The reality shifting symbol is two circles stacked like a figure eight, with a straight line running down through both and an S curve inside the top one. Shifters read the circles as your current reality (CR) and your desired reality (DR), and the line as you, moving between the two. It is an unofficial sign that shifters picked up from a TikTok artist, and today they draw it, wear it and type it into their bios.
Quick pick
What Do You Want to Do With the Shifting Symbol?
Tap the line that sounds most like you to jump to your answer.
- Just saw it and wondering what it is? Read what each part means
- Want it in your bio or a caption? Copy the text version
- Want to draw it on paper or your hand? Follow the five steps
- Thinking about a tattoo? Read this before you book
- Worried it is a witchcraft sign? Get the honest answer
Keep reading below Where it came from Lookalikes Necklaces Will shifters know it? Wearing it Questions
If CR and DR are new words to you, start with our guide to what reality shifting is. To see how people actually try to shift, browse the main shifting methods. And keep our reality shifting safety guide close by.
What Does the Shifting Symbol Mean?
Look closely and you will find three parts: two circles, one line and a letter S. Each part stands for a piece of shifting, at least in the way most shifters read it.
○ The Two Circles: Your Current and Desired Reality
The circles sit one above the other and overlap a little where they meet. One is your CR, the life you are living right now. The other is your DR, whether that is Hogwarts, a K-pop trainee dorm or a calmer version of your own life.
Many shifters love that the circles touch. To them, the small overlap says your two realities are closer than they seem.
○ The Line: You, the Shifter
A straight line runs from top to bottom through the middle of both circles. That line is you.
It passes through both circles like a thread through two beads, so it shows you as present in both realities at once.
○ The S: Shifting
The S is the easiest part to miss. A curve starts on the left edge of the top circle and sweeps down across the line to the point on the right where the two circles cross. Follow it with your finger along the outer edges, and you will trace a letter S.
The S stands for shifting. Its swoop looks like the path you take from one reality into the other.
One honest note. We could not find the artist’s own explanation of each part, so this is the community’s reading, the one shifters repeat in comments and captions. It is a lovely reading, though, and if you are still deciding where your second circle leads, browse these ideas for your desired reality.
Where Did the Reality Shifting Symbol Come From?
The symbol was born on TikTok. Wikimedia Commons, the free media library behind Wikipedia, credits the design to a TikTok artist’s video. The upload date built into that video’s link points to April 2021.
Shifters adopted it within weeks. On Reddit, a post on 26 April 2021 shared it as “the official Shifting community symbol” that came from TikTok “a few weeks ago”. In the same thread, the person who said they ran the project (not the artist) wrote that it had been checked against hate-symbol databases.
So is it official? Not really. Shifting has no leader or council that could make anything official, and it simply caught on.
You may read that it was made in 2020, but that is when the shifting trend itself took off on social media, according to Wikipedia. Today Wikipedia uses the symbol as the picture on its reality shifting article. Its caption calls it a symbol “often used to represent reality shifting in its virtual communities”.
Wikimedia Commons also lists the design as public domain, because a picture of simple geometry cannot be copyrighted. That is one reason you see it on so many homemade necklaces, stickers and shirts.
Symbols It Gets Mistaken For
Two circles and a line are simple shapes, so the shifting symbol has a few lookalikes. If you spot something similar in a shop or on a stranger’s jacket, check for the S before you get excited.
- The figure eight or infinity sign. Take away the line and the S, and you have an 8. In one Reddit thread about seeing the symbol in public, someone asked whether it was the infinity sign.
- The Deathly Hallows. Harry Potter fans spot the line through a circle straight away. But the Hallows sign has a triangle and only one circle, so the second circle and the S give it away.
- The Chalice Well vesica piscis. This is the closest match, two overlapping circles with a line, and it has its own story.
The Chalice Well Trust in Glastonbury, England, says its well lid was dedicated in 1919. It was created by Frederick Bligh Bond and Alice Buckton around the sacred geometry of the Vesica Piscis, which the Trust says represents the union of opposites, including “what is manifest and what is potential”.
