Semantic associations

Glyphs can be grouped by semantic association, and their shapes and positions are often correlated with their meaning. This page details some of those associations in the hopes that they will help you memorize the glyphs more readily.

Contents:

Pictograms
Gain and loss
Past and future
Pronouns
Heaven and earth
Glyph composition
XM rectangle
Portal
Antonyms

Pictograms

The glyphs link , field , shield , star , and toast are readily apparent via their shapes.

Gain and loss

The left side of the grid is associated with glyphs representing gain, and the right side is associated with glyphs representing loss.

For example, gain , advance , success / progress , grow are all on the left. Their antonyms lose , retreat , failure , contract / reduce are all on the right.
path points to the left, while barrier points to the right.
Note that have is basically a kite shape with a segment on the right missing, and share is a pentagon also with a right segment missing.
hide points to the right but with an open left, possibly suggesting gain for the hider and loss for others.

The glyphs associated with time do not have such associations.

Past and future

Glyphs associated with time are often placed along a time axis running from the past (left side) to the future (right side).

past points to the left, while future points to the right. present / now sit squarely in the middle.
before sits on the left and after on the right.
forget and ignore are glyphs that mirror each other, while old and new are rotated 180°.
improve points up and to the right, while its opposite deteriorate (rotated 180°)points down and to the left.
begin and potential both have their openings pointing to the slight right.
technology points to the right, signifying a progression to the future.

Pronouns

The glyphs representing others point up, while the glyphs representing the self point down (towards the player holding the scanner). The plural forms of the pronoun glyphs are simply the singular forms with one segment missing.

Others: you / your and them
Self: i / me and us / we

Heaven and earth

The top of the glyph grid can be associated with heaven (purity, otherworldliness), while the bottom is associated with earth.

human and presence sit on the bottom half, while shapers points to the top. n'zeer connects the top and bottom.
pure points to the top, while its 180° opposite impure points to the bottom.
less points toward the bottom, while more points toward the top.
live looks like arms raised up, while its mirror die sinks down.
The anchor points of safety and stability / stay are firmly grounded in the earth.
simple sits just below the middle of the grid, while complex zigzags its way towards the top.
self / individual points toward the bottom—in fact it almost always points toward the player holding the scanner.
pursue points up, while its mirrored opposite want points down toward the player.
liberate can be interpreted as a hook going up, while capture (rotated 180°) points down.

Also, heaven is associated with the mechanical, while earth is associated with the natural:

civilization versus nature
repair / recharge versus nourish

Glyph composition

Some glyphs are composed of or contain others.

human is a combination of mind , body , and soul . It also contains destiny in its bounding pentagon.
past contains both old and forget , while future contains both new and ignore .
truth with one segment missing is lie ; with two different segments missing, it becomes imperfect .
attack / war is composed of advance and retreat .
xm and portal both contain many glyphs in their boundaries, and have separate sections below.
body and knowledge put together form i / me .
worth is a combination of adapt and save .
technology is a combination of truth and future with a segment missing.
unbounded is a combination of search and all with a segment missing.
legacy contains shapers .
n'zeer offers perspective , if you add clear and subtract die .
interrupt consists of clear and before .
live-again is a composition of one side of again and the other side of live .
presence appears to be part of human and destiny together.
all creates a hexagon around the entirety of the grid.

XM rectangle

The rectangle represented by strong contains glyphs associated with XM. The lines in the glyph xm contain answer , equal , and not / inside . Furthermore, the following glyphs are contained in its boundaries:

A few other glyphs are within the bounding rectangle: search , simple , and present / now .

Portal

The boundaries of portal carve out a region of the grid that contains many words associated with it. All the glyphs associated with xm are represented, as well as these others:

past and future
weak , difficult , and intelligence
old / new , gain / lose , forget / ignore
civilization and nature
courage and fear
create and destroy
improve and deteriorate
live / breathe , die , and live-again
creativity / idea / thought and message
react , use , save
stability / stay , safety
together , repeat / again

Antonyms

Many glyphs are related to their antonyms or opposites by shape.

Mirror (reflection)

Rotation

capture / liberate
courage / fear
data / message (not quite antonyms)
improve / deteriorate
pure / impure
them versus us , we

Others

truth with a segment missing is lie .
question looks like a question mark, while answer is sort of a smaller reflection.
strong is a solid rectangle, while weak is composed of not and a a limp appendage segment.
search and answer are both counter-clockwise spirals.
complex forms the bulk of a sigma (Σ), while simple is the bottom line.
outside is on the outer hexagon of the grid, while inside is on the inner rectangle.
lead is a hook on the left, while follow is a simpler hook on the right.
difficult is a complex shape (I like to think of it as a Koch curve generator), while easy is a simple V-shape.
begin is an open kite, while end is a closed triangle.
intelligence , difficult , and consequence are almost mirror images of each other.