I’ve been reading in Kindred Spirit magazine about the evidence (not sure if I need inverted commas there) for an inter-life experience. Lots of people under regression hypnosis (with different therapists) report very similar experiences of a place they go between lives. While there, they review their past life, rejoin with their soul group, and choose and plan their new life, its encounters and relationships.
Well, I can’t read anything of interest nowadays without relating it to hexagrams. And this got me thinking (if that’s really the word I need here…) about the last few hexagrams of the Yijing. What if… Hexagram 61 took us into the space between lives, the direct experience of Inner Truth? And with Hexagram 62 we made the transition back into ordinary life? And then 63-64 would be the ongoing round of existence, naturally.
Hexagram 61 tells us there is harvest in wading the great river. I don’t know what the pigs and fishes would be doing between lives, unless they are a very general sign that all is provided for. Hm, that’s pretty weak. But you know, the lines do follow a story not dissimilar to that ‘between lives’ narrative. We’re guided in (1), respond utterly naturally to our soul group and take refuge there (2, always ‘soulmates’, not that that always equates to ‘life partners’), maybe resist… (3, not sure about that, though there is something about resistance to life reviews…). Then we prepare to separate and return to the world as an individual (4), actively forge the connections with those we’ll be with in life (5), but run the risk of losing touch with our real identity and succumbing to the delusion of separation as we leave ‘inner truth’ and return to the world (6).
62’s lines talk a great deal about the importance of meeting, of having the right encounters. Getting the message, maybe.
If there is any kind of match here, then it must be because the real story is something bigger than the latest idea of an ‘inter-life’. Inner truth wouldn’t be in the Yijing if we couldn’t enter into it in the course of a lifetime, here and now. It certainly mirrors the ancient and universal story of the hero’s quest – finding the truth or the elixir, and returning with this to the ordinary world. Maybe there’s always an element in 61 of taking the red pill?
So, this is what you get with blogging. Some nicely cooked articles presented with a garnish, and some very raw ideas, just dug up and with the mud still clinging to them. Never say I didn’t warn you.