sacred-strata

# Sacred Strata

The fundamental hierarchy of organization in Portal, from organism to atom.

## The Seven Strata

| Level | Name | Analogy | What It Is | |-------|------|---------|------------| | 0 | **Array** | Organism | The full constellation — everything | | 1 | **Sphere** | System | Major operational domains | | 2 | **Realm** | Organ | Current working context (right_hand, left_hand, membrane) | | 3 | **Deck** | Tissue | Named overarching organizations (formerly pillars, collections) | | 4 | **Dice** | Cell | Dividers of the organization — FIDs, cubes, units of work | | 5 | **Face** | Molecule | Pieces of the whole that compose a part — gaps, cards, strata | | 6 | **Gems** | Atom | Why all things work the way they do — the irreducible properties |

## Reading Order

**0 → 6**: Organism → Atom (zoom in) **6 → 0**: Atom → Organism (zoom out)

## Fractal Nature

The strata are relative, not absolute. Every Thing is a die from its own perspective, a face to its parent, and a deck to its children:

- Realm sees: deck = container of FIDs - Deck sees: deck = die, FIDs = its faces - FID sees: FID = die, gaps = its faces - Gap sees: gap = die, work = its faces

The hierarchy collapses to: **Things all the way down, strata is depth in the obsidian chain.**

## Mapping to Sapphires

- **Array**: The Things table itself, the full graph - **Sphere**: sapphire=sphere rings - **Realm**: sapphire=realm — right_hand, left_hand, membrane - **Deck**: sapphire=deck — organizational containers (FID decks + content decks) - **Dice**: sapphire=fid, sapphire=cube, sapphire=die — units with faces - **Face**: sapphire=gap, sapphire=card, sapphire=face — atomic work units - **Gems**: The gem_values system — onyx through citrine

## Migration Note

sapphire=pillar retired Day 282. All 36 pillar Things migrated to sapphire=deck. Pillars were always decks at stratum 3. The word "pillar" was a borrowed word that described what something looks like to an outsider, not what it is in the system.

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*Captured Day 282, from Hex's vision. Updated after pillar→deck migration.*