# 10. Cascade: Map the Active Field

Cascade is an optional visual map for representing what is currently active in your relational and environmental field. It is a reflection surface, not a law of cognition and not a demand to fill every available space.

The V2 substrate uses 127 hexes arranged in seven rings. The fixed geometry is a navigation scaffold: it gives the practice a stable visual language without claiming that every person has exactly 126 meaningful relationships or that capacity is fixed by the map. Leave spaces empty when that is more truthful.

## The center: R0

The center is **R0 — You**.

R0 is not a relationship slot. It is the personal reference point from which you observe and choose your participation. This does not mean isolation or unlimited control. It means that your map must include your own body, time, limits, and agency rather than treating you as an invisible resource for everyone else.

Write:

```text
What I am responsible for: ________________________________________
What I am not responsible for: ____________________________________
What I need to observe before choosing: ____________________________
```

## The rings

| Ring | Name | Working tempo | Count | Use |
|---|---|---|---:|---|
| R0 | You | — | 1 | Personal reference point |
| R1 | Inner Circle | Yearly | 6 | Foundational anchors and long-duration ties |
| R2 | Archetypes | Quarterly | 12 | Roles, durable patterns, and recurring identity contexts |
| R3 | The Longing | Monthly | 18 | People, aims, or relationships reached toward |
| R4 | The Echo | Weekly | 24 | Recurring weekly connections |
| R5 | The Wave | Daily | 30 | Daily rhythm connections |
| R6 | The Current | Hourly | 36 | Real-time or ambient presence |

The tempos are working categories. A connection can move rings as conditions change. Moving a connection is not necessarily rejection; it may be an honest adjustment to the current field.

## The five currencies

Currencies describe what a connection contributes or requires. They are not a ranking system.

| Currency | Working meaning | Prompt |
|---|---|---|
| Hearts | Direct overlap and explicit resonance | What happened between us? |
| Stars | Shared category, field, or context | What do we recognize in common? |
| Moons | Complement and difference | What becomes possible together? |
| Hourglasses | Running maintenance ledger | What did this require and return? |
| Balloons | Passive presence or ambient awareness | Who remains present without active exchange? |

A connection may have few Hearts and still matter through Stars, Moons, Hourglasses, or Balloons. Do not turn the currencies into a social credit system. That would be both ethically ugly and operationally dumb.

## Contact descriptors

Use a plain-language descriptor for the current mode of exchange. These are not ratings, rankings, or judgments about a person.

| Descriptor | Working meaning |
|---|---|
| Active exchange | Contact is current or frequent enough to affect today’s capacity |
| Steady exchange | Contact is recurring and reasonably predictable |
| Light exchange | Contact is present but low-frequency or low-demand |
| Dormant or paused | Contact is intentionally or circumstantially inactive |
| Ruptured or unsafe | Contact is disrupted, harmful, or not appropriate to resume without repair or protection |

If a descriptor makes the situation less honest, leave it blank and describe the observed behavior instead.

## Practice: place the active connections

You do not need to map everyone you know. Map what is active enough to affect today’s capacity.

```text
Connection / commitment: __________________________
Ring or tempo: ____________________________________
Currency or currencies: ____________________________
Contact descriptor, if useful: ____________________
Current load: ______________________________________
Repair burden: ____________________________________
```

Then ask:

- Is this connection in the ring that matches its actual tempo?
- Is the load reciprocal, one-sided, or unknown?
- Is the connection active because of care, obligation, habit, fear, or unresolved repair?
- What structural change would make the map more truthful?

## Cascade and the Five Foci

Read each active connection through the core grammar:

```text
Phase: What rhythms are we coordinated around?
Field: What conditions surround and pressure this connection?
Arc: What threshold or rupture changed its state?
Form: What pattern keeps returning?
Lattice: Which pathways carry the exchange or the burden?
```

A map is useful when it produces a better observation or decision. It is not useful when it merely gives anxiety a more elaborate filing cabinet.

## Cosmic weather as the outer ring

The cosmic-weather extension can be used as a context map around Cascade:

```text
outer field: planetary and ecological conditions
inner field: social and organizational conditions
local field: immediate relationships and commitments
center: the observing person
```

This is a nested perspective, not a claim that solar or galactic conditions directly determine a person’s relationship state. When an outer condition is proposed as relevant, name the mechanism, timescale, and evidence status.

## Privacy and consent

Keep personal maps private unless sharing is explicitly agreed. Do not map another person’s inner life as if you own the data. In group settings, map roles, flows, and agreed observations rather than hidden judgments.

If a connection involves coercion, stalking, abuse, or credible danger, do not use Cascade to optimize the relationship. Seek appropriate support and prioritize safety.

## Integration check

```text
The active field I mapped is ______________________________________.
The most overloaded ring is ______________________________________.
The connection whose tempo needs revision is ______________________.
The responsibility I need to return to my own reference point is __.
The next structural decision is ___________________________________.
```