Planetary State & Conditions

[dharma]

The following topic is of importance to me as I continue compiling my book together. I would really appreciate the thoughts, I Ching experience and input anyone wishes to share.

I read an article the other day that said, in the authors opinion, the planet was 'alive' but did not have 'consciousness', I found this rather curious.

I was interested in what I Ching had to say about the planet's true 'state of being' and got: #9, all lines change, #16

While I was at it, I also asked what the present 'health condition' of the planet was and received: #13, top line change, #49

Anyone interested in taking this on?

Dharma

 

[nks]

OK, I'll give a quick impression.

9 - taming power of the small: When trying to connect with the voice/spirit of something, what often is required is quieting, listening, stooping low to hear.

In a book called The Art of Passingover, Fran Dorff illustrates how he "hears" God with a story of a Rabbi who was dealing with a young man who was sent to him to learn the Torah. The young man's father told the Rabbi that he had tried everything, but it was clear that his son had no interest in Torah, and heard nothing in the words. When the young man arrived, the Rabbi took him into a private room, and without speaking, grabbed him fiercely, and held the boy tightly to his chest. He held him there for a long while. Finally, when he knew that the boy was listening to his (the Rabbi's) heart beating, he held him gently a while longer, and then let him go. From that day forward, the boy studied with enthusiasm.

More in line with the i ching imagery (wind blowing together dense clouds, but not strongly enough to bring rain), a scene from the movie Lion King comes to mind. Rafiki (the wise baboon) is trying to show Simba (the young lion) that the spirit of his father lives. He has brought him to water, and Simba sees his own reflection in the water, and protests that that's only himself. "Look harder," Rafiki says. And in the imagry of 9, in the next scene it is as if winds have blown together a great cloud, and out of the cloud appears the image of his father, which speaks.

So I would say that 9 indicates an attitude or approach that will lead you to a deeper understanding of the planet's true state of being.

16 - enthusiasm: It strikes me that the way you got there was with 6 changing lines, a complete transformation, and the meaning of "enthusiasm" is "god within" or, I think more correctly, "breath within." And in the imagery of 16, there is a great clattering about, an abundance of people -- helpers, armies, kings, music makers, meritorious ones, givers of offerings, ancestors.

I would say that this suggests that it might also be helpful to look at the question inside-out. Maybe it is suggesting that the part of the planet that is us is the "conscious" part -- but something tells me that is too simplistic, that it leaves out a big part of the information that comes from 9. Not sure.

13 - Fellowship with men: but, for better, or worse, a great deal of the "current health condition of the planet" is tied up in the implications of the affairs of humans, and particularly in the implications of how relationships are ordered, how similarities and distinctions are dealt with. In line with my doubt that I've got the big picture right in #16, I would wonder if the fellowship indicated might extend to all beings. Six at the top deals with alliance beyond the reach of attachment. So indeed, the state of the world seems to show.

49 - Revolution/Molting: here, what catches my eye is the attention toward clarifying the calendar, understanding the appointed seasons. It seems that the life/consciousness proceeds by cycles, and coming to a renewed, deeper understanding of the cycles at work will be a big factor in how the state of the planet moves forward from here.

A morning's thoughts...

 

[candid]

Hi Dharma! Fascinating question. Here?s my impression.

Planet?s state of being:

The strong element is being held in check by a weaker element. I see this as, our collective spiritual being is held in check by our collective material being. The effect of the weak holds back the strong. This present condition is only temporary, for, sooner or later, the rain?s gonna fall. It therefore behooves us to be gentle.

I see the six change lines as six steps on a ladder. Each step represents a way to complete the process and cycle, bringing new rain and life into being. (to this earthly physical existence) Certain lines represent conflict, which is inevitably encountered along the way. In the final line, a simple returning from a short distance shows the way. But, the weak continues to press onward. To press onward at that time, would be to invite misfortune. Once the earth has successfully returned to her proper balance and place, success is achieved, and the rain comes.

