The Fourfold Path

Engraved mandorla of the twin Fourfold Paths, crossed by the four register strata, with eight gates of Mercy and Wrath and a draggable traveler

Drag the gold traveler anywhere near the line to move it along the circuit; release lets it glide to a stop. With the figure focused, the Left and Right arrow keys nudge it along the rail. Each gate opens or closes as the traveler passes: Mercy gates part before it, Wrath gates snap shut behind it. Coming near a gate kindles its stage name and fills the panel at the foot of the page with its definition; leaving rests the panel. The terms in the caption open definitions the same way. At the crown's knot the traveler is annihilated mid-loop and re-emerges a little brighter, in either direction.

Fig. II - the Fourfold Path as one circuit through eight gates. Nothing moves between registers except through an act of Mercy or of Wrath; the descent alternates Mercy-Wrath-Mercy-Wrath, and the ascent answers Wrath-Mercy-Wrath-Mercy - Procession and Reversion.

Design note: the gates are the movement - Mercy an aperture of two crescents (the Tablet) that parts to widen possibility, Wrath a decisive stroke (the Pen) that scissors shut to delimit it. Read the still page down the right limb and up the left and the alternation is the whole doctrine of procession and reversion. Drag the traveler through the knot at the crown and it is annihilated in your hand before it returns, a little brighter, as Baqaa.