Crag Castle Lexicon
(Working community terminology. Mix of precise, loose, subcultural, plain English, and older phrasing. Long-term residents use the shorter forms; newer people hear the fuller versions first.)
Core exteriorisation
- Rhyme — The observable match between something active inside a person and a trace outside them. “There’s a rhyme in the corridor.”
- Trace — The exterior mark itself (wrong reflection, extended corridor, biased paint, completed sentence, heated metal). Neutral descriptor.
- Bleed — A trace that has become noticeable to more than the person carrying it, or that lingers. Mildly pejorative.
- Bring — What a person is currently carrying that can rhyme. “What are you bringing?”
- Own it — The act of recognising the trace as one’s own. Short form of ownership. Often the only correction offered.
- Feed — Continuing to give attention or emotion to a trace so that it strengthens. “Don’t feed it.”
- Back to the form — Return attention to the limited made thing (drawing, mark, phrase, shape, tool). Primary practical instruction.
- Set it down — Complete or deliberately release the form so the trace can recede.
Thresholds and space
- The Floor — The ancient yin-yang flagstones in the central lobby. Used both literally and as shorthand for any especially responsive place.
- Long corridor / short corridor — Descriptive, not metaphorical. A corridor that is reading longer or shorter than usual for the person walking it.
- Resident impression — Trace that does not belong to anyone currently living in the building (previous occupants).
- Family line — Impression that belongs to the student’s or teacher’s own dead. Acknowledged, not engaged.
- White side / shadow side — Loose spatial language for whether a given trace is reading toward clarity or toward personal nightmare material. Not fixed zones.
- The building answering — Broad, slightly formal phrase for manifestation occurring. Used more by older residents.
Attention and craft
- Holding — The Steiner-derived practice of keeping attention lightly on a self-made form without staring or forcing.
- The shape — Any completed attentional form (yoga, rehearsal mark, musical phrase, forged edge). “Finish the shape.”
- Clean brush / clean tool — Literal and figurative. Ending the work properly so it does not keep feeding.
- Ordinary will — Attention given to a concrete duty (animals, soap, loom, inventory, kitchen). The most reliable damper.
- Sit right — A take, a weave, a batch, or a room that has settled without distortion. Technician and craft shorthand.
- Inflation — Identifying with the trace or the effect so that it grows. Borrowed psychological term, used plainly.
- Equanimity — Older, slightly formal term for not reacting once a rhyme is noticed. Appears in theatre and literature contexts.
Social and ethical
- Overwrite — Attempting to push one’s own material into someone else’s field or into a shared space. Practical error.
- Rebound — The push-back that follows an overwrite. Can be social, perceptual, or both.
- Field — The loose personal zone in which a person’s material is active. “Stay out of their field.”
- Karma — Energy seeking balance; used for the observable consequences of feeding or overwriting.
- Dharma — Right function or right place; used when a task, a person, or a trace settles where it belongs.
- Babylon — Mainstream civilisation outside. Neutral-to-dry; not usually hostile in daily speech.
- Stayed — Chose not to return to Babylon. Grey-area descriptor.
- Turnover — People who try the Castle and leave. Spoken without drama.
Syllabus and practice
- Main lesson — Steiner block; artistic or practical work first, narrative or history carried alongside.
- Shadow block — Lesson in which Jungian Shadow material is met through artistic response after students have already seen their own rhymes.
- Story night — Regular storytelling session. Container, not confession.
- Rotation — Duty slot (gardens, soap, animals, looms, kitchen, shop, studio maintenance).
- Village run — Supply and goods trip. Also the practical link to phones and outside.
- Catchment — Village children who attend blocks or the dojo.
- The network — The loose external friends-of-the-Castle who sometimes send people or money. Rarely elaborated.
Looser or subcultural-tinged
- Pose — Style or speech that is feeding an image rather than serving craft. (Punk/Goth usage, kept sharp.)
- Glamour — Focused attention that alters how something is perceived. Used technically in performance and studio contexts; not compliment.
- The year — What the permanently stoned Hippy does not track. Occasional dry joke.
- It does that — Standard long-term response to a minor unexplained trace. Signals that no further discussion is required.
- Becoming sane — Short form of the longer resident phrase: the work is not resisting madness but reducing unconscious participation in one’s own projections.
Usage notes
Precise terms (rhyme, trace, own it, back to the form, overwrite) are taught by demonstration and brief correction. Looser terms (the building answering, white side, Babylon) circulate naturally. Newer students may hear only “don’t feed it” and “back to the form” for weeks. Full explanations are retrospective. The lexicon stays small enough that a close-knit, high-turnover community can actually use it.