12 traditions
Traditions Graph
Traditions clustered by family — Abrahamic, Dharmic, East Asian, Iranian. Lines connect traditions that share many themes; thicker lines mean more convergence. Line weights are editorial approximations, not counts derived from the matrix.
Click a family to highlight its traditions, or click a tradition to see its connections.
Abrahamic
God-centered radial with covenant structure
Dharmic
Soteriological chains and cyclical time
East Asian
Concentric cultivation and harmony
Iranian
Cosmic dualism and covenant fidelity
Structural Forms
God-centered radial
Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism — everything emanates from and returns to one source.
Soteriological chain
Buddhism, Jainism — a directed path from diagnosis to liberation.
Foundation + goal hybrid
Hinduism — metaphysical foundation radiating through multiple paths to one goal.
Concentric cultivation
Confucianism — self at center, radiating through family to state to cosmos.
Multi-cluster radial
Taoism — five sub-clusters around the Dao: operational, epistemic, contemplative, critical, authentic.
Loose associative web
Shinto — practice-centered, bound by family resemblance rather than doctrine.
Dignity hub-and-spoke
Christianity — a single value-hub ("God IS love") from which the other principles radiate as spokes.
Foundation-centered three-face
Bahá'í — three oneness-axioms (God, religion, humanity) radiating into ethical, social and institutional applications.
The shape tracks a stance: the maps that run toward a goal tend to belong to the traditions with cyclical time; the maps that flow from a single source, to those with a personal God and linear time.