Blast door map notations

Magazine map — Interpretation of the map from *Entertainment Weekly*

Cleanwall-707484 — A fan translation of the map. Text is already translated on map. One of the cleanest and easiest to read versions.

There are numerous handwritten notations on the Blast Door Map. They are written in several scripts, suggesting multiple contributors.

The notes can be grouped into four general categories, English commentary, Latin Commentary, Mathematical Equations, and single object labels (The Swan, The Flame, CVIII, ect). The English and Latin Commentary notes are listed below in roughly counterclockwise order. Transcriptions taken from map in Entertainment Weekly (right) unless mentioned otherwise.

English Commentary

(Presented in counter-clockwise order from upper left of map.)

FROM [...]FOLLOWING AH/MDG INCIDENT
BUT COULD BE #6
CONFIRMED SITE OF CAUDUCEUS MEDICAL STATION (THE STAFF!)
CAUDUCEUS STATION BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN ABANDONED DUE TO AH/MDG INCIDENT OF 1985
ESTIMATED TRAVEL TIME INCOMPATIBLE WITH 108. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SURVEY
OR POSSIBLE CATASTROPHIC MALFUNCTION OF CERBERUS SYSTEM
ALLEGED LOCATION OF #4/THE FLAME BUT UNLIKELY DUE TO CERBERUS ACTIVITY
ALLEGED LOCATION OF ABORTED #7
LARGE NUMBER OF UNDERGROUND SPRINGS HEAVY WATER TABLE
ACTIVITY UNSUITABLE FOR D.I.H.G.
CV I HIGHLY UNLIKELY.
NO SAFE LOCATION FOR DHARMATEL SERVERS/HUBS/CABLING OR INFRASTRUCTURE.
POSSIBLE RECREATION AREA FOR [THE?] D.I.H.G. SURVEY TEAMS.
LOW PRIORITY ZONE FOR EXPLORATION: POSSIBLE SITE FOR GROUND STUDY OF FLORA, [...] LOW RELEVANCE TO VALENZETTI-RELATED RESEARCH ACTIVITY
MULTIPLE ESCAPE CONDUITS BLOCKED BY INCIDENT
SITE OF H.G. DELEGATION INSPECTION 12.07.81
THE SWAN 3 OF 6 (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42)
SYSTEMWIDE FAILURE OF DHARMATEL INTRANET
4.08.00, 8.15.01, 01.06.03
COMPLETE SHUTDOWN IN EFFECT.
P.R.D. EVERY 6-8 MONTHS
FATALITIES: 5
POSSIBLE CV II - INACTIVE SINCE ACCIDENT.
NO CONNECTION TO ISLANDWIDE E.E.P. NETWORK
STATED GOAL, REPATRIATION, ACCELERATED DE-TERRITORIALIZATION OF URSUS MARITIMUS THROUGH GENE THERAPY AND EXTREME CLIMATE CHANGE
REV 4.3.02 POSSIBLE LOCATION OF ZOOLOGICAL RESEARCH FACILITY
ACTIVITY MINIMAL DURING LOCKDOWN AND RESTOCKING PROCEDURES<
KNOWN FINAL RESTING PLACE OF MAGNUS HANSO/BLACK ROCK.
SIGHTINGS COINCIDE WITH EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN OF INTRANET SERVICES PERIODS OF HEIGHTENED SECURITY
PRIMARY NEXUS OF CERBERUS-RELATED ACTIVITY
CV III
THE PEARL?
SUBTERRANEAN CONDUIT?
CV IV?
HIGH POTENTIAL FOR R.V.S.
-INTERFERENCE MIGHT ALSO PREVENT LOCATION FROM USE AS LISTENING STATION/CRYPTOGRAPHY RESEARCH /[...] ANALYSIS
GEOLOGICAL COMPOSITION LIKELY TO CAUSE MAGNETIC INTERFERENCE WITH WEATHER PROJECT
WHY SO MANY DHARMATEL RELAYS TO SUCH AN UNTENABLE LOCATION?
-MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN MOST LIKELY USED BY DI [...] FOR METEOROLOGICAL RESEARCH DUE TO [...]
POSSIBLE MANUFACTURING FACILITY WITH LIGHT INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT
ROAD [...] OR OTHER [...] ROUTE OF TRAVEL
SUSPECTED SHUT DOWN [...] 10.28 84

