About

What this is, how it works, and what to watch out for.

What This Is

A way for people to build the means of their own creations. Recursively.

Here, you can make a tarot deck with images that matter to you. You can write your own I Ching interpretations. You can collect videos and texts into sequences that help you contemplate something difficult. And when you're ready, you can offer what you've made to others who might need it.

Someone else can take what you offered and change it—add their own images, their own words, their own questions. They copy it, make it their own, and offer it back. The tools you use to make things were made the same way. The loop continues.

Symbols are not signals. They are not codes to be cracked or data to be decoded. They are alive—they speak differently each time you sit with them, because they are in relationship with you and with forces larger than either of you. Tarot, I Ching, astrology—these are not belief systems. They are technologies for sensing our embeddedness in something that was always already here, something that speaks if we learn to listen.

This is why these grammars deserve a truly recursive public: not a community of experts explaining symbols, but a living web of people tending them—contemplating, flowing, creating in relation to what the symbols are pointing toward.

You return to these grammars again and again. Each return is different because you are different, and because the world is different. This isn't about getting answers. It's about sitting with questions long enough for something to move.

There's no algorithm deciding what you see. No notifications pulling you back. You arrive when you arrive. And you're welcome here.

The Recursive Cycle

Four movements in a continuous loop. Each one feeds the next. We shape grammars, and the grammars shape us.

See visual poems of the cycle

Light and Shadow

On the internet, light and shadow go hand in hand.

Children watching Mati & Dada—a gentle art-history cartoon—might find a link on the YouTube channel to what appears to be the official website. One click away from that beloved kids' show… was soft porn. The domain had been hijacked after being abandoned.

Domains expire, get hijacked, redirect to gambling sites or worse. The web forgets what things were "meant" to be. Links decay. Children are not the intended audience of this infrastructure.

A recursive living public—where people actively maintain and transform shared spaces—is our best attempt to create more light than shadow. Not claiming to have the answer. Just an attempt.

No clickbait incentives. No extractive monetization. Donation-based as long as we can sustain it, only charging for variable costs when needed (like AI calls).

Design Choices

Each design choice carries both light and shadow depending on how people use them and their context.

Donation-based Model

Now

Light

No clickbait incentives. No extractive monetization. Charging only for variable costs when needed (like AI calls).

Shadow

Sustainability uncertain. May not scale. Could create dependency on specific donors.

Open Interpretation

Now

Light

You make meaning together. Tools offer frameworks, not prescriptions. Agency in collective sense-making.

Shadow

Collecting symbols without sitting with them. Treating living relationships as intellectual hobbies.

Altars

Now

An altar is anything you tend with attention. There are three kinds: "Personal altars" — your own curated collection of tools. "Grammar altars" — symbolic systems like tarot decks and I Ching books. "Resource altars" — external knowledge shared in a calm, algorithm-free space.

The Altars of Altars is the discovery layer — a directory where all three kinds are browsable in one place.

Light

Collective wisdom. Offering back. Others flow through what you create. The loop continues.

Shadow

Echo chambers. Shared vocabulary becoming jargon. "Our way" becoming "the right way."

Local-First Concern

Now

Light

Keep your images on your own storage (Google Drive, local files). Reference them by URL. This keeps the tool free longer—you store and serve your own media.

Shadow

Requires managing your own image hosting. Links can break if you move or delete files. More setup friction than upload-and-forget solutions.

We're watching for shadows as we go. If you see them manifesting, tell us. This is an offering, not a guarantee.

Ethics & Sustainability

A Clear Boundary

Do not profit from people's faith.
Offer visions, not predictions.

These systems are older than any of us. They belong to the commons—to the living relationships between people, symbols, and the more-than-human world. This space exists to tend those relationships, not to sell them.

Any activity that attempts to commercialize faith, sell certainty as prediction, or extract money from people's spiritual seeking will be actively discouraged.

About AI

AI features have real costs. Credits help cover expenses—not generate profit.

There's intentional friction: the tools ask you to do your own thinking first. The wisdom is already in you.

Sustainability

This runs on one person's time, savings, and the occasional generosity of others. Donations are voluntary, non-refundable, and grant no ownership or governance rights. They simply help keep a small, virtue-oriented space online.

Important Notices

Not a Substitute for Professional Care

These tools are for personal reflection and growth. They are not a substitute for therapy, medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

If you are in crisis or feel unsafe:

  • 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US): Call or text 988
  • Crisis Text Line (US): Text HOME to 741741
  • Emergency Services: Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room

AI Limitations

  • AI can be wrong, incomplete, or off-base
  • Don't use it for decisions about health, safety, or legal matters

Beta & Experimental

This is a living experiment. Expect bugs, unfinished features, and breaking changes. We'll handle migrations carefully, but no system is perfect.