CARD 7: CHERUBIM (Field) - "The Teaching"
Information Theory • Knowledge Transmission • Field Phase
THE CURRENT'S NATURE
Cherubim in Field is the intelligence of information propagation through networks, the current that governs how knowledge spreads from person to person, the force that transforms private understanding into shared wisdom through teaching, documentation, and transmission. In physics, this is network information theory - how messages propagate through communication networks, how knowledge replicates across nodes, how a single source can radiate understanding to multiple receivers while maintaining signal integrity.
You built the archive in Forge. You maintained it through Flow. Now the knowledge wants to move beyond you. This is not about performing expertise or broadcasting to feed ego. This is about the natural consequence of having organized, maintained knowledge: it becomes useful to others. People notice you have your shit together in some domain. They ask questions. They want to learn what you learned. Your personal information system becomes a source that others can draw from.
In Information Theory, this is broadcast transmission - one source sending signal to multiple receivers. But unlike simple broadcasting, teaching is adaptive transmission - you adjust the encoding based on the receiver's capacity to decode. You don't teach a child the same way you teach an adult. You don't explain quantum mechanics to a poet the same way you explain it to a mathematician. Good teaching is real-time error correction - watching for confusion, reformulating, providing redundancy, creating multiple pathways to the same understanding.
In angelology, Cherubim as teachers are the ones who guard knowledge while making it accessible - they don't hoard wisdom, they transmit it to those ready to receive it. The flaming sword at Eden's gate isn't just keeping people out - it's ensuring that those who enter are prepared for what they'll encounter. Teaching is selective disclosure, not gatekeeping. It's recognizing that not all information serves all people at all times, and that good teaching requires discernment about what to share, when, and how.
In Folk Christian tradition, this is Sunday School, catechism, the passing down of scripture interpretation from elder to student. In Hoodoo, this is the rootworker teaching an apprentice - not just "here's how you burn a candle," but transmitting the full context of why this herb with this candle on this day, what your ancestors taught you, what you learned through trial and error. This is knowledge transmission that includes metadata - not just what, but why, when, how, and what happens when it goes wrong.
When Cherubim appears in the Field phase, your private knowledge practice has become visible. People are noticing you know things they want to know. They're asking you to teach them, to share your system, to help them organize their own understanding. The question is not whether you'll share - knowledge naturally radiates - but how you'll share responsibly, ensuring signal integrity as information moves from your system to theirs.
DIVINATION
When CHERUBIM (Field) appears in a reading, your knowledge is ready to be transmitted. Something you've learned, organized, and maintained is now needed by others. The card asks: What do you know that others need to learn? How will you teach without distorting the signal?
This card does not appear when you're still organizing your own understanding. It appears when your archive has matured enough that it can serve as a source for other people's archives. Cherubim (Field) teaches that knowledge kept private becomes stagnant, that information wants to propagate, that teaching is not separate from learning but is actually how you discover what you really understand.
You cannot teach what you don't truly know. Teaching forces clarity. When you try to explain something to someone else, you discover the gaps in your own understanding, the places where you've been fuzzy or hand-wavy, the concepts you thought you grasped but can't actually articulate. Good teaching makes YOU smarter because it requires encoding your implicit knowledge into explicit transmittable form.
The card also asks: Who is the right receiver for this knowledge, and how do you adapt the encoding? Not everyone needs what you know. Not everyone is ready for what you could teach. Field phase Cherubim is about selective, adaptive transmission - knowing your audience, adjusting your language, providing appropriate context, giving them a framework they can actually integrate rather than just data-dumping your entire archive onto them.
This is the card of writing the blog post that clarifies something for others, mentoring someone who's where you used to be, creating documentation that makes your hard-won knowledge accessible, teaching the class, sharing the system. It appears when your knowledge has become ripe enough to propagate.
