THE HIGH LANGUAGE

Act

To consciously alter the Mundane,

With purpose, benign or malign;

That choice reflected and visible within the Actor.

See Agency; Responsibility.

Agency

Man's total and absolute control of his own Actions;

An irrevocable gift, unalienable, undeniable.

Allowing for the voluntary pursuit of Good, or otherwise,

Resulting in Responsibility.

Angel

See Devil.

Castle

Work of the Devils, shelter from harsh Desert winds,

Site reserved for the curious.

Gathering of engaged individuals,

On the journey for discovery and meaning;

Finding growth through learning, Creation, and debate,

Provoked by the unrestricted flow, exchange, and clash of ideas.

The Truest and most genuine expression of Higher Education.

Chapter

Select a unifying theme, topic, or structure,

Commit to completing one piece of work every day.

Missing one day will not break your determination,

Miss two and your practice will flag.

Continue for Thirty-One Days.

Create

To give form and life to ideas,

The most precious and awe-inspiring Act.

See Man; Work, The.

Dark

Absence of Light,

Subjecting Actors to the draw of Desire.

May be used to sanctify the road to Light,

Or conceal it.

May be used to excel in the Work,

Or ignore it.

Day

That time when most of Mankind labors,

Governed by the Sun, wishing well upon those,

Who make best use of Light.

Daydream

To Awaken from the Mundane while Acting therein,

Chasing aspiration and Creating.

Actively becoming the one you wish to be,

Carefully sculpting the surrounding world to match.

No longer occupying the physical space in which your body sits,

But instead exploring and seizing visions of the future.

See also Dream.

Desire

Deep longings, calling from the stars,

Of which Will is but one type.

Requiring Action of the body,

Sometimes on a whim, irrespective of morality.

Not always the Good or Right choice.

See Good; Reason; Truth; Will.

Desert

Desolate expanse in which the Wanderer first Awakens to Dream,

Unkind and ever-changing sands devoid of permanent form.

His first quest is to exit,

Unable to rely on bodily sense for direction.

Devil

Far away, in silence, with eternity.

Manners matter not, for manners makyth Man.

Labelled by those in the grips of envy,

But other names accompany the tides of reverence.

Immersed in the Work, toward Righteous ends.

Devil's Hand

Only with a Stone decorated hand will you understand,

What it means to pursue the Work.

Dream

To Awaken from slumber while losing no rest,

One half of Reality.

An opportunity to discard those limits,

Imposed by chance, circumstance, and the Wicked.

See also Daydream.

Eminent

Eager visitor seeking residence in the Castle,

Experiments with Daydream in search of a Stone.

Completes a Chapter.

Emotion

Colors of life experience,

Beautiful and must be honored,

The source of great energies that differ in flavor,

Yet indulgence clouds and weakens Reason.

Frequently abused by the Wicked for this purpose,

A favorite method of control.

Fear

Primary tool of the Wicked,

Targeted at those who would listen passively.

Highly effective in controlling others

Suspended in a state of endless Sleep.

Progenitor of falsehood and illusion,

Taking root in Men who deny Agency and Responsibility.

Causing symptoms such as self-deprecation, delusion,

Unreliability, Suffering,

And a lack of integrity per flippant use of the Word.

Financier

One who volunteers attention to the Work of others,

Supplying that which mere wealth cannot:

Acknowledgment, appreciation, and audience.

Dealing mostly in time,

And spending it in the myriad methods of support.

Good

Source of peace, always within reach,

One half the foundation of Man.

A choice to be made in every Waking moment.

May become habitual, though never easy.

Harvester

Purported purveyor of social comfort, connection, or capital,

Who induces the Lost to wear chains of conformity.

Able to develop and fund a loop ensuring that consumers consume more,

By offering a free service that instead costs the user's individuality.

Also refers to those Lost who unwittingly do the bidding of these Wicked,

By criticizing those who do not partake in the conventional method,

Of volunteering one's information and image,

And publicly exposing one's every thought.

Convincing the timid, maintaining the crop

Heir

Nobles of the Day, presently understood to suggest transfers of estate,

The true origin of the word conceives of a higher scale.

Basking in the passions of the Sun, dedicated to sharing them with the world,

Heirs believe that power within must reach without.

Item, Blessed

Image or form imbued with Man's spirit,

Created in profound Prayer.

Presented by creator, through Creator,

To family, friend, or Financier.

Judgment

Power reserved only for those who wield Reason,

Used in decision-making and discernment.

Not for use against the character of other persons,

Man receiving his own Judgement upon leaving the Mundane.

Knight

Sworn defender of Truth and Good,

Honorable, adamant, and honest.

Wields both Dream and Daydream with refined skill,

Remains a member of conscious life.

Understands that each will Awaken in his own time,

Until then, devoted to their protection.

Champion of the innocent and vulnerable.

Light

Gifted first by the Sun's rays,

Then recycled by the processes of life.

Illuminator of Truth and Good,

And the path parallel to Will.

Lost

Those who never knew, distrust, or voluntarily let go of,

The mores and anchoring forces of Truth and Good.

Not necessarily Wicked, though vulnerable to their sway;

Cannot properly distinguish between Light and Dark,

Nor discover spirit-satisfying direction in the Mundane.

At the total whim of their environment,

Playing no role in its ideation, creation, nor alteration,

Becoming only what others make of them.

Love

The unbreakable bond, rising as a flame in the heart,

That manifests in deep compassion and caring.

