Glossary

The Curriculum of Shadows The way of the Ranger. A cumulation of strategies and knowledge of Silence and Flow. Also known as “feeding old people and babies”. Also a book said to be written by the first Rangers.

Mems or mems Includes Forest Memories, myths that shape people’s decisions, choices and interactions with the the world, great forces in nature, spirits, Spirits, memories, ancestors, dead or lost family and memes. Capitalized it refers to something very powerful, even otherworldly or passed from the physical world. Not capitalized it refers to something rooted in the natural and physical world.

The Arrow The overwhelming direction or force of someone’s story of path. Frequently referred to in connection with the Remembering and turning our Arrow around from our own destruction. From an Artisans perspective it means the Myth and Stories that compel us. For turning the arrow around, see the Dark Winds.

The Remembering is the apocalypse, from our perspective. Chaos, systems degradation. Could be zombies, or more general systems collapse. The end result of unsustainable globalization. The remembering is recovering the Hearthstone and moving back to extended families, human and non-human, multi-generational. In our society arrow is flying toward globalization/Empty Stranger. The Dark Winds will come and turn the arrow around. The further the arrow goes, the more energy it will take to reverse it.

Closing the Gap Hunting or leading to any intimate connection with an animal by means of building familiarity and shortening the rope of understanding between you. Can also refer to plants.

Forest Memories Birds understood as the nerves of the forest. Basic understanding of this is flow through the forest by respecting bird behaviors as accounting for presence of other beings, weather and season. Though this also refers to all larger reflections of the Territory.

The Map The current story you are telling yourself that is not territory but ideally a functional way to navigate through it.

The Territory Not the map, instead what is really there which we cannot fully map. Inherent in the phrase, “The map is not the territory.” If the map was the territory than it would be the reality of the land itself complete with all natural features and details.

Ordinal Directions Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and Northwest. Each about how things move through The Map.

Cardinal Directions North, East, South and West. Each are about how things are framed on The Map.

Dark Winds (Southeast) Opposite energy. Conflict and high contrast. The Dark Winds includes some of the most fearful or mysterious Mems, including Old Harry. They represent chaos. Jester, clown, chaos, mysterious. In western mythology, this is bad (the Joker in Batman is a psychopath). Earthquake, hurricane, etc, for modern humans they’re terrible. With less infrastructure, these tings are not so bad, won’t necessarily kill you. But in Trackers world, it’s not so terrible. We label things as “bad” because we have so much to lose when they hit us. Power grid, food systems, etc. We are obsessed with what we are going to lose, so we are afraid of chaos and obsessed with control. Dark Winds are chaos, disruption, they can reverse the direction of the arrow. They flip everything around. Could be the apocalypse, but it’s just chaos. It’s essential to flip things around. Western myths consider this disruption evil. Foraging cultures believe “Well, that just keeps us balanced.” Dark Winds are used to flip the energy.

Old Harry Old Harry represents the wilderness. He remains the giant hairy beast and Mem of the woods. Some old people say that Old Harry is a fierce protector of the most ancient forests. Wild nature. He is the Lightning Traveler, appearing with storms. During storms, Dark Winds are brewing. Old Harry travels with the Dark Winds. Old Harry is like the western mythology witch (often inappropriately maligned)—he’s going to eat the children. Some elders say he steals children, sealing their eyes with sap to carry to the fire to cook and eat their flesh. Including consumption of their souls. Other old people say Old Harry finds children while they are wandering the forest and show them secret herbs that help them live and survive for a very long time outside the village. There are two extremes kids can transcend. Old Harry has duel nature—two sides of same coin. The weeding out is good for the herd.

Rovers A mysterious and nomadic raiding people. Rovers are rarely seen and, according to the Rangers Guild, very well versed in the Silence. Rangers fear them, often not escaping without some form of physical or psychological torture. Campfire tales spread by children say that if a Rover catches you it will likely skin you alive and eat you. Not necessarily in that order.

Whiskers The edges of your awareness. Whiskers exist as one’s peripheral vision and other physical senses. It is also homage to how real world animals use their whiskers to flow and twist the rest of their body down narrow trails or brush. The concept applies to fuzziness that exists on the periphery of thought and its function for tracking and closing the gap.

Digger Bopper An arm length tool of a branch with a pointed end for digging and a rounded end for throwing stick hunting. Also used for bopping bladed tools to split or remove wood.

Tracking Following an animal or human and finding it.

Tracking Developing a familial understanding and connection to whatever you are tracking, hunting or gathering.

The Lens or Lens Journal A series of six layers or focal maps. Each map is gross in details and zooms further and further into a closer look. It begins wide with weather, going through territory and seed dispersal, into habitat, track patterns and finally narrowing all the way down to details of track culminating with a gestalt summation of ongoing details.

Hand of Tracking A mem or memory device to ask the lens of questions when one finds a sign or track. Thumb:Who is the animal? Index:What is the animal doing? Middle:When did the animal pass by? Ring:Why is the animal there? Pinky:Where is the animal now? Palm:For smacking yourself on the head when you realize all your assumptions are incorrect.

Prime Projection A gestalt summation where the not obvious becomes so as details collected by intensive mapping naturally spill into an essential understanding of the data and it’s relationships.

Aspects of Awareness Referring the aspects each of the four guilds bring to developing awareness and competency.

• Rangers GuildScope The first aspect of awareness. Associated with the Rangers Guild. Scope is ever increasing in paying attention to details both subtle and gross. Your maps get progressively more expansive and more articulate.

• Rangers GuildMap Connections The second Aspect of Awareness. Associated with the Wilders Guild. Everything is best noted and understood in relationship. Isolating aspects of the map reduces the value of mems or memories. Seeing everything by relationships reveals actual functions and not assumptions.

• Rangers GuildSilence & Flow This third Aspect of Awareness. Associated with the Mariners Guild. This recognizes that nothing on the map is static or fixed. As everything changes through the seasons so must you.

• Rangers GuildStory This is the final and complete Aspect of Awareness. Associated with the Artisans Guild. The stories we tell and we have faith in compel us to prove it right by cultivating scope, relationships and flow.

3Ds: Dull, Dapple, Fuzz In joke for the camouflage process.

Dappled light Breaking patterns, confusing to the eyes. The edge of the forest. A place to wait. Also Korembi.

The Fourth Claw Referring to the hidden fourth claw of the owl of the Rangers Guild emblem. Just as when we "train a survival skill" or "track a trail", the fourth claw of our owl (the Ranger) is always hidden. A reminder that everything remains unfinished. The Curriculum of Shadows celebrates that incompleteness and lack of absolutes. A place where the Ranger becomes a creature of varying shades and the dappling of light.

Mem of Empty Stranger is about consumption, isolation, disparity, appropriation, globalization. Breaks apart extended family. Creates disharmony. Fissuring destroys local economy, creates more global economy. Breaks up family/local systems, creates more uniformity/global empire. Empty Stranger began, found its life, when humans began agrarian society in Fertile crescent.