 Clarity's I Ching Newsletter: Issue 51 "Isn't it strange how much we know if we only ask ourselves instead of somebody else?" Richard Bach, Illusions |
™Letter from the Editor— Dear Subscriber, There were so many interesting responses to Stephen Anschutz's article on annual readings that I've decided to include them all in this issue. I've left out the 'DIY corner' this time to make room - it'll be back next issue - and just written about Hexagram 59, Dispersing.
The interesting thing about all these regular readings, from annual to daily, is that they are quite open-ended. The question is something along the lines of, 'What do I need to know?' rather than anything more directive. The number of people who use these regular readings is testimony to what a difference they can make, once you learn to apply them.
I've been working on the chapter of the I Ching Manual devoted to regular, open readings over the past few days, and experimenting with asking for just a single hexagram for the day. Yesterday's was 18, Corruption. 'Right,' I thought, as I reached for the chocolate, 'another opportunity to tackle some bad habits.' I didn't discover the more literal application until about ten minutes after adding the dumplings to the stew that evening.
Rancid suet. Oh, lovely. But I can't say I wasn't warned... Anyway, enjoy the newsletter! And please let me know what you like about it and what you don't - how else will it get any better?
Warm wishes,
Hilary 'Dear Hilary:
Yes, you are right. Our company just laid off 30 people bcause of financial and market problems, but I am there still. I wonder it may stay untill July or longest might be for another two years if they will get the loan from local government.
Thank you very much
Jie'
About annual readings:
'Well, I do something different - I am not sure it is relevant, but it is pretty simple: I keep an I Ching Journal - every time I draw, I record the hexagram, as well as the mutant hexagram if any (I call mutant hexagram the one derived from the primary one by changing the lines if any line is a changing one - 6 or 9).
At the end of the year I compile and find out that one or two hexagrams have been drawn much more than the others - this shows a trend in my life - something I need to pay attention to - long term.
It is a little long and tedious to do, but easy, and it is worth it. if you can use a spreadsheet like Excel, you can draw a chart with the number of occurences for each hexagram, it does not add anything to your understading, but it looks good.'
Frederic Lecut - Headland, Alabama
'Thank you for the newsletter Hilary.
The article on the Annual I Ching was of particular interest to me. I have been casting a Hexagram every morning since 1976. I begin by achieving some measure of composure by contemplating a chapter of the Tao Te Ching and then asking to have my attention drawn to some learning.
I've kept a record of these daily Hexagrams for almost 28 years. I am now retired and looking for a program that will help me tabulate the Hexagrams with changing lines, inner Hexagram and derived Hexagram so that I can print out a spreadsheet or database type report. Perhaps you can help me locate such a program.
I have also been studying and practicing western astrology for the same amount of time and look forward to matching the data.
I enjoyed the personal approach of your Newsletter.
Best wishes and may the Monkey bring you many peanuts.
Roberto'
(I should imagine that a programmer could get Microsoft Access to generate the second hexagram, nuclear hexagrams etc, as well as storing questions and comments - and I'm sure many people would appreciate this. Anyone want to program it?)
(In case you're not familiar with the method Andreas uses to record hexagrams: 1 indicates a yang line, 0 indicates a yin, and the line on the far left is the first (bottom) line of the hexagram.)
'Hi Hilary,
Thanks for the latest issue of the Newsletter. Very interesting. I have a comment on the guest article that I thought I'd pass back. The author and your other readers may be interested.
The basic idea is good, I like it. However, it must be remembered that the calender that the Yi is aligned to is the Chinese lunar calendar. Let me start with a slight diversion. There are twelve hexagrams normally associated with the months of the year (Wilhelm's translation covers this). I'm not an expert on calendar calculations, but I think this works out as follows:
100000 - Returning, covers the month from the Winter Solstice to the first
new moon in January.
110000 - Approaching, covers the month from the new moon in January to the
new moon in February.
111000 - Balance, covers the month from the new moon in February to the new
moon in March.
111100 - Great Invigorating, covers the month from the new moon in March to
the new moon in April.
111110 - Deciding, covers the month from the new moon in April to the new
moon in May.
111111 - Creative, covers the month from the new moon in May to the new
moon in June.
011111 - Encountering, covers the month from the new moon in June to the
new moon in July.
001111 - Retreating, covers the month from the new moon in July to the new
moon in August.
000111 - Separating, covers the month from the new moon in August to the
new moon in September.
000011 - Contemplating, covers the month from the new moon in September to
the new moon in October.
000001 - Splitting, covers the month from the new moon in October to the
new moon in November.
000000 - Receptive, covers the month from the new moon in November to the
Solstice in December.
