The ideograph of the first character, tong, consists of three parts. The first part looks like an upright rectangle without the bottom line, symbolizing a door frame or a house. Within the house, there is a single horizontal stroke representing the number one. Underneath this is a little square symbolizing a mouth. In ancient China, people were counted by mouths. For instance, if someone wanted to know how many people there were in your family, they would ask “How many mouths are there in your family?” The three parts of the ideograph come together to depict a group of people gathered together as a single unit. Here, the mouth indicates that they are thinking or speaking as one. The Chinese can feel the harmony in the group. The ideograph of the second character, ren, suggests a person standing.
In yesterday’s Cast, I mentioned that would do an additional one querying the nature of the WEF given that they seem to get on very well with many of the Russia-China axis nations supposedly in conflict with the West. The result seems fairly clear: the entire ideology and leadership structure of the WEF is highly problematic and needs to change to its opposite, a people-friendly, cooperative approach. That might not make them evil, but it certainly indicates they are not a force for good.
Perhaps another question to ask is whether or not the push towards multipolarity – now well underway and seemingly unstoppable – is a sincere one, i.e. do they mean what they say or is this a ploy for centralized world governance whilst saying something quite different. If, for example, the multipolarity gambit is deceptive, then it might well align with the WEF, although the Yi here indicates that the current organization is going to go through radical change essentially replacing its ideology and leadership.
There are two ideographs constituting the name of the gua. The first ideograph, da, represents “great.” It is an image of a person standing upright with arms and legs wide open, showing his greatness. The second ideograph consists of two parts. Three curved strokes at the top left symbolize three footprints going forward. Underneath the footprints is the ideograph zhi, which means stop. On the right side is the ideograph guo; its function is to provide the sound of the character. It looks like a cross-section of the side view of a house. There are two pillars on each side and a beam sitting on the pillars. Underneath the beam is a tiny square representing a mouth, which was metonymical for people in ancient China, just as we say “many mouths to feed” in English. Placing the person underneath the beam and between the pillars suggests that the structure is a house. Above the beam is an extrastructure which gives the beam an extra load, symbolizing excess. In this gua, the solid line at the second place and the solid line at the fifth place are central. The inner gua is Wind. Here, Wind represents “smooth,” for example, sailing with a smooth wind. The outer gua is Lake (Happy). Sailing with a favorable wind makes people happy. It is possible to obtain support and help and to advance smoothly without obstruction. Thus the Decision says that it is favorable to advance; there will be success.
I confess to having a niggle when regarding geopolitics these days. Here goes: on the one hand it seems clear that, whether for good or bad reasons, the Rest of the World (RoW) has had it up to here with overly hegemonic US/Western Axis dominance and so they have been pushing the idea of a multipolar world for some time and the symbiotic alliance between the world’s largest industrial nation with the world’s largest natural resource nation has been fashioned in no small part to effect this vision.
Fine.
But:
It seems to me that all sides are busy studying CBDC’s, social credit and suchlike so that although they are quarreling about some things, on others – principally a world financial system – they are on the same or a very similar page. This makes me suspicious. What if the WEF agenda is also being followed by those in the Russia-China axis? What if the Reset story, though never told in any helpful level of detailed specifics, is more or less real – that at some point we will have a different world political and economical gestalt?
So the niggle is this: are the two sides in the SMO in Ukraine really at odds with each other – as assuredly seems to be the case – or is this part of an elaborate operation to displace one type of system and major players with another, and to do so they felt it necessary to trash the world economy for while, presumably to be able to step in and make an offer that (especially the developed world populations) will not be in any position to refuse?
Put very simply: are the WEF, China, Russia and the Biden Administration (and more) all on the same page?
That’s the niggle. So that was the Query. The answer seems to be: #28 Excess of the Great indicates that things cannot keep going the way there are but there is plenty of good potential in the mix such that moving forward from here can be a great thing. #29 shows a bipolar situation, symmetrical, balanced. Visually it is clear. In the first hexagram is a fat bunch of four yang lines all together, literally a bundle, or fasces – a fascist structure. #29 shows a bipolar situation with yang lines surrounded by yin lines, one in the central 2nd position and the other in the central 5th position. Two poles, ie multi-polar. Meanwhile Nuclear #1 shows that this is all one overall realm we are dealing with. The Nuclear of 29 is 27 and the nuclear of 27 is #2. So this process underway might lead to #1 on the left and #2 on the right, a perfect marriage of Yang and Yin.
