ls -l ~/congo/glossary

Dante Alighieri, Florentine poet, who finished the Commedia just before his death in 1321
Virgil leads him down through hell and up purgatory, as far as reason reaches, and Beatrice the rest of the way into paradise
he called it only the Commedia; the Divine was added to the title after he died

holy communion

Greek christogram meaning Jesus Christ conquers
the first and last letters of Jesus and Christ, with nika for conquers
inscribed on Orthodox crosses and pressed into the bread of the Eucharist

king of Salem and priest of the most high God, who met Abram with bread and wine and blessed him
Genesis 14 is the whole of what he does; Psalm 110 swears a priesthood for ever after his order
Hebrews 5 to 7 gives that order to Christ, a priesthood held by who he is rather than by descent

a name for the Holy Grail, from the Old French saint graal, in the romances from the 1180s on
Christian legend makes it the cup of the last supper, carried to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea
the re-division into Sang Real, royal blood, is a modern reading rather than the word's history

gold covered chest built at Sinai to carry the terms of the covenant with God
inside were the stone tablets, a jar of manna, and the rod of Aaron that budded
its lid, the mercy seat, held two facing cherubim with an empty space between them
where God was said to meet and speak, and the chest was lethal to touch
lost after the fall of the temple, though Ethiopian tradition holds that it rests
at the church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum, the claim the Solomonic dynasty
of Haile Selassie I was founded on

drinking cup
used in Christian liturgy as part of a service of the Eucharist
in Rastafari it is the communal water pipe the herb is smoked from

greek for anointed one, from the verb to anoint
it translates the hebrew mashiach, and is a title rather than a name
the XC of IC XC NIKA is this word

Greek for stillness, and the Orthodox practice of the Jesus Prayer said until it settles from the mind into the heart
it is what nepsis keeps watch for, and what praying without ceasing is asking of a person
Mount Athos is its home and the Philokalia its book

Greek for Jesus, carrying over the Hebrew Yeshua, which means the Lord saves
the name where christos is the title, and the two together make the IC XC of the christogram
Yeshua in Hebrew and Iyesus in Ge'ez are the same name

Greek for word, reason, or ordering principle
used in the opening of John's gospel for the divine Word that became flesh
Chinese translations of that passage render it as dao

the prayer said in the dark, in the hours before first light
the first of the fixed hours the church keeps through the day
in the Orthodox church it is orthros, served at daybreak or as part of
the all-night vigil

Greek for change of mind, the turning itself rather than the remorse before it
the word the gospels use where English reads repent
meta is after or beyond and nous is the mind, so it names the mind held afterwards
turning back toward the mark, sin in the same Greek being hamartia, a shot gone wide

Greek for watchfulness, the sober attention a mind keeps on itself
guarding the heart so a thought is seen as it arrives rather than taken up
the practice gathered in the Philokalia, and the work theosis is reached by

Latin for holy of holies, the innermost chamber of the tabernacle, behind the veil
the high priest entered it once a year, on the day of atonement, and nobody else ever
Hebrews reads Christ as having entered it once for all, which is what makes him the mediator

two interlocked (or overlapping) squares, making what appears to be an eight-pointed star

the process of becoming one with God
the Eastern Christian teaching that salvation means partaking of the divine nature
summed up as god became man that man may become god

Hebrew for Jesus, Yeshua, shortened from Yehoshua, the Lord is salvation
the same name as Joshua, and what the gospels carry into Greek as iesous
yesuah is how it is spelled here rather than a standard transliteration

courtesy name of laozi, whose given name was li er
tradition has him set down the dao de jing for the gatekeeper at the western pass
before riding out of china and disappearing

Chinese for the way or the path
the nameless origin of heaven and earth, which cannot be spoken or named
Chinese translations of John's gospel render logos as dao

translation of the Daoist term pu, the pattern of the world before it is shaped
a state of simplicity and potential that carving into names and categories destroys

Chinese for action without action, or effortless action
doing by not forcing, so that things unfold at their own pace

mountain range in hubei, home of the daoist internal martial arts
its art, taijiquan, works by yielding, so that soft overcomes hard
the wu-tang clan took their name from it by way of kung fu films

Obeah is a folk magic found among those of African descent
Its English translation is witchcraft
The obeah is the magick of the Secret Light

type of symbol used in magick
The term usually refers to a pictorial signature of a spirit

magical charm packet found in the folk magic practices
the wanga is the verbal or mental correspondence of the secret light

