The Starward Passage
THE STORYWEAVING
A Constellation Rising through the Octomantic Seas
Most voyages begin with a destination.
This one begins with a star.
Guided by the Star, the Arcana that pours the waters of inspiration, we set sail with a constellation of 17 through the Octomantic Seas (C’s).
Together we enter an adventure of transformation, inspiration, re-alignment and magical acceleration.
The Pippilotta is a level-up pressure cooker for people who already know how to play at the Game of Life and feel ready to turn up the intensity: to explore their depths, widen their horizon, recalibrate their course, rekindle their spark, fan the flames, and become bolder in inventing the life they actually want to live.
We will move through the territories of body, emotion, mind, relationship, playfulness, magick, mystery and the unknown. We will quest, experiment, make things, break things, test maps, ride dragons, roam dungeons and follow wyrd currents wherever they may lead.
So worry not: if transformation and inspiration are what you seek aboard, you will get good bang for your buck…there be plenty of treasure to be found on this expedition though some of it may be guarded by annoying Gremlins with opinions.
However, this will be more than an classic ORMEC voyage for personal and collective transformation.
This is also R&D.
We are researching what happens when deep inner work, ritual, play, myth, embodied experience, storyliving and active imagination are combined with collective experimentation, and what becomes possible when a Crew of very different humans throws their skills, weirdness and intelligence into the same cauldron and agrees to stir.
Throughout the Voyage we will participate in the Development of the MythOS Game-World itself: weaving stories, discovering new places on the maps and testing the first structures from which a larger game might emerge.
The Pippilotta becomes both vessel and laboratory.
A container of permission for authentic self expression and creative play.
In the spirit of Pippi herself, we get to find out what gets unleashed when the inner adult supervisor is left at the harbor with the baggage.
The Star reminds us that inspiration is not meant to be carried by a single node. It pours from the cosmic cloud through whoever has tuned their antenna to the strange signal, and hopefully ends up irrigating a field from which something new, beautiful and useful may grow.
So we follow the live signal and raise the sails.
And somewhere between the dragon currents we ride, the dungeons we roam, and whatever weird side quest nobody planned for, a new constellation might just begin to appear.
Among us, not above us.
A Crew capable of incubating a world.
THE SHIP
The Pippilotta is the Flagship of the TACOS Fleet.
She carries the lineage of Pippi Longstocking in her name: radically self-authorized, suspicious of unnecessary adult supervision, and quite happy to make the world a little more according to her own strange design.
She is no pristine vessel fresh from the shipyard.
She has travelled.
She has been weathered.
She has changed shape many times along the way.
She has sailed eight times around the Eight C’s and has returned from a ninth journey through the undercurrents, re-emerging from the Underworld transformed.
She carries in her timbers the magick wielded and woven by the crew through all those voyages.
Her decks echo with the stories, rituals, laughter, storms and collapses; the strange encounters, love stories and heartbreaks; the discoveries and impossible moments of more than a hundred adventurers who have traveled aboard her before.
There are places aboard where old stories still seem to linger in the woodwork, where the atmosphere feels slightly thicker, where one might catch an echo from a past Crew or feel that something has happened here before.
This is part of her magick.
Every Crew leaves something behind.
Every voyage adds another layer to the vessel.
You will notice when you board that she vibrates in her own freak-quency.
Now, her hull recently fortified by an act of love she lies docked, made ready for another passage exploring the weird seas. Once again, the Pippilotta prepares to sail.
This time under the Star XVII.
THE CREW
For this Voyage we call in a constellation of 17.
The Captain and Quartermaster already stand on Deck as an aligned tandem of seasoned magicians and psyche-navigators.
That leaves 15 spots aboard the Pippilotta for the constellation to complete.
We are looking for different-minded folks who feel drawn not only to voyage through the Octomantic Seas seeking inspiration and transformation , but to bring something of their own into the world emerging around us.
Game designers curious what happens when the game spills out of the screen and into lived reality.
Storytellers catching myths while they are still weird little fragments looking for a plot.
Artists and digital creators who can bring places alive that currently exist mostly as scribbles on maps.
Facilitators, coaches and navigators who know how to accompany humans through unfamiliar Territory.
Coders, hackers and technomancers curious about the relationships that can emerge between humans, A.I. companions and living mythological systems.
Witches, mages and psychonauts carrying rituals, symbols, strange technologies and enough model agnosticism to play seriously without mistaking any map for the Territory.