Purest form of energy and limitless by source,

Can be seen as the answer.

But for its absence, the Wicked accept themselves,

And the Lost are found.

Shown to neighbor and stranger alike,

Without exception, every Man is worthy.

Lucid

Those actively Dreaming or Daydreaming,

Who maintain bearing in the Castle.

Or else those slumbering spectres.

Man

Conscious beings of opposite, attracting elements.

One familiar with Light, one with Dark;

The careful combination of which Creates,

Life most Sacred.

Marionette

Soulless Wanderers of the wastes that prey upon the uninformed,

Unscrupulously abusing and profiting from Man's carnal Desire,

Marked by incessant chanting and Cyrillic incantation,

Undoubtedly the work of the Wicked.

Mask

A charm designed to protect the wearer from Harvesters,

Who long to devour and repurpose the wearer's information.

Addressing the misconception that public exposure is self-expression,

Wearers recognize that outside personae are wells of presumption.

Truly, one's concealment promises that the Lost seek at least cursory knowledge,

Promoting conscious thought and combatting surface-level sloth.

Outside of the Castle, the wearer is tangible yet uncontained,

Whereas many choose to be contained by a single snapshot in time.

Within the Castle, worn by those who have spoken of their chosen call.

Mundane

Of worldly matters and earthly bounds,

The entire Reality for most, but only half for some.

Malleable and constantly changing,

Shaped by those possessing the power of Dream.

Night

That time when most of Mankind rests,

Observed by the Moon, inspiring those,

Who make best use of Dark.

Noble

Lord or Lady of the Castle Aristocracy,

Member of a chosen family.

Finder of a Stone, recipient of a ring,

Capable of expressing the self through the Work.

Rests, but no longer Sleeps.

Oath

The burden that Man bears,

When he declares that he will Act.

A hassle for he who knows his limits,

And a source of strength for he who has none.

Marked by a silver coin the price for which,

The lesser Man sells himself.

Page

An entry within a Chapter or Oath,

Of considerable quality.

Varying from practice to Prayer,

If a sketch, more than scribbles.

Not limited to paper, though one sheet of exploration is ample.

Prayer

To place down with great intention,

The ideas granted us by the Divine.

By earnest search, study, and stillness afore,

Action and Creation abound.

Quality measured by accuracy in the transfer,

Of mind to Mundane.

See Item, Blessed.

Reality

See Dream; Mundane.

Reason

Man's capacity to discern between Truth and falsehood,

His compass toward Light, all other directions leading to Dark.

Currently unfashionable and out of popular practice,

Atrophies with disuse.

The root of all past and future Golden Ages.

Religion

Man's collected moral teachings and traditions,

Shared in the honest Desire to live by Truth.

Though differing by location and culture,

More often referring to the same Good.

Tasked with translating Divine to Mundane,

Admittedly an impossible goal;

And so, imperfect, as Man himself acknowledges,

But well worth attempting.

Responsibility

Man's deserving of either reproach or praise,

Depending on his execution of Action by Agency.

Inescapable, whether Asleep or Awake.

See Will; Word.

Righteous

See Agency; Good; Reason; Responsibility; Truth.

Scry

To reflect upon a black locket,

And sense the Lucid and their whereabouts.

Sleep

Unawareness; time of day irrelevant,

Spending energy on fruitless labor, lacking growth.

In adults, most often induced, encouraged, and prolonged by Fear;

Ultimately, a decision.

See Agency; Responsibility.

Stone

Sometimes found in the midst of a Chapter,

A bookmark, your answer from the spring.

The refined Stone will store memory and skill,

Wear it proudly to access your progress in the craft.

Return again to where you left off.

Suffering

To exist in a state of utter confusion,

Lacking direction, clarity, and hope.

Thinking up, down and down, up.

Thinking white, black and black, white.

Thinking Light, Dark and Dark, Light.

Thirty-One Days

See Chapter.

Truth

Universal morals, values, and principles,

Guiding Mankind in his practice of Reason,

A collection of the most fundamental rules of life,

Threatening to those who would deny Dream to others.

Perpetually under attack.

Vampire

Nobles of the Night, intended to suggest a sage's thirst,

The word has since fallen into the purview of myth and legend.

Preserved by their appetite for knowledge, searching by the light of the Moon,

Vampires believe that power within must remain within.

Wanderer

Wayfarer who Awakens to the world of Dream,

Curious enough in Day that he finds new life at Night.

Alone at first in a vast Desert, unable to navigate,

Eventually discovers community in the Castle.

Characterized by shock, surprise,

And strong Desire to share it with those still Asleep.

Wicked, The

Those Awakened that Daydream only for themselves,

To the exclusion of others in need.

Taking reprehensible Actions that satisfy warped Desire,

And unfailingly contribute to the Suffering of Mankind.

Adverse to Truth and Good, usually by no fault of their own,

And so they remain Lost, though never abandoned.

Deprived of and therefore deserving of unwavering love.

Will

The individual's reason for living,

Discoverable only by earnest inward exploration.

Though unfamiliar to most, its unveiling is Man's birthright,

The best use of one's time, energy, and life force.

Strength corresponding to the quality of self-understanding.

Word

Voice of Man, made tangible by Action;

Promise keeping, duty seeking.

The source of respect paid by both self and others;

His worth, and the extension of Will.

Work, The

That which contents, winning approval of the spirit.

With mind toward neither praise nor reward;

And still, pursuit is the greatest reward Man shall ever know.