#29, comprising two Water trigrams, indicates Darkness, Hard Work, Danger. This is where we are with various factions jostling for support or freedom from domination. It’s not like the conflict and deaths inflicted is not real. But this Reading does seem to suggest that it is a part of a process that will both separate certain things as well as bring them together. Put another way, this is a classic One is Many, Many is One situation: the Multipolar world order involves creating Many Different civilizations as part of One Whole. It is an alternative to make many different civilizations into one single master civilization. In a way, this is no more than a somewhat intriguing philosophical niggle. But it is on such niggles that huge events can turn. And #28 sure enough indicates that these are Very Important Times dealing with #1 fundamental dynamics involving both the first and the last pair of hexagrams in the Upper Canon.
Of 29 Alfred Huang writes:
Darkness represents not only a pit but also a situation of difficulty or danger. The structure of this gua is a doubling of the primary gua, Water. The image of Water is a yang line plunging between two yin lines, like running water flowing along and between the banks of a river. In ancient times, crossing a river represented a great danger. Thus, the attribute of Water was designated a situation of difficulty or danger. Here, Water is doubled, suggesting that one is plunging into a situation fraught with difficulties or danger. However, the ancient Chinese believed that no matter how dangerous or dark a situation was, if one was able to follow the way of Heaven, one could pass through it as safely as water passes through a ravine.
We shall see. It seems that China IS working with WEF which has a One Globalist World vision but also working to separate from the clutches of the Hegemon. So this still makes me nervous. But the latter task is such a game-changer that maybe we shouldn’t worry too much about it and take a ‘sufficient unto the day is the Evil thereof’ approach.
So I find myself a tad unsatisfied by this Reading, not feeling that the Query is answered. Maybe it needs more time to marinate, or maybe events need to unfold further until a direction one way or the other begins to emerge…
An additional take came to mind after writing the above document namely that the #1 Nuclear represents both great power and potential but also extreme fascism still evident in its offspring #28, the main Hexagram of the Cast. And the Russia-China axis is effecting a shift from all yang in #1 to only two yang in #29 – an ideal balance with each in a central position in both upper and lower trigrams. In which case, WEF may end up being the tip of the spear for the new world order in the West, but meanwhile there will be many other zones with their own spears, their own ways of doing things, albeit cooperating together in the manner well exemplified by the Belt & Road initiative which picks up where many previous one world visions left off, such as during Charlemagne and then later 19th Century Russian plans, inspired by the advances made in the promising new Republic in the Americas, whose vision featured many maps showing railway lines joining New York on the East Coast to Beijing, Moscow and Berlin by a long bridge over the Bering Strait, just like China’s current Belt and Road plans. What this interpretation implies is that Russia-China are headed towards multipolarity. If WEF can be part of that, fine, but if it goes hegemonic that will not be allowed. For #29 indicates that on a deep and sincere level multipolarity is the goal and will most likely ensue as the struggles in Lines 3 and 4, which have to do with alliances, are gradually resolved.
I will do another Cast on the WEF to see if the Yi can reveal more as to their nature and likely prospects…
40 Liberation > 64 Before Fruition < 63 After Fruition
This is an Event Yi using the time of the event (in local London Time) to determine the Hexagram and Changing lines. In this case, they feel quite appropriate. Some sense of Relief after a long wait, or overall Liberation leading to a sense of completion, though it’s not quite over yet (one would hope not having just been crowned), with final completion being in the mix as the Nuclear, perhaps indicating a not very long reign or that, having fulfilled his life’s destiny, he can now enjoy a well-earned sense of fruition, hopefully with plenty of wisdom which comes from age and maturity in the mix so that his reign is a wise and kind one. The changing line seems quite apropos:
The prince shoots at a hawk on a high wall. He kills it. Everything serves to further.
Note: it was raining throughout the ceremony, but without Thunder. The Thunder principle was in the Sacred Space / Ceremony / Heaven of the event, crowning a Royal Ruler, even if only symbolically. Symbols, like mind, are more powerful than matter or the body so even though the British Monarch wields no official temporal power, they occupy a place in the hearts and minds of their subject that no other people or institutions come even close to matching, let alone replacing.
