I was just reading this post by Hollis Polk, ‘Does synchronicity have a structure?’ She’s just experienced a truly uncanny sequence of synchronicities, all in support of her new teleclass. They leave her wondering, “I’d like to believe that it was my clear intention to do this class for free, and… Read more »Experiencing synchronicity
Over the weekend, I found myself with a bit of a communication problem. The details aren’t important: I wanted to help and encourage someone to do something he was finding hard. I tried a few different approaches, succeeded only in being annoying, and finally asked Yi for advice on how… Read more »Open book
Often, a weekly reading will give me a general idea of something to pay attention to, and then something will come up during the week that gives me a much clearer and more specific idea of what to do. And of course, that ‘something’ that comes up stands out as… Read more »Defending against distress
‘At the centre of the earth is a mountain. Integrity. The noble one thus reduces the many to increase the few, He weighs things up to balance out their distribution.’ According to Wilhelm, the noble one is involved in the redistribution of wealth, but it’s always seemed to me that… Read more »Reducing the many
‘Above the mountain is thunder. Small overstepping.
Noble one in actions exceeds in courtesy,
In loss exceeds in mourning,
In using resources exceeds in economy.’
I first met Margaret Pearson at a talk she was giving in Clare Hall, Cambridge, about the Yijing and her upcoming translation. She handed out excerpts from her first drafts, including Hexagram 11, and I started reading with great interest. Simple, fluent translation… a couple of ‘why did I never realise that?’ moments… A gently lucid commentary that I can see myself quoting in readings in future.
Then I looked at the Image – and there, instead of the usual ‘ruler’ or ‘prince’, was the queen, ‘guid[ing] the natural forces of both sky and earth’. Oh dear, I thought. She’s just arbitrarily converting the male to the female, I thought. After all, this character means a male ruler, right?
Um. It ain’t necessarily so.