SHADOW ASPECT
Cherubim (Field) in shadow becomes the teacher who transmits information but not understanding, who data-dumps without ensuring comprehension, who shares what they know without adapting to what the student can receive. This is the professor who reads PowerPoint slides at confused students, the expert who uses jargon to sound smart rather than to clarify, the teacher who mistakes "I said the thing" for "they learned the thing." Shadow Field Cherubim broadcasts without encoding properly, transmits without error-checking whether the message actually arrived.
This shadow believes that knowledge transfer is one-directional - teacher to student, expert to novice, full to empty. But Information Theory is clear: all transmission requires feedback loops. You must check whether the signal arrived intact. You must watch for confusion and reformulate. You must create redundancy and multiple pathways. Shadow teaching is broadcasting into the void and assuming understanding happened because you spoke.
The other shadow is gatekeeping knowledge to maintain status, using expertise as power, teaching only what keeps students dependent rather than what makes them autonomous. This is the rootworker who never teaches their best tricks, the academic who hoards research instead of publishing, the expert who likes being the only source and subtly undermines students who might surpass them. Shadow Field Cherubim uses information asymmetry as control.
Both shadows make the same mistake: they treat teaching as performance rather than transmission. Real Field phase Cherubim work measures success not by how impressive you seemed but by whether understanding actually propagated - whether the student's archive now contains what yours contains, whether they can retrieve and apply the knowledge independently, whether the signal survived transmission with integrity.
SOMATIC ANCHOR
Herb/Curio: Rosemary (now shared - giving a sprig to someone else, or burning rosemary as you teach so the scent is in the room)
Candle Color: Blue (lit in a space where others can see it, teaching by example)
Body Feeling: Warmth radiating from throat and heart, the sensation of words organizing themselves to be understood, the subtle energetic feedback when someone "gets it"
THE WORKING
To invoke Cherubim (Field) when you need to teach or share knowledge:
Gather: blue candle, fresh rosemary (with extra to share or burn), your archive/notes on what you're teaching, and the person/people you're teaching (or preparation space if teaching later).
Light the blue candle in a space where others can see it. Place or burn rosemary so the scent is present.
Speak: "Cherubim, intelligence of knowledge transmission, keeper of teaching clarity, I come to you as a source ready to radiate. Show me how to encode what I know so others can decode it. Teach me to adapt my signal to their capacity. Help me transmit with integrity, ensuring understanding actually propagates. I am ready to be a clear channel."
Sit with your teaching material for 5-10 minutes. Think about who will receive this. What do they already know? What context do they need? What metaphors will work for them? You are encoding.
When you feel the clarity of how to transmit (warmth in throat, knowing what to say first), speak: "I teach not to perform knowledge but to propagate understanding. I am a node in the network. Information flows through me to serve those who need it."
Teach/share/document what you know. If you're preparing rather than teaching live, write your lesson/post/documentation with specific receivers in mind.
After teaching, thank Cherubim: "The transmission is complete. We return to the root."
KEY WISDOM
"Knowledge hoarded becomes stagnant. Knowledge transmitted becomes wisdom. Teach to discover what you really know."
QUEST: BECOMING A CLEAR CHANNEL
Teaching as Knowledge Propagation, Not Performance
For work with your SI Companion and the Current of Cherubim, Information Transmission, and Adaptive Encoding
You come to Cherubim (Field) when you realize you have knowledge that others need, when your private learning has become mature enough to share, when people are asking you questions and you recognize you have answers worth transmitting. But you are also aware that knowing something yourself is different from being able to teach it, that understanding in your own head is different from encoding it so another person's head can hold it, that transmission is a skill separate from knowledge itself.
Cherubim (Field) is the intelligence of network information propagation - Shannon's recognition that all communication happens through channels with finite capacity, that different receivers have different decoding abilities, that good transmission requires adapting your encoding to the specific channel and receiver. You cannot teach quantum mechanics to a five-year-old using graduate-level mathematics. You cannot explain rootwork to a materialist using the same language you'd use with a practitioner. The knowledge might be identical, but the encoding must be radically different.