What is the means to this returning and what effect does it have upon the earth? #16 demonstrates the interaction between the seen and unseen. Tremendous energy, stored within the womb of earth, comes forth in enthusiasm, as thunder applauds. There?s excitement in the air, and people see their connection and live freely in their pure spirit.


The health condition of the planet: If you were God, (I know, we are God, et al) and you were sitting on a planet, contemplating as you looked at the health/condition of earth, wouldn?t ?Fellowship? be on your heart? Lack of fellowship, is what?s on all our hearts these days. There must be a leader to serve as the center of any successful fellowship. The leader is sitting on a planet watching all this go on. Our role here, then, is to be yielding within the fellowship, yet strong in our connection with the source of our being.

How will this come about? Through a Revolution and an eventual molting. When we see who we really are, we?ll be born again.


On a very personal note, I had an incredible experience last night. As I (still) lay wide awake and fully conscious, trying to either accept my sleepless condition or to ?bite through with determination,? an image swooped in front of my face. I wasn?t alarmed, but looked at it carefully, observing its fluidness, an exterior so smooth, it glowed, its face shining with child-like innocence. We watched each other a short while in silence, and then I recognized it, for, it was me. I sighed and said, hello Bruce? nice to meet you, finally. I continued looking at it as I telepathically spoke, look, I know that you don?t know what sleep is? but its something that this body needs. If you don?t mind, chill out awhile for me each night. I?m not much good to you when I?m all frazzled and wired. Its expression never changed, ever the same smooth and shiny smile. I felt glad to see myself this way, for he was young in appearance, unlike my graying hair who?s darkness fades. He?s rarin? to go, as always, I chuckled aloud into the dark room. No end to that ones energy, I thought. Then smiling deeply into the pillow, he is a beautiful lad, I thought? drifting to sleep and very content.

~Candid

 

[louise]

Ahh, Candid thats really nice...wish i could have an experience like that..

 

[supanatural]

Greetings To All...

Dharma, How are you? When I read this, I was planning on not responding to this, but I thought it's for Dharma, so why not. I will start by saying "Life Comes From Life" Are there Extra Terrestrials? Life exist everywhere because Consciouness is everywhere.

The Two Great Reality's....Consciouness/Will...and...Energy/Matter. This is what scientist have boped their heads over for years. Consciousness is immaterial, and they can't weigh it. The Human body weighs the same after death, but something has left it? Consciousness!

Chien; Consciousness/Will....Sun; The Gentle Spirit. Not only is the Earth Conscious (Chien Consciousness/Will), but it has a Spirit (Sun The Gentle spirit of penetration).

The Earth is conscious, and it has a gentle spirit. Life Comes From Life. Sun, the Image of a Seed, being planted into the Earth, and it grows.
Life Comes From Life. Consciousness begets Consciousness. the Imagery of this Hexagram I found to be so sublime.

Hexagram 16, The Imagery shows the earth, and the seed is growing up out of the Earth. Life Comes From Life. If I were to take a molecule and strip that molecule, What do I find? We find Atoms. If I split those Atoms, what do I find? Electrons, protons, neutrons. If I go further, what do I find? Quarks. If I go further into quarks, what do I find? Photons. light particles or light Quantum. If I go further what do I find? Some other things that scientist haven't found the proper nomenclature for. Eventually, if I keep going further what I come to is energy and Matter, Consciousness/Will, in a quiescent state. the lower you go into the structure of Energy/Matter the less complex it is. It's a simplification of numbers and activity, and increasing stability. the deeper we go into the structure of matter, you are going into Greater stability, or shall we say greater Cohesive power. So, once I get to the base of Matter, and don't forget that your body is made of Matter; your spirit is a material thing. At the Core of your body, your spiritual body, is a stable Energy and Matter in a quiescent state. That is the center of your being, quiescence, stability.

