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Clarity's I Ching Newsletter: Issue 39

"We are here and it is now. Further than that, all knowledge is moonshine."
H.L. Mencken


This issue:


Letter from the Editor

Dear Subscriber,

 
Well, here we have the newsletter's 39th issue - hope you enjoy it! There are letters about the Chinese calendar (you might remember there was a question on that in the last issue), a search for some 'expired' I Ching software, and increasing interest in the I Ching. Is this something you've noticed? (I did recently tell someone about my job and find that she actually knew what on earth I was talking about - but this doesn't usually happen...)
 
I have a request: if you would like to change your email address, or unsubscribe (please don't!), please use the links provided at the end of this newsletter. It'll only take you a second, much quicker than sending me an email asking me to do it for you!
 
warm wishes,
Hilary
 
P.S. Stop press... synchronicity alert... see the end of the 'hexagram of the month' section!
 

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Readers' Letters

 
Hilary,
 
First of all, I'd like to say thanks for making this site available. I've gained a great deal of confidence in approaching the I Ching from reading the various articles and of course the postings in the Friends' Area.
 
I recently filled in some of your survey questions and was intrigued by the results of the personal profiles of I Ching users. 39% of respondents have discovered the I Ching in the past year (and this includes me)compared with other respondents at between 4 and 16% . I think that's remarkable and wondered if you had any views on why there should have been such an apparent surge of interest in recent times.
 
Best wishes,
Michael
 

 
I am desperately looking for:
 
The multimedia I Ching
First issued 1996  by Princeton Teaching Associates Software, and Princeton University Press
1 CD
Price about US $30
Short description: Ancient divinatory work, based on the German translation of Richard Wilhelm and its English rendering of Cary Baynes; throw your own oracle, check results, guided tour through the school of thoughts of China before the Qin Dynasty.  
 
Best regards,
Tom Wassmer
 

 
Dear Hilary,
 
Thanks for always sending your newsletter.
 
As for this Chinese calendar question, the Chinese have always used both a lunar and a solar calendar. The lunar calendar was mostly used for farming purposes, because farmers needed to take into account the phases of the moon for determining the best moment for planting seeds, etc.. For many other purposes the Chinese solar calendar was and is used. For example the famous Chinese 4 pillars astrology uses the solar calendar, not the lunar.
 
The Chinese solar year starts on 4th or 5th February and always has 12 months, where the lunar calendar sometimes has 13 months. The I Ching never talks about a 13th month, and there are only 12 so-called 'calendar hexagrams', so it is pretty clear to me that I Ching statements referring to "4th month" talk about the solar calendar month. Those who want a free Chinese solar calendar can download one at my site. It works from 3000 BC till 3000 AD.
 
All the best,
Danny
 

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Letters welcome - have you noticed an increased interest in the I Ching?


DIY Corner: Three Coin Method

A FAQ (Familiar Awkward Question) from Cindy:
 
"Hi, there.  I hope I'm not bothering you, but you say if you have ANY questions about consulting the I Ching to write to you!
 
I have a book that I got as a gift.  It is called "The Complete I Ching" and the author is "Taoist Master Alfred Huang."  It seems his way of adding up the coins is different from the way everybody else says, and I don't know what to do.
 
For instance, under his way of doing thing, if you throw three heads, it should be a six.  According to everybody else, if you throw three heads, it should be a nine.
 
I don't know which way is correct.  Can you advise?
 
Thank you!
 
Cindy"
 
 
 Cindy, thank you for sending the question. (And congratulations on having a friend discerning enough to give you Huang's I Ching!) This question does come up very frequently, because there really isn't a consensus about this. 
 
One thing that never changes between different versions is the number that represents a particular kind of line. These are always the same:

Number

Line-type

Yin/yang

Written

6

changing broken line

old yin

7

unchanging solid line

young yang

8

unchanging broken line

young yin

9

changing solid line

old yang


To get to these numbers using the three coin method, you throw three coins, count heads as either two or three, and tails as either three or two, and add up the total received. But even when Chinese authors are writing about Chinese coins, they don't all agree on which side is which. As you've found yourself, the more common version is 3 for heads, 2 for tails, so things work out this way:
 

Three tails:

Two tails, one head:

Two heads, one tail:

Three heads:

 
If the ambiguity bothers you, you could always adopt a completely different method - such as the 16 token one.

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Any questions?


Hexagram of the month: 21, Biting Through ˜

 
"At the moment I keep getting 21 'biting through'. It puzzles me because I never really know if it's a positive 'biting through' to move onwards, or a negative 'something's biting me through'.
 
It probably hits other people in the same way, so perhaps it's a good one for your newsletter?
 
