Welcome Wayfarers!

On ILA Radio, we say we tune into all ways of knowing—and we mean that literally.

Learning isn’t limited to books or experts or logic.

It’s something much wider, deeper, and more mysterious.

It’s a tuning—in to the body, to the land, to the invisible.
To the past, the future, and the present moment.

So, how do you know what you know?
Through facts?
Through intuition?
Through relationships, art, or the body itself?

The Ornelian Framework names 16 Ways of Knowing—and shows how each one is tied to a core life theme, astrology, your vertices of life (spirit, body, mind, soul), and the academic subjects.

This is a love letter to the many parts of our make up that lead to the fullness of human understanding.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN OLD VERSION.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE MOST CURRENT VERSION OF THE ORNELIAN FRAMEWORK.

THE ORNELIAN FRAMEWORK

The Ornelian Framework is a 16-theme system for understanding the full spectrum of human experience.

Each theme represents a core life lesson or initiation we encounter throughout our journey.

Unlike linear models of development, the Ornelian Framework is cyclical and non-hierarchical, inviting us to revisit each theme many times, through different lenses.

It’s not just a language for wholeness—it’s a map for personal growth.

It was created to help us make sense of who we are, how we learn, and what it means to live a meaningful life.

How to Use the Chart

1.Identify the Way of Knowing:
Each square represents a distinct mode of knowing (e.g., Archetypal, Empirical, Emotional). Start by asking yourself: Which way of knowing am I currently using? Which feels underdeveloped?

2. Look at the Life Theme:
The bold uppercase word (e.g., DUTY, IMAGINATION, POWER) shows the life force that animates this kind of knowing. Use it as a compass—is this theme active in my life right now?

3. Connect to an Academic Subject:
Each square corresponds to a traditional academic discipline: philosophy, politics, psychology, religion, history, education, natural science, social science, geography, the arts, and more.

These disciplines represent how humanity’s raw ways of knowing were formalized over time:

• Natural science arose from experiential action.
• Philosophy grew from reason and rational thought.
• Religion safeguarded intuition and spiritual insight.
• Psychology explored the depths of desire and the patterns of the mind.
• History preserved collective memory and archetypal patterns.
• Education shaped human will into systems of knowledge and collective order.
• Politics organized social power and connection.
• The arts carried expression and reflective spirit.
• Geography mapped the world and reflected cultural worldviews.
• Health and medicine codified empirical sensation.
• Sports and physical practice embodied somatic instinct.
• Humanities cultivated narrative awareness.

In this sense, academic subjects can be seen as fossils of human knowledge—evidence of how lived experience, intuition, and creativity were crystallized into the institutional structures of learning.

4. Locate the Vertex of Life
Each mode links to a “vertex of life” (soul, mind, body, spirit—or a crossover of them). This tells you where in life this knowledge is anchored. For example:

Spirit: 🔥 → where your life force is stored

Body: 🌻 → where nature is stored

Mind: 🌬️ → where intellect is stored

Soul: 🌊 → where your unique essence is stored

Sometimes, a way of knowing doesn’t belong to just one anchor but to a crossover between two. These hybrids reveal how different aspects of life intertwine:

• Body × Spirit (🌻🔥) → Moral Knowing: If the spirit had a body, it would be an angel on your shoulder.
• Soul × Mind (🌊🌬️) → Spiritual Knowing: If the mind had a soul, it would give you guidance (if you have intrusive thoughts, work on uniting your soul and mind).

Each vertex—or crossover—shows you not just what kind of knowledge is at work, but where in life it lives.

5. Notice the Elemental Color
These elemental colors mirror astrology, where Fire, Earth, Air, and Water signs represent different modes of being and knowing.

Purple = Fire 🔥 → passion, will, vitality, transformation
Tan = Earth 🌻 → grounding, structure, responsibility, reliability
Pink = Air 🌬️ → communication, imagination, connection
Blue = Water 🌊 → intuition, flow, resonance, depth

6. Trace Relationships Across Squares
Because the chart mirrors an astrological wheel, you can read it the same way:

• The chart begins in the east (Experiential Knowing) with Aries (Somatic Knowing).
• Move counterclockwise like planets through houses, tracing developmental flow.
• Notice quadrants: each quadrant gathers three external squares with one inner “leader” (e.g., Narrative Knowing in the Fourth quadrant encompasses Rational Knowing, Archetypal Knowing, and Spiritual Knowing).
• Study oppositions (e.g., Somatic ↔ Moral, Cultural ↔ Rational) to see tension, balance, integration, and differences.

7. Apply to Real Life

• When facing a decision → go through each square and ask: What would this mode of knowing reveal?
• When learning something new → experiment with shifting perspectives (e.g., study the LA River archetypally vs. experientially vs. culturally).
• When feeling stuck → notice which life vertex (mind, body, soul, spirit) you may be neglecting, and shift toward a complementary square.

8. Use as a Self-Reflection Tool
Journal, meditate, or even plan projects by moving through the chart as if it were a cycle. This mirrors a whole-life cycle of knowing, just like planets moving through a birth chart. Example: Start with Cultural (love/health), move to Practical (communication/literature), then to Social (power/politics), and finally to Archetypal (imagination/history) or which ever catch your eye and make connections as you move from square to square.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

The Quadrant Leaders

I.
Experiential Knowledge
ACTION
Natural Science
Body

Truth is encountered by touching, tasting, smelling, hearing, and seeing the world firsthand.

• Life Theme: Action — moving into the world through doing, choosing, and initiating; learning by momentum, shaping life through decisions and deeds.
• Discipline: Natural Science—studying the material world through observation and experimentation.
• Vertex of Life: Body—the seat of survival, health, movement, and direct contact with reality.

---

II.
Reflective Knowledge
EXPRESSION
The Arts
Spirit

Truth is illuminated when inner experience is expressed outwardly, turning insight into form.

• Life Theme: Expression—knowing through creativity, self-reflection, and symbolic representation.
• Discipline: The Arts—painting, music, theater, and other forms that reveal inner life.
• Vertex of Life: Spirit—the transcendent aspect that seeks meaning beyond the material.

---

III.
Relational Knowledge
CONNECTION
Social Science
Soul

Truth emerges between people, in the space of relationships and social bonds.

• Life Theme: Connection — knowing through relationships, bonds, and shared experience; weaving meaning in the spaces between self and others.
• Discipline: Social Science—psychology, sociology, anthropology, and other fields that study interaction.
• Vertex of Life: Soul—the part of us that longs for connection and recognition from others.

---

IV.
Narrative Knowledge
AWARENESS
Humanities
Mind

Truth is carried in stories, shaping how we perceive identity, values, and collective memory.

• Life Theme: Awareness—knowing through stories, memory, and cultural meaning-making.
• Discipline: Humanities—history, literature, and philosophy that preserve and interpret human experience.
• Vertex of Life: Mind—the interpreter that strings moments together into coherent patterns.

At the heart of it all, the invitation is simple:
tune into all ways of knowing.
Not just the ones you were taught to trust, but the ones that whisper beneath the surface.
The ones your body remembers.
The ones that show up in dreams, in quiet knowing, in the way the leaves rustle before a change.

If a certain Way of Knowing feels unfamiliar, or even uncomfortable, don’t turn away—
that may be the very part of yourself that’s asking to be reawakened.
You can begin by looking at the theme, subject, and element associated with that way and exploring it gently, with curiosity.

Maybe you’ve leaned heavily on logic but forgotten how to listen to your gut.
Maybe you’ve trusted data but neglected desire.
Maybe you once knew how to create for beauty’s sake—and it’s time to return.

This is not a checklist to complete.
It’s a wheel to wander.
A field to return to.
A soul-map for remembering what it means to know, and to be known.

So… what’s calling you back?

Let us know in the comments which ways of knowing you’re most connected to—
and which you’re ready to re-explore.

And if you want support walking back toward the lost or quiet parts of your knowing, keep listening.

ILA Radio exists for exactly this kind of remembering.

The book with tips, journal prompts, and exercises is coming soon!

Subscribe here to be the first to know when it goes on sale!

🌐 The 16 Ways of Knowing

A. Experiential Knowing

Main Description:
Experiential Knowing is the intelligence that comes from lived experience in space and time. Unlike empirical knowing, which gathers data, or somatic knowing, which listens inward, experiential knowing arises through action and participation. To bow, stand tall, dance, or walk a landscape—each act carries meaning that thought or sensation alone cannot capture.

Why It’s True:
Experience itself interprets the world. How we move and gesture shapes not only how others see us but how we see ourselves. A posture of openness or tension shifts cognition, emotion, and perception. Knowledge is never apart from experience—even abstract reasoning rests on metaphors of motion and encounter.

Why It’s Part of the First Quadrant:
Experiential Knowing belongs here because it is one of the first ways we engage life. A baby learns by crawling, grasping, and balancing—movements that are already knowledge-in-action. This is the shift from raw sensation to lived participation, from perceiving the world to being in it.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
ACTION
Experiential knowing arises through doing—choices, movements, and deeds that shape how life is lived. Action here is not just external effort, but the way experience carries meaning through what we initiate and complete. To step forward, to build, to decide, to risk—these are acts of action as experiential knowing, where knowledge comes through participation and momentum.

