Losing and Finding the Magic Tortoise

[susieq777]

Hi all,

Has anyone had the experience of feeling like their relationship with the I Ching distinctly changes? Over the last several weeks it's felt like things have shifted somehow. I've gotten the distinct feeling that the Yi is telling me that I have become over-dependent on it, that I am asking questions that I can quite easily go within and ask myself.

Which fits in nicely with the fact that my health has been improving after an awful year of physical and emotional issues where I was barely able to hold my stuff together. The Yi has been wonderful in those times, reassuring me of things that when I am more well and less anxious I am able to tune into myself. How clever the Yi is.

To reach this position has been a little painful. I have been getting far more wrist-slaps, with such hexagrams as 4 and then last night, when I asked my usual "What's the theme for this upcoming week?" I got 27.1.

What? What have I done wrong here? I was starting to think, while at the same time reminding myself that this is the sort of victim mentality position I was unwittingly put into by a stupid father who should not have had children to start with, but one in which I did not need to take with the Yi. That sensitivity to criticism is one of my greatest wounded areas and one in which I'm most touchy. I do feel like Yi is helping me move into something else with that.

Before I went to sleep I was reading all of the threads on here talking about that elusive 27.1 and that magic tortoise. What a delightfully mysterious way to refer to the Self in this way. Someone in one of the threads mentioned to keep an eye out for references to tortoises. I thought this should be interesting, seeing tortoises are not something you come across every day, but being a little in love with and conversant in synchronicity spaces, I was looking forward to it.

And then today someone linked on Facebook to the most delightful story of a rather disabled tortoise and the vet who assisted him to get around ... by attaching Lego wheels to give him his own personalised wheelchair. I will try and link to it here, though it doesn't seem to be showing up: http://www.pixable.com/article/tortoises-lego-wheelchair-gives-adorable-pet-new-lease-life-58791/.

It has touched me in the most profound way.

 

[pocossin]

Here is a link to the story.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2014/12/tortoise-receives-a-lego-wheelchair/

 

[susieq777]

Thank you, Pocossin

It looks a bit creepy, I suppose, doesn't it?

The page I saw had a video of him using his wheels. I'll try once more and see if it links this time: http://www.pixable.com/article/tortoises-lego-wheelchair-gives-adorable-pet-new-lease-life-58791

I just thought it was a most literal example of Yi encouragement (odd sense of humour on occasion, I must say

 

[sooo]

As I understand it, the magic tortoise and the Yijing oracle are in ways one and the same, or one might say the magic tortoise is the means by which the oracle is revealed.There is much written and easily found online regarding the mythology of tortoises in early China, and it's well known that the shell of a tortoise was used to divine the oracle, according to the cracks that developed when exposed to fire.

But regarding losing ones magic tortoise, in 27.1, I believe it speaks of self reliance, or capability of being ones own oracle. For example, a couple of nights ago I had a dream of fishing, and I caught a large fish, but in order to release the fish back into the pond, I had to dislodge the hook, which had strangely became lodged within the flesh of it's back. I damaged the fish by trying to extricate the hook, and instead cut the line (all these details are symbolic). As I released the fish into the pond I could tell that it felt pain when the water line reached the open wound which I had created. I felt very foolish and sorry for causing this pain, and the fish turned into a small pig. When I awakened, I said, pigs and fishes, a reference to 61. The dream was my oracle, and it all came from within me. I've contemplated that dream and discovered meanings that will assist me. To lose this intuitive sense is to lose the magic tortoise, and the fish, pig and myself are all one. The tortoise is connected with, among other things, longevity, and being careless, as I was in the dream, could cause my life to end early or at least cause much unnecessary pain. This is only an example.

More commonly, relying too heavily upon others or worrying too much over unnecessary things are examples of losing ones magic tortoise. The same can apply by relying too heavily upon the IC to solve your problems. There's nothing wrong with fishing or using the IC, but neither takes the place of our own self-reliance and intelligence.

 

[sooo]

regarding 4 and wrist slapping

What? What have I done wrong here? I was starting to think, while at the same time reminding myself that this is the sort of victim mentality position I was unwittingly put into by a stupid father who should not have had children to start with, but one in which I did not need to take with the Yi. That sensitivity to criticism is one of my greatest wounded areas and one in which I'm most touchy. I do feel like Yi is helping me move into something else with that.

There is so much more to 4 than slapping your wrist. Not knowing, and knowing you don't know, is the beginning of wisdom. So much of what we think we know is conditioned learned behavior, such as you've described regarding your father and your sensitivity toward criticism. 4 is rarely intended as a criticism, and is much more mind opening to learn from a young and innocent state of mind.

Funny too, that 4 is associated with a young pig, as in my dream? My fishing knowledge had 'gone to hell in a hand-basket,' and I had unthinkingly damaged the unknowing, that unborn thing.