 Clarity's I Ching Newsletter: Issue 48 "Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken." Frank Herbert |
™Letter from the Editor— Dear Subscriber, Welcome to the first December newsletter! (And I'm sorry it's late this time.) First I should 'warn' you that you may get one extra message from me this month (and only this month). I'll be doing the same as I did last year, putting together a page of I Ching-related gift ideas. By the time I bring out the mid-month newsletter, it'll really be too late for this to be of much use to you, so I'll hopefully drop you a note before then with a link to the 'I Ching gift page'.
One 'seasonal' thing I have already done for you - you can order I Ching reading gift certificates now, and give them to the recipient straight away. It's not expensively automated, but it is very simple. You can fill in a quick form to have the certificate codes emailed straight to your friends from the website, or you can copy the code yourself and pass it on in person, in a card, etc. (And I do deliver readings by post if necessary, so the recipient doesn't have to be computer-literate!)(The details are online.)
Anyway, this means you don't have to wait for me to email the code to you personally, and so you can use these for absolutely last-minute gifts even after I've stopped work for Christmas. I'll be leaving the 'office' (well, the desk!) on or around December 20th, and resuming early in the New Year. I'll give you the exact dates in the next issue, and on the website.
I'm looking forward tremendously to 2004 - I'm incubating a clutch of plans, including those readings by phone I mentioned (I just need to buy in the means to record them for you), the I Ching Manual ebook, improvements to the Correspondence Course, and an I Ching membership site. (If you have any spare hours, please email them to me...)
Meanwhile - this issue contains about the most extraordinary dream I've ever heard, along with the I Ching's comment on its message for the dreamer. If this doesn't bring an excited response from lovers of the I Ching worldwide, I'll eat my yarrow stalks. (And yes, the hexagram that describes it was cast entirely at 'random', or as randomly as they ever are.)
I hope you enjoy the newsletter! (Do tell me, either way...)
warm wishes,
Hilary
P.S. If you're American, I have good and bad news for you: Stephen Karcher's Total I Ching is finally available in the US, but Amazon.com say they take one or two months to supply it. However, as I write this, there is a single used copy available for shipping in two business days. So you can read my original review, and/or go straight to the page at Amazon.com . (If you want this by Christmas and can't find it locally, you might actually do better to order it from Canada and pay the extra US $8 to $15 postage.)
™DIY Corner: Top 10 occasions not to consult the I Ching— There is a big diversity of opinion among experienced users of the I Ching about when and how often to consult. So I'm only offering my personal 'top ten' reasons not to consult as a suggestion. I'd be interested to hear what you would add to or remove from this list yourself.
Times when I wouldn't recommend consulting the I Ching:
In a nutshell: I expect that divination with the I Ching will lead to more and better communication, more dynamic personal change, more decisive action, and more reflection and self-awareness. If I ever find it's leading towards less of any of these, then I suspect I have something wrong.
™Subscriber's Reading: Dream of the Army ˜ "Hello,
I was told to forward this to you at I Ching Clarity for further understanding.
I am currently 28 and living in the United States.
I had a dream. The most vivid dream I have ever had. I was 17 or 18 at the time. I was standing in silence for a moment and I felt my long dark hair brush against my face. I was in China and the upper east region. I know this. I had some sort of white outfit on. A man leading the army, who I do not know if I was married to or just close with, was going off to war. He was in full attire, of a ancient warrior outfit. It was a very large army, they all mounted on top of LARGE turtles. They moved over the hill into the coming sunrise or sunset. I was so sad and felt tears running down my skin. I turned to see a shed of some sort with hot coals being burned for some reason. A man was keeping the fire going. Just then I turned and I somehow ended up in a large massive desert of cracked earth. I was still in white walking with no shoes on. Many people were chained to the ground. I was so sad. They were calling for my help and I did not know how to help them. I wanted to help them. All of them grabbing at my ankles. Just then I woke up so upset and sweating.
At the time I was practicing meditation and it was about a year after doing so that this dream happened. I have always been drawn to Asia and India. I am a pretty logical person and I am not sure what it all means, but I do read up on the Dalai Lama in my spare time. I found a symbol about a year ago that I just can not get out of my mind. The symbol of the mystic knot. I was going to get a tattoo of it. I am still not sure what it's all about yet.
I have always thought about this dream and what it means. Perhaps I was not ready at the time to know. After the dream about a year later I moved out on my own. My parents have not really been in my life and I have had many successes and hard times. Not unlike other people in life. Right now I work at a coffee shop. I moved down to the beach about 1 1/2 years ago, and quit my job to go back to school full time. Decided to take up Architectural engineering. After graduation I plan to move to Portland, Oregon and take more Architecture class. Eventually I would like to design all solar homes etc. Green Architecture. I am also an artist and enjoy this very much as a part of my life. I consider myself a spiritual person, but for the last few years have felt sort of down. I would like to pursue the question to the oracle. I must tell you that at the time of the dream I did not study anything Chinese etc. But I have always been drawn to Chinese culture and have taken Martial Arts.
