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Pyramids, Yin-Yang Hill and the four Greek Elements

astalder

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One of the oldest images for Yin-Yang appears to have been the shady and sunny sides of a hill (which rotate during the course of a day, since the sun moves resp. the earth rotates). Applying this image mentally to one of the great pyramids in Giza a few weeks ago, I playfully attributed opposites dry/wet and hot/cold to the corners of the pyramid - since the sun heats and dries - so that I found something that reminds quite a bit of Aristotle's definition of the four Greek elements in terms of these two pairs of opposites: Fire dry+hot (summer/south), Water wet+cold (winter/north), Air wet+hot (spring/east), Earth dry+cold (autumn/west). Note that the symbols for the four elements in the West are all triangles, like the four faces of a pyramid. See the article for a few more playful considerations:

English: https://www.exactphilosophy.net/the-pyramids-and-the-four-elements.pdf
German: https://www.exactphilosophy.net/die-pyramiden-und-die-vier-elemente.pdf
French (abbreviated): https://www.exactphilosophy.net/les-pyramides-et-les-quatre-elements.pdf

Note that in ancient Egyptian mythology, the sun god Ra would fight each night with the snake Apophis/Apep, so Ra would likely be south/fire and Apophis north/(water?), which reminds of the 4 Symbols in China, where similarly the snake+tortoise would be north and the bird/phoenix south...

If you are interested in the ancient Greek elements, here would be another article I wrote with two new ideas (yes, the filename is really that long):

https://www.exactphilosophy.net/the...-similarly-veiled-in-the-hippocratic-oath.pdf
 

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Gmulii

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Will continue on "lets popularize the view to Yi jing as often seen in parts of Asia" this time with the elements.
We don't need hermetic elements for Yi jing, its all good to relate them, just seem nice to mention that when it comes to directions, elements and their interactions some of the systems there are doing such a good job that they do deserve to be called Art in my view.

So some of the systems related to Yi Jing in Asia are very spacial in nature.
Each Trigram has its direction and many forms of Feng Shui have the 24 mountains - a ring in the Lo Pans(compasses) related to the elements(Chinese elements).
XKDG for example use Hexagrams with having a little less then 6 degrees of the ring, that makes each changing line potentially having less then a degree. At the end its too precise for most people, so we have ways of working around that(generally relation between the time period and the elements and stars of each Hexagram and their connection to each other).

I mentioned somewhere XKDG Lo Pan, however that was very simplified version. Here is somewhat bigger San Yuan Lo Pan, just to check how much info is attributed to each direction(random one from google images):

lopan_san-yuan_4.jpg


In Asia someones knowledge and skills in the Arts(specifically Feng Shui for this) would somewhat depend on how many rings of this they can work with. Starting with the simple trigrams and adding more and more.

A tip for Feng Shui enthusiats, the ring with red dots(and rarely zeroes) show the beneficial changing line for a direction. While the trigrams a few rings above it shows the Hexagram that direction is ruled by. Its not exactly the same as the text with the lines as when used with Feng Shui the hexagrams are a little different(though the essence and the elements interacting are the same).
Similar to when Hexagrams are "swinged" from the flying stars in the house their meaning changes a little(since the stars have a fixed relation with each other, Mountain is containing for Water, not exactly the same in Hexs).

This may look big, but it isn't. If it included all XKDG elements for example there would be 3 rings with the hexagrams.

However, these aren't the hermetic view to the elements. The elements are different. In the Five Arts they are viewed as a step of a process of expanding and contracting(Fire being the peak of expansion and water being the deepest contracting and finding the life within).
General relation is Fire - South, Water - North, Wood - East, Metal West, Earth - Center.

More detailed in the 24 mountains and we have used the 24 mountains combined with some form of Yi Jing(called Liu Yao) for finding items. More then 80% of the items were exactly in the direction specified at the end.

Anyway, just some info for the other elements more related to Yi Jing usually. : )
 
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astalder

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Gmulii

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Because I thought people interested in Yi jing would be also curious about how that system is viewed today in the place it originated from. They had millenniums to perfect it and they did. Now we know so much more then what Wilhelm or Legge ever had access to... So much depth to it now and it can be used practically in many spheres where people in the west have problems.

But I guess you aren't the only one that hears a screech where I hear a beautiful song.
I'm not here to annoy people I thought I was here to help going deeper in system that we all love.

I guess I'm not. Time for the song to stop. And for you that means for the screeching to stop, of course.
I would be very careful with imaging myself as phoenix(Image of Li☲) flying high above stuff, though... You are interested in Yi jing, you probably are aware how Images are used in these systems. Although the way it is going I guess you have no idea and I'm sure you also don't care, so doesn't really matter.

Will leave you all in peace, take care. : )
 

astalder

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In Richard Wilhelm's translation it is "Hu Hu" (pronounced "hoo hoo") instead of "screech", which is much more gentle and simply mimics the sound an owl makes.

Owl and phoenix are, as I see it, a priori just like Yin and Yang, simply two different worlds with quite distinctively separate viewpoints, one from high above, large distances, sky, sun, the other closer to the ground, more local, maybe earth, moon. Similarly with Ra and Apophis, or vermillion bird and black tortoise plus snake...

This simplicity mirrors, as I see it, so beautifully in the images of a hill/mountain or a pyramid, that in the very simple foundation "West" and "East" are the same, from the start, from earliest ideas.

"We don't need" - Who are the "we" you are referring to? Did you ask others if they agree with you? Or is it simply the "moon" that is collective, thus always implicitly a "we", and more caring, thus "take care"? And me maybe just me like the sun, more individual, and, yet, again two parts of the same, in constant flow, the path up and down are one and the same (Heraclitus), if you step into the same river (snake?) a second time the waters will be different (Heraclitus, too, in some way of reading the fragment)...

The 5 Wu Xing are - by their name - fundamentally in their history the 5 planets, Mercury-Venus-Mars-Jupiter-Saturn, but certainly also carry attributes of the 4+1 elements more to the "West", but so do the 8 trigrams of the I Ching, so that the same "things", sun/moon, 5 planets, elements, are "mixed up" differently in the "East" than in the "West".

I was hoping, since I did post a few links with previous posts, that since the simplicity of my initial image was apparently met with completely blind eyes - as it seemed to me and still does, helas! - that maybe more detailed explanations could make a difference, but that was maybe again a too different perspektive?

Well, all in all, it looks like the basic mythological themes in "West" and "East" are much closer to each other and possibly even influenced each other much earlier than currently "provable", until into North America...

That is what I wanted to show and it appeared to me like someone just took a "dump" on it with something exclusively based on a much later state of things in a much more local context.

Hence "hoo hoo" seemed the best way to mirror this...

And, in the end nobody can take away my pyramidal mouse from me... ;)
 

Yuhanhuangli

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from the idea of a pyramid, I find these pics.
 

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