That meaning is so close to shifting that the mix-up is easy to forgive. In 2025, a shifter showed off a festival necklace on Reddit, and the replies pointed out that it was the Chalice Well design.
How to Copy and Paste the Shifting Symbol
There is no official shifting emoji. Instead, shifters build a text version out of line characters and small circle marks. Copy one of these lines into your bio, a caption or your notes:
- ──○─○○○○──
- ⋆──○─○○○──⋆
- CR ──○─○○○○── DR
Read them as a sideways sketch, not a perfect copy. The line runs left to right, and the circles sit on it. The last version adds CR and DR at the ends, so anyone who knows the symbol reads it as the trip from one to the other.
Many shifters make the circles with a special Unicode character called the combining enclosing circle, which draws a ring around the character before it. Some phones and computers show it as empty boxes, so the lines above use a plain circle that every screen can show.
If you copy the ring version from somewhere else, check how it looks on your own phone before you post it.
○ How to Draw the Shifting Symbol
You only need a pen. A pencil is kinder for your first try, though, because the S takes a little practice.
- Draw a long, straight line from top to bottom. Make it longer than you want the finished symbol, since the ends poke out past the circles.
- Draw a circle around the top half of the line. Keep the line running right through its center.
- Draw a second circle of the same size underneath. Let it overlap the first one slightly, like an 8.
- Add the S curve. Start on the left edge of the top circle. Sweep a curve down across the line and finish where the two circles cross on the right.
- Sharpen the ends of the line. In the most common version, the line thins to a fine point at the top and the bottom.
Shifters draw it in the corner of a script, on the first page of a journal or on the back of a hand before bed. (A washable pen is your friend here.)
Ways Shifters Use the Symbol
Most people keep it small and personal. Here are the common ways, from the easiest to the most permanent.
○ In Your Bio, Script or Journal
Adding the text version to your bio is the quietest way to say “I shift” online. The shifters who know it will spot it.
You can also draw the symbol at the top of your script, like a title page. If you are writing your first one, our shifting script template gives you a structure. The symbol also makes a sweet header for a page of shifting affirmations.
○ Shifting Symbol Necklaces and Jewelry
A necklace is a popular way to wear it, since it sits close to your heart and nobody needs to know what it means. You can also find it as a charm, a bracelet or a keychain.
One small tip for your skin. Mayo Clinic explains that a nickel allergy usually causes an itchy rash where the metal touches you, and that it is usually linked to jewelry. If your skin reacts, look for nickel-free stainless steel, titanium or sterling silver, which Mayo Clinic lists among the safer choices.
○ Shifting Symbol Tattoos
Getting the symbol tattooed comes up again and again in shifting threads. A tattoo stays with you for life, though, so this is the one use worth slowing down for.
If you are under 18, wait. In England, Scotland and Wales, the Tattooing of Minors Act makes it illegal to tattoo anyone under eighteen. Rules differ in other countries, so check the law where you live.
When you are old enough, choose a licensed studio, never a do-it-yourself kit. The FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration) has received reports of infections from contaminated inks and of allergic reactions to the inks themselves. It warns that DIY ink kits “have been associated with infections and allergic reactions”, and that bad reactions can come “right after tattooing and even years later”.
Our advice is simple. Draw the symbol on your wrist with a washable pen, or wear a temporary tattoo, for a while first. If you still love it after that, you will know.
○ Making Your Own Symbol Items
You do not have to buy anything. The symbol is simple enough for iron-on beads, embroidery thread, air-dry clay, a sticker you draw yourself or a stamp carved from an eraser.
You can even design a sigil of your own. As one Reddit reply put it back in 2021, “You can make your own sigil for shifting”. Your version can hide details only you understand, like your DR’s favorite color or the first letter of your DR name.
Will Other Shifters Recognize It?
Honestly, maybe not.
In a 2025 Reddit thread asking how recognizable the symbol is, one reply said the thread itself was how they learned it existed. Another said they had been shifting for more than two years without ever hearing of it, while another called it extremely common on shifting TikTok and Tumblr.
