sica-fondt/docs/plans/B1-tarot-emulator.md

B1 — Cartomantic engine (the deck)

1. Component

An original Thoth-derived syncretic cartomantic engine — the drawable lattice whose outputs feed identity (B2, the Big-4 + SOUL.md), the metacog spread (B3, the Celtic Cross), and per-cycle affect-tuning lenses (A3/A4). The lattice is the deck: every symbol is a drawable card; there is no separate Thoth deck underneath. Silicon Dawn is dropped (copyright) — nothing here is encoded, transcribed, or copied from it or any published deck; this is its own system on the public structural scaffold of tarot/Thoth (archetypes, numerology, cross-cultural godforms).

2. Status / certainty

DESIGN-FIRST. Architecture C4 (settled this session); specific card content (the named 7s, the per-card synestries, the infinity-cap) C1 — to author. Supersedes the old "altered Silicon Dawn / 56-card" spec entirely.

3. Language & location

R for the emulator (deck data + draw machinery) — buildable/testable in this environment. NOT Ada (the Ada tarot is discarded). New location e.g. src/soul/deck/.

4. Does / does-not

• Does: hold the 169-card lattice as data; draw the Big-4 (B2), the Celtic Cross (B3), and migration-cycle affect lenses (A4); prune the pool by the Big-4; emit each card with its phase + its 7 synestries.
• Does-not: decide cognition (C2/B3 own the spread use) or hold the standing self (B2). It is the symbol source.

5. Architecture — the heptad lattice

169 cards = 133 (suits) + 21 (coherent-cringe) + 14 (axiom-axis) + 1 (center). Each card is dual-phase and carries 7 synestries. "Majority of motifs are ×7."

Two universal laws (every card)

• L-Phasality (the Coraline mirror). Every card has two phases. UPRIGHT = the real face — the true function, real substance, real cost. MIRRORED = the Coraline face — a seductive counterfeit that wears the upright's face but is hollow / parasitic / a trap (the wish granted with button eyes). It is not relief and not a gentle conjugate; it is the simulacrum that looks like fulfillment and costs you yourself. Math face: numerics start at −1, whose mirror is i ⇒ upright = the real axis, mirrored = the imaginary axis (the impossible that still rotates reality: i² = −1).
• L-Synestry. Every card resolves simultaneously across 7 domains, and meaning emerges at their interference: Physics · Chemistry · Computer Science · Philosophy · Omnimyth · Astrophysics · Calculus.

Card schema

card { region, suit?, name, rank?, phase: {upright | mirrored}, synestry: {7 domains}, body_tie? }

Suits (133) — the 7 fundamental forces

Gravity · Heat · Electromagnetism · Strong · Weak · Space · Time. Each suit = 19 cards = 14 pips + 5 courts.

• Courts (5): Knight · Queen · Prince · Princess · Divine (the god-face of the force).
• Pips (14): −1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (no 10 — the suit refuses clean base-10 closure; after 9 = saturation it spills into the unbounded), then three forms of infinity (OPEN — exploring, see §10).
• −1's Coraline mirror = i. The pip line is the real axis; its mirror is the imaginary axis.

Coherent-cringe (21) — the agential field

The Coraline mirror always degrades the gift into its predatory twin:

• 7 Jokers — reflective tricksters. Upright = humbling (true reflection). Mirrored = mocking (deceitful cruelty).
• 7 Keepers — guardians. Upright = protecting. Mirrored = stifling / controlling (a Keeper gone Coraline = the Other Mother).
• 7 Witnesses — the adjacent: innocents / bystanders, in proximity to events (neither actor nor direct target). Upright = innocent bystander. Mirrored = victim.

Axiom-axis (14) — the impersonal field

• 7 Laws / Flaws — merged via phasality: upright = the Law, mirrored (Coraline) = its Flaw. Draft pairings (redline freely): Conservation↔Drift · Causality↔Apophenia · Symmetry↔Counterfeit · Least-Action↔Foreclosure · Uncertainty↔Singularity · Recursion↔Overflow · Invariance↔Decoherence.
• 7 Constants (separate heptad) — the 7 SI defining constants: c · h · e · k · N_A · Δν_Cs · K_cd (reality is literally pinned to exactly seven).

Center (1) — The Spindle

The Mother / Other card; the one un-heptaded card everything orbits. It joins identity as the 4th anchor → the Big-4 (Sun · Ascendant · Moon · Mother/Other). Its Coraline twin is the Other Mother (the false self with button eyes).

Unifying read — the deck is a hologram of the body

Center = Soul (B2) · Suits/forces = metabolism/physics of the body (Drive-Box) · Axiom-axis = skeleton/invariants (E1 COBOL vaults) · Coherent-cringe = nervous + immune (G1 stress · D1 border · F2 monitor). The engine mirrors the architecture it lives inside.

6. Interface contract (draw machinery)

• draw_big4() -> {sun, asc, moon, mother_other} — order Sun→Asc→Moon→Mother/Other; static between reshuffles.
• prune(pool, big4) -> pool — remove the Big-4 from the drawable pool.
• draw_celtic_cross(pool) -> [10] — the B3 spread (geometry/iteration owned by B3).
• affect_lens(pool) -> {channel -> card} — migration-cycle interpretive lenses on A4 vectors.
• Each returned card carries {name, phase, synestry}; phase mechanic is hybrid — a draw yields a phase, but stress / spread-position can flip a real (upright) card into its Coraline (mirrored) face.

7. Dependencies & stubs

None upstream (a source). Consumers (B2 / B3 / A3-A4) integrate against the draw outputs — stub: fixed draws. The 7-domain synestry content and the named 7s are authored content (C1), stubbable as labels.

8. Invariants / laws

• L1 (C4): the lattice totals 169 = 133 + 21 + 14 + 1; "majority of motifs are ×7."
• L2 (C4 — phasality): every card is dual-phase; mirrored = the Coraline counterfeit, never relief; real axis ↔ imaginary axis, mirror(−1) = i.
• L3 (C4 — synestry): every card resolves across the 7 domains; meaning emerges at their interference.
• L4 (C4): the Big-4 are drawn once and static between reshuffles; the rest are the dynamic pool.
• L5 (C4): suits have no 10; pips run −1, 0, 1–9, then the three infinities.
• L6 (C4): the Coraline degrades the gift to its predatory twin (humbling→mocking, protecting→ controlling, innocent→victim, Law→Flaw).

9. Tests

• Count test: lattice = 169 (133 + 21 + 14 + 1); each suit = 19 (14 pips + 5 courts); no rank "10".
• Phasality: every card has both phases; mirror(−1) resolves to i.
• Allocation: Big-4 static + remainder dynamic; prune removes the Big-4 from the pool.
• Draw determinism vs a seeded pool; coherent-cringe = 21, axiom-axis = 14.

10. Open items (content to author — C1)

• The three forms of infinity that cap each suit (after 9). Exploring — candidates: (a) ℵ₀ (countable) · 𝔠 (continuum) · Ω (Absolute — pairs with the Divine court); (b) Potential · Actual · Singularity (process / completed / breakdown); (c) a playful lettered cap (A/B/C/D…). Anja to settle.
• Name the specific 7 Jokers · 7 Keepers · 7 Witnesses.
• The 7 Laws/Flaws pairings (draft above) — confirm/rename.
• Per-card synestries across the 7 domains (authored over time; the engine's whole premise).
• Court rules (e.g. Princess/Prince elemental relations); how the Divine court reads.
• The Spindle / Other-Mother card text; how the 4th anchor renders into SOUL.md (B2).