Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).
The name of the hexagram, lu, Treading, is a complex character showing shoes and footsteps, and also the person who sat as the representative of the deceased ancestor at sacrifices (something that Stephen Karcher evokes here and here). It could be – this is speculative – that when you Tread, it is as if you were stepping into the shoes of an ancestor, embodying their spirit. Again, you would be seeking that connection with spiritual power – and you would need great respect and great skill to walk so closely with ancestors.
You know, one perspective I always keep in mind is that of Charles de Harlez, who translated the Yi into French at the end of the 1800's. He thought the Yijing was a sort of dictionary for the discrete number of characters that is in the name of the hexagrams and the text of the lines would be explanations to the meaning of those words. Wrong in many ways, but not completely crazy. Dictionaries are tools that we use to find all the possible meanings of a given word. In a way, we use the Yijing to find meaning that escapes us at the moment. The search for certain answers isn't much different, be it by using the Yijing, an encyclopedia or a dictionary.
Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).