The first thing you’re going to notice about this episode is the change of music. The new recording is Kimiko Ishizaka’s performance of the 9th of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, from her wonderful Open Goldberg Variations project. I hope you enjoy it! Three readings of mine get a mention in this… Read more »Shock, bogs, and not knowing
I’ve been learning to drive! Better very-late-indeed than never, perhaps…? And since the Yi – along with a wise driving instructor and generous husband – has been instrumental in making this possible, I thought I’d write about it here. Why so late? Well… I started lessons at 17 like everyone… Read more »Driving, lessons
Shock in the background I’ve been mulling over how Hexagram 51, Shock, feels as relating hexagram. After all, a relating hexagram is often the background to an answer – scene-setting, a personal theme, the chapter heading for this part of your life. How does something as abrupt as ‘Shock’ work… Read more »51, Shock, as relating hexagram
Eight hexagrams of the Yijing are formed from doubled trigrams (chong gua 重卦) – the same trigram above and below. These hexagrams give us the names of the trigrams. They also – as Bradford Hatcher explained – provide some of the best evidence that the original authors of the oldest… Read more »The eight doubled-trigram hexagrams
A set of three lines Something I learned from Scott Davis*: it’s worth taking a second look at anything that shows up in the Yijing in a set of three. *Though come to think of it, there are about eight reasons why I might’ve got a clue a little earlier…… Read more »Lost and found
Ni, 泥 , simply means ‘mud’ – soil, putty, to daub with plaster. It’s the clay that was baked into bricks and tiles. I normally look for how a word is used in the Book of Songs, or the Book of Rites, but ni doesn’t appear anywhere in either of… Read more »Nothing quite like it
You know how the lines of some hexagrams unfold and tell a story? Hexagram 53 traces the journey of the wild geese; 1 follows the dragon’s journey across the skies; 48 describes well-repair. Well… I’m wondering whether something similar might not be happening in Hexagram 51. The name of the… Read more »The story of Shock
