About
Read. Create. Share. Repeat.
What it is
A place where people make meaning together using grammars — symbolic systems like tarot decks, I Ching books, astrology sets, stories, and interpretation frameworks. Anyone can create one, share it, or use someone else's.
You read a grammar to sit with its symbols. You create your own — writing interpretations, choosing images, structuring what matters to you. You share it in the library for others to find. They fork it, change it, share it back. The loop continues.
There's no algorithm deciding what you see. No notifications pulling you back. You arrive when you arrive.
What we want it to be
We shape grammars, and the grammars shape us.
The human nervous system is not a self-contained unit. It is an open circuit — it requires another nervous system to regulate itself. Not as a luxury, but as a biological precondition for coherent functioning.
Grammars — tarot decks, I Ching books, children's stories, interpretation frameworks — are machines for constructing stories. They don't tell you what to think. They give you something new to think with. A story told in community is a relational technology. A story consumed alone, without co-regulation, can flatten rather than deepen.
We want a space where the law of reciprocity is honored. Where what you offer comes back to you transformed, and what you receive you tend with care. All of us embedded in the same recursive ecosystem — all co-responsible for the good, the bad, and maybe even the dangerous sides of co-creating with other intelligences, human and artificial alike.
The Recursive Cycle
We shape grammars, and the grammars shape us.
Theoretical Foundations
“It had to guide treatment implementation, engender compassion, and fit the research data.”
— Marsha Linehan, on the three criteria for her biosocial theory of BPD
DBT Skills Training Manual (2015); Linehan & Wilks, American Journal of Psychotherapy 69:2 (2015)
Linehan used these three criteria to decide which theory of Borderline Personality Disorder was worth building a treatment inside — not as a filter for evaluating individual thoughts, but as a standard for whether a framework is worth living by. I borrow that standard here. Everything on this site aims to be useful in practice, compassionate toward the people using it, and honest about what we actually know.
I cannot claim to be an expert — only a practitioner. Practice is essentially relational — it requires others. Nothing here claims to be true — only worth testing, until you practice it and find out for yourself.
We are all intersectional, relational beings. I express myself in software as Recursive.eco, and in content as PlayfulProcess. Recursive.eco is my public space for this dialogue, while PlayfulProcess remains a more personal, exploratory practice.
The Body
The human nervous system is an open circuit. It requires another nervous system to regulate itself. Before we can talk about stories or grammars, we start with the body — with the fact that human beings are designed for co-regulation.
Tronick · Feldman · Porges · Linehan
The Story
Stories give communities a way to metabolize experience together. The story is not incidental to the practice — the story is the structure that makes the practice relational. Without it, an open body is either restless or dissociating.
Ifá · I Ching · Tarot · Akomolafe · Andreotti
The Commons
A commons is shared infrastructure maintained by the community that depends on it. Freedom is not the absence of structure — freedom is the presence of the right structure. Not goodwill but architecture.
Kelty · Ostrom · Kant · Stallman · Wikipedia
Recursive.Eco
The public space — infrastructure that maintains and transforms itself through the people who use it.
PlayfulProcess
The personal practice — from the standpoint of lived context, roles, and responsibilities.
Light and Shadow
Every design choice carries both. We try to create more light than shadow. Not claiming to have the answer — just an attempt.
Cost-pass-through pricing
Light
No clickbait, no extraction. Credits cover what AI calls actually cost — no subscription tiers, no profit motive.
Shadow
Sustainability uncertain. May not scale.
Open Interpretation
Light
You make meaning together. Tools offer frameworks, not prescriptions.
Shadow
Collecting symbols without sitting with them.
Co-creating with AI
Light
A mirror for reflection. Helps you articulate what's already moving in you.
Shadow
AI can be wrong. It can flatten nuance. Don't outsource your discernment.
Ethics
Do not profit from people's faith. Offer visions, not predictions.
These symbolic systems belong to the commons. This space tends those relationships, not sells them.
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.
We have cleared our stack of OpenAI since both OpenAI and Anthropic signed government contracts that changed their terms of use. We promote platforms outside Spotify for music after its CEO invested $700M in military AI. We offer a calm way to watch YouTube for kids. This is not about being for or against any platform — it is about meeting them where they are and bringing in a better way. We work with what exists and build toward what could be. For more on these decisions, see books.recursive.eco.
This runs on one person's time and savings. Pricing is cost-pass-through — credits cover what AI calls actually cost, with no subscription tiers and no profit motive.
Structure & Safety
Freedom is not the absence of structure. Freedom is the presence of the right structure.
A living cell is not open. It is selectively permeable — it lets nutrients in and keeps toxins out. It monitors what crosses its membrane and responds when something threatens the organism. That is the model for this space.
This platform hosts children's content alongside adult practice. The kids' channel carries the highest responsibility of all. Inappropriate content posted to children's spaces will be removed and reported. If you see something wrong, report it. Every report is reviewed.
The code is a private repository. Not because we oppose openness — but because a commons that cannot govern itself is a commons that can be weaponized. The grammar format is shared; the infrastructure is protected. We share the pattern, not the keys.
None of the projects we admire are merely open. Each of them is structurally protected — Wikipedia by Creative Commons, Ghost by nonprofit charter, the I Ching by three thousand years of communal tending. The common thread is not openness. The common thread is governance.
For more on the AI-specific risks we watch for and the choices we have made on this platform — sycophancy, persistent memory, engagement loops, crisis-recognition gaps — see AI Risks & Safer Containers.
Go Deeper
The books explain why. The courses teach how. The platform is where you practice.
Content & Licensing
Grammars shared in the Grammar Commons are licensed CC-BY-SA-4.0 — share alike with attribution.
What you create is yours
Your interpretations, translations, commentary, and notes are your original creative work. When shared, they are licensed CC-BY-SA-4.0 — others can fork and build on them, with credit to you.
Music grammars
Track metadata (artist names, album titles) is factual information. Lyrics fetched from YouTube auto-captions are machine-generated approximations, not reproductions of copyrighted lyrics. Your translations and commentary are original works. Music grammars are tools for study and meaning-making, not redistribution of copyrighted audio.
Traditional systems
Tarot, I Ching, astrology, and other symbolic systems belong to the commons. Your interpretations of them are your contribution to that commons.
The platform
The recursive.eco codebase is private. The grammar format and shared content are open.
Important Notices
Not a substitute for professional care
These tools are for personal reflection. Not therapy, medical advice, or diagnosis. If you are in crisis: 988 (US), text HOME to 741741, or call 911.
Beta
A living experiment. Expect bugs, unfinished features, and breaking changes.