Several months ago, I typed this into an input field on a new app I’d built:
“Like god is listenin for the bang, bang”
A lyric from one of my songs, “Bang, Bang!” A character song about a guy that became an emotional-assassin. I wrote it as an exploration of what had become of a character in another song of mine.
The app? It turns thoughts into symbolic equations that unlock recursive story blueprints. I built it to answer the question:
Can numbers tell compelling stories?
The app’s response was:
⊧(∷(3,9,2,5,7,6,4,9),⊠(1,3,9,1,2,5,5),∫(9,5,6,6,9,2,8,5),⊨(2,1,5,7,2,1,5),∈(7)) → 7 → MYSTERY
You know how I responded? I only went and wrote a whole-ass book from that simple little equation. It’s called How to Melt a Snowman’s Heart, and no, no… that’s not why we’re here, but it does bear mentioning because it’s the first application of Tau-Tongue to create a story. 🙃
Tau-Tongue is a symbolic equation generator for narrative design based on numerology, symbolic compression, and recursion.
Let us recurse.
What is recursion?
Recursion is thinking about thinking, in this case. In programming terms it’s where you take the output of a function, give it back to the same function and then you get new output, feed that output into the same function, new output…so on and so forth.
Recursion is part of the secret sauce here so I hope that made sense.
When you apply it to thinking, you get something like this…Thought:
A kid is abducted from his home-planet moments before it’s destruction by the very god that’s come to erase it.
Thinking about that yielded me the song, Mister Spaceman back in 2023. The point of origin for this recursion, here, today.
Several years later, earlier this April, I found myself in the studio with nothing in particular to write about and I had been working on my game universe for the Astral Assemblage.
I took the earlier output from my imagination about the kid, home planet and god and asked myself:
What becomes of the kid? Who does HE BECOME?
Boom. Recursion. And what happened next? Surprised the hell out of me…Because I ended up with a LOT more than a new song (Bang, Bang! btw…that’s the song that became of that session)
Big Takeaway? Yeah, imagination is recursive. You might not have realized, that yet.
Ok, hear me out… Numbers can tell stories…Complex, intricate, mind-blowing stories.
We just forgot how to listen to their tales.
I hope you’ve buckled in.
What I’m about to touch upon is literally ancient tools meeting modern tech in the most spectacular way, and I brought proof.
Pythagoras, right? You know that guy.
“A squared plus B squared = C squared” — The Pythagorean theorem.
Did you also know that he is considered the father of modern Western Numerology? He established the philosophical tenet that numbers are the fundamental essence of the universe and possess inherent spiritual significance.
His teachings on numerology as I was able to absorb them as a teenager have stuck with me for over 30 years now.
As a story-teller, I’m going to go ahead and say it, now. I’m not interested in the woo-culture of numerology. Not as a storyteller. I’m not here for it’s spiritual significance. I’m here, as a storyteller, for it’s archetypes. It’s compressed meanings. It’s onion-like layers of interpretability given context.
Check this out!
Pythagorean Numerological Meanings
In Pythagorean numerology, each number has a meaning, each meaning when combined with other numbers can speak to fairly intricate seeming subjects like one’s personality.
Core Numbers (1–9):
- 1 — The Seed / Initiation (SOURCE)
Individuality, assertion, will. The pulse of origin. Pure signal. - 2 — The Mirror / Response (DUALITY)
Duality, partnership, sensitivity. Reflective and relational. Friction. - 3 — The Spark / Expression (CREATION)
Creativity, communication, movement. The voice that spirals outward. - 4 — The Form / Structure (STRUCTURE)
Foundation, logic, system. The box, the rule, the wall. - 5 — The Flame / Change (CHANGE)
Transformation, freedom, chaos. The rogue beat. Unstable and alive. - 6 — The Weave / Responsibility (HARMONY)
Care, harmony, consequence. Mythos of kin, caretakers, sacrifice. - 7 — The Veil / Insight (MYSTERY)
Introspection, mystery, initiation. The seeker’s solitude. - 8 — The Glyph / Power (POWER)
Manifestation, mastery, alignment. The architect, the controller. - 9 — The Spiral / Completion (FULFILLMENT)
Surrender, transcendence, release. The ending that echoes.
Master Numbers:
- 11 — The Voice / Vision (VISION)
Illumination, channeling, recursion. The prophet function. - 22 — The Temple / Architect (MASTERWORK)
Master builder, cosmic engineer. Infrastructure of myth.
So, a system using those methods of meaning making above, could in theory tell stories by stringing numbers together and filling in the gaps. Here’s how.
