Aedo – Gr. aoidos – singer. Epic poet of ancient Greece.
The bard who sings of the heroes’ deeds while accompanying himself on the lyre, in the Homeric tradition. In this collection, the poet is portrayed as the guardian of memory, the one who narrates “a name, a word, a moment” to counter the dissolution of oblivion.
Albedo – Lat. – whiteness. Second phase of the opus magnum.
Clarification, purification. It follows the Nigredo. In this collection, the Albedo is not confined to a single moment: an initial sign, a sudden epiphany, already runs through Section III (Transformation)—the white flags of “The Door”—and is then fulfilled in Section IV (The Return): snow, a cold and clear light that does not erase pain but integrates it.
Caduceus—Latin caduceus, Greek kerykeion. Attribute of Hermes/Mercury: a staff with two entwined serpents.
The symbol of the mediator between worlds: the messenger of the gods, but also the guide of souls to Hades (psychopomp). In this collection, the pilgrim who “raises the caduceus” is the figure tasked with keeping open the channel between the world of the living and that of the Lar.
Body-dwelling / Body-sanctuary – A pair of terms in this collection.
The body-dwelling is the body of the sanctuary-person not yet occupied by the Lar, but already prepared to welcome it: a physical threshold in anticipation. The body-sanctuary is that same body at the moment when the Lar has entered it and shares it. Seen from the inside, the body-sanctuary is the flask (see Flask).
Doxa – Gr. doxa – opinion, reputation. Philosophical term (Plato, Aristotle).
Common opinion, the world’s judgment, what “is said.” In Plato, it is contrasted with episteme (true knowledge). In this collection, the “wind of doxa” is the wind of indifference and prejudice that scatters memories and the petals of black roses.
Heterotopia – Gr. heteros (other) + topos (place). A term coined by Michel Foucault (1967).
The “other” places that exist outside of ordinary places: spaces that mirror, contradict, or overturn all other places. Cemeteries, theaters, gardens, mirrors, ships. In this collection, the empty stage of the “Theater of Heterotopias” is the “other” place par excellence: the world of the Lar as a counter-space to the world of the living.
Lar (pl. Lares) – Lat. Lar, Lares – Roman guardian deities of the home and the place.
In Joseph Conti’s interpretation, adopted by this collection: the spirit of a soul that, refusing to pass into another world, remains bound to certain places due to a visceral attachment to the life and landscapes it once inhabited. It is not a ghost in the traditional sense: it is an active, thinking, desiring presence.
Matraccio – It. – from Fr. matras. A long-necked glass flask used in the alchemical laboratory.
The sealed vessel in which transmutation takes place. In this collection, it is the place where the Lar preserves a “familiar scent”: memory as a volatile substance to be preserved in glass. The flask is the body-sanctuary viewed from within.
Nigredo – Lat. – blackness. The first phase of the alchemical opus magnum.
The dissolution, the putrefaction of the prima materia. It is the necessary dark phase: nothing is transformed without first falling apart. In this collection, it coincides with the Descent (Section II): the Lar dispersing, memory fading, silence as the starting point.
Immense Hours – The Collection’s Formula – Leitmotif.
The recurring formula that designates the expanded time of the hospice: hours that stretch out, become imbued with meaning, and escape ordinary measurement. The “immense hours” are both the gift and the danger of the Lar’s hospitality—“the most beautiful but also the most poisonous” (The Labyrinth of Doubles). The prophecy of the wise scarab—“immense hours will be granted to you”—is the central promise of the collection.
Hospice – Lat. hospitium – welcome, refuge.
In Joseph Conti’s sense: the living person who, through an affinity of inclination and thought with the Lar, becomes its “refuge.” The Lar enters it not to possess, but to share a real life in those places. The hospice is not a victim: it is a chosen accomplice. The relationship is one of mutual resonance.
Paramnesia—Gr. para (beside, beyond) + mnesis (memory). A psychological term.
False memory, the recollection of events not personally experienced—or the recognition as already known of something encountered for the first time (structural déjà vu). In this collection, it refers to the Lar’s memory overlapping with that of the hospice: memories of the place that emerge as if they were one’s own, without warning.
Rebis – Lat. res bina – double thing. An alchemical term.
The final product of the opus magnum: the union of opposites into a single substance. The alchemical androgyne. In this collection, it is the desired outcome of the Lar’s journey: the reunification of the spirit’s memory and the life of the hospice.
Rubedo – Lat. – redness. The third (or fourth) phase of the opus magnum.
The phase of fire, of fulfillment, of the union of opposites. In the classical sequence, it follows the Albedo; in this collection, it coexists, in Section III (Transformation), with the first epiphany of the Albedo itself (see Albedo): the moment when pain becomes as precious as amber, and the Lar begins to act rather than merely suffer.
Humanation—A term coined in this collection.
Not an anthropomorphization, but an attempt at mapping: the way in which the Lar’s movements are distributed and take root within the body-sanctuary. It is the process through which the body-dwelling, already prepared, is gradually inhabited (see Body-dwelling / Body-sanctuary).
Ouroboros (Ouroboros) – Gr. oura boros – devouring its own tail. A hermetic and alchemical symbol.
The serpent biting its own tail, a symbol of infinity, of cyclical eternity, of return. In this collection, it appears as the boundary of the circular garden, as the form of the ouroboros that “guards the infinite” on the map of the universe: not a boundary that imprisons, but one that protects.
Green Lion – A technical term from medieval and Renaissance alchemy.
In the Hermetic tradition, the green lion (viridis leo) devours the sun—that is, the prima materia dissolves raw gold to allow for its purification. It is the symbol of the first active dissolution. It appears in this collection as a representation of a fierce energy that is nonetheless necessary to the process.