With all good wishes
 
Anne"
 
As a rule, 'Biting Through' is something you do, not something that happens to you. It always indicates that there is a problem to be tackled, and usually you are the one who needs to get your teeth into it. The basic pattern of this hexagram, which you can understand at all levels from personal to social, is the presence of some obstacle to unity, like something tough between your teeth. It may be some deception or a third party keeping a relationship apart, or some obstacle such as self-deception dividing you from yourself: in all cases, it has to be bitten through to restore wholeness and make things work again.
 
There are two words to this hexagram's title: 'gnawing biting', shih, and '(biting) together', ho. Early characters for shih show a bamboo-shaman (a diviner with yarrow stalks) and a mouth; that for ho has another mouth, and a pot with a close-fitting lid. So we have divination that reaches the truth with words, and a perfect 'bite' - a healthy, effective unity.
 
This is about getting to the truth - especially, getting through illusions of separation. Divination with the surviving yarrow oracle, the I Ching, certainly has a way of cutting through dividing lines between 'ordinary life' and 'spiritual experience'. It encourages you to take experience into yourself in order to process it and bring out its essence.
 
The Judgement shows this pattern more clearly on a larger scale: there is 'harvest in going to law'. Litigation represents determination to reach truth, to encompass a situation and bite through its deceptions, as expressed by a whole society. And the Image uses the same concept: 'ancient kings brought light to punishments to enforce the laws.'
 
There are two ways to understand 'bringing light to punishment'. Tradition says (and my limited experience agrees) that the first and last moving lines describe someone suffering punishment: receiving either of these two could indicate that you were the one 'bitten' by experience. In that case, you would be trying to find some internal logic or meaning behind the ordeal, so that you could use the experience to bring out truth.
 
But if you adopt the perspective of the ancient kings, then you will identify with their work to create an ordered, harmonious life. This depends on the smooth combination of action and clear understanding - the two trigrams, thunder inside and fire or lightning outside. Law and penalties, when discovered through trial and error, are not enough: there is no point in punishing yourself or others for breaching unknown rules.
 
The Great Treatise describes an old tradition according to which this hexagram inspired the first market:
'When the sun stood at midday, the Divine Husbandman held a market. He caused the people of the earth to come together and collected the wares of the earth. They exchanged these with one another, then returned home, and each thing found its place.'
The sun at noon shines down on the bustle of trade, and individual needs and gifts unite to create a harmonious balance, where 'each thing finds its place'.
 
But as soon as someone at the market calls out 'Finest silk!' Biting Through starts to blend into its pair: Hexagram 22, Beauty. The sequence leading from 21 to 22 says that 'beings cannot be united carelessly,' and indeed the moving lines of Hexagram 22 do describe marital and courtship ceremonies. After you have bitten through to the essence, you need to find ways to express it; inner work is matched by the task of finding a true face for the world.
 
As I started to fit that final paragraph together, the following contribution arrived in my email for my little I Ching Resources site:
 
"From my very first contact with the I Ching (34 yrs ago), I have felt a very strong connection and thoroughly enjoyed the process of working up a specific hexagram. But I had reached a point in a highly tormented part of my life where I should stop. I decided to burn the edition I had (gives you an idea of the state of mind I was in). I asked the oracle for any last words and "21 - Biting Through" was the answer. I was struck by the integrity of the answer: Here in its last moments before being consumed in fire, the oracle answered in truth - I was trying to "bite through" the predicament I had created. This experience was never forgotten and it taught me the example of Truth and Integrity. Twenty years later I was re-introduced to the oracle by a friend. I threw the coins. The result was "21 - Biting Through". The oracle and I could re-establish our connection as if there was no time passage whatsoever. This taught me that Time has no dominion over certain truths..."


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There'll be a free subscriber's reading in the next issue. If you have a question for the I Ching, please send it, along with plenty of background information. If you've sent a request before, please let me know if the question is still relevant to you.


Links to explore

A random selection from the I Ching Community:
 
Elsewhere:
Two more Chinese calendar links.
One from John Turton: "software that allows you to directly check today's date against the current chinese calendar date, and you can go back hundreds of years with it. It also includes the Hebrew calendar and various others." (Shareware, $10)
 
And one kindly recommended by Orachorn:
 
Steve Marshall, author of Mandate of Heaven and redoubtable I Ching scholar, is offering readings in return for donations at http://www.biroco.com/other/donate.htm. I would suggest getting in quick before he is overwhelmed by demand!


I Ching services

I provide personal I Ching readings from £25. All readings are completely private and unconditionally guaranteed.
Clarity's I Ching correspondence course is available for £22.50 for the self-study version, or £137 for the full course including personal tuition, with the same unconditional guarantee.


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