Direction:
East
The East is the direction of sunrise, beginnings, and illumination. Just as morning light awakens the world, embodied knowing represents the first awakening of life through the body. East symbolizes the dawning of participation—when we not only perceive but step into existence through movement and presence. It also emphasizes individuality: each body, in its unique way of moving, sensing, and inhabiting the world, creates a distinct perspective on reality.

Discipline:
Natural Sciences
The natural sciences reflect experiential knowing because they arise from direct engagement with the world. Every experiment, measurement, or field observation begins with active participation in the material environment. These disciplines transform lived experience into structured knowledge, showing that science itself emerges from doing, observing, and interacting.

Vertex of Life:
Body
The body is the foundation of experiential knowing. It is not just where life is perceived but how experience is enacted. Each gesture, movement, or act of balance is a point of lived insight. Through doing and participating, the body grounds and expresses this way of knowing, making it a primary site of wisdom in action.

✨ Summary:
Experiential Knowing is the wisdom of learning through doing. Its life theme is Action, understood as the integration of choosing, moving, and engaging with the world. Oriented toward the East, it represents the dawn of participation—the moment we enter life through initiative. Its academic expression is the Natural Sciences, disciplines that begin with active engagement and refine experience into shared understanding. Anchored in experience, Experiential Knowing is knowledge as participation—truth that arises only through living fully in action.

1. Somatic Knowing

Main Description:
Somatic Knowing is the wisdom of the body itself—knowledge expressed through instinct, movement, reflex, and embodied memory. It is not thought about but acted through: the way the body flinches before danger, the way it learns balance through repetition, the way it signals hunger, fatigue, or sex. Somatic Knowing is alive in every heartbeat, every reflex, and every dance step—it is the body speaking for itself.

Why It’s True:
The body carries a built-in intelligence shaped by evolution, survival, and adaptation. Reflexes, instincts, and muscle memory exist before conscious thought and often operate faster than reasoning can. For example, the body pulls back from fire before the mind registers pain. This proves that the body holds a deep truth independent of mental analysis.

Why It’s Part of the First Quadrant:
The first quadrant represents beginnings, the self, and direct contact with the world. Somatic Knowing is the most immediate of all knowings: instinct acts before interpretation, the body responds before the mind creates a story. It anchors us in individuality—our own body, our own pulse, our own instinctual truth—making it a natural inhabitant of the first quadrant.

Why It’s Part of Experiential Knowing:
Somatic Knowing arises directly from the body’s sensory and motor systems—muscles, nerves, reflexes, and breath. These experiences are lived through action and participation, not abstract thought. This grounds it within Experiential Knowing, where knowledge emerges from active engagement with the world. Somatic knowing is the body’s intimate language—truth revealed through tension, release, instinct, and movement—showing how physical experience informs and shapes all action.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
INSTINCT
Somatic Knowing is guided by instinct, the raw intelligence of the body. Instinct is the blueprint of survival—fight or flight, hunger or rest, rhythm or stillness. It is not learned but inherited, written into the body as its first language.

Astrological Sign:
Aries ♈
Aries is the sign of action, instinct, and courage. Somatic Knowing matches this energy by grounding truth in the body—through movement, sensation, and immediate response—showing how wisdom can emerge directly from lived, physical experience.

• Element:
  • Fire – immediate, vital, and energizing, Fire expresses the pure spark of instinct. Aries moves like flame—sudden, bright, and impossible to ignore.
• Modality:
  • Cardinal – initiatory, always the first to leap. Aries embodies movement before thought, the way the body reacts before the mind has time to rationalize.
• House:
  • 1st House – the house of self and physical being. Here, identity is expressed directly through the body, appearance, and instinctive action.
• Ruling Planet:
  • Mars – the planet of drive, action, and raw survival. Mars gives Aries its warrior spirit, propelling it toward challenges with courage and urgency.
• Symbol:
  • Ram – the perfect emblem of Aries: charging headfirst, fearless, and determined. The ram symbolizes instinct, persistence, and the will to overcome obstacles by sheer force.
• Overall:
  • Aries embodies the primal force of life breaking through—instinct, impulse, the courage of being alive. Just as somatic knowing is the first response of the body, Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, charging ahead without hesitation.

Academic Subjects:
Life Sciences
These subjects channel Aries’ instinctive energy and Somatic Knowing by studying, guiding, and expressing wisdom through the body in motion, action, and lived experience.

Fields like physiology, kinesiology, and biomechanics exemplify somatic knowing because they explore how muscle memory, instinctive timing, and movement intelligence shape learning and action.

Sports medicine and physical therapy honor the body’s signals—pain, strain, and injury—treating the body as a living source of insight.

Even structured practices, such as sports, dance, or movement protocols, show how instinct is refined in community and cultural contexts, giving form and understanding to raw physical energy.

Vertices of Life:
Spirit × Body
Instinct is the body’s innate intelligence—its unlearned, immediate way of responding to the world. It guides movement, action, and adaptation before conscious thought intervenes. As the spirit of the body, instinct animates Somatic Knowing, providing the raw, lived data through which the body understands itself and its environment. Every gesture, tension, or shift of balance reflects this instinctive wisdom, showing how the body carries knowledge that thought alone cannot access. In this way, instinct is both the spark and the compass of Somatic Knowing, the living essence that grounds experience in physical presence.

✨ Summary:
Somatic Knowing is the way of wisdom born of the body in motion. Its life theme is Instinct, guided by immediate response and physical truth. Astrologically tied to Aries, it thrives through action, risk, and vitality. Its academic expression is Life Science (Sports), the study of strength, coordination, and endurance. Rooted in Spirit × Body, it affirms that true knowing is not only imagined but enacted, embodied, and instinctively felt.

2. Empirical Knowing

Main Description:
Empirical Knowing is the wisdom gained through observation, measurement, and direct engagement with the world. It is expressed through experimentation, data collection, and systematic study, translating lived experience into knowledge that can be tested, shared, and refined. This knowledge arises from interaction with phenomena, not imagination or inheritance.

Why It’s True:
Observation and experimentation shape understanding in precise, repeatable ways. From noting patterns in nature to tracking physical processes, empirical methods provide frameworks that guide discovery and practical action. Its truth is seen in its reliability: repeated results demonstrate that the approach works to clarify, predict, and organize experience.

Why It’s Part of Experiential Knowing:
Though structured and methodical, empirical knowing emerges from lived engagement with the world. Experiments, fieldwork, and hands-on study rely on participation, sensory input, and careful manipulation of phenomena. Knowledge is enacted through observation, testing, and interaction—showing how experience itself is the foundation of understanding.

Why It’s Part of the First Quadrant:
The first quadrant centers on the self and its immediate environment. Empirical Knowing begins when the self engages directly with phenomena, moving from perception and instinct to observation and experimentation. This makes it a natural evolution within the first quadrant—after sensation and action, understanding grows through attentive, experiential inquiry.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
SENSATION
Sensation arises through direct experience and observation, integrating what we perceive with how we inhabit the world. It is not just passive reception but active engagement: noticing textures, sounds, movements, and patterns. Through sensation, we gather the data of life, turning immediate experience into understanding and insight.

Astrological Sign:
Taurus ♉
Taurus is the sign of stability, embodiment, and connection to the material world. Sensation and Empirical Knowing match this energy by drawing wisdom from direct experience and careful observation, grounding understanding in what is tangible, perceivable, and testable. Knowledge arises through engaging the senses and examining the material world, turning lived experience into reliable insight.

• Element:
  • Earth – steady, grounding, enduring, and rooted like traditions passed down through generations. Earth here expresses stability and presence, like soil that nourishes life through patience and consistency.
• Modality:
  • Fixed – enduring, preserving, rooted, unyielding, and sustaining. Taurus holds fast once it commits, teaching the value of persistence and slow growth, holding steady the wisdom of culture.
• House:
  • 2nd House – values, resources, and what sustains life—just as culture sustains identity and health.
• Ruling Planet:
  • Venus – planet of love, beauty, harmony, and relationship, symbolizing the bonds that tie individuals into communities.
  • Venus gives Taurus its sensual nature, its love of comfort, and its ability to create value through what is cherished and cultivated.
• Symbol:
  • Bull – steady, powerful, and protective. The bull represents strength, patience, and endurance but also the stubborn will to dig in when pushed.
• Overall:
  • Taurus is the embodiment of stability and sensuality—slow to move, but unstoppable once in motion. Taurus holds the rhythms of nature, ritual, and shared value, mirroring culture’s role in creating belonging through stability and love. It teaches us to ground into the body, to value what we hold dear, and to find beauty in persistence and presence.

Academic Subjects:
Health (Public Health, Community Health, Healing Practices)
Health is not just the condition of individual bodies but the outcome of direct observation, interaction, and intervention in communities.

• Public health measures—clean water, sanitation, vaccines—reflect empirical knowledge gained through studying patterns, outcomes, and population needs.
• Traditional healing practices—herbal medicine, midwifery, nutrition—demonstrate wisdom acquired through sensory experience, experimentation, and careful observation over time.

Health is thus both a lived experience and a field of inquiry, where sensation and empirical methods guide understanding and action.

