Toby Chappell – Infernal Geometry and the Magick of Semiotics

My guest today is Toby Chappell, author of Infernal Geometry and the Left-Hand Path, Grandmaster of the Order of the Trapezoid within the Temple of Set. Toby is an extraordinary thinker in the domain of esoteric philosophy, semiotics, and magical language. His upcoming work dives even deeper into the structures behind magical thought, and today we get to pull back the curtain.

We’re not just discussing infernal geometry. If you loved the book, you’ll enjoy this, but what we’re really exploring are the deeper principles—how magical systems operate on unconscious architectures of language and meaning. Why do rituals work when they work? What makes a symbol truly magical? Regardless of your experience level in the occult arts, you’ll find this episode loaded with powerful insights.

Toby, it’s an honor. You and I have known each other briefly and connected through both tech and esoteric channels. There’s so much you’re involved with, including your current writing project. I’m especially fascinated by your perspective on language, particularly semiotics. Like the film Arrival, which explores learning an alien language that reshapes perception, there’s a profound similarity in magical work.

So let’s start at the core. What is semiotics?

Semiotics is the study of signs—anything that refers to, invokes, or points to something else. Words, smells, footprints in the woods, images on a wall—they’re all signs. Our perception of reality, and even our sense of Self, is built on interpreting and generating signs. We live in a matrix of codes. A code is a structured system of signs. Language is one. Social etiquette is another. Even something like ordering at Starbucks involves a specific set of codes. All magical systems—Christianity, Buddhism, Hermeticism—are also structured by codes.

As magicians, we work within and against these codes. We redefine signs. We hijack them. We infuse them with personal or ritualistic meaning. That’s where the magic begins—by altering the way we perceive and relate to signs, we reshape the structure of reality itself.

So we form identity through codes?

Exactly. Signs and codes aren’t just external—they’re internal. The way we interpret our moods, emotions, thoughts—all of these are signs. And they’re fluid. The same sign can mean different things depending on context. That’s where magical ritual becomes powerful. You ring a bell in a ritual—it becomes more than a sound. It signifies sacred space, invocation, altered consciousness.

The magician’s art is adding new layers of meaning. To speak to the world, to the unconscious, to spirits, to synchronicity. To speak, fundamentally, to reality itself. That is the essence of magic.

And this loops back to linguistic relativity—the idea that language shapes thought?

Yes. There are two versions: the weak one says language influences thought; the strong version says it determines thought. I lean toward the latter. Language—and the magical use of language—opens portals of perception. Whether you’re speaking Enochian, Theban, or your native tongue, the structure of language frames what you can imagine, create, and summon.

That ties into the magical toolset of correspondences. A new initiate in a system like the Golden Dawn begins to internalize the Tree of Life, elemental symbols, colors, sounds. These become an alternative map of reality. But memorizing them isn’t enough. You must feel them. You must integrate them neurologically. When you associate blue with healing or red with passion on a deep, unconscious level, then walking through a city becomes a magical act. The world reflects your inner mythology.

And that brings us to geometry and structure—what influenced Infernal Geometry?

The idea was seeded from the Ceremony of the Nine Angles. It’s a Lovecraftian ritual, but one that goes deeper. Lovecraft was steeped in ancient mythologies, and his dreams shaped his fiction. Infernal Geometry traces magical ideas back to Pythagoras—the mystical value of number, of oneness, twoness, threeness. These archetypal forms underpin the Western esoteric tradition.

Music, mathematics, geometry, astronomy—they’re all different expressions of the same cosmic architecture. And magic is the symbolic manipulation of that structure. Language is one method. Ritual another. Geometry and number are universal keys.

How do rituals like the Nine Angles shift perception?

They disrupt your current symbolic framework. Most of us live by inherited codes—economic, religious, psychological. A ritual from an alien frame (like Lovecraftian horror) can collapse that. It’s a controlled ego death. A rewiring. Through ritual, we momentarily step outside our conditioning, into a deeper psychic domain where new associations can be seeded.

It reminds me of dream work and the unconscious…

Absolutely. Lovecraft’s fiction was born from dreams, despite his rationalist views. Dreams offered him symbolic material beyond his conscious beliefs. For magicians, working with dream content—through active imagination, ritual, and symbol—is a process of translation. The unconscious reveals; the magician interprets and reshapes.

What differentiates the magician from the layperson?

The magician recognizes reality as symbolic and learns to work with it deliberately. They use ritual to engage with the symbolic structure of the world. But magic alone isn’t enough. The real change happens when magical intent is backed by practical action.

Which brings us to hacking the hologram…

Yes. Reality is a web of signs. Patrick Dunn’s “semiotic web” exercise is a brilliant technique. You map out all the associations—good, bad, fearful—around a desire. Then you redraw the map with reframed associations and bring that map into ritual. It’s powerful. It lets you rewrite the psychic code.

Just like in the Egyptian mysteries, you confess the negative, integrate it, and transmute it.

Exactly. It’s alchemy. You acknowledge the resistance, the fears, and you ritualize their transformation.

One final philosophical question. If reality is linguistic and symbolic, what is the Self behind it all?

The Self is a process. As children, we become selves by learning to communicate—language forms the boundary between internal and external. But that boundary is porous. Communication and identity evolve together. The magician isn’t just speaking words—they’re revealing and redefining who they are. Magic is the conscious evolution of Self through symbolic engagement with reality.

And if communication includes meta-communication—body language, energy, intention—then magic isn’t just what you say. It’s how you say it. Who you are as you say it.

That’s the real spell.