You’ll see a new window appear with a variety of symbols divided into categories such as Emoji, Arrows, Currency, and Math. With the app open, head to Edit > Emoji & Symbols or use the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-Space. To do so, launch just about any app that offers text input, such as Text Edit, Pages, or Safari. To access symbols such as Command (⌘), Option (⌥), Shift (⇧), and Control (⌃) - what Apple refers to as “Technical Symbols” - you first need to open the Emoji & Symbols window.
But don’t fret! You can get your system-related symbols back by simply turning them on again. After a few minutes of poking around, it appeared that Apple no longer displays these system-related symbols in the Emoji & Symbols window by default.
I was working with a fresh install of OS X, however, and when I reached the Emoji & Symbols window, the Command symbol was nowhere to be found. Absent the use of more advanced methods, I normally head to the Emoji & Symbols window (formerly known as Special Characters and accessible via Edit > Emoji & Symbols or Control-Command-Space) to find and insert characters such as Command (⌘), Option (⌥), or Eject (⏏). While writing a recent tip on keyboard mapping in OS X, I needed to type the Command symbol (⌘).