Vira | Home

Definition:

The fourth and final of the Four Core Notions is that of vira.

Vira is many things, chiefly: the ideal state of community advocated by the Kibtisk Way. It is a römihre and a zonihre. It is something we give and receive (baden). It is something we dwell in as well as something we do. It is the Notion without which the Kibtisk Way is simply a framework for spiritual self-care. Vira is the relational Notion.

The definition of vira is thus dependent on the context it is used, but it encapsulates three things: the metaphysical home, familial love, and the relational family.

As an ihre, it is 'home'. It is the atmosphere of a place, or the presence of a person, which makes you feel 'at home'. It is not the house, nor the building, or physical environment, but the atmosphere, the presence, the ihre which is what makes you feel at home. Thus, it is the metaphysical home, and therefore a römihre, zonihre, and something we dwell in.

As something we do (i.e. an action or verb - viran), it is love. More specifically, familial love, since the word is void of an romantic or sexual connotation. To love someone, to do vira to someone, is to create a römihre of vira, as well as ensure that your zonihre is loving and homely (virask) too. To love someone is to make a homely place for them - an ihre to warm their hearts and protect their minds. A römihre and zonihre for their ardt to be warmed by vira.

The people who love each other in this way then, are a relational family. They are not a family due to blood ties, but due to their loving and warm relationship to each other. Such people are called virzones, in Kibtisk, vira-people.

Etymology:

Due to the warming and protective nature that vira has, in all its meanings, the word naturally comes from the element which has the associations of warmth and protection: fire.

The word for 'fire' in Kibtisk is 'vyre', from which we get the word vira.

Picture a group of family and friends sat around a campfire, enjoying each other's company and warmth, and being completely comfortable and at home with each other as a family. That is vira.

Picture walking into a house where there is a fire slowly burning away in the fire place; you are warm and safe: that is vira.

Explanation:

Due to what we know so far about the importance of the ardt and its relationship with the zonihre in light of the Baden Principle, vira is a state and an action that we have to continually cultivate in all of our relationships.

We do this by guarding our ardt and thereby our zonihre through a process which consciously considers the state of our ardt and whether we are projecting what we desire to onto the ihre around us and onto other people. We ask whether our projection contains vira and other Kibtisk Virtues. This is the process of ardzýn.

We also ensure that the römihre contains vira and the other Kibtisk Virtues too, through a process called ihrekhunciünen - altering the ihre.

We do these things to look after ourselves and our inner-selves, but for the Kibtisk Way to be effectual, it must outwork itself in virtue and vira. Creating a virhet - a vira community - is the goal of the Kibtisk Way, because through this long journey which we are all on, to stop at the fireplaces along the roadside is what keeps us and others on the path and on the journey.