Page 8

Yi: Is the SMO kayfabe-kabuki? 36-6 > 22 < 40

36 Clouded Perception > 22 Cosmetics, Make-up < 40 Relief

This gua is the inverse of the preceding one, Proceeding Forward. There is a well
known Chinese maxim: tao guang yang hui, which means hide one’s light and bide one’s time.
This is the connotation of Brilliance Injured. By proceeding one is taking a risk, even risking
injury. When one’s brilliance is injured, it forces one to hold back, nurse one’s wounds. It is
then favorable to proceed further.
The name of the gua consists of two ideographs. The first one, ming, is composed of the
symbols for a sun, on the left, and a moon, on the right. The Chinese saying “Sun and moon,
brightness” indicates the character of ming. The second ideograph, yi, is composed of two
symbols, a big man and a bow. If one is familiar with the gua Great Harvest (14), Great
Accumulation (26), Great exceeding (28), and Great Strength (34), one can recognize that the
ideograph of “great,” da, forms the background of yi. Here, yi represents a great man or a big
man. In the middle there is a bow. The text employs the image of a large man with a bow to
express the act of injury.
The structure of the gua is Earth above, Fire below—a picture of the setting sun.
The brightness of the sun is hidden by the earth. Darkness envelopes more and more,
representing a situation of hardship. Such a situation was encountered by King Wen when he
was imprisoned by the Tyrant of Shang. King Wen was bright within and gentle without. He
adopted the art of tao guang yang hui—hiding his brilliance and biding his time—in dealing
with an extremely difficult situation. To be bright within and gentle without was one of the
highest virtues in ancient China. To the ancient sages, only the bright and the gentle could
overcome the dark and the unyielding. Only the wisest and, at the same time, the strongest
could appreciate this virtue and cultivate it.

Geopolitical Yi Casts continued:

Someone in the MoA comment section who seems very well informed about Russia was expressing concern that RF isn’t serious about this entire thing and keeps hesitating, holding back, compromising, missing opportunities etc. He called it ‘strange, strange.’ I replied that most likely this is because what we think we are seeing is largely a product of deliberate deception. Then I thought to ask the Yi about this.

Above, I have pasted in an introductory description from the excellent Alfred Huang ‘The Complete I Ching’ book. Have wanted to show the guas with explanation just because it adds an authentic historical element to the Reading which has nothing to do with my interpretation, but also because Image alone is part of any oracular process versus conceptual word-laced mind. And since this readership is not Chinese, some explanation of the red squiggles seems to be in order. Sometimes I include a little more of the text, as in this case.

Even though am departing a little from what Huang has written, my interpretation derives from a first take formed early on whilst writing out the hexagrams and then builds from there with further input from the classic commentaries plus other analysis that flesh the Reading out after which I compose the front page Judgment and/or accompanying verse which ideally is all anyone needs to grasp the Reading. Of course, if the subsequent inputs disagree too much with the initial reactions, that first take might go through a few iterations or be abandoned altogether – though this only rarely happens. Be all that as it may, in this case I nudged things in a certain direction because of several factors which I share for those who enjoy Yi-gazing:

First, when there is only one line changing it is regarded as more important. Some interpreters will base their entire Reading on the commentary for that one line. In my case I also pay particular attention to which line it is, in this case the sixth. Since the Query is about the strategy behind the military SMO on the ground in Ukraine, the sixth line would represent the highest level of strategy and here, significantly, it is changing. And then we have the two main Hexagrams, 36 Primary and 22 Derived. 36 shows the Sun (fire trigram) below Earth; so there is light but it is blocked, hidden or sinking making vision less clear than if it were above the Earth. 22 depicts Fire/light in a Mountain, or often described as fire at the base of a mountain illuminating the surface including all the various particulars such as bushes, trees, creatures, rocks and so forth – in other words looking at the surface not the interior which is why it is called Grace or Adornment or Surface Appearances. This too has to do with perception issues, in this case perhaps that surface appearances may not tell the whole story.