Vertices of Life:
Soul × Body
Sensation is the body’s primary way of knowing the world—it is through touch, taste, sight, sound, and movement that life is first perceived. As the soul of the body, sensation animates experience, giving depth, texture, and meaning to existence. It is the interface between the self and the environment, translating raw input into awareness, feeling, and intuition. Just as the soul is often described as the life force that enlivens the body, sensation enlivens experience, grounding all thought, action, and understanding in the immediacy of being present.

✨ Summary:
Empirical Knowing is the way of wisdom born through observation, experimentation, and direct engagement with the world. Its life theme is Sensation, expressed through careful attention, measurement, and interaction with phenomena. Astrologically tied to Taurus, it is grounded in stability, presence, and the tangible realities of life. Its academic expression is Health, the study and practice of understanding the body and its environment through observation, testing, and lived experience. Rooted in Soul × Body, it affirms that true knowing arises from noticing, participating, and translating experience into reliable understanding.

3. Cultural Knowing

Main Description:
Cultural Knowing is knowledge carried through shared traditions, practices, and collective memory. It is what we learn by participating in rituals, observing customs, and engaging with the habits and norms of a community. From the stories told around a fire to the rhythms of a festival, cultural knowing is grounded in lived experience and the ways meaning is enacted together.

Why It’s True:
Cultural knowledge is true because it is validated within the context of community and practice. When customs, rituals, and traditions are repeatedly enacted across generations, they endure and guide behavior. Shared experience anchors understanding—what is performed, remembered, and transmitted becomes reliable wisdom.

Why It’s Part of Experiential Knowing:
Every element of cultural knowing depends on participation. Knowledge arises not just from observing traditions but from living them—through gestures, speech, celebration, and work. Truth emerges through engagement, as meaning is experienced and enacted in real time.

Why It’s Part of the First Quadrant:
The first quadrant centers on the self and its immediate environment. Cultural Knowing belongs here because it represents the earliest way the individual connects with the wider community. It is the recognition of “We” after the “I”—the moment identity expands through belonging, practice, and shared life. Cultural knowing lays the foundation for understanding beyond oneself.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
BELIEFS
Beliefs are not static dogma but living stories forged through shared experience: “We believe this because we have lived it together.” Each ritual, custom, or communal practice reshapes what a community trusts and what it holds as possible. At its root, Cultural Knowing is about beliefs—truths shaped not by individual experience alone, but by the wisdom carried, transmitted, and enacted across generations.

Astrological Sign:
Gemini ♊
Gemini embodies curiosity, communication, and exploration. In the context of Cultural Knowing, it channels attention toward understanding, sharing, and interpreting communal wisdom. Just as Gemini explores multiple perspectives, Cultural Knowing examines traditions, stories, and practices, observing how meaning is created, transmitted, and lived within communities.

• Element
  • Air: light, curious, and quick-moving. Air mirrors experience as something that flows, shifts, and transforms with every encounter. Just as wind changes direction, so too do beliefs evolve with new stories. Gemini operates through thought, language, and exchange.
• Modality
  • Mutable: Gemini adapts constantly, just as experience teaches us flexibility—no two situations are ever identical, and every lived moment requires adjustment. It is ever-changing, shifting between perspectives.
• House
  • 3rd House: learning, communication, siblings, neighbors, early learning, daily talk, short journeys, and skills. This is the natural home of experience—picking up knowledge through school, local travels, trial-and-error, and the exchange of stories.
• Ruling Planet
  • Mercury: god of communication, travel, and liminality (the “in-between” spaces). It is the planet of communication and learning. Mercury reflects the way experiences are translated into narratives—stories, lessons, skills, and languages passed on.
• Symbol:
  • The Twins: symbolize duality, dialogue, and the truth that identity and knowledge emerge through reflection and exchange with another—mirroring experiential knowing, where lived encounters and shared stories become the source of wisdom.
• Overall:
  • Gemini shows how experience is lived in fragments and collected like puzzle pieces. Its curiosity drives us to seek new encounters, and its adaptability ensures that every lived story reshapes our understanding of truth.
  • Gemini embodies the playful, restless spirit of experience. It teaches that knowledge is never final but continually rewritten by the next encounter.

Academic Subject:
Geography
Geography studies the relationship between people, places, and environments, revealing how culture is shaped by land, climate, and resources. Maps, borders, and settlement patterns reflect collective knowledge and human adaptation over time. Through observing and interpreting these spatial patterns, geography shows how communities live, move, and create meaning in relation to the world around them.

Vertices of Life:
Mind × Body
Belief is the mind of the body because it organizes lived experience into meaning, shaping both perception and action. In the context of Cultural Knowing, belief extends beyond the individual—it is carried, shared, and transmitted through community practices, stories, and rituals. Just as the mind guides the body, shared beliefs guide how communities move, respond, and adapt, creating collective wisdom that informs everyday life. Belief turns raw experience into structured understanding, linking the inner life of the body with the outer life of culture.

✨ Summary:
Cultural Knowing is knowledge grounded in shared experience, tradition, and communal wisdom. Its life theme is Belief, shaped by participation, storytelling, and collective memory. Astrologically tied to Gemini, it moves fluidly across perspectives, connecting ideas and practices within communities. Its academic expression is Geography, translating lived culture into observable patterns and understanding. Rooted in Mind × Body, it affirms that true knowing arises through engagement, enactment, and the transmission of wisdom across people and generations.

B. Reflective Knowing

Main Description:
Reflective Knowing is the wisdom that grows as we cultivate awareness of ourselves and the world around us. It arises from observing, reflecting, and engaging with experience, allowing us to see the self and others as dynamic and evolving. The mind’s gift of reflection helps us integrate what we notice, learn from it, and apply it in new ways, showing that knowledge itself can develop over time.

Why It’s True:
Awareness allows us to perceive patterns, connections, and subtleties that would otherwise go unnoticed. By attending to thoughts, feelings, and circumstances, we deepen understanding of ourselves and others. Reflective Knowing demonstrates that wisdom is not static—it grows as we observe, reflect, and integrate insights into a coherent understanding of life.

Why It’s Part of the Second Quadrant:
The second quadrant, the realm of mind, reflection, and analysis, grounds Reflective Knowing in conscious awareness. While the first quadrant captures immediate, raw experience, the second quadrant invites processing, interpreting, and understanding that experience. Reflective Knowing bridges raw experience with thoughtful insight, turning observation into comprehension.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
EXPRESSION
Expression is the conscious translation of inner awareness into words, art, movement, or action. It arises through reflection, shaping thoughts and feelings into forms that communicate understanding to ourselves and others. At its core, Expression is how Reflective Knowing becomes visible—insight made tangible, experience made meaningful.

Direction:
South
The South represents warmth, authenticity, and home. In Reflective Knowing, the South grounds our awareness in familiarity and comfort, reminding us that true understanding arises when we feel safe enough to observe, reflect, and integrate experience. Just as plants grow toward the sun in the southern sky, the spirit develops most fully when nurtured by trust and belonging. Insight unfolds in this grounded space.

Discipline:
The Arts
The Arts are the academic expression of Reflective Knowing, centering on understanding human experience through observation, reflection, and interpretation. Visual arts, performing arts, music, and literary arts allow the Spirit to trace patterns, recognize meaning, and connect ideas across time and place. They provide a structured way to turn awareness into insight, showing how attentive reflection cultivates knowledge about ourselves, others, and the world. In this way, the Arts mirror Reflective Knowing—transforming noticing into deeper understanding.

Vertex of Life:
Spirit
Spirit is the guiding force of awareness, shaping how we observe, interpret, and integrate experience. In Reflective Knowing, it directs attention inward and outward, connecting perception with meaning. Spirit animates reflection, turning observation into insight and understanding, and linking the self with the broader flow of life.

✨ Summary:
Reflective Knowing is the wisdom of growth through awareness. Its life theme is Awareness, unfolding as the Spirit observes, interprets, and integrates experience. Astrologically tied to the South, it arises at the Spirit vertex, where reflection transforms observation into understanding and selfhood expands through insight. Its academic expression is the Humanities, the living record of human thought and interpretation.

4. Emotional Knowing

Main Description:
Emotional Knowing is the wisdom that arises when feelings become the bridge between our inner and outer worlds. It is the way we sense, absorb, and transmit energy through the body and spirit. Emotions are not random—they are movements of energy that guide us toward connection, belonging, and meaning.

Why It’s True:
Because emotions hold truth in their energy. We know joy, grief, love, or anger not by thinking but by feeling their pulse within us. Emotional Knowing shows us that energy is information—our bodies respond to what our minds may not yet understand. Just as art can carry a feeling across centuries, emotion carries knowledge beyond words.

Why It’s in the Second Quadrant:
The Second Quadrant roots knowing in the body and its lived expression. Emotional Knowing belongs here because emotions are embodied currents of energy. They warm, cool, open, or close us. While the First Quadrant gives raw instinct, the Second Quadrant deepens into felt resonance—emotions are cultivated which gives us awareness of the flow of our energy.

