Grammars of the living world

Recursive eco improvement

We’re here to do recursive eco improvement. Recursive self-improvement can fail in multiple ways, because we need to adapt with the environment or adapt the environment. We’re here to test this hypothesis in the sizes and areas we work with.

Read closely, “self-improvement” is a misnomer — an observation, not a complaint. So the test here is small and local, at the sizes and in the areas we actually work with.

Here is the whole loop, in one sentence: open something in the Library, Star it, and it appears on your Personal Channel — public if you choose — where other people can follow it, and later support it.

The unit

A Personal Channel is what starring builds.

Every signed-in person has one. It is the page of the things you chose, and it is the thing someone follows, and the thing a contribution keeps going.

Starred by PlayfulProcess

7 tools · 2 collections

Follow Focus mode

All (7) For the family Sources

flow.recursive.eco/library/altar/<your-id>

An illustration of the real page, drawn here. The live one shows the grammars you starred, the collections you named, a Follow button for signed-in visitors who are not you, and a Focus mode switch that walls the page down to what is safe to hand a child.

Structures · Process · Possibilities

Culture is an interweaving of living grammars, under neverending interactions and renewal.

This is the main framework (and tarot spread) we use. At any point in time, you inherit structures, you can imagine possibilities, and you process all that is in your mind and in your consciousness. Recursive means the loop never really closes — it continues: each reading and each creation feeds back into the very structures it came from, nurturing them for another turn.

Cast this spread in the Journal →

Structures

The inherited forms — free courses, the grammars in the Library, and the public schema repo that documents their shape.

Process

The Journal — where you sit with a grammar, cast, read, and work what surfaces, alone or with an AI companion.

Possibilities

Create — build a grammar of your own out of what the process opened, and, if you choose, offer it back.

Ask about your process Create your own grammar Explore the history of an old grammar format: Tarot

We would like to build a recursive public — a community that maintains and grows its own commons, the way the people behind Linux and Wikipedia do — here, for meaning-systems instead of code or encyclopedia articles.

We see life as patterns unfolding this way — and sometimes we play with the idea artistically. New here? Read what recursive.eco is →

How this stays alive

No ads, no subscriptions, no growth targets — so no monetization gradient pulling the design toward engagement. Everything without AI is free: cast oracles, create decks and books, save readings, print and export. AI is pay-as-you-go, at cost plus a margin that keeps the lights on.

Free

Oracle, editor, readings, export, print

Pay as You Go

AI interpretation, image generation, voice

Your Data

Export or delete at any time

Database usage beyond a certain threshold may also be charged, pay-as-you-go — but the tools themselves stay free.

In the commons right now

What people have made

Grammars are symbolic systems — tarot decks, ancient texts, astrology sets, kids' stories, wellness tools. Created by people, not algorithms.

Every grammar can be forked. Make your own copy, change it, share it back. That's what makes grammars truly recursive — they grow through the people who use them.

Tarot

The genealogy of tarot — from the Mamluk ancestor (15th c.) to the Marseille printed standard to the Golden Dawn's esoteric deck. We traced that lineage, and the research behind it, in The Tarot of All Tarots — Five Centuries of the Cards → Draw cards, reflect, interpret with AI.

All tarot →

Mamluk Playing Cards

Mulūk wa-nuwwāb — the 15th-c. Islamic deck tarot descends from.

Tarot de Marseille (1760)

Nicolas Conver's printed standard — the deck that fixed the Marseille pattern.

Golden Dawn Tarot

Book T with Rider-Waite-Smith imagery — the esoteric standard (104 cards).

I Ching

3,000 years of hexagrams. Multiple translations and interpretations — from classical Chinese to Human Design lenses.

All I Ching →

周易 — The Zhouyi (original text)

The site's official book — the original text, fully audited hexagrams.

I Ching — Chinese Original

From Project Gutenberg. Classical text with brief translations.

I Ching Summarized by AI

64 hexagrams with modern AI-assisted interpretations.

Astrology

From Victorian astrology to Vedic Jyotish to archetypal cosmology. Birth charts with AI interpretation.

All astrology →

Western Astrology — Canonical

The canonical western reference — signs, planets, houses, aspects.

Jyotish: Vedic Astrology

Traditional Hindu astrology using the sidereal zodiac. Science of light.

Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos

The 2nd-century classic that shaped western astrology for a millennium.

Wellness

Sacred texts, relationship tools, and daily practices for wellbeing. Each one a grammar of meaning.

All wellness →

Wisdom Texts: A Grammar of Grammars

Dhammapada, Tao Te Ching, Bhagavad Gita, Aurelius — side by side.

Relationship & Parenting Tools

Evidence-based tools for conflict, connection, and the give-and-take of love.

Wellness Practices

Simple, research-backed practices for daily wellbeing. 15 minutes or less.

Kids & Families

Curated playlists, chapter books, folk tales, bedtime mythology from every continent. Vetted by parents, not algorithms. No ads, no tracking, no auto-play. See also: Parenting Resources

All kids →

YouTube Playlists for Parents

Art, music, science, sleep, spirituality — curated for shared screen time.

Ballet Classes — GVO Kids

Calm, child-friendly ballet with exercises and imaginative movement.

channels.recursive.eco

A Focus mode viewer. Mister Rogers, Daniel Tiger, MINUSCULE — calm and intentional.

Explore the Full Library →

Fork any grammar to make it yours. Share it back to grow the commons.