So both Hexagrams involve perception issues and since the Query has to do with perception – is the SMO as it appears or is it deceptive? – and given the changing line is at the Grand Strategy level, this is why my initial take was that the Yi was giving a fairly clear answer: ‘yes, it is kabuki.’ As mentioned in the document attached, this is hardly surprising given one of the main approaches in war, as Sun Tzu pointed out millennia ago, is deception. Frankly, it would be strange if mucho deception were not in the mix. However, in our minds the situation is relatively clear: “‘Russia’ is fighting in ‘Ukraine’ which is supported by ‘the West’ in order to determine who gets to run Eastern Ukraine or perhaps the whole of Ukraine if the two sides cannot come up with a workable compromise. If there is deception, it’s just on the tactical ground level, trying to fool the enemy as to where the next attack will take place, how many tanks and soldiers they have where and so forth. We rarely have doubts about the meta narrative.”

And yet in WW I, for example, a large party of communist luminaries was able to travel from Manhattan to Halifax to London to Berlin to Stockholm to Moscow with a large amount of money in order to kick off what became a major revolution and the end of a long-lived monarchic dynasty. Though the UK was at war with Germany and their men on both sides were dying in their hundreds every day, this party could pass through many jurisdictions ostensibly in life-or-death conflict without harm. How can such a thing be? Because what is going on at the ground level, for example, might be quite different from what is going on at a higher level. Similarly, in WWII many Standard Oil tankers regularly passaged across the Atlantic, where there were fierce struggles between Allied shipping to the UK and German U-boats, without harm. How come? How did the U-boat commanders know that these tankers were going to Hamburg not London? How come the US and UK Navies never figured it out? Did they not notice the tankers going all along through the Channel to Hamburg? Something doesn’t add up. Again, what is happening on one level – major conflict with men dying in foreign fields – is seemingly not happening at another level, where elites keep trading with each other and coordinating various activities seemingly without hostility. Strange, strange indeed.

Note: this Cast sees the repeated presence of Hexagram #36 from the previous cast querying whether or not ‘the WEF is evil or good’ albeit in that case as The Derived. #36 is generally regarded as one of the most negative Hexagrams. (Hmmm….. what if the WEF and the SMO are somehow connected… is that perhaps what is being hidden behind our mainstream media kabuki theatre curtains???)

Anyway, this Yi Reading strongly suggests that, at the very least, things are not as they seem, that the highest Grand Strategy level in #36 (which involves hiding one’s light) does not necessarily reflect what we see on the cosmetic ‘make-up’ #22 ‘make-up’ surface.

2023-5-12-is-the-smo-kayfabe-kabuki-36-6-22-40-2 Download

Sacredness: Notes on the 2023 Coronation

Preface to Sacredness Topic:

I recently purchased Iain McGilchrist’s seminal masterpiece ‘The Matter with Things’ comprising two volumes with over 1300 pages plus over two hundred pages of Indexes et alia. My only criticism thus far – it will take months for me to slowly pick my way through – is that the title doesn’t do the book justice. Part of its mission is to deconstruct the reductionist materialist fallacy that has run rampant through Western, and now in turn the worldwide modern, civilization promulgating all sorts of distorted behaviors and beliefs which in turn, unfortunately, are doing great damage to the physical planet and human cultural experience, aka ‘our lives and times.’ But another major part is that it goes beyond the materialist fallacy opening up vistas into other modes of perception and human culture, including especially, though not limited to, the experience of sacredness, or sacred perception. Iain mentions on one of his many Youtube interviews – for a philosopher he has a surprisingly active channel BTW – that several of his confidantes advised him not to end the book with his Chapter 28 ‘The sense of the Sacred’ presumably because the subject is almost taboo in today’s materialist mindset age which regards such perceptions as nothing more than the fanciful playthings of a childish mind and therefore beneath Iain’s otherwise magisterial subject matter. Well, I beg to differ, and am glad to see that he obviously has done as well.

For if we are not imprisoned by the shackles of materialism – by which I mean the widely held superstition that life is a mechanical process and we are no more than biological machines living in a world in which external physical form, or ‘matter,’ is the only substance which exists in ‘reality’, or that mind, being something produced by the physical brain, is a fictive imaginary thing of no import – then what else opens up to be considered as meaningful or essential as regards our fleeting human existence? The notion that imagination, for example, may be behind the creation of so many endlessly self-perpetuating forms and creatures might be more than mere childish fancy.