Experienced Chaos Monks and returning Crew carrying memories of previous voyages in their bones and can help newcomers find their sea legs.
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And Patrons who recognize something worth nourishing here and want to pour resources into the constellation so others can voyage further.
We are not assembling matching stars.
A constellation gets interesting because they are different.
You may come aboard because you are hungry for change, because your inner compass wants recalibrating, because your spark needs more oxygen, or because you are ready to play the Game of your life with a little more boldness. You may already hear the call toward worldbuilding and the future Incubator. Or you may be carrying some peculiar skill none of us yet realizes the Crew needs.
If something in this summons feels suspiciously familiar, pay attention.
We have been conjuring in the cauldron.
The Pippilotta may already be calling.
THE CAPTAIN
In this story, I am known as Captain M_Continuum, previously sailing under the more public name Captain Mavis.
I will be at the helm of the Pippilotta, while also keeping an eye on the wider expedition as Admiral of the Fleet.
I am the eccentric creator of these wyrd ORMEC journeys and the Map-Maker of the Octomantic Territories. For five years I have taken unconventional humans, edge-dwellers and cosmic pirates on deep-dive explorations through the high-strangeness regions of consciousness, magick and transformation.
The Octomantic Compass we navigate by grew out of my own attempts to navigate some wildly irrational passages of life, including times when the old reality stopped making sense and I had to draw new maps while still wandering through the Territory.
As Captain, I seem to have an uncanny knack for pulling the red threads out of the stories people bring onto Deck and reflecting back, with sometimes slightly annoying precision, what I see moving underneath them.
I notice the places where a story carries more charge than it first appears to, where a Gremlin is guarding something precious, where someone is already telling themselves something important without quite hearing it yet.
And I tend to create a field where people feel permission to become more unapologetically themselves. Less performing the person they think they should be, more making room for the strange, brilliant, unruly and deeply alive creature already there.
I will challenge you, probably ask some inconvenient questions, and occasionally point toward the dragon you are ready to ride. But I am not interested in telling you who you should become.
For a while now I have also been carrying the vision for this wild emerging MythOS gameworld. And one of the things I am learning is that it has become way bigger than what I can carry alone.
So part of my own voyage is learning to stop carrying the whole freaking thing on my shoulders and call in the Crew who can hold parts of the field, reshape parts of the vision and take it places I could never take it alone.
Aboard this passage, I will be guiding us through the Octomantic C’s with compassion, care and courage, through myth, magick and mischief.
And I will be keeping an eye out for the Crew that might help this Game-World emerge.
THE QUARTERMASTER
May call me nemo, Quartermaster aboard the Pippilotta.
Thrice I have sailed beside the Captain through on the eight Cs, through passages where the old maps stopped working and the vessel had to find a new way through.
What I bring to the Deck is a sensitivity for what is alive in the Crew and the Pippilotta.
Two decades of tending to people and stewarding ensembles in the performing arts, I have learned to listen for what moves beneath the words, to notice the weather in the field, and to care for the mammals inside the adventure as much as for the adventure itself.
I have come with a large heart for the Crews I serve and vow to bring the deepest respect for the path and pace each person needs to unfold their narrative.
I am a wordsmith, storyteller and symbolist. I love seeking out the right words or signs for the things that are difficult to name, catching fragments of experience before they disappear again, and helping weave them into stories that can be carried further.
On this voyage, I will also be taking on another kind of stewardship for the fleet as Quartermaster of Ethics and Development: Stewardship and Coin.
Part of my role will be figuring out how Coin moves through the fleet and MythOS without disappearing into leaky structures, and how we can make sure resources feed the people and tend to the projects doing the work.
I know something about staying with a Crew when the waters get strange. I know something about holding course without pretending to control the sea.
And I know that good vessels are built not only from wood, rope and plans, but from trust, attention, story and the ways we choose to care for one another.
That is the kind of Quartermaster I intend to be aboard this passage.
THE COIN
There are different ways to secure a berth on the Pippilotta.
Not everybody comes carrying the same amount of Coin, the same needs, or the same intention for the Voyage. Some come for the depth of their own journey, some come with skills and experience to contribute, some already carry memories of previous passages, and some feel called to nourish the larger field from which the MythOS can emerge.
For the Starward Passage we open four ways aboard.
THE MONK · €555
For returning Chaos Monks and people who are already woven into the field through previous voyages, collaborations or contributions to the Game.
