 Clarity's I Ching Newsletter: Issue 55 "I do not believe in meaningless coincidences." Deepak Chopra |
™Letter from the Editor— Dear Subscriber, I'm trying something new this issue: an audio introduction. In the recording, I'll tell you about the response to my suggestion for I Ching webinars last month, and share a reading of my own with the 'hexagram of the month', Following. Click the 'play' button below to hear it (if you have a very slow dial-up connection, this may take a couple of minutes to show up):
Please email me to let me know what you think of having part of your newsletter in audio format - especially if you had any trouble accessing it. And do share your thoughts on I Ching webinars...
warm wishes,
Hilary
A response to the subscriber's reading in the last issue:
"Hi Hilary,
Just a quick note to say thank you very much for my reading. I didn't expect it to be so deep and really appreciate the time you put into it.
On first reading I really related to a lot of what it said and felt very moved and hopeful. I feel and hope that drawing on my integrity and humility will develop inner patience and humour!!! (always good to have!) Returning to an inner strength of integrity and authenticity feels like a fantastic option of support similar to that of returning to an awareness of the breath in times of stress and difficulty. Interestingly this week I have been having thoughts of renewing or deepening my commitment to the relationship as a way of working positively with the fear of losing power and the reading seems to confirm this, something along the lines of 'well let's really give this a go then.' Once again thanks very much, and I may come back with further feedback at a later date.
Yours,
J
x"
™DIY Corner: More ways with moving lines— Last time I covered the basic ways of understanding multiple moving lines within what to me is 'ordinary' divination. What I didn't mention - and a couple of helpful readers have mentioned :) - is that there are other ways of working with them, or sometimes not working with them, altogether.
First, there are methods for reducing the number of moving lines to read when the oracle gives you several. Harmen Mesker helpfully posted Zhuxi's method at the I Ching Community last year.
Alfred Huang in his Complete I Ching offers a different, simpler method, passed down from his own teacher, Master Yin:
"1. If there are two moving lines - one yin and the other yang - consult only the yin moving line.
2. If the two moving lines are both yin or both yang, consult the lower one.
3. If there are three moving lines, consult only the middle one.
4. If there are four moving lines, consult only the upper of the two nonmoving lines.
5. If there are five moving lines, consult only the other, nonmoving line.
6. If six lines are all moving, consult the Decision of the new gua, the approached gua.
7. Since there is a seventh invisible line in the first and second gua, Qian and Kun, for these gua consult the seventh Yao Text, called All Nines or All Sixes."
(extract from The Complete I Ching, Alfred Huang, p17)
For myself, I don't use either method. I feel that a rich, complex reading is a good sign of a rich, complex situation; I'm more interested in experiencing the complexity than in reducing it.
If you read just a few posts further down in that I Ching Community archive, you'll find Bradford explaining the 'transitional hexagram' method that he and Mondo Secter discovered (or perhaps rediscovered) in 1976. This is explained in full in Mondo Secter's I Ching Handbook, and in Bradford's Introduction, available to download from his site. The basic idea is that when you change the first line of your hexagram, you create a new one - and then change the next line within that hexagram, not the original one. So - at least as far as I understand it - you have the sense of progressing through the change step by distinct, independent step, rather than of relationships and tensions within a single picture.
An example we saw at the ICC recently: Hexagram 28 with the third and fourth lines changing. First you're told that the roof beam is buckling disastrously, next that it is holding up successfully, and all will be well provided nothing more is added. You might be left feeling a little like Schrödinger's cat before the box was opened.
With the transitional method, 28 would change to 47 after the 3rd line, so you'd read 28,3 and 47,4 - changing 47,4 brings you out at hexagram 29, just as in the ordinary method. 28,4, the beam holding up, wouldn't be involved at all.
So with the transitional method, you won't have to envisage your beam both sagging and straight, or your Vessel both upended and upright. This may be initially more complex than the ordinary, non-cumulative method, but at least it will make more sense: Bradford says it 'almost always tells a more coherent story' for him. It has the advantage of not making you see from several mutually contradictory perspectives within the same hexagram.
For me, this is also its disadvantage. Those two lines of hexagram 28 suggest that the outcome still hangs in the balance, but the smallest human intervention could push things either way. You can look at the lines and their contexts (hexagram 47 versus 48, and the approaches or beliefs suggested by 47,3 as compared with 48,4) to find what the determining factors could be.
™Hexagram of the month: 17, Following ˜ I think that 'Following' is a matter of moving smoothly and willingly with the current of events. In the old Chinese, the word probably originally showed a grave mound, a foot at a crossroads, and meat given as an offering. For me, this brings to mind the origins of feng shui as the art and science of burial sites: when strong currents flow through life's landscapes, you need to orient yourself carefully in relation to them. A sacrifice made at the crossroads, or for the journey, would be an offering for smooth flow, and a sign of willingness to follow.
'Following.
Creating success from the source, harvest in constancy.
No mistake.'
This hexagram begins in the same way as the whole Yijing begins: with 'the source, success, harvest, constancy', yuan heng li zhen. Together, these four words show the presence of Creative Force, driving through to completion. There's a sense of inevitability; 'it follows'; everything will fall into place.
In divination, these 'currents' that events float on are usually beyond our conscious grasp. They may have entered your life through your personal inspiration and drive (hexagram 16), but now be revealed as something altogether larger and more profound. A stream of synchronicities, for example; the subliminal, automatic patterns of response of a tennis champion 'in the zone'; the cycle of the housing market; the changes in your mood. Hexagram 17 marks the time for honouring these and Following where they lead.
Of course, there is also a time not to follow. Corruption, Hexagram 18, is the contrasting pair of Following and also its opposite. It marks the time when the unknown forces beneath the surface are working to corrupt and infect life from within. Then, they have to be interrogated, brought to awareness and integrated into waking life. This provides the stability for 'crossing the great river' - a new direction.
But in a time of Following, there is no call to battle the currents or search for their causes. Sometimes this hexagram can come as reassurance, in response to a question like, 'Why isn't this working?' or 'How can I overcome this blockage?' Not only is it beyond your power to fight, but you may not need to fight it at all: despite appearances, there is 'no mistake' in the direction of events. (Though it may take a couple of months or years before you can understand why not.)
The trigrams of Following show thunder, the power of change and renewal that surges up through hexagram 16, hidden beneath the surface of the lake. It represents motive forces below the threshold of consciousness, like the dragon who sleeps over winter on the lake bed.
'At the centre of the lake is thunder. Following.
In the same way, the noble one at nightfall
Goes inside for renewal and rest.'
In the first place this is (uncommon) common sense: if what you need, your mood or your market, is at a low ebb, then rest and wait, don't burn the midnight oil. But it also suggests going inward as a means of reconnecting with the motive forces: incubating a dream, for instance, might be a modern equivalent to the offering at the crossroads.
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