Mac Mail Rules

How can I search for words that contain special characters such as [ ]

For example, I have many emails that contain a pattern, [word1 word2 word3] in the subject. But if I create a rule to move all messages with a subject containing this pattern, the rule doesn't find anything.

Mail filtering doesn't work like a DOS wildcard search, but I think the problem you're having is that you might not be using the OR operator (actually referred to as "Any or All") in constructing your filters or smart folders.

Finding ALL words in a subject or body requires that all the words be there.

Finding ANY words requires only that EITHER [word 1] OR [word 2] OR [word 3] be there.

Well in this case an OR doesn't help. The only way I can filter the messages I want is to be able to search for words that include the [ and ] characters. I'm not even looking for a wild card search. But Mac Mail rules seemed to just not find any search word that contains a [ or ]. Also tried the words minus the [ or ] and it can't find them that way either. I need a way to search for a word that contains a [ or ].