The muddle If you’re new to the I Ching, you could be forgiven for wondering why there are apparently two hexagrams called ‘Obstruction’: Hexagram 12 (according to such translators as Cleary and Richter) and Hexagram 39 (according to Balkin, amongst others). Neither hexagram is one you’d generally rejoice to see in a reading – both… Continue Reading
Hexagram 8… …is called bi 比, which means… You can see the core idea in the old Chinese character: two human figures walking together, one following the other, their outlines matching. (One dictionary even says these are not human figures, but spoons – spooning!) In the context of the Sequence of Hexagrams. this comes as… Continue Reading
A Change Circle member recently mentioned getting a whole series of readings with 15 as relating hexagram, so I thought I’d dig in and explore how it works there, as the background to a reading… Integrity, humility… The name of Hexagram 15, qian 謙, means humility – or perhaps integrity, or authenticity, or modesty. The… Continue Reading
‘Above the mountain, there is water. Limping.Noble one turns himself around to renew his character.’ Hexagram 39, the Image When the Image authors talked of ‘turning oneself around’ in Hexagram 39, they were picking up on a theme in the older layers of text. To start with, the Oracle says that the west and south… Continue Reading
The Xugua – its scope and limits As you may know, I’m a huge enthusiast for the Sequence of Hexagrams: its hidden patterns, the ways it creates meaning, its big reflections and arcs and the way it adds depth to readings. The Xugua, the 9th Wing… is not really about any of that. It doesn’t… Continue Reading
In my last post, I talked about how the Daxiang paints pictures of individual hexagrams, as a whole. In this one, I’d like to try a change of perspective, zooming in and zooming out, to see what comes into focus. Commentary on the lines The Image builds on and humanises the Oracle text, but it’s… Continue Reading
The background Early this year, I told people that I’d be running a Yijing Foundations Class in May. Not just the course, which is always available in a self-study version, but an online class with weekly video sessions, a private forum, and lots of individual help and opportunities to practise readings. And then it dawned… Continue Reading
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