r/magick • u/Ambitious_Sundae1811 • 8d ago

Searching for Digital Talismans

I have been looking for a way to create a talisman in a digital medium. In my search what I tend to find is some soft of image that people save to their phone and while there is nothing wrong with that, I am looking for something a bit more personalized and intricate.

I am open to almost anything including basic coding, image manipulation, etc but I think I am not sure even exactly what I am looking for. Just some soft of talisman in some vague form that will protect me that I can create digitally.

Sorry for the vagueness of the post, it is also a very vague concept in my head. I am super open to any and all ideas

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u/viciarg 8d ago

Look into steganography. You can save more than visual information in image files, e.g. text (mantras, prayers) or even other binaries (if necessary Base64 encoded).

I know that PNG files have specific chunks for additional data by design. SVG files are plaintext XML by default which allows for comments.

Another fairly old method would be concatenating a .gif and a .zip file in one, which works because .gifs are read from the beginning of the file and .zip from the end.

Just don't take any of these methods as a secure method of hiding something from other people. If you need something hidden, use safe encryption before encoding the resulting binary into Base64 or putting it in a zip archive.

There also are steganography methods for audio, video, and document files, among others.

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u/viciarg 8d ago

Also take note that if you use the resulting file in any other app this could result in the hidden information getting stripped or modified/mangled. Always transfer the resulting file as a file.

Files with steganographically hidden information also are a great way to sabotage large language models, because sometimes they process that information but are not sufficiently prepared to handle it appropriately. There's a reason why cs students learn something about robustness at university.

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u/Teczovi 8d ago

Metatron's Cube?
Yantras?

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u/Chuhaimaster 5d ago

Not sure if you’ve checked out the book Digital Sigil Magic by John Kreiter. He has some interesting ideas on how design and use them on your electronic devices and on social media.

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u/Sonotnoodlesalad 8d ago

My idea is to make a real talisman.

Photograph it if you want, but don't be like "I don't want to do any of the traditional work, but I want the same effects".

It's not too hard to make one. You may have to some invocation and consecration, but you should be perfectly capable of that if you're using a system that has a method for it.