The ideograph illustrates the original meaning, to set apart. At the top of the ideograph there are two horizontal lines crossed by two vertical lines. The two horizontal lines and the vertical line on the right represent an object. The vertical line in the middle represents an act of separation. Underneath the central vertical line is the ideograph of a hand, shou, with three fingers and an arm. The hand is holding something—exactly what we no longer know—to set it apart. It can be interpreted as either to set apart good from evil or to set apart resolution from hesitation. In this gua, a yin element is set apart (eliminated) by five yang elements. The structure of the gua is Lake above, Heaven below. When water on the ground has risen up to Heaven and accumulated as a lake of cloud in the sky, surely there will be a cloudburst. This gua signifies the rupture of an accumulation of tension in human society, like a river bursting over its banks. It is time for the righteous to eliminate the inferior forces and their influences through an act of resolution. There are five solid lines, representing the just, under a yielding line. Their influences are blending together and growing stronger. As a result, they take resolute actions to eliminate negative forces.
Continuing the geopolitical Yi series, this one features Donald J Trump, a larger-than-life figure in the US political theater. The results of the throw are surprisingly apropos although I cannot see a clear unequivocal result, more like the main facets in play. Which do come through clearly. Simply put: he has a mission to proclaim to the Court of the King, which in a Republic is the People, that corruption exists and must be expelled from the Body Politic. He has already been doing this, far more than any other political leader in living memory, but rarely spells things out. Hexagram 43 urges him to do so, to use speech as a substitute for conflict or civil strife and to fully eradicate the corrupt elements.
Of course, this is an almost impossible mission. In the Reading, the lower changing line indicates ongoing attacks which will continue to prove ineffective. However, the Line 4 Changing Line is worrisome, both for Trump and the nation, for it indicates they will greatly hamper his ability to walk, flaying the skin from his thighs, a very harsh image; further, he will not listen to advisors counselling a different approach. Will the Deep State once again hobble him as they clearly did during his first term?
The Derived Hexagram 63 is one I personally always find hard to read. 1 and 2 and 63 and 64 represent extreme states, with 1 being all yang lines, 2 being all yin lines and 63 & 64 having alternating yin-yang all the way through. 63 starts with a yang line so is regarded as better structured, but basically both represent balance, moreover the end of the 1-64 progression. We start with all six lines being either all yang (#1) or all yin (#2) and end with perfect balance of three and three alternating one at a time in perfect order. So in a way this Cast shows us Nuclear #1 Primordial Creativity-Yang, some sort of Breakthrough in #43 returning the situation to All Yang #1 and #63 at the end. At the least this looks like something major, even epic.
Well, Trump’s slogan is to Make America Great Again, so all these yang lines denoting Greatness indicate that at the very least he has a shot. (Why else would they keep up the constant lawfare unless they perceive him as dangerous?) Those who believe that the elections are no longer conducted in a fair, transparent fashion might argue that there is no way he can win even if he gets the most votes, but what the Powers that Be also want is that he is not even perceived as someone who could possibly win. This is far better than him looking like a winner but narrowly failing to get enough votes because a handful of key swing state cities narrowly give the victory to his opponent. So they will continue to demonize and attack as much as possible. Meanwhile his mission, as revealed in Hexagram #43 Eradication/Breakthrough is to trumpet his message to the Royal Court of the People that there is serious corruption which must be excised. And let the chips fall where they may.
In May of 2020 I did a Cast about Trump’s election chances and received #3 Difficulties at the Beginning changing to #63 (again!) with the changing line in the third place indicating that if he went forward with this Great Undertaking lacking support he would be humiliated, which indeed happened since of course all along he has lacked support from the political establishment which always is more powerful than any elected official including the Chief Executive. This Cast has no such warning but does predict that his path, especially viz dealing with the Deep State in #4 (which represents leadership in the wrong 4th line position versus the correct 5th line), is going to hurt. (Come to think of it, this was my first ever political Cast.)
In this context does #63 indicate a successful outcome? Or does it indicate that it’s over already? Well, the questions in the Query are can he win and if so will he be a good (reform) President? It looks to me like the answer to both questions is yes. But will he win? That’s another question for another Cast!
This is a continuation of a previous post about a type of Dream Image which in this case came in the form of a disembodied voice saying, simply: “Enslaved Heart.” At the time this arose I reflected – in Dream – that the enslavement was self-engendered in that we enslave ourselves by following instincts, desires and bad habits of body or mind. As I was contemplating this, now half-awake, the phrase ’embattled soul’ also arose seemingly out of nowhere.
