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This unknown partial pattern that stimulates further investigation is what Roland Barthes termed the hermeneutic code. Both the semic and hermeneutic codes⁴⁰ work because of the brain's pattern recognition capabilities, and the reward of feedback energy that occurs once the loop of understanding is closed. Narrative is a primary pattern of the neurology of conscious thought. It is a pattern of linear causative relations that is particularly compelling once recognized. The semic code operates because exposure to a partial pattern implies the complete pattern, yet semic code is differentiated from hermeneutic code in that semic code is that understanding deduced from what is shown, and represents a continuous feedback loop that keeps the reader, or the one encountering the code, engaged in the cultural or subcultural discourse, which in turn aligns that individual within a larger group structure networked by the semiotic code in question. Evoking archetypal resonances in a prospective demographic⁴¹ requires these kinds of codes or reference points for the culture in which the message will be inserted.

Most traditional magic operates at a higher logical level than either semic or hermeneutic code. This higher level of code is the symbolic code, which is a pattern of patterns and hence is often translatable to a number of different relations. This is why the planets of astrology can be mapped to personality types, components of mind, social behavior, or classes of animals, plants, stones, vibrations, or colour. Rather than being single signifying signs, symbolic code is a kind of super nodal form of association and classification.