So despite being on a surprisingly long-lived Yi Jing kick of late, I also wish to do a series on sacredness. I shall try to keep the essays short, so will tend to pick one core topic or observation and build a little around that without trying to cover the whole field. A daisy here, a glimpse of a white rabbit there, but not the whole landscape every time. Glimpses.

================================================================

Part One:

I watched King Charles III’s coronation later in the day because it took place very early in the AM local time. As it happened, an old friend was on our Element message App so I ended up providing a running commentary to the service as it unfolded. (I shall soon watch it again without such distraction.) In the process, I noticed a few things which relate to sacredness only in tangential political aspects, but nevertheless, of enough interest to finally trigger kicking of this new Sacredness Series.

First, though, an introductory point: King Charles was already King as soon as his mother died. The ceremony is a spiritual affirmation of that fact during which the Monarch partly undresses to have his body anointed with sacred oil after which he has been consecrated and can now hold the crown, orb and sceptre as a living, Christian King who embodies sacredness in his being thereby imparting it, through God’s power, to all subjects, creatures and plants in His Realm. Something like that. The point being, that this whole ceremony involved evoking a sense of sacred presence in order to empower a Monarch to serve as such for his People. In short: this was a Sacred Ceremony taking place in these decidedly unsacred, aka secular and profane, times.

A few observations made during the ceremony:

1. The choral singing, some of which featured recent compositions commissioned by King Charles, most of which were traditional, some of great antiquity, was stunningly beautiful and entered the listener into sacred perception if that listener already has some experience of it, which for most listeners would have been in similar, though toned down, ceremonies at Church services throughout Great Britain and Christendom in general.

Music is a type of speech which bypasses the conceptualizing mind and takes one straight into something else – Iain would probably call it ‘right-brain territory’ or some such. In any case, it can take you into a different state of mind rapidly, and no doubt did for those witnessing the event live both inside and outside Westminster Abbey where such ceremonies have been conducted for well nigh on a millennium.

2. At first, it seemed to me that the costumes were all antiquated, though later there were more people wearing modern dress in the mix, which evened out the initial impression which was that because we rarely if ever honor sacredness in our modern world we need costumes and customs from yore to engender it making it not quite work since sacredness is something which heightens our sense of ever-present awareness. Indeed, sacredness is a word used to reference how we feel when we are in a state of nowness. There is no such thing as one without the other.

3. Speaking of nowness, my friend noted that Charles didn’t seem to be present, that he couldn’t ‘handle’ being in the now. It certainly seemed that way before the ceremony with visible muttering and twitching, but during the climax of the actual coronation am not so sure, will need to watch again (though video is terrible at communicating such atmospherics, just as it cannot capture how large waves feel as they approach and pass a sailing vessel).

4. Particular Detail 1: The Archbishop – who by all accounts is a very decent sort – picked up the Crown with his bare hands. This is incorrect. Only the Monarch should touch the Crown with bare skin, either hands or head, the Priest should not have done so. Doing so he was putting himself on a par with the King, possibly even higher.

5. Particular Detail 2: He also remained standing over the King having placed the Crown on the King’s head and did not immediately bow before him – again putting himself above the King. This must be a deliberate decision, probably to show the Monarch’s deference to a Higher Power. No doubt the logic is that the Priest is God’s representative and God stands above the Monarch and so the Priest does as well, but the Priest is also a man in a man’s body and should have bowed in reverence to the embodiment of Sacred Leadership which the Monarch, partly thanks to the Priest’s sacerdotal ministrations, now so powerfully and imminently embodied. Not bowing is a clear sign of arrogance – which drives any sense of sacredness far, far away. Indeed, that is why the very first words of the service involved the King saying – beautifully I thought: ‘I come not to be served but to be of service.’ Humility is a necessary prerequisite for opening up to the experience of sacredness.

6. Particular Detail 3: When exiting the Cathedral after the Coronation, the King was flanked by two Bishops. I noticed that they generally chose to walk slightly ahead of the King instead of slightly behind, again showing their superiority and his inferiority. Wrong!