Why It’s Part of Reflective Knowing:
Reflective Knowing is about understanding and interpreting experience through observation, reflection, and meaning-making. As we engage with life, we learn to notice, shape, and communicate our inner world, turning raw experience into coherent insight. Emotional Knowing intersects here because our feelings give depth and texture to what we observe—when acknowledged, they become clarity, connection, and understanding; when ignored, they leave gaps in comprehension. Reflective Knowing unfolds as we learn to integrate the journey of our emotions and experiences into thoughtful awareness.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
ENERGY
In Emotional Knowing, energy is more than feeling—it is anything that moves, flows, and exchanges. Emotions are energy in motion, but so are money, fluids, breath, and vibes between people. Energy is the universal current that connects body and spirit, self and other. Emotional Knowing teaches us how to read these exchanges: how a room feels when we enter it, how money carries intention, how tears cleanse, or how joy spreads. Every form of energy transfer carries meaning, and emotions are our guide to sensing its truth.

Astrological Sign:
Cancer ♋︎
Cancer holds Emotional Knowing because it understands exchange through care, nourishment, and flow. Just as the tides move under the Moon’s pull, emotions remind us that all energy is relational—what we give and receive in feelings, money, fluids, and attention shapes how we grow. Cancer shows us that energy exchange is intimacy itself.

• Element:
  • Water embodies energy’s most fluid form—circulating, cleansing, nourishing. Emotional Knowing is watery because it reminds us that energy must move to remain alive: stagnant water, like unexpressed feelings, grows toxic. Flow is the essence of health.
• Modality:
  • Cardinal water initiates movement—it begins the flow. Emotional Knowing is cardinal because emotions start the current: the spark of attraction, the stirring of grief, the swell of inspiration. Feelings are the starting point of exchange.
• House:
  • The Fourth House grounds energy in belonging. Emotional Knowing belongs here because home is where energy circulates most intimately: food shared, money pooled, emotions felt in family bonds. It is the space where we first learn the rhythm of give and receive.
• Ruling Planet:
  • The Moon governs cycles of energy: the pull of tides, the waxing and waning of moonlight, the rhythm of emotional highs and lows. Emotional Knowing aligns with the Moon because it shows us that energy is never static—it is always moving, shifting, and returning.
• Symbol:
  • The Crab teaches us that exchange requires protection. Emotions flow best when the shell feels safe enough to open. The crab carries its home with it, reminding us that emotional energy exchange (tears, laughter, intimacy, money, vibes) always happens inside a container of trust.
• Overall: 
  • Emotional Knowing is the wisdom of energy in all its forms—feelings, fluids, vibes, money, cycles, and flows. It is Cancer’s tide, the Moon’s pull, and water’s circulation, teaching us that life itself is sustained through exchange.

Academic Subjects:
Visual Arts
Visual Arts reflect Emotional Knowing because they translate human feeling into tangible, perceivable forms. Paintings, sculpture, performance, and installation convey the emotions, tensions, and triumphs of their creators, allowing viewers to inhabit those inner experiences. Just as a portrait can reveal a subject’s mood, visual art lets us experience the emotional currents of a moment or culture, turning raw feeling into meaning we can engage with today.

Vertices of Life:
Soul × Spirit
Energy is the animating force that brings spirit to life—it is what enlivens intention, awareness, and presence. Just as the soul is often seen as the essence that gives life and vitality, energy is the dynamic flow that moves spirit into action, thought, and perception. It shapes how the spirit interacts with the world, channels creativity, and sustains growth and transformation.

✨ Summary:
Emotional Knowing is the wisdom of giving and receiving, where feelings form a bridge between self and other. Its life theme is Energy, expressed through the circulation of emotions, attention, and care. Astrologically tied to Cancer, it flows like tides, showing that all energy—emotional, physical, and relational—is meaningful and interconnected. Its academic expression is Visual Arts, the vessel through which emotion is transferred, felt, and shared across space and time. Rooted in Soul × Spirit, it affirms that true knowing is not only experienced internally but exchanged outward, carrying depth while connecting us to others.

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5. Playful Knowing

Main Description:
Playful Knowing is the wisdom that emerges in the space between self and other, approached with curiosity, experimentation, and delight. It is how we come to know ourselves through improvisation, exploration, and engagement with others. Rooted in the need to be seen, recognized, and interacted with, this way of knowing shows us that identity is not formed in isolation but in the playful interplay of connection.

Why It’s True:
Because our sense of self develops through interaction, the ego—our “I”—is shaped by how others respond to us, how we experiment with expression, and how we are received. Playful Knowing is true because who we are is never just inside us; it is co-created through engagement, curiosity, and mutual discovery. Play, presence, and recognition reveal dimensions of the self we could never uncover alone.

Why It’s in the Second Quadrant:
Playful Knowing fits in the second quadrant because this stage is about refining the self through interactive exploration. Here, the ego develops by being mirrored, expressed, and experimented with—much like in improvisational performance or games. Unlike the first quadrant’s raw instinct, the second quadrant emphasizes identity shaped in relation, making play, experimentation, and awareness central.

Why It’s Part of Reflective Knowledge:
Reflection requires feedback. Just as a child learns who they are by how caregivers respond, we refine understanding through observation, dialogue, and thoughtful interaction. Playful Knowing intersects with Reflective Knowing because insight grows as we test ideas, explore perspectives, and engage with others’ viewpoints. It teaches us that understanding is not fixed but shaped, rehearsed, and deepened through reflective engagement with experience.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
EGO
Ego here is not arrogance but identity—the sense of “I” that emerges through interaction and playful engagement. Playful Knowing is egoic because it asks us to step into the arena of connection and experiment with who we are. Each act of narrative refines the ego, revealing both our strengths and our blind spots.

Astrological Sign:
Leo ♌︎
Leo is the archetype of performance, charisma, and the radiant self. It thrives in playful storytelling and recognition, teaching us that identity grows through being seen and shared. Playful Knowing mirrors Leo’s fire: the desire to shine, to experiment, and to connect joyfully with others through narrative.

• Element:
  • Fire animates Playful Knowing with vitality, warmth, and energy. Like fire, playful interaction and narrative can spark inspiration or challenge us, depending on how they are tended.
• Modality:
  • As a fixed sign, Leo stabilizes identity through consistent presence and loyalty. Playful Knowing is fixed in its search for enduring engagement: the stable sense of self that grows when others witness, interact with, and respond to our narratives.
• House:
  • The Fifth House belongs to Playful Knowing because it is where we experiment with narrative—through performance, love, art, and play. It is the house where the ego practices becoming by testing, sharing, and refining its story.
• Ruling Planet:
  • The Sun rules Leo, and in Playful Knowing it represents the core self that radiates through narrative. Just as the Sun lights the world, our stories and playful engagement illuminate relationships. The Sun reminds us that the ego is not inherently selfish—it is a radiant center that brings energy, connection, and life to our interactions
• Symbol:
  • The Lion symbolizes courage, presence, and boldness. Playful Knowing requires the lion’s heart—to step into the open, be seen, and share one’s story with confidence and joy.
• Overall: 
  • Playful Knowing is the wisdom of the ego—how selfhood emerges through narrative and engagement. It is Leo’s fire, the Sun’s radiance, and the Lion’s courage, teaching us that identity is always co-created in the warmth of playful connection.

Academic Subject:
Performing Arts
Performing Arts embody Playful Knowing because they exist in the dynamic space between performer and audience. Theater, dance, music, and improvisation allow the self to experiment, explore, and perform through action. Unlike static observation, performing arts require active engagement: we inhabit roles, interact with others’ perspectives, and refine our understanding of self and other through creative play.

Vertices of Life:
Mind × Spirit
The ego is the mind of the spirit because it organizes awareness and directs the flow of inner energy into coherent thought and action. In Reflective Knowing, the ego helps the spirit observe, interpret, and integrate experience, turning insight into understanding. In Playful Knowing, it allows the spirit to experiment, perform, and explore identity through creative engagement. By shaping perception, choice, and expression, the ego translates the raw potential of spirit into conscious, directed knowing—guiding both reflection and playful exploration.

✨ Summary:
Playful Knowing is the wisdom of self explored through interaction and narrative. Its life theme is Ego, tested and revealed in connection. Astrologically tied to Leo, it belongs to the Mind × Spirit vertex, where identity meets playful storytelling. Its academic expression is performing arts, the stage where the self is enacted, shared, and transformed through narrative.

6. Moral Knowing

Main Description:
Moral Knowing is the wisdom gained through discernment, ethical reasoning, and a sense of duty. It transforms understanding into choices aligned with values, demonstrating integrity, responsibility, and conscientious action. This way of knowing emphasizes reflection, principles, and the communication of knowledge through ethical guidance.

Why It’s True:
Knowledge becomes meaningful only when it is tested against values and principles. Reflecting, evaluating, and choosing allows us to align understanding with what is right and just. Moral Knowing validates itself through ethical action—through what honors responsibility, sustains trust, and reflects integrity.

Why It’s in the Second Quadrant:
The Second Quadrant focuses on refinement and thoughtful development. Moral Knowing belongs here because it requires reflection and guided action (principles in practice). Ethical reasoning, conscientious choice, and disciplined evaluation grow understanding into moral insight.