When you meditate, you are withdrawing consciousness inside of yourself, and you're taking consciousness more and more into the quiescent part of your being. That's why indepth meditation brings you into a state of inner peace. The I Ching Calls this state Inner Strength.

I think the author may need a few classes on Cosmology.
I hope This Helps.

 

[hilary]

Dharma, you don't exactly shy away from the big questions, do you? Are you sure you wouldn't rather ask about your lost car keys or what skirt to wear or something?

(Yes, I thought you were.)

Well, let's start by defining consciousness.
Just kidding. The philosophers have been half-killing themselves over this one for centuries without getting very far - and that's just in the West. I suppose I'd say that I am conscious - to some extent, most of the time

- is every animal conscious? (Is it a good idea to start with humanity as a model of consciousness, I wonder?) What about a tree - could that be conscious? Chorus of rational thinkers: "of course not!" But there is something about the focus and purity with which it is itself... (And yes, I talk to plants!)

So out of that state of utter confusion, it's not clear how I could find anything sensible to say about the reading. To start with, I have to admit I've never received 6 moving lines. I've heard of such things (In particular, someone once asked me what it meant that she was repeatedly getting #1 changing to #2, then #2 changing to #1...) but never worked with them. Every changing line is a point where things can change, a pivot or a hinge, or a crack, a place where the situation is transparent to another possibility. And here everything is in that state, so what 'shows through' is the opposite/ complement. Very strange, must be profoundly significant - do not, please, ask me what it means! But it surely supports the general feeling in 'New Age' territories that there is a major change of state going on.

9 and 16 are complements, like the yin and yang sides of a hill. If I could just understand the hill, or at least the dimensions it occupies!

Small Taming - something 'small', flexible and responsive but without what it takes to impose direction, trying to tame a strong force. There are two sides to taming: restrain, check, inhibit vv contain, nurture, rear. The two sides of farming, really - keeping so many things under control (just look out of the window at how much is going on now... or try to keep up with all the bugs and weeds in a large garden without recourse to chemical control...), trying to nurture the animals and plants and care for them. There has to be much very sensitive, very acutely-tuned attention and responsiveness. The wind shapes itself to heaven - not the other way around.

So heaven is determining the whole - but it's also by its nature unexpressed, pure potential. The wind/wood is about expressing it, but it lacks the solidity to do so completely. Instead, the single great force comes gradually to expression and fruition through a multitude of small things, and a multitude of small responses and adaptations. Those dark, rainless clouds suggest something is building up but not yet released into expression - it broods and foreshadows fulfillment to come. Overall there's a great sense of 'not quite breaking through, not quite expressed, not quite yet'.

The connection to life and consciousness? Not quite expressed sounds to me like 'not quite conscious' - not quite emerged, not quite manifest, and not quite unified.

BTW, there is one part of this hexagram I can never grasp to my own satisfaction: those 'western outskirts'. I've been turning all my books and the internet upside down and shaking them, and I still haven't been able to find a plan of a Shang or Zhou city, showing (for example) what they built in the Western suburbs. I know there was an altar there, but not who/what it was for. I can't help feeling this could show us a great deal more about what compass directions really meant to the Zhou. Can anyone, um, point me in the right direction?

...

Over to #16 (lacking courage to try to apply all 6 moving lines!). Another way of coping with a great elemental force. The risk in #9, is that the force cannot be held together and brought to expression. It's dark, and it hasn't rained yet. But in #16 it's thundering, and the ideogram shows an elephant - about as indisputably present as energy gets; so how are we to respond? Ideally, like the ancient kings, uniting humanity with natural forces, with the ancestral spirits and with inspiration. (Picking up on Nks's idea of 'breath' - being inspired, being breathed into?)

So there's no longer any sign of containing or checking, at least not in the ideal response - only of responding and channelling the energy. (No more running around after cauliflower beetles and carrot flies!) Rather than something small and flexible trying to unite something great, we have one great motivation uniting and mobilising the army. (The elephant character also means 'image' - it's also how images work, of course, as focal points of energies.)

