For this 15th episode of the I Ching with Clarity podcast, I asked the oracle to explain the whole idea of a ‘New Year’ to me. ‘What’s a creative way to imagine New Year? What’s its deeper significance?’ Yi responds with Hexagram 57, Subtly Penetrating, changing at lines 2 and… Read more »What are New Years?
There are just two ‘outer mountain’ hexagrams in the Upper Canon: 41, Decreasing, and 52, Stilling. Hexagram 41, Decreasing The Oracle Hexagram 41 is Sun 損: decrease, damage, harm, weakening. So the words of the oracle that define it are startling – ‘Decreasing has truth and confidence.From the source, good… Read more »Mountain above: hexagrams 41 and 52
Looking away Hexagram 52 is called gen, 艮, and so too is the trigram that’s doubled to make the hexagram. It translates as ‘looking away’: in the ancient character, you can see a reversed human figure with a great eye. Nowadays, it apparently also translates as ‘tough, hard to chew’ – something… Read more »Hexagram 52, Stilling
… is so much more interesting than just watching the tennis. Today was the men’s final at the Wimbledon championships. Roger Federer had won for the past four years on the trot and was huge favourite to make it five in a row. And so he did, beating Rafael Nadal… Read more »Watching the tennis with Yi
Have you noticed how the same ideas cluster together in different cultures? Here’s the name of Hexagram 52, Keeping Still (mountain): – a human figure, standing. And here is the mountain pose.
This week I received Hexagram 52: ‘Keeping your back still, Not grasping your self. Moving in your rooms, Not seeing your people. Not a mistake.’ And I read in John O’Donohue’s Anam Cara: “There is no direct, permanent or public access to the divine. Each destiny has a unique curvature… Read more »Not grasping your self
The fourth ‘Readings Panel’ reading at GreatVessel.com is one Stephen Karcher cast on behalf of a group in June 2002: “What about President Bush and his plans for a war on Iraq? What attitude or stance can we take towards this?” Yi said “Keep Still”. (Gen, hexagram 52) It’s a… Read more »I Ching for activists at GreatVessel.com