Now, this doesn't work out exactly because the lunar months don't quite fit exactly into the solar year. However, using the same example as Stephen Anschutz, and applying the Energy Operator mechanism that I originally put forward in my article "Boolean Algebra and the Yi Jing", subsequently applied to help develop the Tools for Change in my joint authored article with Stephen Karcher, we get the following periods (both these articles are available on my site http://www.yijing.co.uk):
001101 ^ 100000 = 101101 covering Solstice December 2003 to 21 Jan 04
001101 ^ 110000 = 111101 covering 22 Jan to 20 Feb 2004
001101 ^ 111000 = 110101 covering 21 Feb to 20 March
001101 ^ 111100 = 110001 covering 21 March to 19 April
001101 ^ 111110 = 110011 covering 20 April to 19 May
001101 ^ 111111 = 110010 covering 20 May to 17 June
001101 ^ 011111 = 010010 covering 18 June to 17 July
001101 ^ 001111 = 000010 covering 18 July to 16 August
001101 ^ 000111 = 001010 covering 17 August to 14 September
001101 ^ 000011 = 001110 covering 15 Sep to 14 October
001101 ^ 000001 = 001100 covering 15 Oct to 12 Nov
001101 ^ 000000 = 001101 covering 13 Nov to 12 December
So we get the same hexagrams as Anschutz, but with slightly different time periods. It's a bit awkward that things don't fit together exactly, and by the end of the year, following the lunar months, we're out of alignment with the Equinox/Solstice cycle. In particular too, 111000 should include the Spring Equinox, 111111 should include the Summer Solstice, 000111 should include the Autumn Equinox and 000000 should include the Winter Solstice. I am still researching exactly how this works, but essentially the Chinese use the idea of a "leap month" to correct for these misalignments.
The mathematical details of the Chinese calendar can be found here:
Andreas'
™Hexagram of the Month: 59, Dispersing ˜ The old character for 'Dispersing' shows flowing water, and a man at the mouth of a cave, looking around with a stick in his hands. He seems to me to be trying to get the measure of a newly flooded landscape, though he might also be holding a knife and releasing the flow of blood from a sacrifice. But at all events, a powerful flow has been released from its usual channels and is free to find its own direction. There are no more barriers or boundaries; the whole, solid means of dividing and understanding the world have crumbled away.
'Dispersing' means a change of state: ice melting, water evaporating, clouds dissolved. At every stage, there is more free movement, more space, and longer perspectives for clear vision. It leaves an empty slate, being made ready for the more vital, flexible articulations of Hexagram 60.
And this is quite a challenge:
'Dispersing, creating success.
The king enters his temple. Harvest in crossing the great river, Harvest in constancy.' Once the flood is visited on you, or once you have unleashed the flow of emotion yourself, there is definitely no returning to normality - normality is somewhere down the river. The king enters his temple to reconnect mundane understanding with something larger than normal-scale ideas, and to receive guidance in this wide-open landscape. He doesn't 'take charge' in his own right: superheroes are not required here. Instead of finding purpose and meaning in preservation work, people have the new project and goal of crossing the great river (which may have come to them). They have a clear view now into unknown territories, and an opportunity to embrace the unthinkable.
'Wind moves over the water. Dispersing.
The ancient kings made offerings to the Highest and established the temples.' This alludes to the substance of offerings: the spirits are nourished by the rising vapours. What lasts is the constant circulation of energy between humans and spirits. Temples that endure for millennia are made, not of immense rocks, but of wind and water.
The process of dissolving the old boundaries and articulating a new understanding - Hexagrams 59 and 60 - pivots around the nuclear hexagram of 27, Nourishment. This is about renewing the structures of life, all the personal and social 'ecosystems' that provide nourishment. It restores impeded circulation!
There are many ways you might experience this hexagram in practice.
In relationships, the removal of all boundaries or obstacles to vision can create a renewed flow and connection - and, paradoxically, difficulties in ordinary communication when the usual shared concepts and understanding melt away. Instead, people can become overwhelmingly present and visible to one another, with no more concept of 'personal space' or emotional privacy. The truth comes into plain view: this may or may not be comforting.
It often leaves people feeling lost, without their usual mental landmarks: 'here is my job,' 'here is what I believe, what I can do, who I am.' Dispersing is the opposite of Feng, Hexagram 55, the city where Wu received his mandate: amidst the floodwaters, it's hard to know what you are 'meant' to do. And this can dissolve self-limiting beliefs, so that you understand your own potential on a larger scale.
For a variety of readings, ways of interpreting, profound thought and elegant lunacy, visit the I Ching Community. For instance..
(The first and last links are from Open Space - a distinctively different place.)
And further afield...
A big anthology of broadly 'New Age' software, mostly astrology, some tarot, all free. (Towards the 11th page, some are only free trials, but the majority are freeware, or even public domain.)
Someone asked at the ICC recently if there was anything like Clarity in tarot. I hate to say it, but Aeclectic Tarot is much bigger and better.
A - or maybe 'the' - big Spanish I Ching site. Forum, chat, surveys, and stacks of good content. Now, could anyone see their way to translating it all...?
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