Why It’s Part of Reflective Knowing:
Moral Knowing is part of Reflective Knowing because ethical awareness arises through careful observation, consideration, and reflection on experience. As we interpret situations and evaluate choices, we learn to discern right action, understand consequences, and integrate values into decision-making. Reflective Knowing provides the framework for Moral Knowing—turning raw experience into principled insight and guiding thoughtful, responsible action.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
DUTY
Moral Knowing is the practice of aligning action with ethical responsibility and principle. Literary Arts reflect this perfectly: novels, plays, poetry, and essays explore moral questions, depict choices, and illuminate consequences, shaping how we understand and enact duty. Mercury’s influence ensures this reflection is clear, methodical, and adaptable—values and understanding become tangible through story and narrative.

Astrological Sign:
Virgo ♍
Virgo embodies discernment, principle, and conscientiousness. Moral Knowing thrives under Virgo’s influence, turning ethical insight into deliberate, responsible action. Growth happens in the details—through reflection, careful evaluation, and thoughtful application of duty.

• Element:
  • Earth grounds Moral Knowing, anchoring ethical insight in lived experience. It ensures that understanding is not merely conceptual but practical, actionable, and aligned with duty.
• Modality:
  • The mutable quality of Virgo allows Moral Knowing to adapt, reflect, and respond to ethical feedback. It is flexible, attentive, and conscientious, supporting ongoing growth in understanding and the careful application of duty.
• House:
  • Moral Knowing resides in the Sixth House because this is where ethical insight is applied, principles are enacted, and conscientious habits are cultivated. Daily reflection and practice transform understanding of duty into lived mastery.
• Ruling Planet:
  • Mercury rules Virgo and embodies clarity, discernment, and method. Moral Knowing relies on Mercury’s precision, bridging reflection and action to ensure that duty is understood, articulated, and responsibly applied.
• Symbol:
  • The Maiden represents skill, care, and diligent cultivation. Moral Knowing grows like a field under careful tending: thoughtful, intentional, and guided by duty.
• Overall: 
  • Moral Knowing is the wisdom of ethical action. It is Virgo’s discernment, Mercury’s clarity, and the Maiden’s diligence—showing that understanding of duty is deepest when it is reflected upon, structured, and purposefully enacted.

Academic Subject:
Literary Arts
Literary Arts embody Moral Knowing by exploring human choices, ethics, and responsibility through story and expression. Novels, plays, poetry, and essays present dilemmas, consequences, and perspectives that invite reflection and discernment. By engaging with these works, readers practice evaluating actions, understanding values, and integrating ethical insight into their own lives.

Vertices of Life:
Body × Spirit
Duty is the embodiment of the spirit’s principles—it is how values, intention, and moral awareness are translated into concrete action. Just as the body gives form and presence to the self, duty gives form and expression to the spirit, grounding ideals in tangible, lived behaviors. Through fulfilling responsibilities, honoring commitments, and acting with integrity, the spirit becomes active, visible, and effective in the world. In this way, duty is the body of the spirit, transforming inner principles into outward, purposeful action.

✨ Summary:
Moral Knowing is the wisdom of discernment through purposeful reflection and action. Its life theme is Duty, shaped through careful consideration and ethical practice. Astrologically tied to Virgo, it rests at the Body × Spirit vertex, where conscientious reflection meets deliberate application. Its academic expression is Literary Arts, the practice of translating moral insight into meaningful, structured, and lasting narrative.

C. Relational Knowing

Main Description:
Relational Knowing is understanding built through connection, dialogue, and shared meaning. It arises when we recognize that knowledge does not exist in isolation but emerges through relationships—between people, ideas, and systems. This way of knowing emphasizes reciprocity, collaboration, and interdependence, allowing us to weave diverse perspectives into coherent understanding.

Why It’s True:
Relational Knowing is valid because meaning is co-created. We learn not only through internal reflection but through dialogue, feedback, and connection with others. Relationships provide the mirrors and bridges through which insight deepens—what one person cannot see alone often becomes clear in collaboration. It shows that truth is not merely personal but shared, tested, and strengthened through community.

Why It’s in the Third Quadrant:
The Third Quadrant emphasizes connection, collaboration, and the extension of knowledge beyond the self. Relational Knowing fits here because understanding expands through interaction. Knowledge becomes dynamic in conversation, teaching, and shared practice, highlighting that wisdom matures in community. This quadrant affirms that knowing is not only individual but relational—shaped and sustained by bonds with others.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
CONNECTION
Connection is the thread that binds Relational Knowing. Knowledge unfolds not in isolation, but in the spaces where lives intersect—through dialogue, collaboration, and shared experience. Just as bridges link separate shores, connection allows us to cross into perspectives beyond our own, expanding what we can know. It is in listening, responding, and co-creating that insight deepens, showing that truth is never solitary but relational, always enriched by the presence of others.

Direction:
West
The West symbolizes the setting sun, reflection, and refinement at the close of cycles. Relational Knowing rests here because connection matures through dialogue, reciprocity, and the weaving together of many voices. Just as the sun sets into shared horizon, understanding deepens when ideas are brought into relation—tested, exchanged, and transformed in community. In this direction, knowledge expands through collaboration, teaching us that wisdom grows not alone, but together.

Discipline:
Social Science
The Social Sciences reflect Relational Knowing because they study how people connect, organize, and build meaning together. Through methods like observation, surveys, and analysis, they uncovers the patterns of human behavior and the structures of society.
At the core, Social Science reveals that understanding is never formed in isolation—it emerges through relationships, shared systems, and collective meaning-making. In this way, it exemplifies how reason and reflection become social, collaborative, and deeply interconnected.

Vertex of Life:
Soul
The soul is the ground of connection—the inner space where relationships take root and meaning is organized. Relational Knowing depends on the soul’s ability to weave together experience, memory, and interaction into coherent patterns of understanding. It is here that connection becomes more than external exchange; it becomes integrated within, shaping identity and belonging. Development unfolds as the soul links the threads of relationship into a living fabric of personal growth, shared understanding, and collective meaning.

✨ Summary:
Relational Knowing is the wisdom of connection, where meaning emerges through interaction, dialogue, and shared reflection. Its life theme is Connection, emphasizing that understanding grows when ideas, people, and experiences are linked together. Astrologically tied to the West, it honors cycles of integration, collaboration, and refinement at the close of experience. Its academic discipline is Social Science, which studies how relationships shape human behavior and collective life. Rooted in the Soul, it affirms that true knowing is not only internal but relational—woven into the fabric of community, trust, and shared meaning.

7. Aesthetic Knowing

Main Description:
Aesthetic Knowing is understanding gained through perception, beauty, and the harmonization of sensory, emotional, and intellectual input. It allows us to recognize patterns of harmony, proportion, and elegance in both the external world and internal experience. This way of knowing bridges intellect and feeling, teaching us to discern quality, balance, and meaningful arrangement.

Why It’s True:
Aesthetic Knowing is valid because humans naturally respond to patterns, symmetry, and proportional relationships. Our capacity to sense beauty or disharmony reflects underlying structures in both nature and cognition. When we perceive and create aesthetics, we are applying rational principles of order and coherence in a way that resonates emotionally and intellectually.

Why It’s in the Third Quadrant:
The Third Quadrant emphasizes social connection, collaboration, and the refinement of knowledge through interaction. Aesthetic Knowing fits here because beauty and harmony are relational—they emerge in shared experience, cultural standards, and dialogue. Art, music, design, and other expressions of aesthetics gain meaning through the presence of an audience, collaboration, or community engagement.

Why It’s a Part of Relational Knowledge:
Aesthetic Knowing is rooted in Relational Knowing because beauty emerges through connection—between form and meaning, self and world, perception and expression. What we find beautiful often depends on harmony, resonance, and relationship, whether between colors on a canvas, notes in a chord, or people in community. Relational insight allows us to sense how elements fit together and why they move us, showing that aesthetics is not just about isolated form but about the bonds and interactions that give rise to beauty.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
DESIRE
Desire drives Aesthetic Knowing—it motivates us to seek, create, and connect with beauty. Desire here is not mere want but the energetic pull toward balance, elegance, and meaningful form. It bridges intellect and spirit, allowing us to pursue insight through attraction, curiosity, and appreciation.

Astrological Sign:
Libra ♎
Libra embodies balance, harmony, and relational beauty. It teaches that aesthetics are inherently social: beauty is amplified through connection, equilibrium, and the interplay of self and other.

• Element:
  • Air reflects intellect, communication, and perception—essential for discerning patterns, relational aesthetics, and principles of design.
• Modality:
  • Cardinal Libra initiates engagement with harmony and balance, prompting action to create or restore equilibrium in systems, relationships, or environments.
• House:
  • The Seventh House situates Aesthetic Knowing in relational contexts. Beauty, proportion, and harmony are experienced and refined in interaction with others, whether in art, psychology, or shared cultural frameworks.
• Ruling Planet:
  • Venus governs love, beauty, and relational attraction. In Aesthetic Knowing, Venus highlights the motivational energy of desire, showing that perception of harmony is both emotional and intellectual.
• Symbol:
  • The scales represent equilibrium, proportion, and the integration of contrasting forces. Aesthetic Knowing relies on balance.
• Overall: 
  • Aesthetic Knowing is the wisdom of beauty, balance, and harmonious pattern. It integrates Relational Knowing, showing that intellect and desire combine to perceive, create, and share meaningful form.

