Where to Start: A Navigation Guide

You're standing at the edge of eight transmissions documenting what makes human groups alive versus extractive. Each one is a doorway.

If you're drowning in exhaustion...

 Start with The Rhythm of Us.

You don't need mythology right now. You need to understand why your body feels this way, why the exhaustion doesn't respond to

rest, why everyone around you is also barely holding on. RHYTHM gives you language for what you're experiencing and a framework

(BREATH, PULSE, TIDE) for recognizing what's actually happening.

Read this first. Everything else will make more sense after.

If you're ready to see the machine...

 Enter the WE GATHER Trilogy.

You've sensed it for years—something's deeply wrong with how we organize. The meetings that drain life. The performance of productivity. The way groups suffocate when they can't disperse. You're ready to see organizations not as machines but as living systems that breathe, pulse, complete—or die when these movements are violated.

Start with We Gather But Do Not Meet (the diagnosis). Let it name what you've been feeling. Then move ceremonially through Testimony, and Here Remembered. Don't skip around. This is ritual, not reference.

If you need underground practice...

Use The Field Manual.

You're already working with groups—consulting, facilitating, organizing, and leading. You sense there's something more to work with than the rational surface. You need protocols that honor organizational consciousness as real while remaining practically usable.

The Field Manual gives you ceremonial technologies and field protocols. You can use these whether or not you've read the mythology. They stand alone as practice.

Note: For the mythological foundation of these protocols, refer to the WE GATHER Trilogy. If you want the accessible framework first, start with RHYTHM. But neither is required—the Manual works on its own.

If You Need Rigorous Proof…

Wait for MOVEMENTS + THE FIELD (2026-27).

You need geometric proof—axioms, propositions, logical necessity. You want to understand WHY the three movements (BREATH, PULSE, TIDE) aren't preferences but geometric necessities, proven with mathematical rigor.

MOVEMENTS establishes that living groups organizing in 3D space-time must exhibit these three movements. Not because we observe them in healthy groups—because geometry requires them. Like triangles must have three sides.

If you're seeking the cosmology...

Start with Organizational Metaphysics.

This gives you the cosmological framework—the three eternal movements (BREATH, PULSE, TIDE) as metaphysical law governing all human organization. What organizations actually are (consciousness organized, not machines).

If you're a practitioner or consultant...

You have two paths:

Path 1 (Accessible → Deep): RHYTHM → Field Manual → WE GATHER Quartet → MOVEMENTS → Organizational Metaphysics→ THE FIELD & MOVEMENTS (2026)

Start with the practical framework, move to protocols, then dive into the mythology, proof, and cosmology. When THE FIELD + MOVEMENTS publishes (2026-27), complete your foundation with research methodology and geometric proof.

Path 2 (Cosmological → Applied): Organizational Metaphysics → THE FIELD & MOVEMENTS (2026) → WE GATHER Triology → Field Manual → RHYTHM

Start with a complete cosmological foundation, understand the geometric proof, then move through mythology to practice and accessible application.

Choose based on your current need: Do you need to help organizations now (Path 1) or do you need complete grounding first (Path 2)? 

If you're an academic or researcher...

 Start with Organizational Metaphysics.

This gives you the cosmological framework—the three eternal movements (BREATH, PULSE, TIDE) as metaphysical law. From here, you can see how the WE GATHER Quartet applies this to contemporary organizational experience, how The Field Manual translates it to practice, and how RHYTHM makes it accessible.

When THE FIELD + MOVEMENTS publish (2026-27), you'll want both:

- MOVEMENTS provides geometric proof (why patterns must exist through dimensional mathematics—393 pages of rigorous axioms, propositions, logical necessity)

- THE FIELD provides phenomenological methodology (testing if patterns are perceptible, developing direct perception, and intersubjective validation)

Together, they establish Living Groups as a legitimate field of study—complete with geometric foundation, phenomenological methodology, and rigorous research protocols.

For now: Read Metaphysics for cosmology. Read the Field Manual for practitioner perspective.

If a koan found you...

Follow it.

Each koan connects to specific transmissions:

• "The meeting is the disease" → We Gather But Do Not Meet

• "Your tiredness has ancestors" → RHYTHM

• "Cannot gather. Cannot disperse. Cannot" → RHYTHM and The Field Manual

• "Three movements. Not techniques. Not methods. Laws" → MOVEMENTS and/or THE FIELD

• "Separated bodies. One breathing. Whose lungs?" → Organizational Metaphysics

Let recognition guide you. The koan knows which door you need.

 Still not sure?

Browse the Field Notes. These are monthly observations exploring patterns I'm seeing across organizational work. Each connects to

relevant books. Find the note that names something you're experiencing—follow it to the transmission it draws from.

Or just start with RHYTHM. It's the most accessible entry point, and it will show you whether you're ready for the deeper transmissions.

A Note on Order

You don't have to read all eight. Most stand-alone works—RHYTHM, The Field Manual, MOVEMENTS, and Organizational Metaphysics — each work independently. The only exception is the WE GATHER Trilogy, which is ceremonial and designed to be read 1→2→3

When THE FIELD + MOVEMENTS publish (2026), they'll work as companion volumes but can be read in either order depending on whether you need proof first (MOVEMENTS) or methodology first (THE FIELD).

How the books relate:

• RHYTHM = Accessible application of the three movements

• WE GATHER Quartet = Ceremonial journey through organizational consciousness

• Organizational Metaphysics = Complete cosmological framework

• The Field Manual = Underground practice protocols

• THE FIELD & MOVEMENTS (2026) = Complete theoretical foundation + methodological foundation for Living Groups as a field of study.

The work will find you when you need it.

These are transmissions, not a curriculum. Take what serves. Leave what doesn't. Come back when you're ready for more.

The door that opens for you now is the right door.