The Monks bring continuity to the vessel. They know something of the Maps, the practices and the particular freak-quency of these journeys, and help the new Crew find its sea legs.
Your Passage includes:
- The full Starward Passage Octomantic journey through the Eight Seas
- Access to all Crew gatherings, Quests-Scrolls, Octomantic Maps, rituals and MythOS spaces connected to the Voyage
- Evergreen Access to “The Balanced Psychonautics Quest” Learning Material”
- Participation in the R&D and worldbuilding emerging aboard the Pippilotta
Monk passages may also be open to Barter, depending on what somebody brings to the Voyage and what the vessel currently needs.
THE MASTER · €1,723
For voyagers who want to travel deeply into the territories of themselves while also bringing some craft, experience or peculiar form of intelligence into the constellation.
We are especially calling in game designers, storytellers, artists, facilitators, navigators, coders, technomancers, witches, mages and other interdisciplinary creatures who might become collaborators in the emerging MythOS.
Your Passage includes:
- Everything included in the full three-month Starward Monk Passage
- 5 individual navigation sessions with either Captain or Quartermaster
- Space to explore how your own skills, interests and weirdness might connect with the emerging MythOS
- Participation in collaborative experiments and worldbuilding during the Voyage
Master passages may also be partially balanced through Barter, where your skills, labour or contribution to the emerging world can become part of the exchange.
THE MAGICIAN · €2,323
The full-service Passage.
For those who want to use the Starward Journey as a deep dive into their own Octomantic Territory and receive more individual guidance while travelling with the Crew.
The Magician enters the laboratory with the intent of deep transformation in several dimensions of their life.
Your Passage includes:
- Everything included in the full three-month Starward Monk and Master Passage
- 8 individual navigation sessions, offering one point of personal support for each of the Eight Seas
- A deep-dive interview or personal initiation ritual with Captain and/or Quartermaster
- More individual voice message support for integrating what emerges during the Voyage
- The possibility to explore your own Octomantic map, patterns, resources and developmental edges in greater depth
- A printed set of the Octomantic Maps
This is the Passage for those who want the fullest personal journey we currently offer aboard the Pippilotta.
THE PATRON · €5,555
For those who feel called not only to travel, but to help irrigate the field from which the MythOS Incubator can emerge.
The Star pours what she receives back into the waters and soil. Our Patrons do something similar.
They receive the full Magician Passage while also contributing resources that can nourish other Crew members, support the R&D and give the emerging MythOS more room to grow.
Your Passage includes:
- Everything in the Magician package
- An additional pool of 3 coaching or navigation sessions, which you may use yourself, gift to somebody aboard, or donate into a Crew support pool
- A private MythOS Patron Salon / R&D briefing with Captain and Quartermaster and the rest of the core MythOS crew during the Voyage
- Early access to selected MythOS prototypes, maps, quests, experiments and gameworld developments
- A numbered mythopoetic Patron package containing artefacts from the MythOS world.
- Recognition as a Founding Patron of the Starward Passage / MythOS Incubator, if you wish to be named
- An invitation into future Patron and Steward conversations around the evolving MythOS
- The possibility to help subsidize a Master and a Monk place aboard for a valuable Crew member whose Coin reserves are smaller than their contribution to the constellation
The Patron Passage is for those who look at the emerging world and think:
I want to be part of this, and I want to help make more of it possible.
Coin gets you aboard.
Everyone puts some skin in the Game.
What interests us more is what happens when seventeen peculiar humans begin bringing their different resources, stories, skills, questions and forms of intelligence into the same constellation.
The Starward Passage has room for many kinds of wealth
THE CHARTERED COURSE
The Pippilotta will travel through all Eight Octomantic Seas.
During the first part of the Voyage, we explore the territories of our personal psychology and the survival strategies our Central Nervous System has developed throughout life to create the Order of our standard operations.
We begin close to shore, with the needs that keep the human vessel functioning: safety and bio-survival, emotional sovereignty, mental sanity and sensemaking, belonging, relationship and purpose.
We will look at how our systems learned to meet these needs, where those strategies still serve us, and where old patterns might now be creating the very storms we keep sailing into.
Across these waters we experiment with Bio-Survivaland Red Magick, Emotional Sovereignty and Yellow Magick, Map-and Sensemaking and Orange Magick, and Social Navigation and Green Magick, seeking increased physical, emotional, symbolic and social intelligence along the way.
Here be Gremlins, old maps, territorial disputes, inherited scripts and the occasional dungeon we somehow keep falling into.
