Antibiotic resistance/world events reading

[gael123]

Since I'm still experimenting with IChing readings, I thought I would try something which is not directly personal - something about world events. I wonder how other people find the Yi on the subject of global history/current affairs.I thought in this reading (below) it was rather apt.

I decided to ask about what (IMHO) is probably the most alarming of the several terrible things presently on the international horizon - the growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, which may slowly, or swiftly, render basic treatments (and chemotherapy besides) impossible. I think this would have a deep impact on our way of life, and dreadful consequences for the most vulnerable people in those societies where antibiotics are used. And everyone else, actually.

Anyway, I asked the Yi: "Is the world moving towards experiencing a so-called "antibiotic apocalypse"?'

In retrospect, I think this question was probably a bit closed. But the Oracle's answer was interesting: Hexagram 19 unchanging. An unchanging reading was if anything the last thing I had expected, but I got to thinking about the hexagram more deeply than I ever have before.

It may describe the history of antibiotics: the solution that created enormous progress or advance but is now reaching its 8th month - its sell-by date. This would be the most alarming spin to place on the reading. Or it may suggest that we have a short time to face the 'evil' - the reversal from the light - and that we must seize it. Its emphasis on biology is also interesting, I feel - the hexagram is about natural processes and their relationship to human culture. It seems to posit some sort of relationship between the man or woman of insight who can perceive what the people need, and the way spring revivifies the natural landscape. Perhaps it's suggesting we can, or should, find a new way to work with the natural world in order to enable or safeguard human life. Of course, modern farming practises are partly to blame for what is happening.

I'd be interested in anyone else's thoughts. Thank you!

 

[Trojina]

Since I'm still experimenting with IChing readings, I thought I would try something which is not directly personal - something about world events. I wonder how other people find the Yi on the subject of global history/current affairs.I thought in this reading (below) it was rather apt.

I don't tend to think they 'work'. Global history/current affairs questions that is. Well what I mean is I don't think one can ever leave oneself out of an answer. The answer will always be addressed to you. So if one asks a global history question it still has one in it so to speak. It can't be an objective measure of anything. If others asked the same question they'd get quite different answers although you never know they might be along the same lines. Having said all that I'll share what I see of your answer here which is quite interesting.

Anyway, I asked the Yi: "Is the world moving towards experiencing a so-called "antibiotic apocalypse"?'

In retrospect, I think this question was probably a bit closed. But the Oracle's answer was interesting: Hexagram 19 unchanging. An unchanging reading was if anything the last thing I had expected, but I got to thinking about the hexagram more deeply than I ever have before.

As no one else answered yet I'll give you what comes to my mind. You asked a yes/no question. I've nothing against yes/no questions and my feeling is this is a 'No, the world is not moving towards an antibiotic apocalypse.' . The reason I say this is I see 19 as a benign over seeing influence. I feel very much this crisis will be circumvented by greater intelligence manifesting through the work and inspirations of current and upcoming generations. How exactly it might be circumvented by greater intelligence I cannot say but the answer doesn't say to me 'apocalypse'. It could easily say to me that guidance arrives through the gifts of scientists, researchers, drs....I don't know exactly, but I think guidance will arrive on this. Also things outside human influence may arrive to change the route of this upcoming disaster. I mean we can't always predict what various bugs and epidemics are going to do next and so on and so forth...

Have you seen this thread BTW
http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/frie...eriences-with-Unchanging-Castings-Hexagram-19

I'd like to link to this thread from that one especially if you get more answers.

It may describe the history of antibiotics: the solution that created enormous progress or advance but is now reaching its 8th month - its sell-by date. This would be the most alarming spin to place on the reading. Or it may suggest that we have a short time to face the 'evil' - the reversal from the light - and that we must seize it. Its emphasis on biology is also interesting, I feel - the hexagram is about natural processes and their relationship to human culture. It seems to posit some sort of relationship between the man or woman of insight who can perceive what the people need, and the way spring revivifies the natural landscape. Perhaps it's suggesting we can, or should, find a new way to work with the natural world in order to enable or safeguard human life. Of course, modern farming practises are partly to blame for what is happening.

Yes it might include all those things but as I said I don't find it an alarming reading. I don't feel it's an alarming answer either. Apart from looking at what the answer says we often get a feel of it on top of that and here, FWIW I find this reading reassuring. As you say there is the question of timing and work to be done to counteract these possibilities but as the reading is unchanging I feel it's going to happen in it's own time anyway. You know how inventions often arise in different parts of the world at the same time ? Well then it appears that an intelligence arises almost 'in the air' so to speak and is picked out by those working in the field at that time. That is what this answer gives me the feel of.

I'd be interested in anyone else's thoughts. Thank you!

Well there's mine It's an interesting answer so I'd like it connected to the 19uc thread

 

[Tohpol]

Nice response.