Academic Subject:
Psychology
Psychology exemplifies Aesthetic Knowing by studying perception, motivation, and relational balance. Understanding human response to patterns, beauty, and proportion reflects the structured, rational aspects of the mind while engaging the desire for harmony and connection.

Vertices of Life:
Soul x Mind
Desire is the soul of the mind because it animates thought with purpose and direction. While the mind can analyze, imagine, and reason, it is desire that gives these processes vitality, drawing attention toward what matters and sustaining the pursuit of meaning. Without desire, thought remains mechanical or aimless; with it, the mind becomes alive, oriented, and transformative. Desire binds intellect to intention, ensuring that knowledge is not only processed but personally sought, shaping understanding into growth and creation.

✨ Summary:
Aesthetic Knowing is the wisdom of beauty, balance, and pattern, bridging intellect and feeling. Its life theme is Desire, driving us to seek, create, and connect with harmony. Astrologically tied to Libra, it flourishes in Psychology, where perception, motivation, and relational balance are explored. Rooted in Soul × Mind, it affirms that true knowing arises where vitality meets insight—where individual resonance and collective energy combine to recognize, create, and share what feels meaningful and harmonious.

8. Social Knowing

Main Description:
Social Knowing is understanding gained through relationships, systems, and collective dynamics. It explores how individuals and groups organize power, resources, and meaning. This way of knowing allows us to perceive influence, authority, and interdependence—not just in human communities but in the natural and material worlds. Through Social Knowing, we learn how networks shape identity, how collaboration or conflict creates change, and how shared life generates structures larger than any one individual.

Why It’s True:
Social Knowing is valid because no one exists outside of relationship. Families, communities, nations, and ecosystems all shape our choices and understanding. Knowledge itself is social—it evolves through dialogue, debate, and shared frameworks. Power, trust, and cooperation influence not only what we believe but also what possibilities are available to us. Social Knowing reveals these forces, making visible the hidden structures that govern collective life.

Why It’s in the Third Quadrant:
The Third Quadrant emphasizes maturity, responsibility, and integration into the wider social fabric. Social Knowing belongs here because it requires awareness of others and of the systems we inhabit. It reflects how knowledge develops through connection, interdependence, and the recognition of collective responsibilities. This quadrant calls us to move beyond individual development into participation in shared structures of meaning and power.

Why It’s a Part of Relational Knowing:
Social Knowing is rooted in Relational Knowing because understanding relationships, influence, and community depends on connection, dialogue, and shared patterns. Regardless of the context, Social Knowing observes how energy, ideas, and resources flow among people and groups. Relational insight provides the tools to navigate these dynamics, while Social Knowing transforms understanding into collective and cooperative action. Connection allows knowledge to grow through collaboration, showing that social systems are not only analyzed but co-created for mutual benefit.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
POWER
Power is the essence of Social Knowing. It shows how influence circulates, who holds authority, and how resources are distributed. Power is not only domination but also empowerment—the ability to reshape structures and direct collective energy. Social Knowing asks us to see both the visible and invisible dynamics of power and to learn how to engage them responsibly.

Astrological Sign:
Scorpio ♏
Scorpio embodies depth, transformation, and hidden dynamics. It teaches us to see beneath appearances and to confront the realities of power, desire, and collective transformation.

• Element:
  • Water — representing depth, emotion, and the unseen currents that bind relationships and systems.
• Modality:
  • Fixed — reflecting persistence, endurance, and the stabilizing of collective structures.
• House:
  • The Eighth House — associated with shared resources, transformation, power, and collective bonds.
• Ruling Planet:
  • Pluto (and traditionally Mars) — Pluto governs transformation, hidden structures, and collective evolution; Mars directs active will and the pursuit of power.
• Symbol:
  • The Scorpion — raw power, survival, and the ability to protect or strike in response to social dynamics.
• Overall:
  • Social Knowing is the wisdom of collective life and shared power. It integrates insight with relational depth, showing how ideas, systems, and influence intertwine. It teaches us to perceive the structures that shape society, recognize both the constructive and destructive potentials of power, and take responsibility for our role within them.

Academic Subjects:
Politics, Economics, Musicology, Chemistry, Sexology, Gender Studies, etc… are all disciplines that study how power moves in societies, markets, art, and even the molecular world. Each reveals that power is both structural and relational.

• Politics → how it is distributed, negotiated, and exercised among people.
  • Social Knowing comes alive here because politics requires understanding group dynamics, alliances, and the ways influence flows through society. Power is not just individual; it is relational.
• Economics → how resources—money, labor, goods, and even time—move through societies.
  • It’s a study of social power in material form: who has access, who decides value, and how systems of exchange shape lives.
  • Social Knowing recognizes that economic choices aren’t isolated, but embedded in networks of collective behavior and agreements.
• Musicology → how music connects individuals into communities.
  • From ancient rituals to global pop culture, music holds power by moving emotions, shaping identity, and creating shared experience.
  • It illustrates how power doesn’t always come from force—it can come from harmony, rhythm, and resonance between people.
• Chemistry → how substances are discovered, applied, and controlled.
  • Chemistry underlies medicine, agriculture, and even warfare—all arenas where human power and collective well-being are negotiated.
  • Social Knowing helps us see chemistry not just as atoms bonding, but as knowledge with profound social consequences.
• Sexology → how sexuality is a force that shapes social bonds, hierarchies, and identities.
  • It asks how desire, intimacy, and reproduction intersect with cultural norms and power dynamics.
    • Social Knowing here means recognizing that sex is never just private—it is socially regulated, politicized, and deeply tied to power relations.
• Gender Studies → how gender is constructed, performed, and enforced across societies.
  • It reveals the hidden systems of power that assign roles, privileges, and limitations based on gender identity.
  • Through Social Knowing, we see how individual identity is inseparable from the broader cultural frameworks of power and inequality.

Vertices of Life:
Body × Soul
The body of the soul is the heart—the space where collective intention, care, and connection converge. By following the path with the most heart, we access true power: the ability to act not just for ourselves, but in ways that honor and empower everyone. Unlike the soul of the body, which pursues individual pleasure and avoids pain, the body of the soul is an amalgamation of all, integrating diverse needs and voices. It is guided by politics—not as domination, but as a system for harmonizing collective energy, ensuring that each person’s power is respected and amplified.

✨ Summary:
Social Knowing is the wisdom of influence, connection, and collective dynamics. Its life theme is Power, expressed in how we shape, negotiate, and respond within social systems. Astrologically tied to Scorpio, it thrives in disciplines like Politics, Economics, Music, Chemistry, and other fields where energy, structure, and interaction intersect. Rooted in Body × Soul, it affirms that true knowing arises where embodied action meets inner essence—where influence is felt, exercised, and understood through both presence and depth.

9. Ecological Knowing

Main Description:
Ecological Knowing is the understanding that emerges when mind and soul meet in the living web of relationships between beings and environments. It is the knowledge of systems, interdependence, and cycles—how one part affects the whole, and how the whole shapes each part. This knowing expands beyond the self, requiring us to perceive patterns across scales, from the microscopic to the planetary, and to see ourselves not as isolated individuals but as participants in a greater ecology.

Why It’s True:
Ecological Knowing is validated by the undeniable interconnection of life. Plants breathe what animals exhale, rivers carve civilizations, climates regulate survival. Whether we approach it scientifically or spiritually, ecology reveals the truth that no being or system exists apart from the whole.

Why It’s in the Third Quadrant:
The Third Quadrant asks us to move beyond personal or bodily knowledge into systems-level awareness. Ecology belongs here because it requires thinking about networks, interdependence, and collective survival.

Why It’s a Part of Relational Knowing:
Ecological Knowing is grounded in Relational Knowing because it studies the connections and interdependence between people, societies, and the environment. It observes patterns, cycles, and relationships to understand how communities and ecosystems thrive together. Relational insight provides the framework to perceive these webs of interaction, showing how balance, cooperation, and mutual responsibility sustain both human and natural systems.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
WILL
The will to live, to adapt, to continue in harmony with the greater whole. Ecological Knowing teaches that survival is not about domination but about aligning will with the rhythms of life itself.

Astrological Sign:
Sagittarius ♐
Sagittarius is the sign of expansion, vision, and wisdom. Ecological Knowing matches this energy by requiring us to broaden perspective beyond the self to the global and universal.

• Element:
  • Fire → The spark of life-force that animates ecosystems and the fire of vision that sees the bigger picture.
• Modality:
  • Mutable → Ever-changing, adaptive, flexible—like ecosystems that shift with seasons, migrations, and climates.
• House:
  • 9th House → The house of philosophy, higher learning, and worldview.
  • Ecology is not just science; it is a worldview about how to live in harmony with the cosmos.
• Ruling Planet:
  • Jupiter → Planet of expansion and interconnectedness. Jupiter blesses ecology with the sense of “greater than self”—the larger system of which we are a part.
• Symbol:
  • Centaur / Archer → The eternal seeker, Sagittarius aims its arrow toward truth, wisdom, and expansion, always exploring new horizons of knowledge, experience, and freedom.
• Overall:
  • Ecological Knowing is the wisdom of interconnectedness. It is the ability to perceive systems, respect interdependence, and align will with the sustaining rhythms of life.