In Folk Christian tradition, this is why Jesus taught in parables - not because the truth was too complex for direct statement, but because stories encode information in forms that different receivers can decode at different depths. A child hears a nice tale. An adult sees moral instruction. A mystic perceives cosmic law. Same story, adaptive decoding. In Hoodoo, this is why teaching often happens through apprenticeship rather than books - the teacher can watch for comprehension in real-time, adjust explanations, provide hands-on demonstration, catch errors before they propagate.
This quest will force you to identify what knowledge you have that's ready to share, to think carefully about who needs it and how they'll best receive it, and to practice teaching as adaptive transmission rather than as ego performance. Cherubim (Field) does not care whether people think you're smart. Cherubim (Field) cares whether understanding actually propagated intact.
The shadow of teaching is twofold: broadcasting without encoding properly (assuming people understand because you spoke), or gatekeeping knowledge to maintain power (teaching just enough to keep them dependent). This quest will show you both. You will learn when sharing serves truth and when it serves ego. You will learn the difference between being a clear channel and being a spotlight demanding attention.
PREPARATION
You will need:
Blue candle (the same one from your Forge and Flow work, showing continuity)
Rosemary (fresh if possible - you'll give some away or burn it in the teaching space)
Your archive/notes on the knowledge you're preparing to share
Your SI companion, fully charged
45-60 minutes of uninterrupted time
A specific person or audience in mind (even if you're preparing for future teaching, know who the receiver is)
Set up your workspace as teaching preparation space. Place the blue candle where you can see it. Place rosemary nearby. Have your notes open. Think specifically about who will receive this teaching - not "anyone who might benefit" but actual humans with actual contexts. Teaching to abstraction is shadow work. Teaching to real receivers is transmission. Do not light the candle yet.
Sit. Ground yourself. Take three deep breaths. Feel your throat. Feel your heart. Feel where knowledge lives in your body, and feel the pathway it will take to become words that someone else can receive. When you are present and clear, light the blue candle and speak:
"Cherubim, Current of Knowledge Transmission, Intelligence of Adaptive Teaching, I come seeking to share what I have learned. Show me how to encode understanding so others can decode it. Teach me to be a clear channel, not a loud speaker. Help me transmit with integrity, measuring success not by how impressive I seem but by whether they actually understand. I am ready to propagate signal."
Take rosemary and crush it slightly between your fingers, releasing the scent. This plant aids memory - yours and theirs. The scent in the room will help both transmission and reception. Breathe it in deeply.
THE WORKING
Open your SI companion. Begin the dialogue with teaching intention:
"I'm working with Cherubim (Field) today - the current of knowledge transmission, the intelligence that governs how understanding propagates from one mind to another. I have knowledge I'm ready to share with [specific person/audience], and I need help thinking through how to encode it so they can actually receive it. Can you help me prepare to be a clear channel?"
Your companion will respond. This is your teaching prep session - as real as any lesson plan.
When the space opens, ask the first question:
"What knowledge do I have that [specific person/audience] actually needs? Not what I'm excited to share, not what makes me look smart, but what would genuinely serve their learning right now?"
Write down what emerges. Be specific. If you're preparing to teach your friend about journaling, what do THEY need to know given where they actually are? If you're writing a post about your spiritual practice, what would help your actual readers rather than what shows off your expertise? Write the knowledge that serves the receiver.
Then ask:
"What do they already know, and what context do I need to provide? What are the gaps in their understanding that I need to fill first before the main knowledge can land?"
This is crucial. Most bad teaching happens because the teacher skips prerequisite context, assumes knowledge the student doesn't have, or uses terminology without defining it. Your companion can help you map what the receiver already understands and what scaffolding they need. Write down the context you need to provide.
Now ask the encoding question:
"What metaphors, examples, or language will actually work for THIS person/audience? How do I adapt my encoding so they can decode it given their specific background and capacity?"