Greek goddess of the crossroads, the night and magic, torch bearing and often three faced
Hesiod gives her a share of earth, sea and sky, honoured by Zeus above all others
the later tie to witchcraft is what carried her into folk magic and into the modern craft

He defied the Olympian gods by taking fire from them and
giving it to humanity in the form of technology, knowledge and, more generally, civilization

stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans sold for enslavement
were forcibly transported to the Americas

a Hebrew name for God, and the word Genesis opens with
grammatically plural while its verbs stay singular, which is the oldest argument for reading a trinity into the Hebrew
El is the older singular of it, a name for God across the whole semitic west

four-sided spinning top, spun at hanukkah
its four hebrew letters read nes gadol hayah sham, a great miracle happened there
it stands while it turns and falls over when it stops

Hebrew for chariot, and the name of Ma'aseh Merkavah, the Work of the Chariot, the earliest Jewish mystical tradition
it ascends through Ezekiel's vision of the wheels and the throne
the mer ka ba gloss of light, spirit and body is modern, Drunvalo Melchizedek's, and offered as Egyptian rather than Hebrew

two overlaid equilateral triangles, sixty degrees at each of the six points
the star of david, and in the grimoires the seal of solomon, who commanded spirits with it
in alchemy the upward triangle is fire and the downward is water, as above so below
the seal of Melchizedek is the same idea drawn with squares, making eight points

Yucatec Maya, "you are my other me", with ala k'in the paired response, "I am another yourself"
the philosophical reading is Domingo Martínez Parédez's, and it travelled on Luis Valdez's 1973 poem
the two part greeting is that modern crystallisation rather than an attested ancient formula

he is accorded divine importance in Rastafari
Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974
Widely considered to be a defining figure in modern Ethiopian history

king of ethiopia around 1200, of the zagwe line
he had eleven churches cut downward out of the rock at the town that carries his name
they were built as a new jerusalem, and are a place of pilgrimage still
the name is glossed "the bees recognise his sovereignty", from a swarm at his birth

in Rastafari the promised land, Ethiopia and Africa, against Babylon which is exile
the psalms' hill where God dwells, taken as a place to be returned to and a state to live in
Ethiopian tradition keeps the ark of the covenant at the church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum

a hand rolled cannabis cigarette, large and conical
Jamaican English, and in Jamaica generally pure herb rather than cut with tobacco
the herb is sacramental in Rastafari, taken in reasoning rather than casually

a phrase congo returns to, and what he means by it is not settled here
most likely Haile Selassie I's threefold title
King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah
Rastafari reads that crowning through Revelation, where the returned christ wears many crowns
the same triad the church gives christ, as prophet, priest and king

the study of visible sound, from the Greek kyma, a wave
sand or water on a driven plate settles into standing figures, which Chladni drew in 1787
the word itself is Hans Jenny's, coined in the 1960s for what the plates had been doing all along

the simplest of the five Platonic solids, four triangular faces meeting at four points
Plato's Timaeus assigns it to fire
two interpenetrating tetrahedrons make the star tetrahedron, which is the six point star one dimension up

Latin for a swelling or a cushion, and the moulding at the base of a column
in geometry the donut, a circle revolved about an axis it does not touch
a field flowing out one pole and back in the other is toroidal, as a magnet's is; the heart's own field is real but tiny, and the nine feet is HeartMath's claim rather than settled measurement

Mahavatar Babaji, the deathless guru at the head of the Kriya Yoga lineage
babaji is an honorific rather than a name, baba for father and ji for respect, so several teachers carry it
the Mahavatar is known almost entirely through Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, which is where the West met him

Sanskrit for the coiled one
the coiled energy said to rest at the base of the spine and rise through the body
kundali is the shorter form
in Vedic astrology a kundali is also a birth chart, mapping the sun and planets at birth

gland at the base of the brain, taken in yogic teaching as a seat of the inner eye
where the kundalini is said to arrive after rising the length of the spine
paired with the pineal, the two spoken of as a chamber entered by sitting still

the seven most powerful and popular Orishas
These are Elegua, Yemaya, Oshun, Shango, Obatala, Oya (sometimes Orunmila or Ochossi), and Ogun

sacred double-headed drums of the Yoruba tradition
played in sets of three to call and speak to the orishas

powerful spirits from the Yoruba tradition in Africa

Orishas are seen as intermediaries between humans and the creator god, Olodumare.
Their role is similar to that of saints in Christianity