I consulted the Yi about this not out of any need for ‘dream interpretation’ but just to see what it might say or reveal and thus to learn further about the Yi and its hexagrams. However, to be honest the process was harder than expected though have much experience matching Yi with Dream. Choosing the first Hexagram was fun and is explained in the document attached below. The second one was a little harder in that I went back and forth – and indeed am still a little torn between #6 and #59. But the real problem wasn’t with fitting the Images to Hexagrams, rather in that I didn’t find the language in the Texts relating well with the Dream Images.
Until several days later (today) I thought to look up the Daoist Yi translated by Cleary and that one made things fall into some sort of making-sense place. If nothing else, the twin commentaries on #10 and #6 are worth reading. I often find the Daoist Yi giving very different, and interesting, takes. The emphasis is on the Daoist path of yogic transformation, so its perspective involves that path rather than politics or morality. In any case, its description of #10’s Tiger resonated far more than any other. The Image and the Texts still seem somewhat apart however this is not necessarily a problem. Images exist in their own domain, not needing words or other language to explain them. So in a way it is fitting just to contemplate them both together: on the one hand the ‘enslaved heart’ and ’embattled soul’ Images from Dream; on the other hand the input from the Texts along with my own commentary including the Front Page Judgement which attempts to join all together – though deliberately doesn’t try too hard.
In retrospect, I think the challenge with this Reading has to do with the nature of the Dream Images themselves, which are not visual Images but words. Yes, they arose in Dream, but still they are words which obviously dwell in the realm of concept where Images do not. Words can summon images, but it’s not quite the same thing as the bare, naked Image itself without Word. I do have a vague sense of a Heart being wrapped in Chains, and a Spirit being surrounded by metal weapons with tattered clothing, but that sense wasn’t there when the words were uttered, nor are they the same as a simple Image, a picture, for these are vague word association images rather than a raw, naked Image itself.
Be all that as it may, am sharing this as part of this blog’s period exploring the Yi Jing. Am beginning to feel the pull toward some other topics looming, but not yet… not yet.
46 Growing Upwards > 29 Down Deep < 54 Poor Relations
A cast using the usual method was performed after hearing the above terms in Dream. Another attempt assigning hexagrams by association is a work in progress.
Gua Hexagram 46
The symbol of this gua is wood growing upward from the earth; thus Growing Upward is the term adopted here. The ideograph consists of two parts. The upper part is a rising sun. The Chinese say, “The brilliant sun is growing upward in the eastern sky.” The lower image is the ideograph sheng, which provides the sound. Traditionally, only this lower part is used for the name of this gua. Sheng was an ancient unit of measure for grain or cloth. Today, one sheng is approximately one liter.
This Cast deals with Dream. In this case a dream fragment, all of which in its entirety is simply a voice saying “Enslaved Heart.” Half-awake from that a second phrase came to mind: “Embattled Soul.” As I heard the words ‘enslaved heart’ I thought – still in Dream – that this had something to do with how our own tendencies to follow desire in unfortunate ways leads to our own self-imprisonment. After which thoughts I half awoke and then the phrase ’embattled soul’ popped up.
I wondered – as a Yi student these days – what the Yi might have to say about these Dream fragments. A couple of years ago I started having many of these Images, sometimes whilst awake but usually between the two states, about which I would throw the Yi. I did that 64 times, which seemed a good place to stop, soon after which I stopped experiencing such Images. It is a little like a door opened for a little while. One night I dreamed I saw a couple in a laboratory inside incubators, lying side by side. I couldn’t tell if they were awake or asleep. Soon after awakening, I cast the Yi and was working on the Reading when I heard a loud noise which cause me to jump, only a second or two after which a smaller but similar loud noise. I got up to investigate and to my surprise, and sadness, saw two dead birds lying side by side on the steps in front of our main door. Only after going back upstairs and finishing the Reading did I see any coincidence. (That’s how thick I am!). So did another Reading I think, including the birds. I shall find that Reading and (if it’s not too embarrassing!) share it later.
