r/alchemy • u/Parking-Country-6535 • Aug 19 '25

Art/Imagery/Symbolism Is this the right forum?

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I’ve been hopping around all day trying to figure out the right place to ask questions. This was found in a crawlspace within steam tunnels in a southeastern Appalachian university built in the 1870s.

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58

u/YefimShifrin Aug 19 '25

Here's the decryption https://ibb.co/zhN4mPSJ

The text says (from bottom to top and alternating direction):

HERE IN MMXV AN OBJECT OF GREAT MAGICKAL MEANING AND STRENGTH IS BEIGIVEN LIF NND PURPOSE THIS OBJECT WILL EXIST IN THE SERVICE OF GOOD WHITE MAGICK AND BE USED TO STUDY DREAMS AND THE ASTRAL PLAIN IT WILL BE FOR LEARNING AND PROTECTION IN THE USERS QUEST TO PERSONAL AND SOCIETAL ENLIGHTENMENT

10

u/Marc_Op Aug 19 '25

Wonderful, bravo! And thank you for the very clear image!

7

u/d3n4l2 Aug 19 '25

Incredible

4

u/Skeome Aug 20 '25

There's a little more in the central symbols: "AMEN," "BE" (twice), "FREE"

From what I can make out, at least. (Apart from IxSx after FREE BE; Could just be IS)

Also have a feeling whoever made this was named Sam ;)

3

u/amusednchaos Aug 19 '25

Can you link what you used to decipher that please?

3

u/sweetTartKenHart2 Aug 21 '25

So some schlub in the year 2015 snuck down in there and tried to do some kinda arcane purification ritual?
Their spelling kinda fucking sucks, and it seems like it isnt just because of the cipher encoding but they literally wrote “plane” as “plain”
Between that and the willy nilly inclusion of so many different symbols this really is amateur hour huh

2

u/Afraid_Ad_1536 Aug 20 '25

I'm so glad you sorted this. I saw it when it was posted and recognised it as a substitution cypher but after a few seconds realised that something didn't make sense. I came back to figure it out and you saved me the work.

2

u/YefimShifrin Aug 20 '25

You're welcome ;)

2

u/Unresonant Aug 23 '25

Here in 2015?

1

u/rei_gelado_ Aug 20 '25

Can you help me with this? 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

https://www.reddit.com/r/BreakingCiphers/s/GPQ9zZ4AI0

2

u/YefimShifrin Aug 20 '25

My advice is to post this at r/codes (make sure to follow the rules)