As the Service unfolded, I sensed a sub-text playing out, namely that the Monarch must bow to and place himself beneath the Church. This is fundamentally wrong.

Part Two:

By happenstance I stumbled upon an article in Unz.com yesterday about the relationship between Church and Monarch in European medieval times. The article is overly long for my taste but also confusing because there is quite a lot of King X did this to Pope X who responded by excommunicating him after which King X or King X+1 retaliated by seizing country or principality Y and writing a letter to Pope X or X+1 about how he was overstepping his authority and so on. Centuries of it.

The dynamic is well summed up shortly before the article’s Epilogue:

In 1236, Frederick mobilized a large army to subjugate the rebellious Lombard cities that, with papal encouragement, were forbidding him access to Italy. He received the support of many European kings, including Louis IX of France, Henry III of England (whose sister Isabelle he married) and Béla of Hungary. Europe was in the process of reaching its unity. Frederick therefore hoped to remake Rome the capital of the Empire. This was, of course, contrary to the unchanging policy of the popes, who, by invoking the Donation of Constantine, reserved the imperial prestige of Rome for themselves.

The energy deployed by Gregory IX to harm Frederick II (including by assassination attempts) would be matched only by that of this successor, Innocent IV, who held to the same principle of the pope’s plenitudo potestatis. In July 1245, at the Council of Lyon, Innocent IV rejected Frederick’s overture to appease their differences, confirmed his excommunication and declared him deposed. It is noteworthy that, in this occasion, the devout king of France Louis IX protested:

“As powerful and respected as he is, the Pope does not have the right to depose a king. Every monarch is on his throne by virtue of Divine Right, and Divine Right is superior to the Apostolic Right which the Pope holds as heir to Saint Peter. We therefore formally oppose Pope Innocent’s deposition of Emperor Frederick, because this act, which generates endless disorder, would have the main effect of shaking the Christian community to its very foundations.[57]“

Faced with the pope’s refusal to negotiate, Frederick called on all the princes of Europe to a general revolt against the papacy, in a manifesto that must have smelled of the most dangerous heresy to the pope:

“God is our witness that our intention has always been to force churchmen to follow in the footsteps of the Primitive Church, to live an apostolic life, and to be humble like Jesus Christ. In our days the Church has become worldly. We therefore propose to do a work of charity in taking away from such men the treasures with which they are filled for their eternal damnation. … Help us to put down these proud prelates, that we may give mother Church more worthy guides to direct her.[58] “

Frederick died in 1250 at the age of 55. His son Conrad, son of Yolande of Brienne, left Germany for Sicily but died two years later, at the age of 26. His half-brother Manfred declared himself regent of the Kingdom of Sicily on behalf of Conrad’s son, Conradin, who was only two years old. But the pope gave the kingdom to Charles of Anjou, an ambitious and unscrupulous character, quite different from his brother Louis IX. Charles landed in Sicily in January 1266 with a powerful army of mercenaries, and overcame Manfred, who was killed in battle (the pope had his remains dug up and thrown into the Garigliano river). Charles captured Conradin and had him beheaded. Manfred’s young widow was also captured and thrown into prison, where she died after five years. It is said that the eyes of her three male children were gouged out and that they also quickly died in prison.

From The Failed Empire The Medieval Origin of the European Disunion by Laurent Guyenot

I shall have more to say about all this elsewhere, no doubt. Suffice to say that at least many centuries ago during the foundational period of what is now known as Europe, this power struggle between Kings and Popes was seminal, some residual evidence of which existed even in this Church of English service for a twenty first century coronation of a constitutional monarch stripped of any executive power. I will be suggesting that our relationship to the Sacred is no less seminal in our lives, whether or not we live in a culture that recognizes this. Not being an accomplished scholar or academic, I shall advance this thesis (of sorts) with simple points which build on each other in an easily digestible fashion.

