352
Width 152mm, Height 229mm, Spine 25mm
390g
A guide to magic as communication
Introduces key ideas in linguistics and semiotics to reveal how magic works
Reveals how to apply effective communication techniques to your magical practice
Includes case studies of magical schools, such as Hermetic magic, sigil magic, Thelema, the Church of Satan, Chaos Magic, and the Temple of Set
In this illuminating and deeply informative guide, practicing magician Toby Chappell takes readers on a journey into the heart of what it means to transform reality by exploring what magic is. He explains that operative magic works because it is communication. The practitioner of magic is communicating with the unmanifest to align the outside world with their inner transformations, desires, and needs.
Drawing on linguistics and the analytical techniques of semiotics, the author explores how we perceive and affect the world by treating it like a partner in communication. He shows how this notion of magical communication appears in ancient practice, looking specifically at Hermetic magic and the spells of Greek magical papyri, sigil magic, Enochian magic, and runes. He explains the symbol-building necessary to effectively transform your inner and outer reality with magical speech, signs, and sigils. The author examines the languages of magic in modern New Thought practices, and he also looks at magical communication in several modern and postmodern schools of magic, including Thelema and the teachings of Aleister Crowley, Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, the Church of Satan, Chaos Magic, and the Temple of Set.
Revealing how to apply techniques of effective communication to the magical realm, the author allows you to deepen your understanding of magical practice and, ultimately, perform magic with greater success.
Toby Chappell is a musician, writer, and lecturer on the intersection of language and magic. An independent researcher and practicing magician, his interests include runes, semiotics, weird tales, and the mysteries of Ancient Egypt. The author of Infernal Geometry and the Left-Hand Path, he lives in Atlanta, Georgia.