By the time we leave these waters, we aim to have built beneath us a sturdier deck and dropped stronger anchors beneath us before sailing toward the stranger currents of altered states and transpersonal experience.
But before we head into these odd waters, we take some time by calmer shores for integration.
From there, we cross into the side of Disorder.
The second part of the Passage takes us through Somatic Hedonism and Blue Magick, Neuro-Hacking and Purple Magick, Network Intelligence and Octarine Magick, and finally the Black waters of Dreamland, Impermanence and Radical Transformation.
Here we play with ritual technology, altered states and experiences of Ecstasy, Uncertainty, Unity and Impermanence, exploring how intentional shocks can loosen old configurations and open windows for something new to emerge.
We use these moments of increased flexibility to experiment with recalibrating the programming of our nervous systems toward new levels of functional balance in the Chaos.
This part of the journey may get stormy.
There will be Quests.
There will be rituals.
There will be experiments that make considerably more sense after doing them than before.
And there will probably be a few detours into waters that were not on the chart.
Possible side effects include sparks of playfulness, irreverence and zest for life, increased charisma, strange new maps, unexpected friendships and a steadily decreasing ability to take yourself quite as seriously as before.
THE LOGISTICS
WHEN & WHERE
The Pippilotta sets sail on September 20th and returns on December 20th after three months across the Octomantic Seas.
Our main Monastic Mastermind gathers every Sunday from 19:00–22:00 CET on Zoom. Attendance is required, as this is where the Crew comes together to navigate the course, exchange treasures from the Territory, create shared Ritual, and hold the shared field of the Voyage. These calls may be recorded if the Crew collectively votes for it.
On Wednesdays we open the Forum from 20:00–22:00 CET (on proton meet), an additional voluntary Crew gathering for whatever needs more space, conversation, reflection or integration. These calls will not be recorded, so there is room for more private sharing.
LIFE ABOARD
Between calls, the Crew has its own dedicated communication space aboard our Discord Server.
You will also have access to shared spaces where you can mingle with other TACOS Crews and previous travellers who have already ventured these waters.
How social you want to be on Deck between gatherings is largely up to you. Some sailors like to hang around the tavern every evening, others emerge from their cabins mainly when the bell rings.
We are also planning one or two special in-person gatherings in Berlin for local Crew and travellers who happen to pass through these waters.
This is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Quest, so how deeply you venture into the Quests, how far you dive into the maps and video material, and how much time you spend exploring the Territory is ultimately up to you. As with most treasure hunts, the more attention, curiosity and time you invest in the expedition, the more inner treasure you are likely to bring back.
PERSONAL NAVIGATION
Individual 90-minute navigation sessions can be booked flexibly with either the Captain or Quartermaster, depending on your Passage.
These sessions give us room to look more closely at whatever is emerging in your personal Territory, untangle particularly stubborn knots, consult the maps and/or Tarot Decks or simply figure out what the hell is happening when the waters get strange.
COIN & BOARDING
To apply for the Starward Passage, book an Onboarding Parley with the Captain.
If we decide that this Voyage is a good fit for both sides, you will receive the payment details and boarding instructions by email.
Payment can be made in instalments until the end of the Voyage.
Master and Monk Passages may include Barter, but all barter agreements need to be negotiated and agreed upon with Captain and Quartermaster before departure.
THE FINE PRINT FOR CONSCIOUSNESS PIRATES
Partial refunds may be possible until one week before departure, if you get cold feet or have some good reason not to board.
Once we lift anchor, there are no refunds, and offboarding is only possible under special circumstances.
Think of it a little like a psychedelic journey: once you take the ticket, there is some commitment to staying with the ride and seeing what unfolds. Emergency exits exist for situations where continuing genuinely becomes untenable, but jumping overboard every time the waters get uncomfortable rather defeats the purpose of an expedition.
What happens on the ship stays on the ship.
You are always free to share your own experience and your own stories from the Voyage. The personal stories, processes and disclosures of other Crew members remain aboard unless they explicitly give permission for them to travel elsewhere.
The Starward Passage is also an R&D expedition for the development of MythOS. Along the way we may create stories, mechanics, quests, concepts, places, rituals and other strange artefacts together.
We intend for these shared creations to contribute to a living creative commons, while finding ways for the Commons to nourish the creators who contribute to it in return.
More detailed agreements around collaborative creations, attribution and licensing will be made transparent before we lift anchor.