Meanwhile, this one keeps it simple. There are the words from Dream. And then there is the cast with the Hexagrams. And I handled the Reading with a light touch, not laboring mightily to relate the Dream-Words with the Cast except perhaps on the level of atmosphere. The Words perhaps provide a type of Heaven for the Reading, a mood let us say, or echo. When you go into a cathedral, things sound different and so they feel different. With this cast, the Dream Words create a type of echo effect in which the Hexagram 46 arises and reverberates. Enjoy.
The left half of this ideograph is an ancient animal named li; the right half is an ancient bird with bright yellow feathers called zhui. A Chinese character, in most cases, is made up of two parts: one part provides the sound, the other part provides the meaning. In this ideograph, the left side gives the sound of the character Li, while the right provides the meaning. The ancients picked the bright color of the bird to signify the character Li; thus, Li symbolizes rightness, though that is not its literal meaning. It is associated with Fire, the sun, and the most yang energy. On this basis, I use Brightness for the name of this gua. Complications such as this, and the need to know the history and changing meanings of each word and character, is why it can be so difficult to properly translate the I Ching. It is of great significance that King Wen placed this gua, Li, together with the previous gua, Kan, as the last two chapters of the Upper Canon. The I Ching expounds the truth of yin and yang; they oppose each other and yet also complement each other. The Upper Canon demonstrates the yin-yang principle in natural phenomena, starting with Qian and Kun and ending with Kan and Li. These four gua have special significance in the I Ching. King Wen regarded Qian and Kun as the symbols of Heaven and earth and Kan and Li as the symbols of the sun and the moon. Heaven and Earth represent the pure yang and the pure yin. The sun and moon tell us that within the yang there is yin, and within the yin there is yang. According to Fu Xi’s arrangement of the eight primary gua, Qian, Kun, Kan, and Li were designated as the four cardinal directions of the universe. King Wen placed Qian and Kun at the head of the Upper Canon and Kan and Li at the end. These four gua were the most distinguished symbols of the natural phenomena. The purpose of the Upper Canon is to trace the Tao of Heaven and apply it to human life. The ancients believed that the truth expounded in the Upper Canon wasas perpetual as Heaven and Earth, as correct as the four cardinal directions, and as bright as the sun and moon. Actually the Chinese put the ideographs of the sun and the moon together to form a new character, ming, which means brightness.
I was about to go to a local Taiji – Qigong class in a nearby town having not done such things in several years and wondered what the Yi might have to say about the teacher. This is not so much because I needed to know as to test the Yi to see how accurate a result it would get, considering I have never laid eyes on the person in question. Perhaps silly, but…
Last year I saw a poster showing a tall, willowy lady teacher, probably Chinese but hard to tell, in some sort of garden – the image was artistically blurred. So I did the Cast about this Teacher but on going there this morning found a completely different teacher leading the class and have retrospectively re-labelled the Cast asking the Yi to expound on what an ideal Qigong teacher is (though perhaps I should have made it even more simple: how would the Yi describe taiji-qigong). In any case, the hexagrams returned are striking. Indeed, have increasing confidence in the hexagrams received in queries – though not nearly as much in my ability to read them well!
In any case, these three hexagrams are extraordinarily balanced and/or symmetrical and rather than use the Zhou Yi text (though I did paste in some excerpts into the document), I just looked at the configuration of the lines and trigrams and applied a little logic along with basic impressions in order to fashion the Reading.
I wanted to flesh this one out after first cutting it down. In other words, I wanted to spend more time on this since both question and answer are interesting but I can only do so much as life goes on and other things come up, including other readings since am on a Yijing tear of late. This period might be coming to an end soon, but not yet, not yet….
Also, these documents are too long and soon intend to change their format using these as first draft and then only publishing 1-2 page summaries. I also intend to use less information with each cast, focusing on a clear first impression, then adding in input from texts, trigrams, Heaven Earth and Man and lines. This am already doing but will lighten the approach being more intuitional.
Will also start incorporating Plum Flower method at some point, using event happenings. Today I worked on a Dream reading which will publish shortly. Images and words heard in Dream are used to select the trigrams and then hexagrams rather than casting with cards. Trying to fit the hexagrams to the images is an interesting experience in which the hexagrams and trigrams provide a window into appreciating the qualities of the dream image in question whilst the dream qualities expand one’s appreciation for the various qualities of the trigrams and hexagrams. A mutual learning journey one might say. And fun too.