Old and tired, perhaps, but also present, awake and warm-hearted…

Postscript: just to be clear, am personally neither a great fan of the Windsors nor British Royalty generally, but however imperfectly they are a living example of a tradition combining national leadership and sacred perception. It is the general topic of sacredness which I find makes monarchy interesting including how sacred monarchy effects society and vice versa. So the primary interest on my part is the interface of sacred perception with social mores along with any sense of how they foster leading a meaningful life.

Yi: Is Multipolarity a sincere goal or ruse? 42-4,5 > 21 < 23

42 Increase > 21 Cutting Through < 23 Deconstruction

The ideograph of Yi is simple and clear. The lower part is the image of a household
container. Above the container is an ancient ideograph for water, shui. It looks exactly like the symbol of the original gua Kan, Water . Water above a container symbolizes that water is pouring into the container, an act of increasing. The structure of the gua is Wind above, Thunder below. When wind and thunder support each other, their energy is doubled. It is also an image of increase. The inner gua, Thunder, indicates that there is firm resolution within. The outer gua, Wind, indicates that there is penetrating outward action. Confucius’s Commentary on the Symbol says, “The superior person follows the good when he sees it, and corrects his fault when he finds it.” This tells us that a superior person follows the good as quickly as the wind and corrects his faults as firmly as thunder.
The theme of the previous gua is to decrease what is lower in order to increase what is higher. This gua discusses how to decrease what is above in order to increase what is below.
When Heaven loses a yang element, it becomes Wind. And when earth gains a yang
element, it becomes Thunder. This is precisely an image of diminishing the lower to increase the upper. Increasing comes from Pi, Hindrance (12). In Hindrance, there are three solid lines in the upper gua and three yielding lines in the lower gua. When the topmost solid line of Hindrance moves to the bottom, Hindrance alternates to Increasing. The Commentary on the Decision says, “To decrease what is above is to increase what is lower.” The upper gua is Wood as well as Wind. Here it symbolizes that a wooden boat is moving forward, driven by the wind. The lower gua is Thunder, symbolizing action. Thus King Wen’s Decision says, “Favorable to have somewhere to go. Favorable to cross great rivers.”

Again, answering a question raised in the last Cast, is multipolarity a sincere goal? The answer seems to be ‘yes.’

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Yi: WEF: Evil? Good? 13-4,5,6 > 36 < 44

13 Seeking Harmony > 36 Warmly connected society < 44 Difficult Liasons

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.

2023-5-8-wef-evil-good-13-456-36-44-1 Download

Yi: Is Russia-China Axis aligned with WEF? 28-3,4 > 29 < 1

28 Excessive Hegemony > 29 Polarity < 1 Primordial Oneness

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 they 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. This is not to suggest that the conflict and deaths inflicted are not real; but this Cast 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 making 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’ view.

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…

2023-6-23 Update:

Or it is answering quite directly: The WEF hegemon (#28) and the Multipolarity Agenda (#29) are fundamentally one (#1). And Multipolarity (#29) is a Dangerous venture, albeit one that could end up being of great value as well even if ultimately they are all One. Of course everything at some level is all part of the One (under and within Heaven principle) so that is not saying all that much on a deep philosophical level perhaps – sort of stating the obvious – but on the relative level where the Query dwells, the answer is that the Hegemonic and Multipolarity dynamics are fundamentally one. So the answer, then, is that the Russia-China multipolarity axis and the WEF hegemonic axis are indeed aligned.

2023-5-8-is-russia-china-axis-aligned-with-wef-28-34-29-1-7 Download

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…

Yi Event: Coronation of King Charles III

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.

Jolly good show, King Charles, Jolly good show!

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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.

Yi: Can Trump Win? If so can he be a good President? 43-2,4 > 63 < 1

43 Eradication > 63 Completed < 1 Primordial Potency

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!

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Yi: Dream Speech: Enslaved Heart – Embattled Soul

10-1 Treading on Tiger > 6 Conflict < 37 Family

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.

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Yi: Dream Ideas Enslaved-Heart, Embattled Soul 46-3,5 > 29 < 54

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.

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.

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The Ideal Qigong Teacher 30,3,6 > 51 < 28

30 Blazing Clarity > 51 Spontaneous Movement < 28 Expansive Qi

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.

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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.