Academic Subject:
Education
Education reflects Ecological Knowing because it studies the patterns, systems, and relationships that shape learning and growth. It examines how individuals, communities, and environments interact, emphasizing balance, interdependence, and sustainable development. The true teacher being Mother Nature herself—all educators, whether in formal schools or informal settings, can look to her as a guide for how knowledge is shared, demonstrating the principles of cooperation, patience, and mutual support that sustain learning in the real world.

Vertices of Life:
Spirit × Soul
Will is the spirit of the soul because it animates intention, purpose, and action from within. Just as the soul carries values, vision, and depth, will provides the inner drive that moves these qualities into expression. It is the force that turns insight into decision, potential into reality, and aspiration into action. While the soul forms the essence, will is its animating spirit—energizing, directing, and sustaining purpose so that inner wisdom is not static but active, alive, and capable of shaping both self and world.

✨ Summary:
Ecological Knowing is the wisdom of systems, context, and interconnectedness. Its life theme is Will, guiding the expansion of perspective beyond the self to the broader world. Astrologically tied to Sagittarius, it flourishes in Education, where teaching, learning, and community engagement reveal the relationships that sustain life. Rooted in Spirit × Soul, it affirms that true knowing arises where inner purpose meets living systems—where understanding the world is integrated with vision, responsibility, and meaningful action.

D. Narrative Knowing

Main Description:
Narrative Knowing is knowledge that emerges through story, reflection, and meaning-making. It arises when the mind turns inward and outward, observing experiences, beliefs, and emotions to create coherent narratives that reveal patterns, lessons, and personal insight.

Why It’s True:
It is valid because storytelling allows the mind to organize experience, recognize connections, and integrate understanding. By framing life events, thoughts, and emotions into narratives, we gain clarity, uncover deeper truths, and see how individual moments contribute to a larger, meaningful whole. This form of knowing highlights the evolving story of self and world.

Why It’s in the Fourth Quadrant:
The fourth quadrant represents culmination, reflection, and perspective—the stage where life experience is integrated and viewed from a higher vantage point. Narrative Knowing fits here because it emphasizes stepping back, noticing patterns, and extracting meaning from experience. Just as these houses relate to legacy, wisdom, and unseen structures, this quadrant supports knowing that connects mind, spirit, and personal and cultural understanding.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
AWARENESS
Narrative Knowing depends on conscious observation and the mindful weaving of experience into coherent story. Awareness is the mechanism that allows us to notice patterns, uncover hidden assumptions, and integrate lessons from life. Through attention to thought, emotion, and context, awareness transforms raw experience into insight, giving shape and meaning to the evolving narrative of self and world.

Direction:
North
The North symbolizes guidance, aspiration, and orientation toward higher understanding. Narrative Knowing aligns with this direction because it provides a mental compass, helping us navigate experiences, trace patterns, and integrate lessons into the larger story of life. For humans to evolve, it must be through the mind, which projects and interprets the physical world. Spiritual traditions teach that self-actualization is the achievement of the highest timeline—a timeline that is nothing more than the narrative of our deepest and truest desires. Through conscious awareness and reflection, Narrative Knowing guides us to shape this story, aligning mind, spirit, and experience.

Discipline:
Humanities
Narrative Knowing thrives in the humanities—history, philosophy, literature, and ethics—because these fields explore human thought, culture, and experience through stories and reflection. They teach us to recognize patterns, question assumptions, and trace the evolution of ideas, helping us understand both ourselves and the world through the narratives we inherit and create.

Vertex of Life:
Mind
The mind is the vertex where Narrative Knowing unfolds, serving as the seat of reflection, interpretation, and integration. It organizes experiences, beliefs, and desires into coherent narratives, enabling insight and self-understanding. Through the mind, the stories of life are shaped, lessons are extracted, and the highest timeline of self-actualization—the narrative of our deepest and truest desires—can be consciously pursued and understood.

✨ Summary:
Narrative Knowing is the mode of understanding that emerges when we observe, interpret, and weave experiences into coherent stories. It thrives in the Humanities—history, philosophy, literature, and ethics—where we reflect on human thought, culture, and behavior. Anchored in the North direction and the Mind vertex of life, it emphasizes perspective, insight, and the shaping of meaning, transforming lived experience into narratives that connect individual life events to broader patterns of human understanding.

10. Rational Knowing

Main Description:
Rational Knowing is understanding gained through logical structure, pattern recognition, and cause-and-effect reasoning. It organizes information to discern principles, connections, and coherent frameworks. It guides choices and action by connecting intellect, context, and structured insight.

Why It’s True:
Rational Knowing is valid because consistent rules of logic and reasoning produce reliable conclusions. Through careful analysis and systematic thinking, we uncover principles that explain patterns, consequences, and relationships in the world.

Why It’s in the Fourth Quadrant:
The Fourth Quadrant emphasizes reflection, integration, and perspective. Rational Knowing belongs here because it synthesizes analysis with understanding, showing how abstract principles apply to experience. This quadrant supports evaluating long-term effects, integrating lessons, and connecting thought with practical insight.

Why It’s a Part of Narrative Knowledge:
Rational Knowing is part of Narrative Knowing because reflection, story, and meaning-making allow abstract principles to become comprehensible and actionable. Narrative frames logic in human terms, showing how patterns, consequences, and ethical considerations unfold across time, deepening understanding and guiding responsible action.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
Reason
Rational Knowing is guided by Reason, the capacity to discern patterns, establish connections, and draw logical conclusions. Reason allows the mind to navigate complexity, evaluate possibilities, and act with clarity and precision. It transforms observation and analysis into structured understanding, providing the foundation for knowledge that is both reliable and applicable.

Astrological Sign:
Capricorn ♑
Capricorn embodies discipline, structure, and responsibility, reflecting the conscientious and practical aspects of ethical decision-making.

• Element:
  • Earth — grounded, practical, and attentive to structure, ensuring moral principles are enacted in tangible ways.
• Modality:
  • Cardinal — initiating action and taking responsibility for implementing ethical decisions.
• House:
  • 10th House — associated with public duty, societal roles, and the integration of personal ethics into communal life.
• Ruling Planet:
  • Saturn — governs discipline, responsibility, and ethical structure, providing the framework for moral reasoning.
• Symbol:
  • The Sea-Goat represents ambition, responsibility, and the integration of earthly effort with higher ideals.
• Overall:
  • Rational Knowing is the wisdom of logic, structure, and principled thought. It integrates rational analysis with lived experience, showing how understanding deepens when intellect, observation, and reasoning align with principles of clarity, coherence, and cause-and-effect.

Academic Subject:
Philosophy
Philosophy reflects Rational Knowing because it trains the mind to reason, analyze principles, and discern coherent patterns of thought. It explores cause-and-effect, logic, and the structure of ideas, emphasizing clarity, consistency, and systematic understanding. Philosophy goes beyond facts to organize knowledge into meaningful frameworks, embodying the essence of Rational Knowing.

Vertices of Life:
Body × Mind
Reason is the body of the mind because it gives structure, form, and direction to thought. Just as the body manifests energy into action, reason manifests mental activity into coherent, organized understanding. It transforms raw ideas, impressions, and insights into patterns, principles, and conclusions that the mind can use effectively. Without reason, the mind’s capacity remains unshaped and scattered; with reason, thought gains clarity, consistency, and actionable form. In the head vs. heart debate, where power is considered the “heart,” reason is considered the “head”—the part of the mind that thinks, analyzes, and structures, guiding decisions through logic rather than emotion.

✨ Summary:
Rational Knowing is the wisdom of logic, structure, and principled thought. Its life theme is Reason, guiding how we organize, analyze, and apply knowledge. Astrologically tied to Capricorn, it thrives in Philosophy, where principles, logic, and systematic reasoning are explored. Rooted in Body × Mind, it affirms that true knowing arises where thought is structured, deliberate, and coherent—where ideas are grounded, interconnected, and aligned with clarity and understanding.

11. Archetypal Knowing

Main Description:
A way of knowing that draws on timeless symbols, patterns, and narratives—lived experience, oral history, astrology, mythology, dreams, tarot, secret societies like the Freemasons, and other symbolic systems. Archetypal Knowing sees personal and collective experience reflected in universal images that transcend culture and era, showing us that our stories are part of a much larger design.

Why It’s True:
It is valid because archetypes are recurring structures of meaning that surface across time, geography, and discipline. They resonate because they tap into shared human experience, offering guidance that feels both personal and universal. Their consistent reappearance suggests that reality itself may be made of systems within systems. The empowering truth is that we have agency to work with these systems—reprogramming them in our favor, consciously shaping the patterns that shape us.

Why It’s in the Fourth Quadrant:
The Fourth Quadrant emphasizes reflection, integration, and the synthesis of knowledge across time and experience. Archetypal Knowing fits here because it connects the individual to collective wisdom, allowing insight to emerge from contemplation, pattern recognition, and symbolic interpretation. This quadrant honors the depth of lived experience and the internalization of lessons, showing how universal patterns shape personal growth.

