Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).
We also observe that the four "separated" hexagram pairs: (01,02) (27,28) (29,30) (61,62) [families #1, #2, #8, & #9] all share a peculiar trait -- none of them has a proper Wen inverse as do the other twenty-eight pairs of hexagrams. The pairs formed from these eight hexagrams are not figurative inverses, but complementary opposites. Complementary opposition is the basis of the Earlier Heaven (Xian Tian) trigram arrangement, and the square (8x8) hexagram arrangement, both attributed to Fu Xi.
I suspect (and hope) that Yijing is a representation of the Tree of Life (not a reference to the Kabbalistic version)
Actually there is a good chance that Yixue and the Yinyang/Wuxing Jia were the origin of the Qabalistic version of the Tree (Otz Hhayim), via the Arabs. This diagram predates Kircher's first representation of the Tree in the West by four centuries.
http://www.hermetica.info/Taijitu.jpg
I should have written "not a specific reference," but thank you all the more! Many people equate tree of life with Etz Chaim, but depictions of the Tree of Life are many and widespread. There is even a possibility that the Tablet of Destinies from the Akkado-Sumerian tradition may also be related to Yijing:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cfu/choc/choc02.htm#fr_12
it is comforting to find other individuals here interested in hermetics (and hermeneutics), and the process of integrating legend and mythology with history and relics
It may be remembered also, in this connection, that Hermes is represented as the messenger of the Gods and as their interpreter (hermeneutes), that is, precisely, an intermediary between the celestial and terrestrial worlds, and that he has in addition the function of "guide of the souls of the dead" which, in a lower order, is clearly related also to the domain of the subtle possibilities.[5]
It might be objected that in so far as concerns Hermetism, Hermes takes the place of the Egyptian Thoth with whom he has been identified, and that Thoth represents Wisdom, which is related to the priesthood as guardian and transmitter of the tradition; that is true, but since this identification cannot have been made without some reason, it must be admitted that it concerns more especially a certain aspect of Thoth which corresponds to a certain part of the tradition, the part that comprises those branches of knowledge which are related to the "intermediary world"; and the remains that the ancient Egyptian civilization has left behind do in fact show that the sciences of this order were much more developed there and had taken on an importance far more considerable than anywhere else. There is moreover another comparison, we might even say another equivalence, which shows clearly that this objection would have no real bearing: in India the planet Mercury (or Hermes) is called Budha, a name of which the root letters mean Wisdom; here again, it is enough to specify the domain in which this Wisdom (in its essence the inspiring principle of all knowledge) is to find its more particular application when it is related to this specialized function.[6]
Strange though it may seem, the name Budha is in fact identical with that of the Scandinavian Odin, Woden or Wotan;[7]there was thus nothing arbitrary in the Roman assimilation of Odin to Mercury, and in some Germanic languages the day of Mercury (in French mercredi) is still called the day of Odin, which is precisely what the word Wednesday means.
Still more remarkable, perhaps, is the fact that this same name is to be found exactly in the Pacal Votan of the ancient traditions of central America who has moreover the attributes of Hermes, for he is Quetzal cohuatl, the "bird-serpent," and the union of these two symbolic animals (corresponding respectively to the two elements air and fire) is also figured by the wings and the serpents of the Caduceus.[8] One must indeed be blind not to see, in such facts, a sign of the fundamental unity of all traditional doctrines.
That they were the "chatty" ones, with lots of records left behind, doesn't mean they were better or that preceded any other contemporary civilization in import and scope. Recorded history cannot be taken as a measure of metaphysical advance.
Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).