The center of the map has a giant question mark written over the following:

DESIGNATION UNKNOWN
PURPOSE UNKNOWN
RELATION TO D.I.H.G. UNKNOWN

Latin Commentary

Aegrescit medendo

English translation(s): "The disease worsens with the treatment" or "The remedy makes the disease worse" or "The remedy is worse than the disease" or "He becomes ill by being cured"
Location on map: Upper left corner, directly to the left of the "Staff" station.
Origin/meaning: Quote from Virgil's Aeneid (book 12, line 46) or Juvenal's Satire XVI, later Francis Bacon's On Sedition.

Sursum corda

English translation(s): "Lift up your hearts."
Location on map: This phrase appears three between the medical (Staff) station and the hatch that is crossed out.
Origin/meaning: Used by the old-school Roman Catholic Latin Mass liturgy, meaning "lift up your hearts to God."
"Sursum Corda" is also a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Malum consilium quod mutari non potest

English translation(s): "It's a bad plan that can't be changed."
Location on map: Below the "Staff" station.
Origin/meaning: A quote from Publilius Syrus.

Cogito ergo doleo

English translation(s): Latin for "I think, therefore I suffer." Also translated as "therefore I grieve" or "therefore I am depressed."
Location on map: Appears just under The Flame station and square root symbols on the map.
Origin/meaning: Play on the famous quote from René Descartes: "Cogito ergo sum" ('I think, therefore I am').

Ut sit magna, tamen certe lenta ira deorum est

English translation(s): "Although it is great, the anger of the gods is certainly slow."
Location on map: Appears at the bottom base of the octagon
Origin/meaning: A quote from Juvenal, Satire 10, line 240 and Satire 13, line 100.

Ursus maritimus

English translation(s): "Polar bear"
Location on map: Appears at the bottom right side of the octagon in the phrase - "STATED GOAL, REPATRIATION ACCELERATED DE-TERRITORIALIZATION OF URSUS MARITIMUS THROUGH GENE THERAPY AND EXTREME CLIMATE CHANGE"--

Liberate te ex inferis

English translation(s): "Save yourself from hell" or "Save yourself from those below." The Latin word inferi can refer to "the Underworld, Hades, hell, etc." or, simply, "spirits of the dead." This sentence could easily mean, "Save yourself from the spirits of the Dead." Note: This sentence is not grammatically correct. "Save yourself from hell" should be "Libera te ex inferis." This sentence might have been accidentally blended with its plural form, "Liberate vos ex inferis," which means "Save yourselves from hell."
Location on map: Right above the rectangle marked CV III (at the 4 o'clock position).
Origin/meaning: Originally from the 1997 movie Event Horizon, which also was the inspiration for the 1999 Zao album of the same name.

Hic sunt dracones

English translation(s): "Here be dragons"
Location on map: Outside the octagon, below the notation "The Pearl?"
Origin/meaning: Popularly believed to have been used on old maps to indicate places uncharted and likely dangerous (though there is no historical evidence of this phrase actually being used on maps [1]); could be ironic usage

Mus uni non fidit antro

Mus uni non fidit antro English translation(s): "A mouse does not rely on just one hole," which is attributed to Plautus in his play Truculentus. The English translation of this phrase appeared in code on persephone.thehansofoundation.org on May 18 as part of the Lost Experience.
Might also be Malum non fidit atra English translation(s): "(Even) evil is afraid of the dark" or "Evil does not trust dark things" or "Evil has not split the dark/black/gloomy things" or or "Evil does not have confidence in the deadly/dark" or "Evil has not divided/the deadly/dark."
Location on map: Directly to the left of CV IV, between Hatches C3? and C4? (at three o'clock on the map).

