Indexes

7.1 Scope of this chapter

This chapter covers the indexes of books and other long works in the field: which indexes a work carries, what they must contain, how their headings file, and how they cross-refer. For the mechanics of preparation, the wording of entries and subentries, and index typography, see CMS chapter 15. The filing rules here govern every alphabetical list in a work, so a bibliography or glossary files a motto, a Liber title, or A∴A∴ exactly as the index does.

7.2 The subject index

Every book-length work of nonfiction carries a subject index; a journal article carries none. Index what the work says something about. A term that merely occurs earns no entry, and neither does a name met only inside a quotation the work does not discuss. Enter a term of art as the field writes it, uninverted and capitalized as in the text.

Where the spellings of one word mark different traditions and the work discusses more than one of them, give each tradition its own heading with a gloss, and join the headings with see also.

7.3 The index of primary sources

A work that cites more than twenty passages of received, ancient, or esoteric texts by their divisions carries an index of primary sources. A work that cites fewer enters them in the subject index under the heading for each text. The headings of an index of primary sources are texts, each given by title with its siglum; its subentries are the divisions cited, and its locators are pages of the indexed work (see 7.10). Set it in indented style, and arrange the texts in this order:

In any index, an oath-bound document is entered under the body that issued it and takes no title entry (see 6.72).

7.4 The index of names

Enter persons in the subject index. A history or biography that discusses many persons may give them a separate index of names. It lists the persons the work discusses, not every author cited in the notes. Mottoes, office-names, and pen names belong in it, filed by 7.16–7.19.

7.5 A work with more than one index

Title each index for what it holds: Index of Subjects, Index of Primary Sources, Index of Names. A work with a single index titles it Index. Make the indexes visually distinct, each with its own running head. In the subject index, a text that the index of primary sources also covers carries a cross-reference to that index.

The list of abbreviations, which carries the sigla, belongs in the front matter and is not an index (see 8.5).

7.6 The headnote

Open an index with a short headnote wherever its headings carry the three-dot mark, numerals, or diacritics, and wherever else its arrangement would surprise a reader. State the filing method and what it disregards, and, in an index of primary sources, the edition whose divisions it follows.

7.7 When and from what

Prepare the index from page proofs once the pagination is final. The author prepares it or engages a professional indexer, who receives this chapter and the work’s style sheet with the proofs. Do not use an index compiled automatically from the words of the text, whether by software or by a language model. Record each heading decision on the style sheet as it is made: which of a person’s names carries the locators, and which forms are cross-references (see 2.2).

7.8 What a field index must carry

Wherever the work discusses them, make the following findable by heading or by cross-reference: every name under which a person appears in the work, including mottoes, office-names, and pen names, subject to 7.19; every order, lodge, temple, and other body; every grade or degree (see 7.9); every Liber, under its title and from each other form the work uses for it (see 7.21); every divine name (see 7.26); every named ritual; and every siglum the work uses, as a see reference to the heading for what it stands for.

7.9 Grades and degrees

Index a grade of the Golden Dawn or the A∴A∴ under its name, with the notation in parentheses. Where the work discusses a grade that has the same name and notation in both systems, divide the entry by system. Where one name stands for different grades in the two systems, as Neophyte and Zelator do, give each grade its own heading, with the system named before the notation (see 3.32). Index O.T.O. degrees as subentries under Ordo Templi Orientis, where they file by value ahead of the other subentries (see 7.14).

A grade or degree is never part of a person’s heading.

7.10 Locators for divided texts

Enter a passage of a received or ancient text by its division, with the page of the indexed work as its locator. Never index a passage by the page of the edition the author used. Use the divisions of the text’s own reference form (see 6.18). Enter Liber XXX Ærum vel Sæculi sub figurâ CCCCXVIII by Aethyr, in numerical order from the first (LIL) to the thirtieth (TEX), although the book runs the other way. Give each commentary its own heading, divided by the passages it comments on, and never interfile it with the entries for the text. The Tunis Comment, cited as a whole, takes no subentries (see 6.33).

Order passages numerically, element by element, never as strings of characters. A range files at its first verse, a verse 00 before 0, a lettered clause after its verse in letter order, and a named part, such as a prologue, where it stands in the book.

Set the page locators apart from the passage, after an em space or in a column of their own, never after a comma.

7.11 Editing an index

Check every locator in an index of primary sources against the page it names, and spot-check the subject index. Confirm that every cross-reference leads to a heading that exists, that no see leads to another see, and that locator ranges are given in full (see 3.53). Check the filing of headings that carry marks, numerals, mottoes, or Liber titles against this chapter, and check the list in 7.8 against the text. No heading, cross-reference, or arrangement may link names that 7.19 keeps apart. Where an index must be shortened, cut locators for passing mentions first; never cut a cross-reference or anything 7.8 requires. Make changes of house style without query, and query the author on any change that could alter the meaning (see 2.22, 2.25).