I don't see anything apocalyptic in this either but I do see a slow change. For me I place an emphasis on wise management of energy in this Hex with associations to mentoring and teaching. So, if "approached" in the correct way, scientists can get a handle on this and maybe even change the whole concept of palliative care and how we use drugs generally. A much more balanced approach is needed within the medical establishment (Big Pharma, medical cartels etc.) 19 is connected to seasonal adjustment, waxing and waning so they'll be points in the human cycle when certain drugs may be more useful than others at specific junctures. Genetics, biorhythms, personality traits, planetary/cosmic influences all play their part in how a person is going to react to a drug and/or alternative modes of healing and that very much fits with the timing, facilitation and seasonal aspect of 19.

I like this hexagram very much - one of my favourites.

I'll just throw this into the mix as food for thought:

http://naturalsociety.com/superbug-resistant-to-all-antibiotics-found-in-china/#ixzz3sWidO1ki

 

[Liselle]

I'm trying to pay more attention to the Sequence, and what strikes me there is that hexagram 19 follows hexagram 18. In other words, Yi's answer implies that corruption (decay, "bugs" which antibiotics fight) has been gotten past.

However, I've worked with the Sequence too little to say that with the slightest conviction.

The "eighth month" part - I see your point that it's often a warning of some sort, or a prediction of failure. If your question had been about taking antibiotics yourself for an ailment, it might mean not to stop before taking all of them (which is standard advice - take them all; don't stop as soon as you feel better - but sometimes people are tempted to stop, and I could see how this might apply in such a case).

As far as your actual question, I like what Trojina said:

I feel very much this crisis will be circumvented by greater intelligence manifesting through the work and inspirations of current and upcoming generations.
[...]
It could easily say to me that guidance arrives through the gifts of scientists, researchers, drs....I don't know exactly, but I think guidance will arrive on this. Also things outside human influence may arrive to change the route of this upcoming disaster.

And Hilary says this in her Oracle commentary:

"The eighth month is the month of harvest. If this comes round too soon for what Nears to reach full growth – if the situation demands that you produce a tangible result prematurely – then this means misfortune."

So I wonder if your reading might be saying people shouldn't fall prey to a panicked, wemustsolveitnow mentality?

A difficulty I (personally) have with these sorts of questions / readings is I wonder if they actually accomplish anything, even for the person asking. Do they even satisfy curiosity? I've asked questions like this, and afterwards have sometimes thought to myself, "Was that worth the time I spent on it?" Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but I don't bother very often anymore.

A couple years ago I heard that the first day of Hannukah will not coincide with Thanksgiving for another 78,000 years. So out of idle curiosity I asked Yi, "What will the Earth be like in 78,000 years?" Yi told me 13.6 > 49 (quoting Hilary):

"People in harmony at the outskirts altar.
No regrets."

I thought I'd read somewhere (don't remember where) that 13.6 can mean "the highest it's possible to attain" (on Earth, by humans, in reality...), so I was sort of comforted by this. And then I shrugged and thought, "And...so what?" There was no harm in my asking, but...

I don't tend to think they 'work'. Global history/current affairs questions that is. Well what I mean is I don't think one can ever leave oneself out of an answer. The answer will always be addressed to you. So if one asks a global history question it still has one in it so to speak. It can't be an objective measure of anything. If others asked the same question they'd get quite different answers although you never know they might be along the same lines.

Mostly I agree with that...not entirely...the distinction might be with the word "objective." No, Yi won't give the same reading to each of ten people asking the same question. Let's even say the readings aren't really even "synonyms" (so to speak). That doesn't mean there's no objectivity at all, or that the reading is useless to anyone but the questioner (IMO).

A good example, I think: this debacle of a thread which (without malicious intent) I managed to hijack into a thread about people's parking habits (sorry, Rosada).

I'd been frustrated by bad car parking, ranted to Yi in the form of a question, and was eventually able to discern what the reading said. It made perfect sense to me as an explanation. So I recounted it as an example - and was jumped on by most everyone else in the thread (except Trojina, who, bless her, understood how I saw the reading).

Since then, I've concluded the problem was this: it was my reading, and Yi was speaking to me, as Trojina says. The reading was far from an explanation of all bad parking everywhere, which is why so many people saw so many different things in it (and let me know about them so vociferously).

However - the reading was a perfectly straightforward and objective explanation of some bad parking - the bad parking I encounter and was complaining about. That species of bad parking surely exists in other places as well, so it didn't pertain just to me. It was an objective answer; it just wasn't the entire answer.

 

[gael123]

These answers were all so fascinating! Thank you! There's so much to think about in what all of you have said and I just got to the end of a (rare for me!) 60 hour working week and my brain is a bit muffled... so I'd like to check in again when I'm more compos mentis to respond to what people are saying. But I also want to thank people now! I have a strong sense that this reading, and the responses to it, remind us of the complexity of the way we encounter the world: that it's not just out THERE, but that we paradoxically make it through our encounters with it... that reality is the sum total of our intersecting consciousnesses. So an answer from the Oracle will be slanted to me, a product of my question and my situation, but that part will be a clue to the whole, a sort of part of the whole, really.