The ideograph of wei is meticulous—it looks simple, yet its meaning is profound. The stem of the ideograph is a tree, mu. A second curved stroke was added through the tree and thus the ideograph of wei was created. Without the horizontal stroke we have a picture of a tree with its roots growing downward and its branches growing upward. The horizontal stroke represents the ground. The portion of the tree underneath the ground is still alive. It has already grown to its full height (fulfilled its growth), and now it starts a new cycle of growth. The structure of the ideograph supplies a vivid picture of having achieved one’s goal, but not yet having been fulfilled. There is a new cycle to come.
The meaning of the ideograph of ji, fully explained in the previous gua, signifies crossing a river, from here to there, or from beginning to end.
Today we have another Current Affairs Yi cast. Not only am I enjoying them but am learning a lot. I believe that learning is one of life’s most profound pleasures, as well as being a necessity. If we are not learning, we are not living, put it that way.
I used the Event Method from Jou Tsung Wa’s I Ching Way to Divination. Formally it is called The Hu Tien Method: Shao’s Marvelous Pillow. To calculate the hexagram you just need the date and time of day down to the nearest hour. Anything between 2:00 and 2: 59 counts as 2. And then the day, month and year are worked into it as well. Very simple. I will publish the method at some point because it’s fun and easy. Whilst working on the resultant Reading I popped into my favorite geopolitical website Moon of Alabama and mentioned that I had done a cast on the Tucker Carlson suddenly leaving Fox News story which had just broken an hour earlier and that it featured the only Hexagram of 64 with mention of a fox (!) and also that the changing line indicated that Tucker’s leaving caused relief, moreover that some of the commentary – from Confucius no less about 2,500 years ago, indicated that the fox was not expecting that end so probably Tucker is the one who walked. Somebody there wondered out loud how this could work because presumably if lots of people did the cast with their sticks there would be different results, no? Well, not with this time method. I used Eastern Standard Time because presumably that’s where it happened. And then I proceeded to give a short – and I think rather nifty – explanation of the Yi which is now pasted in below:
Scorpion, you ask the question, then you throw your yarrow sticks and from them you assess the divination. What happens if at the same time a number of other people ask the same question, throw their sticks and do their interpretations. Will there be similarity of results?
Posted by: Ново З | Apr 24 2023 20:22 utc | 138
This method is based purely on time. No sticks. Each hour things re-arrange. I used it once on lunar New Year’s in 2022. At 8.30 AM we had a fairly large earthquake. So I used this time method and got Double Thunder – quaking below, quaking above!
The whole thing is ridiculous, but coincidences like that keep happening. People have been puzzling over these patterns for millennia. They are based on a simple but profound insight that our relative world – the world of living beings dwelling in the realm of experiencing – is binary, or has polarity. Coins have two sides, put it that way, but that principle runs through everything. They made a symbolic language that is part visual part mathematical out of this insight. When you spend time with the hexagrams you start to see relationships with different shapes and patterns like the shapes and patterns in everyday life which in turn reveal basic principles.
Water is just water, but also the qualities of water reveal various different aspects of reality, both physical, emotional and spiritual. It yields, it flows, its outside can be easily penetrated but its core is the source of all organic life forms, it can flow around any obstacle over time and reaches its journeys end. And so forth. Fire on the other hand is most intense on the outside but hollow, sometimes almost cool on the inside in the blue center. So it radiates outwards and upwards, whereas water concentrates inward and downward. [Fire also has to do with interdepency in that it depends upon fuel to exist, so it also involves relationships, warmth, compassion, also inflammation, hysteria – which Tucker sometimes manifests, often when laughing during his broadcasts]. We can see these sorts of dynamics in plant shapes, as well as emotional styles, qualities and outcomes. Everything relates to everything and yet everything comprises limitless differences and particularities. The yin-yang lines and trigrammatic structures are a way of mirroring this. Some can read tea leaves. Others read hexagrams.
It’s best not to try to determine whether it’s art, science or hocus pocus. Just like one can only go so far contemplating who we are, where we are, what is going on. None of us know how we are made and yet here we all are. Some things just don’t get to be spelled out.
Meanwhile, the Gateway Pundit has a good and short piece on Tucker and why he had to leave this week.
After posting I wish I had added something about Heaven Earth and Man, which is purportedly the reason behind the initial creation of the trigrams as essential building blocks as are two-line relationships of course. Heaven is what is open, spacious, pure mind, atmosphere, formless but with presence. Earth is the material, the manifest, phenomenon, multiplicity of forms, body. Man is in between, is speech, is all the qualities that all phenomena reflecting both Heaven and Earth display. Such elements, which we experience every day moment by moment, are also reflected in the line relations and patterns, just as do all structures and inner and outer phenomena – aka experiences.