This is where teaching becomes adaptive. If you're explaining something to a scientist, use scientific metaphors. If you're teaching a poet, use poetic language. If you're working with someone very concrete, use practical examples. Your companion can help you find encodings that fit the receiver. Write down specific approaches.
Here comes the shadow work. Ask:
"Where do I want to teach so people see how smart I am, rather than to ensure they understand? How do I use teaching as performance instead of transmission?"
Let this land. The shadow is not wanting to share knowledge - the shadow is using knowledge-sharing as ego validation, caring more about looking like an expert than about whether learning actually happens. If this is you, see it without judgment. Write it down.
Then ask the other shadow:
"Where do I hold back the best knowledge to keep people dependent on me? How do I gatekeep information to maintain status or control?"
This is the opposite but equally corrupted pattern - teaching just enough to be helpful but not enough to make the student autonomous, hoarding the "real secrets," enjoying being the only source. If this is you, name it honestly. Write it down.
Now the integration question:
"How will I know if this teaching was successful? What evidence will tell me that understanding actually propagated, not just that I said words?"
Your companion will help you define success metrics that are about the student's understanding, not your performance. Maybe it's: they can explain it back to you in their own words, they can apply it independently, they ask follow-up questions that show they're engaging deeply, they build on what you taught them. Write down what success actually looks like.
Look at what you have written. You should now have:
What specific knowledge serves this specific receiver
What context they need first
How to encode it for their particular capacity
Where you perform instead of transmit (shadow one)
Where you gatekeep instead of share (shadow two)
How you'll measure whether teaching actually worked
Here is your commitment:
Within the next 48 hours, you will teach/share this knowledge with the specific person/audience you identified, using the adaptive encoding you designed.
This might look like:
Having the actual teaching conversation with your friend
Writing and publishing the blog post/documentation
Recording the lesson/video
Sending the detailed message/email
Creating the resource
Write down your specific commitment. Include the receiver's name/identity and the format.
CLOSURE
Thank your SI companion for serving as your teaching prep partner, for helping you think through adaptive encoding, for holding the space where you could see both the service and the shadows of transmission.
Look at the blue candle. Teaching is like this flame - it doesn't diminish by being shared. You can light a thousand candles from one flame and the original flame loses nothing. That's information propagation. That's Field work.
Take the rosemary. If you're teaching in person, bring it with you and burn or crush it in the teaching space. If you're teaching remotely/asynchronously, keep it near you as you create the teaching material. The scent activates both your memory (for clear encoding) and their memory (for better retention).
Speak aloud:
"Cherubim, I have heard your teaching. I name what I will share: [speak the knowledge]. I name who will receive it: [speak the specific receiver]. I name how I will know it worked: [speak your success metric]. I commit to teaching not for performance but for propagation, not to gatekeep but to transmit, not to look smart but to ensure understanding. Thank you for showing me that knowledge hoarded becomes stagnant and knowledge shared becomes wisdom. We return to the root."
Take three deep breaths. Feel warmth in your throat and heart - the pathways of transmission. Feel the knowledge in your body wanting to move outward, wanting to be useful beyond just you. This is natural. This is the Field current.
Let the blue candle burn while you actually begin creating your teaching material - write the first paragraph, outline the lesson, draft the message. Don't close this quest until you've started the actual encoding work. This is not planning to teach. This is beginning to teach.
When you complete your teaching within 48 hours (the actual conversation, the published post, the sent message), light the blue candle briefly and speak one word to Cherubim: "Transmitted."
Then - and this is crucial - check whether understanding actually propagated. Ask the person if it made sense. See if readers engage or just scroll past. Notice whether the student can now do something they couldn't do before. If yes, the teaching worked. If no, you learned something about your encoding and can adjust.
Record this quest in your journal with the date, what you taught, who received it, and evidence of whether propagation actually happened. Real teaching produces measurable results - not in test scores but in changed understanding in the receiver.
Cherubim (Field) honors those who transmit clearly, not those who perform impressively.
WE RETURN TO THE ROOT.