7.12 Indexes for web publications

In a web publication or ebook, link each locator to the passage it indexes. Where the work numbers its paragraphs or sections, those numbers are the locators. Passages of received texts are entered by division, as in print. Never locate an entry by screen or scroll position.

7.13 Word by word

Alphabetize headings word by word. A space ends a word, so a shorter word files before a longer one that begins with the same letters.

7.14 Numerals

Headings that begin with numerals file before the A’s, in numerical order, whether an index has one such heading or many. File a numeral as written, never as though spelled out. Within a heading or a subentry, a number sorts by its value, and a roman numeral by the value it stands for.

7.15 A∴A∴

File A∴A∴ as though it were written AA, which places it at the head of the A’s, after any headings that begin with numerals. Display it with its marks. Make no heading and no cross-reference at any expansion of the name. Other pointings of the name found in quoted matter, such as A.'.A.'., file in the same place and need no cross-reference.

7.16 Filing a motto

File a motto on its own first word, as a unit. Where the work gives it with Frater or Soror, add that word after a comma, spelled out. Never invert within a motto. A motto in another language files on its first word even when that word is an article.

Where a motto is also a word with another sense in the same index, add a gloss to each heading.

7.17 Mottoes of initials and numbers

Display a motto of initials with all its points. In filing, the points are disregarded and the initials read as one word, so V.V.V.V.V. files as VVVVV. A motto that begins with an apostrophe files at the letter that follows it. A motto written as a number files with the numerals (see 7.14).

7.18 Office-names

File an office-name on its first word, uninverted. Its qualifier is never treated as a surname (see 3.29).

7.19 A person with more than one name

Give each name under which the work discusses a person a heading of its own, filed by the rule for that kind of name: a personal name or pen name inverted on the surname, a motto as in 7.16, an office-name as in 7.18. An initial English article in a name is inverted, as in a title (see 7.22). One heading carries the locators (see 7.26), and each of the others is a see reference to it. Never combine two names in one heading. Never index a person under a name the work does not print, whether a motto, office-name, pen name, or legal name. Where the work prints only part of a name, complete it in the heading as at a first mention (see 3.22), unless the work withholds the rest (see 2.38).

Where linking a motto or office-name to a legal name is not permitted (see 2.39), index each form the work prints as a separate heading with its own locators. Give no cross-reference, gloss, or note connecting them, and do not merge their locators or arrange the entries to suggest the connection.

7.20 Orders and other bodies

File an order or other body under the first word of its full name, uninverted, with a see reference from each short form and popular name the work uses. A lodge, temple, or other subordinate body files under its own name.

7.21 Liber titles

File a Liber title as it is written: under Liber, then by the word that follows. Where a numeral follows Liber, the title files by that numeral’s value, ahead of the titles whose next word is not a numeral. Give a see reference from each other form under which the work refers to the text: its English title, its Liber number, and its siglum (see 7.8, 8.34).

7.22 Titles with an initial article

Invert an initial article in a title to the end of the heading and file at the word that follows it. Treat an initial article in a title in another language the same way. A Liber title has no article.

7.23 Non-Latin script in headings

File a name or term in Hebrew, Greek, or any other non-Latin script at its received form (see 4.3) or, where it has none, at its romanization (see 4.14, 4.19), with the script after it in parentheses where the work prints the script. Never make a heading of script alone. A word in a magical alphabet files at its romanization.

7.24 Diacritics, hyphens, and ligatures

In filing, disregard diacritics, points, apostrophes, the three-dot mark, and the transliteration marks ʾ and ʿ or the ’ and ‘ that simplified romanization writes in their place (see 4.52). Treat a hyphen as a space and a ligature as its separate letters. Display every heading with all its marks. Lévi, Éliphas files as Levi, Eliphas, and so before Leviathan; Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Ra Hoor Khuit file in the same place.

7.25 See and see also

Use see from a heading that carries no locators to the heading that does, and see also between headings that both carry locators. Never send a see to another see. Every cross-reference leads to a heading in the same index or names the index that holds it (see 7.5). Set see and see also in italics, but in roman before a heading set in italics.

7.26 Choosing between variant names

For a person, the heading that carries the locators is the name under which the work chiefly discusses that person. The choice belongs to the work and goes on its style sheet.

Where the work treats a persona as a subject in its own right, the persona carries its own locators, and see also joins it to the person’s main heading. For a god, the heading is the received form when the referent is the Thelemic figure and the conventional form when it is the historical deity (see 3.36). Where the work discusses both, they are separate headings joined by see also.

Two spellings that the work treats as meaningful in themselves are likewise separate headings joined by see also. Any other variant spelling the work prints is a see reference to the house form. A body takes its full name (see 7.20), and a work with a Liber title takes that title in full (see 7.21).