Sincerely,
Juliet"
Dear Juliet,
I think yours is the most extraordinary dream I have ever heard. Maybe the best way to show just how extraordinary is to describe a little background information to the genesis of the I Ching, things which I don't suppose you knew of at the time of the dream. In northeastern China, in the time of the Shang dynasty, there would be divination with the turtle shell to seek the support of the spirits before the army marched out. A metal implement heated in the fire was inserted into holes drilled in the shell, to create cracks for the diviners to read. Many poems in the Book of Songs describe the sorrow of separation when the armies left, and of barren fields and soldiers helpless to feed their families.
In this context, the mystic knot's theme of unbroken continuity seems to represent whatever miracle let you look through the eyes of a woman from ancient China. It might also represent the endless connection of past and present within your own life. Stephen Karcher's Total I Ching introduces the concept of 'karmic nodes', years of your life whose themes are echoed in each reading. The reading below 'loops back' to your experiences from the ages of 2 to 4 years old, and also from 19 to 20, when you first moved away from your parents and began to determine your own direction in life.
For anyone interested in the I Ching, your dream is amazing. But the more important question is what message it carries for you. Of course, its message ten years ago might be different from its message now, but I think there must be something you are meant to learn from it now. I don't believe it is coincidence that someone recommended you come to an I Ching diviner - one of the indirect descendants of the man keeping the coals hot - to ask about your dream.
What message does this dream have for Juliet now?
The I Ching answered with a single hexagram: 7, the Army.
Here is your army: the sea of people moving around the war leader at their centre. The hexagram text refers particularly to the army brought together by King Wu of the Zhou people to overthrow the corrupt Shang dynasty. They received the mandate of heaven through divination, and you could say that they 'rode the turtle' to their victory.
This reflects the positive potential of the army. It has its roots in hexagram 6, Arguing, a powerful sense that your world is not as it should be, and something must change. But simply standing up and speaking your case rarely works, however much you are in the right. And so hexagram 7 follows: marshalling your resources into a great army, so that you have the power to bring about change.
'The Army, constancy.
Worthy people, good fortune.
Not a mistake.'
The 'worthy people' are the experienced leaders, whose skills will keep the army from disaster. They embody the drive of this hexagram as a whole, to get organised, get down to it, and make things work. It means having a goal and taking personal responsibility for reaching it, tapping into your deepest reserves:
'In the centre of the earth is a stream. The Army.
Noble one accepts the ordinary people to gather together crowds.'
Even the aspects of yourself that seem to you 'ordinary' are part of your strength - and it all needs to work together.
Thus far, this hexagram sounds very much as if it is describing your current situation. Like the army marching out to victory, confident in its 'mandate', you have plans reaching many years into the future, mapped out through current and future studies towards your 'calling' as an ecologically-aware architect. You are setting out to serve a great purpose, and be part of a vital change.
At the time of the dream, you were in effect still a child - under your parents' authority, bound to stay home and watch your own capacity to lead and bring change disappear over the horizon. (And I imagine that the people chained to the desert might also have represented your situation at the time, and your inability to help yourself.) But if you dreamt this scene now, do you think you might be mounted on your own turtle? I think that by giving you an unchanging hexagram, the I Ching is pointing out that you could take any position or role within the dream's landscape.
There is a dark side to this hexagram: a sense of grim necessity in its determination. The battle has to be won, come what may. This is why the I Ching also says 'the army means grieving' - the sorrow of the people left behind, the crops that are never cultivated, the 'collateral damage'. You have your campaign objective, your career ambition - but if you've been feeling depressed, could this be because some vital part of your life is becoming a casualty of war?
The hidden, but vital, core of the Army is hexagram 24, Returning. In essence, this is about knowing and walking your own path - an inner awareness of your own true direction and source of energy. In a time of Armies, this awareness is liable to be very well hidden away, yet you need to know your direction as intimately as you know the contact of your bare feet on the earth. All your hard work must be driven by inner necessity, not some reason, however great or good, that comes from outside yourself.
Links
The story behind hexagram 7, and much else besides, is in The Mandate of Heaven, S.J. Marshall.
A few from the I Ching Community...
...and some interesting links to further afield:
The I Ching and the inner Hogwarts? Brian Donohue of ichingcounseling.com is writing articles about this: go here for links to the articles and your chance to comment
'Transformation metaphors derived experimentally from the I Ching' and suggestions on the inner structure of the Tao Te Ching. The author would welcome your comments here.
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