The Seven Existential Cages: A Speculative Decolonial Ontology

This working paper introduces and elaborates The Seven Existential Cages — a heuristic ontological framework developed within the Psycho-Cosmocide body of work at NATAKA Research Institute. The seven cages — Physical, Symbolic, Metaphysical, Technological, the Corridor of the Dead, the Cage of Absolute Unknowing, and the Cage of the Irreducible Other — are proposed as a diagnostic model of recurrent existential conditions observable across conscious and relational forms of life, within which the Civilisational Psycho-Cosmocide Virus (CPCV) operates. These conditions are not exclusively human: they appear across a range of living organisms in varying degrees of complexity, and preceded every civilisation, every colonial encounter, and every technology. The paper develops each cage analytically, situates the framework within the wider Psycho-Cosmocide body of work, and positions the ontological cage architecture as a foundational diagnostic ground for the concept of Wonesis — the framework's proposed counter-movement of existential and cosmological reawakening. Philosophical, cosmological, and cross-species perspectives are integrated throughout.