NAME AND STRUCTURE
Kan is a pit. It can also be interpreted as falling. Wilhelm translates Kan as Abysmal
and Blofeld as Abyss. In this book the word Darkness is used. The ancient ideograph selected for this gua is a very old and beautiful form. The left half of the ideograph is a symbol for Earth. The right half is made up of two parts. The upper portion depicts a person standing on one foot with the other foot off the ground, which indicates that the person is falling. Directly underneath one foot, there is a vertical line symbolizing a falling movement. The lower portion of the ideograph looks like a pit. We have here the image of someone falling into a pit. The meaning of Kan is twofold, either a pit or falling. In the later version of the ideograph, it should be noted, the picture of the pit was left out.
The central theme of this gua is: falling but not drowned; in danger but not lost.
Maintain your confidence: soothe your mind. With assurance and faith, caution and trust, you can pass through any difficult situation. Both Abysmal and Abyss carry the sense of being bottomless. Kan is a pit, but it is not bottomless. There is hope.
Kan is made up of two primary gua, Water above and Water below. In ancient
times, the Chinese lived inland; they were not a seafaring people. For this reason, Water was associated with difficulty or danger. According to the system of the five elements, the color of Water is blue-black. There is no light in a pit. Thus, the meaning of Kan can also be interpreted as falling into darkness. In the I Ching, yin lines of a gua alternating to yang lines, or vice versa, are called inverse. The inverted form of this gua is Li, meaning “attaching to brightness.”
According to Fu Xi’s arrangement of the eight primary gua, Qian stands for Heaven, Kun for earth, Li for sun, and Kan for moon. Besides Heaven and Earth, sun and moon were the two most important symbols to the ancient Chinese. The sun and moon up in the sky were the first two natural objects they noticed to display the principle of yin and yang. The ancients recognized that the sun was the source of heat and light. They named the sun tai yang, which means the most yang or the hottest, the brightest. They also perceived that the moon itself had neither heat nor light; its light was merely the reflection of the sun. They named the moon tai yin, which means the most yin or the coldest, the darkest. From the waxing and waning of the moon derived the principle of change and also that of the continuity of change—the two principles that are the basis of the I Ching. Heaven and earth, sun and moon were the four deities that the ancient Chinese revered the most. Heaven and earth, respectively, represent the pure yang and the pure yin. Sun and moon represent yin within yang and yang within yin, respectively.
The ancients named these four gua as the symbols of the four cardinal directions—Qian for south, Kun for north, Li for east, and Kan for west. Qian, Kun, Li, and Kan were the most significant gua in the I Ching; therefore, Qian and Kun were placed at the beginningof the Upper Canon and Kan and Li at the end. [Alfred Huang The Complete I Ching]
I hope to review a few Readings during this end of year period and see how they sit a year or more after the fact, and what improvements could be made to them with the benefit of hindsight. Might be interesting. Here is another one based on current events: news reports say that about 70% of North Gaza infrastructure is unusable, all the hospitals and schools have been bombed, and about 75% of the population is now displaced. They are being herded into South Gaza which is now being bombed. At the same time, Israeli troops are reported to have retreated from many areas in North Gaza because of stiff tunnel-sourced resistance by Hamas fighters, who pop up, hit a tank with a hand-held missile launcher, and disappear back down. The purported mission is described as an attempt to eradicate Hamas from the Gazan civilian population, though the actual mission seems to be to force Palestinians, most of whom are the descendants of displaced refugees from campaigns in the 1940’s and 1970’s, to move out of Gaza, perhaps to new refugee camps in tents in the Sinai Desert or to other nations in the world who are now accustomed to accepting millions of displaced persons from all over the world but especially those displaced by Middle East turmoil, most of which has been stirred up by Israel’s expansionist bent backed by American diplomatic, economic and military might.
So here we are. The question is: will the Palestinians be forced to leave Gaza?
The reading in the document below, as is so often the case, is interesting in how text written several thousand years ago can apply to current events. Several clear messages seem to emerge from this arcane language of solid and broken lines arranged into bundles of six. Past Influence is the same Hexagram #53 Gradual Progress as in a recent throw entitled ‘2023-10-13 Achieving Peace in Israel-Palestine 53-5 > 52 < 64’. I call it ‘Temple on the Mount’ though because the Hexagram comprises Mountain below and Wood above. Wood sometimes represents a tree, sometimes a boat, but it could also here represent the Arc or the Temple, something high up on a mountain top visible to all, influencing all. Wind-Wood has to do with spreading, growing and influencing. So this is the background context of the struggle, something religious, on the idea-level. This is clearly the case. Also, the coincidence of this one having #53 in the Past whereas the previous one had the same hexagram as the Primary gives one the sense that we are onto something here, there is some sort of auspicious coincidence in the mix.
