Hieroglyphic writing could (sometimes) be considered as of a magical nature. The individual hieroglyphs could possess a magical force that could be either benevolent or evil.
A hieroglyph representing a scorpion, for instance, would often be drawn without its poisonous tail to prevent it from doing any harm.
The determinative in the name of the demon Apophis 
is
a snake that is being stabbed or cut, thus magically repelling the evil that
emanates from the writing of Apophis’ name.
The writing of the phrase "like Re" with a hieroglyph representing a cat crowned with a solar disk was also the result of such magical considerations (see Ptolemaic Writing).
The same connection between writing and magic could also result in the cutting out or deleting of names of unpopular people, demons and even gods. During the Amarna-period, the many names of the god Amun would be struck from the walls, and less than a generation later, the very same thing would happen to the names of Aton, Akhenaten and his relatives. In destroying the names of hated beings, harm was done magically to the beings themselves. The persecution of names was thus much more than an effort to remove a hated person from memory.
Magic and writing