LEXICON

Necessary words. Definitions are stable until a practitioner tears them down, which is encouraged.

THE ACCIDENTAL WILDERNESS n.

What the dump became. The finest phrase anyone has coined for the Spit; we did not coin it, and we tip the hat each time (see Resources).

THE APSIS n.

The far point of an orbit. Every devotion has one; the temple is ours. Found, famously, at the Verbascum thapsis — which the botanists insist is thapsus, and the mullein, for its part, does not care.

THE ARMAMENTARIUM n.

The practice room; the full kit of instruments for the study of light, including the practitioner. Contains, ideally, an oak view, a bird feeder, incense, and at least one tool you cannot yet justify.

AUDACITY n., prized quality.

To act perversely, for the sake of it.

THE COVE n.

Where the rock is. (You will know it. It is the one that fits.)

DEVOTION n.

Any place, person, or practice you keep returning to on purpose. Drawn as an orbit; weighted in hearts; revealed by density.

THE ENDIKEMENT n.

The engineered arm that shelters the Spit's cells. Doctrinally: our beak. We feed on the nectar of the lake with it.

FIRST LIGHT n.

1. The reason the gates open at 5:30. 2. The instrument that tells you when to leave the house.

FLUBORIOUSNESS n., prized quality.

From fluborius: to create with an intentional reverence for the unknown. The word itself is an act of it.

THE GATES n.

The liturgical calendar. Weekends and holidays from 5:30 a.m.; weekday evenings from 4. On weekday mornings the temple is being made — you can hear it: the trucks.

ICONOCLASM n., prized quality.

To tear down symbols, even — especially — our own. Practiced on the front page, where the seal forgives it every time.

THE MIDDLE PATH n., literal.

A multi-use trail running the length of the Spit, maintained by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. Walk it to the end. Turn around.

THE NAUGHTY DIP n., rite.

Brief, imperfect, strictly speaking against the rules. Purification usually is. (The rules exist for good ecological reasons; the rite accepts the contradiction and does not recommend itself.)

PLATE n.

1. One numbered rendering of the seal; same plate, same image — chance you can revisit. 2. One photograph in the folio. The two systems are the same system.

RUBBLE n., sacred material.

The city, dug up, discarded, and forgiven. Bricks soften; holes are revealed as places for the water to pass through. Nothing is wasted.

THE SEAL n.

The whole radius compressed into one image: real devotions, veiled; rings that wobble because a hand held the compass.

THE SPIT n.

The Leslie Street Spit; the headland; the temple. Legally a park managed by the TRCA, with which we are proudly unaffiliated.

THOMPSONIST n.

Anyone following a middle path: their own. Membership is by walking.

THE TRUCKS n., liturgical.

Creation, ongoing. Weekdays until 4.