Similarly clear is the current situation, namely Hexagram #29, both lower and upper trigrams unbalanced, depicting an Abyss, a trap, a pit – perhaps the most challenging hexagram of all sixty four, though also one of Hessey’s Ruling Hexagrams. Well, all that is fitting for the beleaguered in Gaza, often called the world’s largest open-air prison, a little like Manhattan in the Escape from New York movie starring Kurt Russell back in the 1980’s. This is a clear statement.
Next, ‘Future Influence’ is #18 often translated on ‘Work on what has been Spoiled’. One old image for this is a covered bowl containing five of the most poisonous creatures fighting it out; the one who wins has the strongest poison of all which, like all deadly poisons, can be used as medicine or, in order to counteract such poison, effective medicine must be found and administered. Another way of putting this is that every obstacle provides a path to its solution; similarly, the current terrible circumstances in Palestine demand being remedied. As of now, the current regional and geopolitical configuration has prevented any such remedy being found for about a century now and counting; perhaps the extreme nature of the current campaign against a crowded civilian population will spur developments such that, finally, a remedy can be found. Also of note: with Past Influence being #53 The Temple on the Mount and Future Influence being #18 Rectifying, there is a sense that the over-arching Biblical/eschatological fundamentalist context of this entire debacle is the source of the #29 Darkness and #18 Toxicity; a way must be found to abandon what is creating this disaster. Interestingly, if the top two Heaven lines of Past Influence’s #53 are swapped with the bottom two Earth lines, this creates #11 Peace, with Heaven below and Earth above. This is another indication that the leadership in the situation needs to change, that the time of Israel and the West calling the shots in the Middle East region should be over and the roles reversed. Israel is a guest in the Region, not the colonial Master. This also is a clear statement fitting the situation well.
And the next clear statement hinting perhaps at the conclusion of this dynamic is #11 Peace, with trigram Heaven below and trigram Earth above. Masculine-Yang is forceful and rises and Feminine-Ying yields and descends, making the two dynamics meet together (rather then going their different ways in Hexagram #12, Stagnation). So there is a positive sense of interpenetration bound to happen; sometimes this hexagram denotes intercourse, a positive mingling of self and other, male and female, us and them. It is one of the more positive hexagrams even though its own Nuclear, formed by the two trigrams which can be pulled from the inner four lines (2,3,4 & 3,4,5) is #54 which involves inappropriate relations between male and female, superior and inferior etc.
The last clear sign comes from this Cast’s Nuclear trigram #27, often translated as Mouth or Nourishment, but also denoting cultivation of character, which is knowing what to accept or develop and what to reject or eschew. But here I see a very simple visual sign: the two yang lines in #29 which were in the 2nd and 5th place ䷜ each move to the periphery, namely to the 1st and 6th places ䷚, essentially moving apart. The two sides need to distance themselves from each other somehow. The Israelis bombing and entering Gaza is counter to this dynamic; it creates the Abyss, the Pit, the bloody trap situation of #29.
The Yi doesn’t seem to clearly answer the question: ‘will they have to leave Gaza?’ except in one possible interpretation of a fringe Heaven Earth and Man method which changes from unbalanced Mountain – being stopped or blocked – changing to Wood-Wind – ease, movement or dispersal; the latter might be effected by leaving Gaza. However, there is an overall dynamic described with a path forward. At the core is separating the two sides – the Nuclear #27, which also will involve discriminating both the rights and wrongs in the situation. The path is to address the toxicity causing so much harm and death such that the two sides, fully separated with three yang lines below and three yin lines above, each have their own place. The bottom – Palestinians – need more leadership, or authority (coincidentally their governance structure in the West Bank is called the Palestinian Authority). The top – Israelis – need more gentleness and feminine nurturing; they must find a way to soften and yield in order to enjoy harmonious relations and accept that those on the land have precedence and must be respected.
As always, time will tell.
baronbrasdor.art 