Nor is there any question about manifestation: the inner trigram (the 'self'?) has turned from heaven into earth, which has to mean things becoming tangible. And the outer expression is clear, loud, explicit, dominant - also 'performative', ie it makes something real as it speaks. If consciousness means the complete, unified, harmonious expression of vitality (which it might or might not...), then 16 could be its image.

Those six changing lines lay a lot of emphasis on the second hexagram. Read this as a process, and you might see the small, rather frustrating efforts of #9 metamorphosing into spontaneous music in #16. Take the second hexagram as the questioner's perspective - I think it would have to be humanity's perspective, human response to natural potential, and something bursting through into reality.

...

(Yes, this question is all completely beyond me. I suspect that anyone who truly understood all the implications of the question would find the answer clear as day. Not me! Enjoying what everyone else has written, though.)

 

[dharma]

I do believe that consciousness is everywhere --in everything. This question was an exercise in combining my beliefs with I Ching to see how they would manifest and I appreciate the efforts put forth and for participating with me.

Reading through all your ideas and thoughts, I am very glad to say that the interpretation that I originally pieced together for myself easily agrees with the many things you've all said yourselves. Here it is.

.....

My question is quite focused and specific, what is the true nature of the planet's consciousness(?) [9/16] and what is the present planet's health conditions (?) [13/49]. I am inclined to believe that the resulting hexagrams then, convey literal answers to my questions.

Thus, in looking closely, I am able to discern that the planet is more than just alive but there is a low level (small - read gentle) consciousness that is strongly contained by it's solid outer body (restraint) and all the moving lines may very well be a reflection of the major changes the planet has, and will undergo, as it's consciousness evolves. #16 (enthusiasm) may be the WAY that the planet itself evolves -- spontaneously and humbly. Building up strength and accumulating energy through inner toil.

Couldn't the difficult moving lines reflect how we, the people, through our own carelessness with the planet inflict destruction and scarring and therefore directly affect the planet's evolution? The planet stoically takes it all in stride but the "rains" will in due time fall. The rain of course being the planet's 'methods' of clearing and healing itself. #49 seems to imply that drastic surface upheavals are it's re-course.

The planet's present health condition, as a result of 13/49, could very well be implying that our collective attitudes and activities (13) directly affect the planet. 49 talks about moulting, taking off the skin, overthrowing and upheaval --could the planet be presently in the process of changing to a new level of awareness (?)...either as a result of our presence and the effect our relationships/activities with each other, or maybe it's simply because of a natural planetary cycle.

.....

Thanks greatly to Nks, Candid, Supanatural and last but not least, Hilary, for taking the time with me BIG question.

Dharma

BTW, many around me wonder aloud how I manage to grow such strong, healthy plants. The trick of course, is in recognizing that all life responds to love and that 'talking' to plants is the necessary elixir to sustaining them.

 

[supanatural]

Greetings To All...

Dharma, I read your understanding of your reading, and I think you're a natural with all Oracles, not just I Ching or Tarot. The only advice I could give you, if it's worth anything to you, is to relax, it's gonna come naturally.
I hope this helps.

 

[dharma]

Hello Supanatural,

Divination must be a natural skill for someone with 48 as a destiny, and not surprisingly, I take to it, in it's many forms, rather easily. However, I do believe that I did particularly well on this (I Ching) interpretation mainly because I have some very definite (conscious) ideas and beliefs regarding the evolution of the universe and consciousness to begin with.

I expect that when we attempt to interpret, when *too* many of the facts of a given situation are missing (unconscious), we lack the clarity of confidence that would allow the truth to take sharp focus in our inner minds. We are left floating in a limbo of uncertainty where we don't trust the results that surface for us.

Under those circumstances, it's better to have a good, solid understanding of the oracle we are working with, and to *then* try to read between the lines (intuit) otherwise the results are merely a pile of nonsensical data.