Enjoy!

Yi: What does the Yi want to say? 38-2 > 21 < 63

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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.

Yi: EVENT: 2023-04-23 11:30 Tucker Carlson Out 64,6 > 63 <40

64 Almost Done > 40 Relief < 63 Done

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:

Comment made at MoA:

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.

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Yi: China & Taiwan 51-3 > 55 < 39

51 Shock! > 55 Climax < 39 Impasse

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.

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Remarks:

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.

Yi: Can a Presidential Election restore the American Republic? 35-3 > 56 < 39

35 Powerful Prince > 56 Transition < 39 Impasse

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Whilst going through the textual analysis for this Query and preparing the above document, first a squeal from the living room next door then a tentative knock on the study door: the housekeeper needed help because there was a very large spider! I went in and heroically coaxed the hairy little beast onto the sweeper using the broom and pitched her gently outside into the garden.

This presented a good opportunity to use Jou Tsung Wa’s ‘I Ching Way to Divination’ version of the I Ching whose introduction features a few methods I haven’t read elsewhere, namely using the time or the nature of an event as the basis for determining the lower and upper trigrams and any changing lines.

Two New Year’s ago we had an Earthquake at 08.30 AM and I used this method which produced #51 – Quake! After that, I treated the method with a little more respect. I don’t generally go along with New Age magical thinking approaches, but there are so many coincidences with the Yi Jing that I cannot deny them, though that doesn’t mean I can explain them either. In any case, today whilst analysing Hexagram 35 a tarantula appeared yielding the Fire Trigram above (requires use of intuition) and the lower trigram is calculated by the direction, in this case front right or North East which yields Earth – Hexagram 35!

And this method yielded the same Hexagram as the one I was studying when the Event took place. So to my way of thinking this means that one should pay attention to it. To be honest, I was finding the Cast a little vague or weak and some of the text above reflects this. However, now that the Tarantula Event has yielded the same Hexagram and the changing line text clearly states that a period of stagnation might soon be ending, maybe this Presidential Election in the US, unlike most if not all in the past half century or so, will make a difference. For sure the country needs it. My personal opinion is that the US is now a post-republic kleptocracy so no elections are meaningful – at least not in terms of substantive outcome; but would be delighted to be proven wrong.

Finally, cannot help but point out the seeming serendipity of this Cast’s ‘Powerful Prince’ coming to the rescue and the recent formal announcement of RFK throwing his hat into the ring as Candidate for President. If anyone can be regarded as a Prince (of sorts) in the US, it’s not Harry from another Kingdom, but Robert Kennedy Jr. of the Kennedy family, whose father was assassinated whilst running for President and whose uncle was assassinated whilst actually President. They are the closest America has – in the public sphere at least – to royalty.

Here is the second ‘Tarantula Event’ Reading:

2023-04-21-1205-tarantula-2 Download

I have revisited this Query and added in the William Horden Past and Future Hexagrams using his I Ching Mathematics which assigned a numerical value to each Hexagram based on a binary value assigned to each broken line (from bottom to top 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1). Without further ado, here it is:

2023-4-21-B Can a Presidential Election restore the American Republic? 35-3 > 56 < 39 Download

Yi: Does Putin’s vision match geopolitical reality? 21-1,6 > 16 < 39

21 Gnawing, grinding > 16 Armies Marching < 39 Impasse

The ideograph of the first character, shi, consists of two parts. On the left, a small square represents an open mouth. On the right, there is an ideograph of shi, which provides only the sound to the character, with no implication as to the significance. However, the ideograph of shi is a beautiful picture of an act of divination. At the top two little plants represent yarrow stalks.

In the lower portion, there are two people in a hall. The horizontal line above them represents the roof; the horizontal line below represents the floor. The vertical line between them symbolizes a post or a pillar. The two persons are kneeling on the floor face to face. One is the diviner, the other is the inquirer. When this character is combined with the mouth on the left, it means “biting.”

