Thunderbolt and earthquake The name of Hexagram 51, zhen 震, means Shock, Quake, and encompasses both thunder and earthquake. (Nowadays there is a specific word for earthquake made of the components ‘earth’ and ‘zhen’.) The old character has two components: rain, and chen, the name of the fifth Earthly Branch in the Chinese calendar – which… Continue Reading
I hope this post will make sense. It’s something I thought of in the small hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep, and started counting complementary hexagrams instead of sheep (as you do…) – Here’s a picture of the Sequence of Hexagrams: Hm… maybe that could do with some explanation: Each complementary pair (including… Continue Reading
Complementary hexagrams are paradoxical things. On the one hand, there is no hexagram more different from 21, Biting Through than 48, the Well: Every line is changed, so they have nothing in common. If it’s time to bite through, then it is exactly not time for well-maintenance. And on the other hand, this means that complementary… Continue Reading
I’ve written very excited posts before about the pattern of complementary hexagrams in the Sequence of the Yijing. Quick recap: to find a hexagram’s complement, you change all 6 of its lines. Thus the complement of hexagram 1 is hexagram 2 – and the complement of Hexagram 3, Sprouting is Hexagram 50, the Vessel:… Continue Reading
Warning: this post is pure, unadulterated gleeful Yeekery. I’ve been reading about how the ancient Chinese bronze vessels were made. Here’s a fascinating pdf on the subject (right click and choose ‘save as’ to download), with images of the finished vessels and also the moulds used in the casting, and diagrams showing the whole process.… Continue Reading
This post is such an agglomeration of things it’s not really title-able. How about ‘Complementary hexagrams, 26 and 45 in particular, and intention, and the usual brilliance of Jen Louden or What happens if you read everything with hexagram eyes’? No? Anyway… it starts – before that 61-to-29 reading persuaded me to give readings with… Continue Reading
Some background to this… Pamela Moss is one of the speakers for Festival of Change; I asked her to talk about integration, carrying change through in practice, as I happen to know she’s Very Good At This, and she said ‘yes’, and I danced round the room a bit, in a reserved, English sort of… Continue Reading
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