My pen name, for example: Astral FarKaster
In Pythagorean cipher, that becomes number: 112913 619211259
In the original prototype of my application that would simply become a single string of numbers “112913619211259”
Then, using more ancient maths, modulo math, to select different symbols to act upon these numbers…we get something like the above equation:
⨳(8,[⋂(1,1,2,3,1,1,6,2),⋿(9,1,9,2,9,5,1)]) → 8 → POWER
This is what I call Tau-Tongue. My symbolic algebra for meaning-making and narrative generation. You can write stories, songs, build worlds, characters, places… You just describe and interpret.
So how the ____ does that become story?!?
Here, I’ll demonstrate. Tau-Tongue in action folks, here we go.
Tools: Tau-Tongue Translator
When you open the Tau-Tongue Translator, you’re prompted to input your “Spark” — this is simply whatever it is you’re thinking about that relates to the story you’d like to tell, the world you’d like to build, etc.
I’ll put a story arc idea that’s been stuck in my mind lately:
“He came to stir up a rebellion. He ended up overthrowing a despot. He ascended to the throne a reluctant king.”
Which yields this beautiful tau-tangle, and this Tau-Tongue equation:
∐(11,[≽(8,5,3,6,9,8,5,5,3,4,9),∴(1,4,5,3,1,3,5,5,6,9,5),⋪(2,1,2,5,5,5,6,2,7,2,2),⋭(9,9,7),≻(2,5,3,3,4,9,1),≹(9,6,8,9,1,5,8,2,5),⊓(5,4,5,8,2,1,5,5),⊪(4,7,9,2,5,1,5,4),∆(6),⊏(7,6,5,5,7,5),⧬(1,5,4,1,9,3,8,6),∂(3),≈(3,2,2)]) → 11 → VISION
Ooooh, much complex. Such intimidate! Wow!
Nah, you got it all wrong. That’s two things, that’s all. Two main things:
The Crucible — The thematic arc and the thing acting upon it (∐(11) in this case)
The Braid — the string of equations after the first number in square brackets indicating the action of the narrative. (everything else)
Braidcraft: Collapsing Narrative Meaning from Entropy
Recently I discovered there’s this new field of study out of Florida International University’s Science & Fiction Lab, called Quantum Narratology. It applies principles from quantum physics, genetics, and other sciences to analyze and understand how narratives are structured and how they interact with audiences.
While they focus on pattern mapping, I found myself recursing…What if we applied quantum superposition directly to storytelling:
Narratives are like waves, and the waves until collapsed by an observer are in superposition. Multiple possibilities at once represented by a single ‘thing.’
So, that’s kind of actually exactly how Tau-Tongue “ticks.” I, as the observer will collapse a tau-tongue equation into meaning completely differently than you, but both are valid interpretations at once because the whole purpose of tau-tongue is to get you writing.
The Tau-Tongue equation above has a Crucible of ∐(11). That symbol represents something like a “divergent convergence” acting upon the archetype of the 11 vibration.
We call this archetype The Weaver of Fields in Tau-Tongue. I like to imagine this as representing the character from my input spark earlier. The guy that’s come to stir up a rebellion. Perhaps a real Figaro type.
When I think of a “divergent convergence” I think of strange attractors, and fish out of water type stories. I’m not sure you would draw the same conclusions, that’s just how MY brain plays with the Tau-Tongue equation.
When I think that, I then choose to recurse, and I say, ok — A fish out of water story, with a main character that’s kind of like a Figaro type. Man of many talents and several ambitions like.
But given a different context…Say I don’t like that idea… I can change it! I can keep the equation but change how I approach it. What if instead I already had a character in mind?
Perhaps a sociopathic, anti-hero type fella with a silver tongue? The vibration of the 11 represents a transition from the mundane to the next-level, in whatever context that may apply, it’s the first numerological value of significance with two-digits. And so, one could say, it’s a divergent convergence (∐) acting upon the coalescence of a person evolving, changing, coming into their power, could you not?
And you know what that sounds like?
An epic fucking story.
Let us recurse.
The Braid — the elephant in the room. That long string of functions in the Tau-Tongue equation. The narrative “meat” if you will.
In Braidcraft — the art and practice of interpreting Tau-Tongue equations, you have the braid part of every tau-tongue equation representing the narrative breakdown of your input.
Using a special algorithm with a focus on numerical resonances, we take the Pythagorean cipher of the input text and using a combination of numerology and modulo maths, we curate a set of functions using your input as entropy to seed different action with each recursion until all of your input has been consumed by the act.
This results in functions like: ≽(8,5,3,6,9,8,5,5,3,4,9)
Which could be read as: A destined follow-through (≽) acting upon The Mechanist becoming The Catalyst becoming The Architect becoming The Empath becoming The Alchemist becoming The Mechanist becoming The Catalyst becoming The Catalyst becoming The Architect becoming The Oracle becoming The Alchemist
A sort of math-based poem in and of itself, that is.