The ideograph of the second character, he, also consists of two parts. On the left there is another mouth. On the right is a container that looks exactly like a type of bronze utensil of the Zhou dynasty having four legs and a cover. The stroke in the middle represents an object within the container. There is a tiny space between the cover and the container that suggests that the cover is being put on; it is an act of closing. This action signifies the movement of bringing two parts together. When this picture unites with that of the mouth, it appears as an action of bringing the upper jaw and the lower jaw together, or closing the mouth to bite.

2023-4-18-does-putins-vision-match-geopolitical-reality-21-16-16-39-2 Download

This cast continues the recent Geopolitical series. The last time we got Hexagram 21 was in response to the very first such geopolitical query in this series, namely: “World Geopolitical Situation – the Russia-China Alliance.” This returned 63 After Completion leading to 8 Union which latter’s text recommends casting again to see if the leader(s) in question have sufficient virtue to succeed in the great endeavour which in this case is bringing some Very Big Things to fruition. The result of that second cast was 21 with no changing lines but of course the same Nuclear as this cast, #39 Impasse. To me that meant that: clearly there are serious obstacles and clearly they have what it takes to handle them so clearly they should do so – they being the China-Russia alliance mentioned in the Query.

In my opinion, part of the reason #21 is viewed as involving decisive cutting or biting or gnawing through and administering punishments is because of the nature of its own Nuclear #39 internals which is described as a turbulent ravine at the base of a steep mountain. Wilhelm’s commentary says that this obstacle is so intractable that the only solution is to return to the starting point and either wait for the situation to change or plot a new course because no matter what the journey cannot continue on that first path right now. So 39’s impasse demands finding new ways forward. In this #21 case, obstacles are to be gnawed through. If you can break through in one bite, fine; but if not you have to persevere, gnawing, until that bone is no more.

This particular cast seems to confirm Putin’s vision and policies since the two changing lines, interestingly the first and last, result in #16 Enthusiasm whose idea is Thunder arising from out of the Earth. The Earth represents many different things combining together such as people, societies or armies. Thunder is associated with drumming, movement, action, change, momentum – even shock or quaking. Indeed, Earth quakes when the drums are sounded and armies march to them! So this enthusiastic, high morale dynamic is the result of Putin’s policies.

Putin is not a Johnny-come-lately. Of all current world leaders of large population states, he has been in the saddle the longest, essentially all of this twenty first century either as President or Prime Minister. His popularity remains high both at home and abroad. And we can see in his face and body of late that he is maturing into early old age and acquiring no little dignity as the result of his patient – his critics in Russia say much too patient – work on the world stage to create situations more favorable for those peoples who do not wish to march to Hollywood programmed neocon drumbeats – or of late, for example, who do not want boys competing in girls sports and then undressing in their locker rooms. For most nations in the world such issues interest only the mentally ill.

Yesterday I read an article about current geopolitical developments the author of which characterized the dynamic as two main opposing camps namely the Unipolar Liberal Globalists (ULG) and the Multipolar Conservative Sovereigntists (MCS). The ULG side wants a single, over-arching world order with everyone marching to the beat of the same drummer – a beat which only they get to lay down and which they get to change at any time without any apparent due process or accountability. The MCS side partly stands to resist such ever-encroaching hegemony but mainly to promote a alternative vision of a world enjoying many different cultures and civilizations which have their own perspectives and ways of doing things and wherein there is more appreciation of their diverse existence and contributions rather than compelling them all into the same tube from which only one paste emerges.

Although I think the article over-simplifies what is going on, still it well describes in broad strokes much of the geopolitical dynamic in play these days. My personal reservation is that along with such tensions between various blocs, at the same time we are seeing all supposed adversaries concurrently working to develop new financial systems including banking and currency methods all seemingly headed in the same direction featuring digital formats which will work seamlessly world-wide even as they also indefatigably track each and every transaction, perhaps also whilst tracking everyone’s individual location 24/7 along with traffic, weather and social media trends and who knows what else. This sort of technological capability has the potential to entirely eradicate Common Law based nation states by eradicating individual privacy and therefore both individual and collective sovereignty. There may be some sort of jurisdictional multipolarity on the political and narrative level, but underneath there will be a single currency system circulating like blood to each and every cell in what will essentially therefore be a single, unified world order – precisely what the multipolarists say they are working to prevent.

