The Twenty Harmonies

Each of the twenty Harmonies names what happens when one Capacity meets one Domain at center — a specific, irreducible human quality. This page maps all twenty, shows how they form five parallel circuits, and introduces the nine Gateways that carry structural leverage over the rest of the grid.

The Grid: Twenty Intersections

Human experience does not happen in the abstract. It happens at specific intersections — this function in this territory, right now, in this person’s life. A person does not simply “receive” in general. They receive sensation, or emotion, or ideas, or relational closeness, or meaning. The intersection is where life is actually lived.

Four Capacities crossed with five Domains yield twenty intersections. Each represents a specific, nameable human quality — a distinct way that life can move through a person when both function and territory are balanced.

Reading across a row shows a single Capacity expressed in five different territories. Reading down a column shows four different functions operating in one territory. Reading any single intersection reveals the precise coordinate: what happens when this function meets this territory at center.

Each name is precise. “Sensitivity” is not a synonym for “Open”; it is what Open looks like when applied to the Physical Domain. “Agency” is not a synonym for “Move”; it is what Move looks like when applied to Mental. The names carry the intersection; the intersections carry the model’s resolving power.

Five Harmonies in Depth

Empathy — Open x Emotional

Empathy is the capacity to receive feelings — both your own and others’. When centered, emotion arrives without shutting you down and without drowning you. Other people’s emotional states are perceptible and affecting without colonizing your system.

When Empathy is off-center, it looks different depending on direction. Under (Closing + Numb): the person becomes impermeable to feeling. Grief meets a blank stare. Over (Flooding + Hypersensitive): the person absorbs every feeling in the vicinity without filter. Others’ sadness becomes their sadness. Empathy is not sympathy or compassion in the colloquial sense — it is the gate on feeling, open or shut.

Agency — Move x Mental

Agency is the capacity to turn thought into action — making decisions and following through. When centered, thoughts become choices and choices become actions without the gap collapsing (impulsivity) or widening indefinitely (paralysis).

The distinction from willpower matters. Agency is the capacity to complete the circuit from cognition to behavior, not the force applied to push through resistance. A person who knows for five years that they want to leave their job, has planned the transition, saved money — and has not resigned — has Agency Under. The channel from knowing to doing is frozen.

Belonging — Bond x Relational

Belonging is the capacity to feel truly part of something: a family, a community, a friendship. Where Intimacy lets people in and Attunement sees them clearly, Belonging is about being held over time.

A person with Belonging Under feels chronically outside — present in groups but never quite of them. They may have relationships and read people well and still feel like an outsider everywhere. The experience is not loneliness (which can exist with intact Belonging) but rootlessness. A person with Belonging Over disappears into the group. Opinions, preferences, and identity are determined by the collective. Leaving or disagreeing feels like annihilation.

Presence — Focus x Physical

Presence is the capacity to be physically here — feet on the floor, breath in motion, the subtle signals of comfort, danger, and readiness. It is not merely being in a body; it is knowing you are in a body.

The distinction between Sensitivity and Presence is crucial. Sensitivity is the gate (whether bodily sensation enters at all). Presence is the lens (whether what enters is attended to). A person with intact Sensitivity and collapsed Presence receives the body’s signals without reading them — the information arrives but no one processes it.

Devotion — Bond x Spiritual

Devotion is a living relationship with what matters most. Where Surrender (Open x Spiritual) lets meaning in and Vision (Focus x Spiritual) perceives it, Devotion holds that meaning over time as a deep, abiding commitment — to a creative calling, a moral vision, a faith, or a practice.

A person with Devotion Under loses their thread to meaning. Purpose may appear in flashes (Surrender functional) and be perceived clearly (Vision intact), but it cannot be held. Meaning surfaces and then dissolves. A person with Devotion Over is consumed by their commitment. All other aspects of life are subordinated to the sacred calling.

The Four Rows as a Processing Cycle

Each column runs the same sequence: life enters (Open), is perceived (Focus), is integrated (Bond), and is expressed (Move). This creates five parallel circuits across the grid.

• Physical column: Sensation enters (Sensitivity), is attended to (Presence), is integrated (Inhabitation), and is expressed (Vitality).
• Emotional column: Feeling enters (Empathy), is seen clearly (Discernment), is owned (Embrace), and is expressed (Passion).
• Mental column: Ideas enter (Curiosity), are thought through (Acuity), are integrated into self-concept (Identity), and are acted upon (Agency).
• Relational column: People enter (Intimacy), are perceived accurately (Attunement), are held (Belonging), and are spoken to honestly (Voice).
• Spiritual column: Meaning enters (Surrender), is perceived as purpose (Vision), is held as commitment (Devotion), and is expressed as purposeful action (Service).

Nine Gateways: Positions of Structural Leverage

Not all twenty harmonies carry equal weight. Nine occupy positions in the grid where a shift toward or away from center exerts disproportionate influence on neighboring positions. The Icosa model calls these Gateways — harmonies whose grid coordinates give them leverage over adjacent centers.

The Bond row contributes three Gateways — more than any other row — reflecting Bond’s role as the integrative capacity. The Identity Gate (Bond x Mental) occupies a special position as the geometric keystone: when Identity is centered, the person has a stable self-concept from which to engage the rest of the grid. When it fragments, coherence across the entire system tends to degrade.

How Harmonies Are Independent

Each harmony has nine possible states (three capacity states times three domain states), producing 180 total states across the grid. The harmonies are independent of one another — you can be centered in one and off-centered in another, thriving in Empathy while struggling with Agency, strong in Belonging while weak in Vitality.

This independence is what makes the model precise. No two people with different positions at even a single harmony are in the same configuration. The grid does not classify people into types. It describes each person’s current configuration with a precision that makes type categories unnecessary.

All Twenty Harmonies: Capacity States at Every Intersection

Each of the twenty Harmonies operates in three Capacity states — Under, Centered, and Over — producing distinct experiences at every grid position. The tables below walk through each row of the grid.

The twenty Harmonies are where the Icosa model’s abstract architecture becomes concrete. Each one names a specific human quality — something a person can recognize in their own experience, point to, and work with. When you know not just that something is “off” but which harmony is off-center and in which direction, you know where to look and what kind of movement might help. That specificity is the grid’s gift.