Why It’s a Part of Narrative Knowledge:
Archetypal Knowing belongs to Narrative Knowledge because it conveys meaning through story, symbol, and pattern. Myths, dreams, rituals, and archetypal structures function as narratives that organize experience, reveal universal themes, and link personal life events to broader human stories. By engaging with archetypes, we learn to interpret and integrate our experiences into coherent narratives, showing how individual journeys reflect timeless patterns and deeper truths.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
IMAGINATION
Archetypal knowing thrives on perceiving beyond the literal. Imagination is the bridge between inner experience and collective meaning. The images, scenarios, or symbols that pop into your mind arrive for a reason—they may be clues for how to “level up” in the matrix. If they are frightening, they invite you to explore the root of why they arise. Imagination is the first step toward liberation: if you can’t imagine a better life, you can’t create it—or believe in it enough to welcome it when it arrives.

Astrological Sign:
AQUARIUS ♒
Aquarius is the sign of innovation, vision, and collective insight. Archetypal Knowing matches this energy by connecting personal experience to universal patterns—through ideas, symbols, and shared cultural frameworks—showing how wisdom can emerge from understanding systems and networks beyond the self.

• Element:
  • Air – intellectual, communicative, and visionary. Air expresses connection, ideas, and insight, allowing Aquarius to see patterns and possibilities that transcend immediate experience.
• Modality:
  • Fixed – stabilizing, persistent, and committed to vision. Aquarius embodies the drive to maintain and refine insight over time, building enduring systems of understanding.
• House:
  • 11th House – the house of community, networks, and social ideals. Here, identity is expressed through contribution to society, group dynamics, and visionary collaboration.
• Ruling Planet:
  • Uranus – the planet of innovation, disruption, and awakening. Uranus gives Aquarius its originality, the ability to see what others cannot, and the courage to reshape outdated patterns.
• Symbol:
  • Water Bearer – a vessel pouring knowledge and insight into the collective. The symbol represents the flow of understanding, innovation, and shared wisdom.
• Overall:
  • Aquarius embodies the force of vision and connection—insight that transcends the individual to serve the collective. Just as Archetypal Knowing taps into universal patterns, Aquarius seeks to map systems, reveal hidden truths, and illuminate the interwoven threads of human experience.

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Academic Subject:
History
History exemplifies Archetypal Knowing because it uncovers the patterns, narratives, and structures that recur across time and culture. By studying events, movements, and ideas, we see how human behavior reflects enduring archetypes—heroes, rulers, revolutions, and social cycles. History turns abstract symbolic patterns into tangible lessons, showing how personal and collective experiences are shaped by broader systems. History pairs empirical evidence with imagination.

Vertices of Life:
Spirit × Mind
Imagination is the spirit of the mind because it animates thought, giving it freedom, creativity, and direction. While the mind organizes and structures ideas, imagination breathes life into them, allowing the mind to explore possibilities beyond immediate perception or strict logic. It envisions what could be, connects disparate concepts, and inspires insight, turning abstract thinking into visionary understanding. Imagination is the force that energizes the mind, guiding exploration, innovation, and the creation of new narratives.

✨ Summary:
Archetypal Knowing is the wisdom of symbols, patterns, and timeless narratives that connect individual experience to universal truths. Its life theme is Imagination, guiding insight through creative reflection on collective and cultural frameworks. Astrologically tied to Aquarius, it thrives in History, where studying past events and societal structures reveals recurring archetypes and enduring lessons. Rooted in Spirit × Mind, it affirms that true knowing emerges where imaginative vitality animates intellectual discernment—allowing us to interpret patterns, connect personal and collective experience, and envision possibilities across time and context.

12. Spiritual Knowing

Main Description:
Spiritual Knowing is the wisdom that arises through direct experience of the divine, the sacred, or the transcendent. It is felt rather than thought, experienced rather than analyzed, and emerges in moments when the ordinary self expands to connect with something greater. Spiritual Knowing can manifest through prayer, meditation, ritual, awe, or other altered states—any encounter that dissolves the boundaries between self and universe, revealing the unity underlying all existence.

Why It’s True:
Spiritual Knowing is valid because it originates from consciousness itself. Across cultures and centuries, mystics, sages, and seekers report remarkably similar experiences of unity, insight, and divine presence. These experiences are internally self-confirming: the sense of connection and truth is undeniable to the one who perceives it. Though it bypasses rational analysis, Spiritual Knowing provides guidance, clarity, and transformation that deeply shape lived reality.

Why It’s Part of the Fourth Quadrant:
The fourth quadrant represents culmination, reflection, and insight beyond immediate experience. Spiritual Knowing belongs here because it transcends the self and temporal reality, offering perspective that integrates life into a larger whole. It is the inner horizon where the personal meets the infinite.

Why It’s Part of Narrative Knowledge:
Spiritual Knowing belongs to Narrative Knowing because it unfolds as a story of inner experience, meaning, and connection. Just as Narrative Knowing weaves events, thoughts, and insights into coherent personal or collective narratives, Spiritual Knowing organizes experiences of intuition, resonance, and the unseen into meaningful patterns. By attending to inner guidance, symbolic insight, and the flow of life’s subtle energies, we create a narrative that links personal growth, values, and higher understanding, showing how the unseen shapes the story of our lives.

Click on the different ways of knowing below to learn more about them and how they are anchored.

Life Theme:
INTUITION
Spiritual Knowing is guided by intuition in its most expansive form. Here, intuition senses the underlying patterns of existence and the flow of the divine. It is a knowing that comes not from accumulation of facts, but from attuning to universal intelligence and letting that intelligence speak through the self.

Astrological Sign:
PISCES ♓
Pisces is the sign of transcendence, intuition, and empathy. Spiritual Knowing matches this energy by grounding truth in the felt, the unseen, and the mystical—showing how wisdom can emerge directly from connection with the divine, spiritual realms, or higher consciousness.

• Element:
  • Water – receptive, flowing, and intuitive. Water expresses the sensitivity and adaptability of consciousness, allowing perception of subtle currents and unseen realities.
• Modality:
  • Mutable – flexible, shifting, and open. Pisces embodies the ability to move between realities, dissolve boundaries, and adapt to spiritual insight.
• House:
  • 12th House – the house of the unconscious, spiritual retreat, and hidden truths. Here, identity dissolves into the larger collective, and the self attunes to what lies beyond ordinary perception.
• Ruling Planets:
  • Neptune – the planet that brings dreams, transcendence, and connection to the mystical.
• Symbol:
  • Fish – moving fluidly through unseen currents, the fish embodies the soul’s journey into the depths, navigating the waters of intuition, empathy, and spiritual knowing.
• Overall:
  • Pisces embodies the expansive, receptive, and transcendent aspects of consciousness. Just as Spiritual Knowing arises from direct encounter with the divine or mystical experience, Pisces channels intuition, empathy, and imagination, offering insight into truths that lie beyond logic, shaping perception, and fostering inner transformation.

Academic Subjects:
Religion, Spirituality, Mystical Studies
These disciplines explore humanity’s encounters with the sacred—through traditions, personal practice, or mystical insight. They study how humans experience the divine, and how such encounters shape consciousness and culture. The focus is on direct engagement with transcendent truth, bridging the personal and universal while honoring mystery.

Vertices of Life:
Soul × Mind
Intuition is the soul of the mind because it provides depth, insight, and direction beyond rational analysis. While the mind structures, reasons, and organizes, intuition senses patterns, possibilities, and underlying truths that may not be immediately visible. It acts as the guiding essence of thought, connecting conscious reasoning with subtle understanding, integrating knowledge, and revealing what the mind alone cannot deduce. Intuition is the inner compass of the mind, giving it purpose, coherence, and soulful clarity.

✨ Summary:
Spiritual Knowing is the wisdom born from direct encounter with the sacred and the transcendent. Its life theme is Intuition, guided by attunement to universal patterns beyond logic. Astrologically tied to Pisces, it thrives through receptivity, empathy, and imaginative flow. Its academic expression is Religion, Spirituality, and Mystical Studies, the disciplined exploration of encounters with the divine. Rooted in Soul × Mind, it affirms that true knowing is experienced, transformative, and illuminated through the communion of the self with the infinite.

Together, these ways of knowing offer a complete map of human understanding, showing how insight emerges through body, mind, spirit, and soul. Each mode—whether grounded in sensation, reason, reflection, emotion, or archetypal patterns—reveals a unique pathway to knowledge, while also interweaving with the others to create a holistic picture. By exploring and cultivating all of them, you can bring these insights into your own life—enhancing self-awareness, improving relationships, and making more intentional, informed choices.

The Ornelian Framework was created by Laura Alyn Ornelas, whose work blends intuition, polymathic exploration, and a love of learning. Drawing on a lifetime of curiosity and study, she designed this framework to help others access the full spectrum of human intelligence—guiding learners of all ages to understand themselves, engage meaningfully with the world, and cultivate wisdom that is embodied, relational, and alive.

Thank you for being here!

P.S. This is the basis of my dissertation so it is still a work in progress. If you find any issues, errors, or inconsistencies, please email me at laura.ornelas@cgu.edu

Disclaimer: The Ornelian Framework is my original creation. AI (ChatGPT) supported me in clarifying language, organizing categories, and testing connections, but all ideas, themes, and conceptual structures originate from me.

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