Credo nos in fluctu eodem esse

English translation(s): "I think we're on the same wavelength" or "I believe we are in the same wave/sea"
Location on map: Upper right corner, between the "Arrow" Hatch and the "C3?" Hatch (at the 2 o'clock position).

Nil actum reputa si quid superest agendum

English translation(s): "Don't consider that anything has been done if anything is left to be done" or "Consider nothing done if anything remains to be done."
Location on map: On the bottom of the central circle with the large question mark.
Origin/meaning: A quote from Lucan, paraphrase of book 2, line 657

Greek names

Cerberus

English translation(s): Greek ???ße???, Kerberos meaning demon of the pit.
Mythology: Greek figure that was the watchdog of Hades, a monstrous three-headed dog who guarded the gates of Hell
Location on map: First appearance is below the phrase "aegresit medendo" in the phrase "POSSIBLE CATASTROPHIC MALFUNCTION OF CERBERUS SYSTEM". Second appearance is just below the first in the phrase "BUT UNLIKELY DUE TO CERBERUS ACTIVITY". The third appearance is in the lower right corner of the map below CVIII in the phrase "PRIMARY NEXUS OF CERBERUS RELATED ACTIVITY".

Theories and commentary

Valenzetti-related research was done in The Swan. On 26 March 2006 someone "registered" the domains VALENZETTI.COM, THEVALENZETTIEQUATION.COM, ENZOVALENZETTI.COM and VALENZETTIEQUATION.COM (in the same column there is an ABC-SITES.COM too). The episode aired three days later, so someone related to the show probably registered them. If Valenzetti is really a mathematical theory or an equation, it may have something to do with the "Numbers".
Valenzetti-related could also be valence TI-related research, where TI is titanium.
Other part of the map says "Known resting place of Magnus Hanso / Black Rock"
- This can possibly link Alvar Hanso to Albertus Magnus.
The words incident and activity are both found twice on the map, both times outside the octagon.
The existence of a "Dharmatel intranet" suggests the Michael-Walt IM session could have been real and not merely Michael's hallucination.
Fatalaties: 5. This could refer to the number of "Others" killed by the survivors: Charlie killed Ethan, Mr. Eko killed two (unnamed) others, Ana-Lucia killed one (unnamed) other, and Ana-Lucia also killed Goodwin making a total of five.
- Unlikely since the map was made before the crash of flight 815.

AH/MDG

The map on the Blast Door revealed what appears to make repeated references to the "AH/MDG Incident of 1985":

Caduceus Station believed to have been abandoned due to the AD/MDG incident of 1985
- This is not possible since the Caduceus Station was still active after the survivors arrived on the Island. (recall "Maternity Leave") Therefore, this notation of the map is wrong. Radzinksy probably was "informed" that the station was abandoned before he died. However, the latin phrase above this notation may be a clue to the "treatment" that Clarie recieved during her stay in the Caduceus Station.
From Following AH/MDG Incident

"AH" and "MDG" are likely initials. Perhaps a Hanso and a DeGroot?
AH - Alvar Hanso
MDG - DeGroot? or Magnus Hanso DeGroot
- There is no reference to an M.DeGroot. This could refer to a child the couple had on the island. The island may only affect children. This would have been unknown if there were no children in the original research project. The DeGroot's child was the first, and caused the ultimate downfall of the entire DHARMA Initiative.

However, 'Incident' seems to have only been used in relation to The Swan station event.