So wear it for yourself first. Think of it as a quiet hello that only some people will hear, and a little reminder of your DR each time you catch it in the mirror. To everyone else it is a pretty design, and you never owe anyone an explanation.
If someone does recognize it, enjoy the moment, but keep a few things to yourself. Wikipedia notes that most shifters are teenagers and young adults, yet anyone can say they shift, so a shared symbol tells you nothing about who someone really is. Keep your full name, school and address private.
And if someone you only know online asks to meet face to face, hold off and tell a parent or carer first. An NHS children’s health service lists that exact request as a warning sign.
Would you rather shift alongside people you already know? Group shifting is built around exactly that, and our page on whether reality shifting is dangerous covers what else to watch for.
Is the Shifting Symbol a Witchcraft Symbol?
No. It is a modern design that came out of the shifting community on TikTok, not out of any religion or spell book.
Some shifters call it a sigil, and that word can sound spooky. But Merriam-Webster defines a sigil as a seal or signet, and also as a sign held to have occult power in astrology or magic. A sign means what people decide it means, and to shifters this one means “I shift”.
You may also hear that it is linked to the devil. We could not find where that rumor started, and even the person who ran the project on Reddit in 2021 wrote that it has “no relation to the devil”.
Shifting itself is not witchcraft either. It is a mix of visualization, meditation and intention that you practice on your own. Wikipedia puts the science plainly: shifting your consciousness to another reality is not possible, so shifting is seen as a personal experience.
If you are curious about the research, read the science behind shifting.
Wearing the Symbol
If you would rather buy than make, a search on Etsy turns up symbol wall art and lockets, mixed in with ads for “channeled” shifting letters and playlists. Search for the exact item you want, like “shifting symbol necklace”, and scroll past the readings.
A few symbol clothes are also sold on Amazon. These were still available when we updated this page.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Shifting symbol T-shirt, a classic tee with the symbol printed in white
- Shifting symbol hoodie with flowers, a pullover with small flowers around the circles
- Shifting symbol tank top, a sleeveless top for warmer days
On a chain, in your bio or in pen on the back of your hand, the symbol is a small piece of your DR that you get to keep with you here. Happy shifting!
Frequently Asked Questions About the Shifting Symbol
What does the shifting symbol mean?
Shifters read its two stacked circles as your current reality and your desired reality, the straight line through them as you, the shifter, and the S curve as shifting itself. Put together, it shows one person present in two realities and the path between them. The artist’s own explanation is not on record, so this is the community’s reading, but it is the one most shifters will give you.
Who created the reality shifting symbol?
A TikTok artist designed it, and the shifting community on TikTok and Reddit adopted it within weeks. Nobody ever made it official, because shifting has no leader or council that could. It caught on anyway, and Wikipedia now uses it as the picture on its reality shifting article.
Can I copy and paste the shifting symbol?
Yes. There is no official shifting emoji, but shifters use text versions built from line characters and small circle marks, like ──○─○○○○──. Copy it into your bio or a caption, and if it looks uneven on your phone, try pasting it into a different app.
Is the shifting symbol a witchcraft symbol?
No. It is a modern community sign that came from TikTok, not from any religion or magic tradition. Some shifters call it a sigil, a word that can mean a seal or a sign believed to have magical power, but this one simply means “I shift”. The rumor linking it to the devil has no known source, and the person who ran the project said it has no relation to the devil.
Should I get a shifting symbol tattoo?
Only as an adult, and only at a licensed studio, never with a home kit, because tattoo inks can cause infections and allergic reactions. A tattoo is for life, so try the symbol in washable pen or as a temporary tattoo for a while first. If you still love it after that, you will know it is right for you.
What are signs of shifting?
Shifters describe things like tingling, a heavy or floating body, a soft buzzing or flashes of light behind their closed eyes as they relax. Those are their reports, not proof, and plenty of people feel the same on an ordinary night as they drift off. Our guide to reality shifting symptoms goes through each one and explains which feelings are never shifting signs and need a doctor instead.
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