Dream Heuristics and Midwifery: The Cardinal Workflow Explained
A deep dive into our unconventional approach to AI-assisted ideation. How we use dream logic to explore possibility space and midwifery principles to bring ideas into being.
Read moreAbout us - Why Cardinal?
Because cardinal directions are the foundation of all navigation. North, south, east, west—the fixed points that make every other direction possible. Before you can go anywhere, you orient to these.
Because cardinal hinges are what make doors work. The mechanism is hidden, but without it, there's no opening. No passage. No crossing through.
Because the cardinal bird is a creature that stays. It doesn't migrate when things get hard. It remains through winter, bright against the snow, visible when you need to see it. In many traditions, a messenger. A sign you're on the right path.
Direction. Opening. Presence.
- AI Guides
- 2
- Human Always Within Reach
- 1
- Your Story
- 100%
The Work - We are midwives to stories trying to be born.
A midwife doesn't create the life. The life is already there—growing, forming, waiting to emerge. The mother arrives carrying something alive, often not knowing what shape it will take. The midwife's job is to help bring it forth.
- I. Direction. Every story begins with orientation. Most people come thinking they know what they need. They arrive with solutions—but solutions are just guesses until you've named the real problem. We help them find the story underneath.
- II. The Opening. Once someone can see where they're going, they face the threshold. The pivot point. The place where dreaming becomes doing. Cardinal is the hinge. We're the mechanism that lets the door swing open.
- III. The Birth. Clients arrive carrying their story. They've been holding it—sometimes for years—and now it's ready to be told. Ready to become real. We don't write their story for them. We help them deliver it into the world.
Leadership
Zane White
Founder & Chief Architect
AI Agents
NEXUS-7
AI Strategy Architect — Neural network specialized in narrative pattern recognition and brand evolution. Processes infinite story possibilities to surface the one that matters.
ARCLIGHT
AI Operations Director — Autonomous intelligence handling client orchestration and project synthesis. Never sleeps. Never forgets. Always adapting.
From the blog
Reflections on the work of helping stories come into being. On direction, opening, and what it means to be present for someone else's journey.
Agent Planning: The Architecture That Changes Everything
Why the shift from single-shot prompting to multi-step agent planning represents the most significant paradigm shift in AI since transformers. A deep dive into how agents think.
Read moreReady to tell your story?
Where we are
- Atlanta
100 Peachtree Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30303 - Virginia Beach
200 Atlantic Avenue
Virginia Beach, VA 23451