On another note, I have not yet acquired a copy of Sarah Dening's book "The Every Day I Ching" and I am curious as to what she has to say about the top change line of hexagram 13. If you, or anyone else out there is inclined, would you kindly post this here for me? Thank you.

Dharma

 

[louise]

The question this raises for me is generally I think we ask questions pertaining to our own personal circumstances. Dharma has asked a 'big'impersonal question, received her answer, and everyones given their views. But what if all of us asked this question - individually - the mind boggles - we would probably all receive different hexagrams (wouldn't it be amazing if we all threw the same !!) So if all of us here asked Yi the question Dharma has asked - and we all got different answers - how far could we say the answer was tailored to our consciousness ? That could maybe make an interesting experiment ?

 

[supanatural]

Greetings To All...

Sarah Dening Hexagram 13 Top Line

You can certainly gain some benefit from joining with others. But nothing of oustanding significance will be achieved.

I hope This Helps

 

[candid]

You make an interesting point, Louise. While Ching?s foreknowledge of the question and answer may be consistent and objective, we subjects of the teaching are not. Therefore, its likely each would receive a (slightly) different answer. I?d be leery of testing the oracle though. Yi?s been known to not answer a foolish question, leaving the inquirer with an irrelevant answer. And that, could send someone into a possibly serious tailspin. As it is, I feel satisfied with the answer Dharma received, as though I asked it myself. The question itself, was presented in and for a collective mind. An intriguing point, nonetheless.

~Candid

 

[dharma]

Hi Louise,

I considered this question myself even as I was posting it on the board and what follows is an idea of what I concluded. Candid was quite lucid and to the point himself so I hope I'm not being *too* redundant here.

.....

First, I had no foreknowledge that I would be sharing the question on the board prior to casting --that came as an afterthought in order to put my interpretation up against others to see how they would differ. In fact, I was curious how much my "personal truth" was coloring the interpretation and I wanted to be sure that I wasn't *missing* or *adding* something because of my bias.

Second, I absolutely had no *agenda* --I was not dependent on the results being one way or the other. I honestly wanted to know the truth as I Ching saw it, and for the added opportunity to practice and develop my skills in this area.

The impetus that brought the question and oracle together then, was someone else's ideas (the article I read) conflicting with what I believed was true, plus my sincere desire to learn to interpret I Ching. At this point, even *I* could not recreate these conditions --even my question, right now, would differ from the one I asked earlier this week. I believe that unless the conditions under which the question was asked in the first place were duplicated, the results would merely be an exercise of our personal differences, because...

1-Our understanding of the question would, in many instances, vary.

2-The importance or relevance of the question would certainly differ --this is not exactly the focus of everyone's mind at this time, merely the present preoccupation of one Dharma (?)

3-The *reason* for asking, too, would be different and so, will affect the answer.

Also, the question, being asked yet again, may very well incite I Ching to question why the *first* answer was insufficient, as Candid pointed out. It would be like asking for a new Destiny Reading every week to see what comes up --which one would be *the* one (?)

The factors I mention above will trigger completely different responses and in that sense, I Ching would be, without doubt, addressing each individual consciousness (as you, Louise, suggested) based on the nature and purpose for the question asked at this time.

So Candid is quite correct --I, Dharma, have in essence asked the question for everyone here. Whether we directly participated by posting our own interpretation, or indirectly, by just being present and listening in --this was a collective question.

Now...*rephrasing* the question might be a better way to *glean* more information about the subject but then, the very act of rephrasing the question naturally would result in a different response, as it addresses *another* angle of the question and I don't think that that was what you were after.

Dharma

BTW, thank you Supanatural. My quick summary is that our relationship to the planet does not really benefit *her* evolution in any significant way. This explains why we (humans) are not exactly taken into consideration when the planet sets to re-balancing (#49) herself.