That could be read many different ways. The way I interpret it might come out completely different from the way you interpret it. So this is the point I pull out my notepad and start making notes based on the meanings attached to each number in the braid function.
The outermost symbol is the operator, the outside influence acting upon the resonance — that number from the crucible, 11 in this example. Each number is the result of recursing through that operation. At first, the 11 acts in the vibration of the 8, the Mechanist, then the 5, the catalyst followed by the Architect (3), the Empath (6), so on and so forth.
When practicing Braidcraft, it is typical to map your braid’s functions to a story unit. If I were targeting a novella and looking at this equation, I might think, each function is a chapter, and then each number or parameter inside that function would be the main character’s vibe from beat to beat within that chapter.
So you have this story that’s sort of thematically centered on the main character’s evolution to becoming the embodiment of the energy of the Weaver of Fields, right? A new state of being.
And the first function is “a destined follow through”, so perhaps this person is already seated in a position of power. Like they were born, destined to be coronated some day or something. That infers that they may be royalty, or a prophetic messianic type character or something, right? And so, we recurse again. We say, what happens when that is the case, and this first scene in this first chapter is: ≽(8)
That’s the “conflict” we are to “solve for” in our endeavor here to begin crafting our narrative. The eight energy is that of Power, of systems working, gears turning, so I’m thinking we’d open with a coronation ceremony.
We were talking about a reluctant king. I think the Tau-Tongue equation is indicating we open at the end and do one of those flashback to the beginning type deals, treating this first chapter as prologue.
So we’ve got a coronation ≽(8), followed by a 5, the Catalyst. Man, nothing says a wrench in the gears of bureaucracy like an 8 followed by a 5. My mind thinks of someone crashing the coronation, providing said wrench in the gears.
But who? Well, we can look to the Tau-Tongue equation for that too. The next number. We could treat the next number as indicating the WHO is storming the coronation. That three energy, that Architect archetype, could be the despot from my input right? The Architect of the established system.
The next number in the braid is a six, representing the empath, this could represent an explosive confrontation resulting in a transformation to the system. Here’s why I say that — The next number in the braid is that six, followed by a nine, followed by an eight. The energy we opened with.
Next we have two more fives in a row followed by a three. So two big things would happen in this scene that change the architects position within the structure (4) resulting in an “alchemical change” (9).
That’s the entire first braid. If I were to sit and noodle on that for a moment my outline for the first chapter of this potential fictive would then be something like:
- Opening in a coronation ceremony of the main character, reluctantly accepting his new role as king/steward/ruler of a place.
- Someone interrupts the ceremony, it’s the former ruler, perhaps with what’s left of his guard.
- A confrontation between the two results in the people siding with the new ruler, destroying the despot emotionally as his last vestige of power, the recognition of the people evaporates before him.
- The ceremony is ordered to continue, and a new ruler is crowned (our main character)
- The despot orders his guards to attack. He’ll take the throne by force.
- The new ruler responds not with violence, but with something altogether unexpected. He uses the newfound powers of the throne to have the despot arrested, establishing a new structure. One with no tolerance for the likes of the old ruler.
- The system is changed.
And I got all that just from playing around thinking about what each of those numerological vibrations might mean in a specific context guided by my input statement and the inferred meaning from the Tau-Tongue symbolic calculus.
But Astral…That’s…not easy. That’s actually kind of involved. Complex even.
You’re right to say so, friend.
You know who’s really good at this kind of thing?
ChatGPT. Claude. Even small local models like Google’s Gemma3 and Qwen3? Really good at this kind of thing.
So I built you all a Tau-Tongue GPT!!!
Literally all you need to do is go to Tau-Tongue GPT here, and say something like:
“Hey, ask tau-tongue: ‘When a girl meets a man for pizza, and stays for the end of the world’, what kind of romantic fantasy ideas does Tau-tongue have for me?”
It’ll connect to my tau-tongue engine, generate an equation for you, then it will interpret the response! Simple as that.
Unlike black-box writing agents out there that just generate text for you, Tau-Tongue and GPT work together and show you exactly how meaning is constructed, making you a co-creator rather than just another person prompting fiction.
And the best part? It’s going to be with you from inception, to development, to even possibly helping you outline your actual beat sheets for writing.
I’ve used this technique to produce two novellas back to back in under a week. I have outlined over 80 different books using tau-tongue and an llm to write the outlines.
It’s pretty good for character generation too. I created 435 Archon character’s for my game’s universe in a week using Tau-Tongue, Bitcoin Blockchain Header data, and a local Gemma3 LLM.
Check that project out here: The Astral Assemblage’s Emergent Archon Index. One of them is the antagonist in my current fiction writing project!
This system shouldn’t work, probably. But it do.
Go. Write. Recurse. Do it again. Enjoy. Do it again. Recurse. Write. Go.