Comments on whole hexagrams, individual lines and so on
There are two lines in Hexagram 20 that differ by just one word: Line 5 – ‘Seeing my own life. The noble one is without mistake.’ Line 6 – ‘Seeing their lives. The noble one is without mistake.’ Seeing ‘my own’ life, or seeing ‘his, her or their’ life. How… Read more »Hexagram 20, Seeing Life
So that Change Circle’s ‘WikiWing’ doesn’t start life as 64 empty pages, I’m writing my own contribution for each hexagram before we open – an edited and distilled version of my own working notes. That way there’ll be something there to refer to for every hexagram and line right from… Read more »Hexagram 47 – WikiWing contribution
I first read this story in Women Who Run with the Wolves, and it was one of those ‘scribbling hexagrams in the margins’ moments for me. You can read a longer version of the tale here, but this is the core of it: Vassilissa was a beautiful young girl who… Read more »Fire inside and outside
The Vessel, ding, is the name of hexagram 50. It refers to a particularly beautiful and sacred bronze vessel, fit for food to be shared with the ancestors, strong enough to inaugurate a dynasty. You move your ding by inserting a carrying handle through its ‘ears’, loops on its rim.… Read more »The vessel with a jade handle
Hexagram 30, Clarity, has a lot to say about understanding transience. The fourth line is especially emphatic: ‘Sudden, Comes, Burns, Dies, Thrown out.’ Here is something that flares up brightly, but dies away for lack of fuel. Wilhelm sees someone who ‘rises quickly to prominence but produces no lasting effects.’… Read more »A note on hexagram 30, line 4
I’ve been revisiting the idea of the ‘non-people’ in hexagram 12. The most helpful way to understand them, most of the time, is as people we regard, for whatever reason, as not quite ‘like us’ enough to be real. Most of the time, the problem is with the labelling and… Read more »Hexagram 12 – negative souls?
Following on from a post on hexagram 53, line 1… ‘Wild geese gradually advance to the shore. The small child, danger, There are words, No mistake.’ The obvious question about this line – and I always like to ask the most obvious question – is ‘Why is the small child… Read more »Wild geese and small child