Perhaps MDG = Magnetic Discharge Grid. This could be the system that dissipates the magnetic buildup from the Swan Station every 108 minutes. Perhaps it was sabotaged in an attempt to assassinate Alvar Hanso while he was in the Caduceus Station. Someone (The Others? Disgruntled Dharma test subjects?) rigged the system to deliver a lethal energy pulse that would kill Hanso and his bodyguards and assistants. This is the 1985 "incident" that caused the abandonment of the station.

"Incident" did not happen in the Caduceus as first thought - in Claire's flashbacks of that station everything was inhabitable, as well as intact, no structural signs of damage were visible. Highly unlikely that The Others could fix any sort of structural damage on their own without an architect, seeing as they're living in lean-to's.

Seems likely that no "incident of '85" occured (it was just fictional to keep people bound to The Swan) - the orientation film in The Swan indicated an incident, but it had to have happened around or before 1980, as that is the copyright date for the film (although the film could easily have been faked, and that there was no incident, or the film is simply suggested to have been made in 1980, no actual evidence as of yet to suggest copyright date is real.)

Quotes

If the translation "Save yourselves from the spirits of the dead" is correct, it could quite possibly refer to Island occurrences like Jack's visions of his father, the visions of Walt after his abduction, Sawyer's boar, Wayne speaking to Kate through Sawyer, the Whispers, etc.
If the "Even evil is afraid of the dark" translation of Malum non fidit atra is correct, it could correlate to the way the Others only take the "good ones". The phrase may also refer to to the Others' apparent fear or avoidance of the Smoke Monster/Cerberus, which would somewhat explain the relative safety the fuselage section survivors have experienced in comparison to that of the Tailies.
If the line is Mus uni non fidit antro, meaning "A mouse does not rely on just one hole," it is slightly reminiscent of what Sayid once said to Kate about Sawyer, "You go after him now and he'll give you nothing. But if you wait, a rat will always lead you to its hole."
Liberate te ex inferis would seem to be a direct nod to the redemption themes woven throughout the show.
- There might be a special meaning to the incorrect spelling.
Immediately before the map is revealed, Locke tells would-be Henry Gale, "We have to lift it up" (referencing the doors) which would seem to connect with Sursum corda. Desmond also told Jack when they met at the stadium, "You have to lift it up, brother!" in reference to Jack's injured ankle.
Nil actum reputa si quid superest agendum is pretty much a fancy way of saying "It ain't over 'til it's over."
Possible meanings of "Malum consilium quod mutari non potest" ("It is a bad plan that can't be changed."):
- Radzinsky and/or Kelvin were forming a plan to sabotage the work of The Others
- In the Roman Republic, the "boni" ("Good Men," or "Optimates") were a political faction made up of the aristocracy. They sought to limit the power of the plebeians, or common people. The Others may similarly see themselves an elite group who derive their status from being genetically "superior," just as the "boni" inherited their status. Radzinsky and Kelvin might have been "bad people" ("mali") plotting against the self-proclaimed "good people" ("boni"), i.e., The Others.
- Radzinsky's plan may have depended heavily on Kelvin, who (as Desmond discovered) could not be trusted. Thus, it was a bad plan, but it was Radzinsky's only hope of survival, so it "could not be changed."
- Radzinsky may have decided at some point that his "bad" plan was doomed to failure, but he had already passed the point of no return. (It "could not be changed.") Subsequently, he grew despondent and committed suicide, leaving Kelvin to carry on by himself.
- Or alternately: in desperation, Radzinsky decided to trigger the fail safe. This was where his "bad plan" reached the point were it "could not be changed." Kelvin may have killed Radzinsky (and lied about it to Desmond) to prevent him from doing this.

Abbreviations, acronyms, initialisms

There are a number possible meanings for the various abbreviations and initials used on the map.