As with all these Readings, many will find them too verbose or confusing. They are half notes, half work in progress type composition. The whole thing is summed up on the front page though, which is a quick, easy read.
The ideograph of Zhen comes from the form inscribed on bronze objects in the Zhou dynasty. The original form was very complicated, including pictures of rain and lightning. This image has been simplified. The upper part of the ideograph is the rain—water falling from clouds. The horizontal stroke at the top represents Heaven, and the n-shaped curved stroke illustrates the clouds. A vertical stroke in the middle symbolizes an act of falling. The four dots are the raindrops.
The lower part of the ideograph is the character chen. At present, it means time, but in ancient times it meant shock. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, there are twenty-four solar terms in the year. Zhen was related to the third solar term, called the Waking of Insects, which takes place on the sixth day of the third month of the Chinese lunar calendar. During this period, thunder roars. The thunder proclaims that spring is arriving. All hibernating insects and animals awaken and tiny sprouts emerge. Peasants and farmers prepare to plant crops…
A quake is a way to make an advance smooth without obstruction. When there is an earthquake, everyone is fearful. Afterwards, they forget the fearfulness and begin talking and laughing as usual. They learn no lessons from the quake, so it is not beneficial. Only the sage is on the alert. When the thunder shocks a hundred li (a Chinese unit of length about one half of a kilometer), he is still able to remain calm and at ease.
Continuing this geopolitical series, and following a request from a Comment yesterday, now we ask the Yi to examine a situation which probably ‘The Sage’ has been asked about millions of times over the past two millennia. As a large island off the coast of a much larger civilization it enjoys both being part of that mainland culture as well as apart from it – to whatever extent. This is an objective given. Perhaps the challenge is to craft a perfect marriage in which the partners are both separate and together?
The Yi kicked off this Reading by punting us the in-your-face Hexagram 51, one of eight doubled hexagram (same trigram above and below) with Thunder being the most impactful. This indicates that the China-Taiwan situation is going to be shaken up and probably soon since Thunder is a trigram of ‘now not later’ – imminent, impactful change.
Interestingly, as with yesterday’s query about whether or not US Presidential elections can make a difference, Nuclear 39 Impasse clearly indicates that there are serious difficulties involved. And yet also as with yesterday’s Cast, 51 Shock! intimates a way through or around these intractable obstacles. The MAN process – which the Nuclear hexagram represents – manages a twin dynamic in the 39 hexagram: Mountain below involves halting, stopping; Water above involves work and flowing around even the most stubborn obstacles – just as how canyons are cut through entire mountain ranges. And again, because the Nuclear is a blow-up, as it were, of the inner dynamic of Hexagram 51 which is the primary drama, here Mountain and Water are processes rather than objective or external situations per se. So sometimes things need to be stopped, and other times they need to flow. 51’s shakeup will facilitate this bringing clarity (Fire) to Taiwan (lower trigram 51 & 55).
Apart from HEAVEN 54, which I call Inappropriate Relations, there is not a lot in here about quarrels, dissension, lawsuits, punishments, confusion and in any case Heaven depicts the over-arching context rather than any ongoing developments or change. No, the Cast is clear: soon there will be a whole lot of shaking going down leading to a brilliant moment of Glory, Abundance, the sun at midday. In some of the more shamanic-style commentaries 55 is described as being ‘strange’ or unreal, like seeing stars at midday by staring down into a deep well whose surface can reflect them because it has filtered out bright light from the sun directly overhead. Perhaps this is a little like after something explodes loudly and there is silence afterwards, some sense of clarity and peace along with the joy in the 51 text.
As mentioned in my reply to the comment requesting this Yi, I have no ax to grind regarding China and Taiwan. This involves millions – indeed over a billion – people who have lived with this issue for generations and now on a daily basis whereas I do not live there and have little to no knowledge of the controversy, especially since I now avoid mainstream Western, English-language news coverage because the level of manipulative mendacity is too high. Therefore, I truly don’t have an opinion one way or another beyond what I said above: simply because of their being a large island Taiwan will always be both part of and apart from the mainland civilization. That said, the Cast gives a clear result with Hexagram 51 which if nothing else is decidedly decisive and impactful. So something decisive and impactful is on the way.