The MCS side of course by definition are standing for Sovereignty – which I personally think is the sine qua non of any bona fide polity, being the glue which holds together any collective sense of ‘we a people’ – but this emerging technocracy may entirely do away with all such quaint notions and instead usher in a dystopian totalitarian era administered by opaquely programmed Artificial Intelligence algorithms mechanically tracking every movement and action of every person everywhere all the time, making decisions based on huge data sets that no human mind could possibly process minute by minute, day by day, country by country.

As an individual observer, moreover one without the slightest high-level administrative or governmental experience, I can only watch from afar. But I believe that each individual is an important part of any larger whole, so this individual opinion matters as much as anyone else’s and moreover that each of our opinions matter at least a certain amount. Or put another way: how each of us feels effects how every one of us feels so we each have a part to play.

This query was about a very public figure’s part in the world’s geopolitical drama which assuredly effects us all. Putin is arguably the most influential world leader right now even though President Xi is governing the most dynamic industrial and emerging cultural polity and India is now lifting off too, enjoying significant civilizational growth and rise after a couple of centuries in the doldrums. Putin and his ever-increasing circle of allies, principal among whom is China, are re-uniting central Eurasia, thus in a way continuing on where Genghis Khan left off so many centuries ago. Putin clearly wanted Europe on board creating a Eurasian civilizational zone stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok – for Christian Russia has traditionally been regarded as part of the European civilization of course as anyone who has read any Tolstoy knows very well – but the Western Europeans of today are seemingly in thrall to their masters in the City of London and Canyons of Manhattan and such and so are responding to such invitations with coups, military threats and now actual military confrontation. So be it. There is no need for a global bifurcation but it seem we are getting one. That said, if they are serious about multipolarity, then Western Europe should remain distinct from Russia, Turkey, China, India and so forth. Why not? They just need to stop trying to contain and control all foreign nations and populations and all will be well.

Interestingly, it is not looking like a 50-50 or better split that most Westerners probably imagine but more like a 75-25 split in the (RoW) Rest of the World’s favour with the West having at best only 25%. China and India alone comprise almost three billion people and their societies are in positive economic and cultural growth phases whereas the West is in a decadent, fading phase. Regarding the latter: such phases happen regularly and can indeed be positive for the society in question though they don’t provide any basis for geopolitical expansion; on the contrary they demand a certain period of internal housecleaning. Be that as it may, the RoW – or ‘global South’ – is clearly on the rise whilst the West is clearly on the wane. And given the 75-25 split, the results are relatively easy to predict, though not of course the many twists and turns no doubt about to unfold along the way.

In any case, we are where we are and this cast about Putin suggests there’s a whole lotta gnawin’ to go down before this is all over.

I am in the camp of those who not only hope that the excesses of the current Western regimes can be curtailed, but that also we use this period as an opportunity to reform constitutions which outcomes prove to have fallen far short. Germany needs to be sovereign and chart her own course as one of the pre-eminent cultures and manufacturing bases in the world with as much emphasis on Eurasia at her doorstep as any Western connections, valuable as they are and always will be. France clearly needs to work on yet another Republic, though they should also examine why they keep making new ones and nothing different really results! Italy is a mess; but Italy is always a somewhat marvellous sort of mess, so maybe it’s fine – but still. The UK is a ghastly mess; its politics stink; the civil service is too entrenched as in the US where a ‘Deep State’ does indeed rule the roost though nobody can definitively say exactly who or what it is. (Some even claim it is secretly rooted in the British Deep State.) No matter the whys and wherefores, but the US leadership class seems deliberately hell-bent on destroying the cultural-social underpinnings of its own society and replacing it with negative, progressive ideologically-driven BS. (And that’s putting it politely!) Why? Nobody can say but clearly for no good reasons at all though seemingly nobody can stop them…

So let us hope that Putin’s geopolitical acumen, essentially validated in this Reading, can give Western people a chance to make better countries for themselves to live in and pass onto their children. And if so, they too can join the Multipolar Conservative Sovereigntists and all together we can march to the beat of #16’s celebratory Enthusiastic drums!

(also at my substack)