AH (Google: define AH)
- Alvar Hanso
MDG (Google: define:MDG)
- Magnus DeGroot
- Because "MDG" only appears with "AH", it is possible that the "G" is an abbreviation for "group", i.e. "Alvar Hanso/MD Group".
- Magnetic Distortion Generator
- Magnetic Discharge Grid. This is the system that dissipates the magnetic buildup from the Swan Station every 108 minutes. Perhaps it was sabotaged in an attempt to assassinate Alvar Hanso while he was in the Caduceus Station. Someone (The Others? Disgruntled Dharma test subjects?) rigged the system to deliver a lethal energy pulse that would kill Hanso and his bodyguards and assistants. This is the 1985 "incident" that caused the abandonment of the station.
- Maritime Dangerous Goods
CV (Google: define CV)
- At www.widmore.com (Widmore Labs & Construction) it says "CV Station ID"
- Roman numerals?
  - "105" in Roman numerals, meaning "CV I" is actually "106," "CV II" is "107," etc., but what is the significance? CVIV is not a properly formatted Roman numeral. 109 is CIX not CVIV.
  - From rustina at TWOP: "For what it's worth, I don't believe that the CVII, CVIII, etc. are full Roman numerals, but rather part Roman numerals. We all know that Roman numerals can be written with or without the horizontal bars on top and underneath, yes? On the super-snazzy high-res map, there are horizontal bars included -- but only over/under the letters after the CV. To me, this is a definitive indicator that the C and the V are initials that stand for something, many possibilities of which have been mentioned in this thread, and the I, II, III, etc. are the numbers part. So, rather than it being 106, 107, 108, etc., I think it's CV1, CV2, CV3, and so on."
- cable visible, cable volt, cached vaccines, contamination vent, capacitance voltage, casualty victim, ceiling void, cement vault, Cerberus vessel, Cerberus victim, clinical virology, cloud vapor, compass variable, computer vestibule, computer virus, concealed vaccines, concealed valve, concealed video, concealed viewpoint, concrete vault, concrete vault, containment valve, control valve, control vessel, controlled variable, cooling vent, core vein, core vent, crash vector, crash victim, crash viewpoint, critical violation, curriculum vitae, cryogenic vault
- Cerberus Vent (CV IV may be the hole near the Black Rock into which Locke was being pulled in "Exodus.")
- Short for cave, civilization, covalent
DIMG or DIHG
- DI
  - Dharma Initiative
  - Dharma Institute
  - DharmaTel Intranet
- MG or HG
  - Habitability Group
  - Hanso Group
  - Hunting Group
  - Maintenance Group
  - Medical Group
- DIHG
  - Dharma Initiative Heuristics Group
  - Dharma Initiative Hanso Group
  - Another theory could be that DIHG stands for the last names (or first) of related DHARMA members that monitored the Swan and other stations. (recall that Dr.Candle referred to teams/partners during the Orientation videos.) For example, I=Inman; H=Hume, ect.
E.E.P. (Google: define EEP)
- Note: ESP = Extra-Sensory Perception
- Electronic Environment Protocol
- End to End Protocol (for computer networks)
- External Evaluation Panel
HC (Google: define HC)
- "Hc is the measure of the coercive magnetic field strength in Oersted, or the point at which the magnet becomes demagnetized by an external field." (Could be related to the massive magnetism field that pulled Jack's key in "Man of Science, Man of Faith")
PRD (Google: define PRD)
- Relates to the Supply Drop
  - Parachute Rations Drop
  - Periodical Rations Drop
  - Provisions Restocking Drop
  - (Parachute, periodical, planned or provisions) Resupply Drop
- Planned Radiation Discharge
- Post-Radiation Disease (Makes sense in connection with: "Fatalities: 5")
- Projected Rate of Death
- Pneumonic Respiratory Drug
REV (Google: define REV)
- Review
- Revision
- Revelation
  - Revelation 4:2 - "Immediately I was in the Spirit. Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne"
  - Revelation 2:2 - "I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can't tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false."
  - Revelation 2:4 - "But I have this against you, that you left your first love."
- Initials of a person's name
R.V.S. (Google: define RVS)
- Remote Video Surveillance
- Remote Viewing Station