Now perhaps am interpreting it incorrectly by at the end of the Judgment stating that because the upper and lower Thunder trigrams in 51 are the same therefore China and Taiwan are essentially together – although I did say ‘in it’ together, as in in the 51 dynamic together. And some might want to emphasize that because of the Changing 3rd line, the Taiwanese leadership is going to resolve the Impasse and achieve Glory for themselves at the expense of China which doesn’t have a changing line. Also, some might see 51 indicating a huge war with artillery, explosions, bombs. But I don’t think 55 Derived sits all that comfortably with that interpretation, nor the changing line text. In any case, as well as calling 55 Glory we can also call it Climax given all the Thunder and Lightning. In which case the Cast is not suggesting any resolution, per se, rather some sort of Earthquake or profound shaking up, possibly involving large explosions as part of both 51 and 55 pyrotechnics. That said, 55 contains Lake-Joy below and Wind-Gentle above, which doesn’t really suggest cataclysms and nuclear destruction.
But shifting that interpretation to ‘favour’ Taiwan over China doesn’t really change what the Yi here presents: Impasse – Shock! – Glory. Difficult obstacles are going to be resolved soon in a process involving impactful change, some of which might be scary and shocking, and featuring some sort of Climax or Abundance. If we don’t care which ‘side’ prevails, the Yi is saying that things will soon change and for the better and thus for all the people involved. There is no indication here of one side being right and the other wrong, or one side achieving victory and the other defeat. Indeed, if the latter happens it is a defeat for both sides. That does not seem to be indicated. (If anyone reading disagrees, please feel free to chime in, albeit preferably referencing the hexagrams or their related text and commentary in doing so.)
No matter how things shake out, if it is for the better – which of course means better for the people involved – that’s all that matters, no?
Afterthought / Alternative Take:
Long-standing Impasse is like pressure building up which leads to an explosive dam-breaking type 51 blow-up. And that blow-up involves intense bright light in 55 which could reasonably be interpreted as a large, possibly nuclear, explosion. Again, though, because the inner trigrams of 55 are Lake Below, Wind above, the Joyful and the Gentle, I just don’t see that in the picture, nor does the Changing line sound any alarms, quite the contrary: “He is frightened and uneasy because of the movement, but will not incur misfortune for his undertakings.” That doesn’t sound like being bombed to oblivion now, does it? But to take a contrary position again: the Nuclear of 55 is 28 which has a connotation of things reaching a breaking point and the Nuclear of 28 is Hexagram #1, the Creative. The trigram Heaven (three solid lines) is connected with War. The Nuclear of the Nuclear of 39 is 64 – Before Completion, a possible ‘end of everything’ or ‘fin del mundo’ dynamic. So the big shaking coming down in 51 has cataclysmic potential if those involved don’t keep their composure. As the Wilhelm-Baynes text warns:
THE JUDGMENT SHOCK brings success. Shock comes—oh, oh! Laughing words—ha, ha! The shock terrifies for a hundred miles, And he does not let fall the sacrificial spoon and chalice.
wilhelm-baynes
[Wilhelm continues:]
The shock that comes from the manifestation of God within the depths of the earth makes man afraid, but this fear of God is good, for joy and merriment can follow upon it. When a man has learned within his heart what fear and trembling mean, he is safeguarded against any terror produced by outside influences. Let the thunder roll and spread terror a hundred miles around: he remains so composed and reverent in spirit that the sacrificial rite is not interrupted. This is the spirit that must animate leaders and rulers of men—a profound inner seriousness from which all outer terrors glance off harmlessly.
So here again, though in this Afterthought have attempted to argue a more gloomy interpretation – and although Wilhelm does indeed warn about maintaining composure – the text and his commentary simply don’t play along with a cataclysm scenario. ‘Shock brings success!’ Now maybe some would argue that nuclear oblivion constitutes military success, and generals pushing such buttons might celebrate after doing so, but I doubt the philosophy behind the Yi would countenance ‘joy and merriment’ in response to mass murder and mayhem!
Major shocks and quakes by definition entail fear and trembling of all sorts. The future is not written in stone; disasters can and do happen. But if the people involved in this 51 dynamic truly act in their own best interests, in the end things will work out well.
baronbrasdor.art 