The Fate of The Chameleon Book: Hexagram 32

[freemanc]

Some weeks ago, there was a thread about asking others for their thoughts on a reading. Most of us felt, I think, that it is worthwhile, even though a lot of times we don't do it. Well, I got a reading that spooked me a bit, so here I am...

I have always been very timid about asking the oracle about my book. It was just too scary and perplexing to say, "Well, what do you think of my book?" In addition to ego issues, there were just plain complexity issues if I were to use it in a fine grained way to guide the writing process (which Philip K. Dick literally did with Man in the High Castle, with, I think, rather wonderful success). It just seemed too snarled and preciously recursive to use the Y that way to aid writing a book about the Y, as if I were adding yet another layer of beaurocracy by sort of crossing the Y over itself.

Anyway. I guess I consider the book done. I asked: what's to be the fate of The Chameleon Book?

And I am given: Hexagram 32.0 (Enduring, Steadiness, etc.) and no moving lines. Wow.

The wording of TCB's own take on 32 struck me as a reproof... "OK clever skeptical I Ching Guy, buck up and use your own resources!" or something like that.

I'd truly appreciate any nuances anyone else can add about 32.0 either in general or regarding my particular question...

best to all,
FC

 

[megabbobby]

this is great,long lasting awesomeness---

you'll have to let us know when it gets published

 

[bruce]

Hi Freeman,

I chuckled through your whole post. You're far braver than I am to venture past the fear of redundancy. Bravo!

Here's my own liberal take on 32:

32 Endure
Maturity and commitment perpetuates a relationship. It is not a question of speed but of steadiness.

I think the Yi is saying, your book is more than simple flirtation with the subject. There seems a real connection with the Yi here in that it is a marriage.

Implied self-perpetuation could say that is book leads to a deeper commitment to writing in the future.

If you were asking about the success of the book in terms of sales and such, this too seems to be an ongoing effort, possibly married to promotional endeavors.

Wishing the best for you and your work.

 

[micheline]

congratulations, Freeman! an enduring accomplishment.
All the best,
Micheline

 

[rosada]

I think "The Fate of The Chameleon" has a nice ring to it for a title.

 

[kevin]

Hi Freeman

Of course 32 / Heng is also fixing the Oracle.

Could the Yi be making a wry joke as well as a positive statement?

Best to you - and good fortune with your book

--Kevin

 

[dobro p]

"Anyway. I guess I consider the book done. I asked: what's to be the fate of The Chameleon Book?

And I am given: Hexagram 32.0 (Enduring, Steadiness, etc.) and no moving lines. Wow."

Yeah, the message seems to be that the book will last. Nice.

 

[hilary]

Agreed - lovely reading, with more than a hint of Yi-wit. I like the idea of an enduring 'marriage', and of course the oracle is 'fixed' nicely.

Another take on 32: it can be a recurring pattern. If what you do stays the same, so too does what happens. I see Megabobby is still waiting to hear when the book is published.

(Megabobby - hint.)

 

[bradford_h]

Now, everybody, let's not miss the irony in the title of this Gua.
It's a fundamental premise of the Yi that nothing endures by staying the same. There is no unchanging thing. Perhaps the best we can predict is that this book will continue to adapt.
Every time I pronounce each new version of my own Book of Changes "done", I do this tongue in cheek. It's something I'm sure Freeman has learned as well, or at least IS learning. There is only one final draft - mine will only stop changing when I'm dead.

 

[lightofdarkness]

FC - a common trait in our being, and thinking, is for self-referencing. In that self-referencing the source of EXPRESSION, of EXCITATION, and it becomes its own regulator. For example the basic 'immediate' neurotransmitters of the brain are GABA(inhibit) and Glutamate (Excite). GABA is only synthesised from glutamate ( a basic amino acid) - IOW the main excitor of the neurology elicits its own restraint.

Move 'up' into the brain in general and our emotional being is generally excitory in that the focus is on expression and this is sourced in our 'older' brain areas (limbic system, RAS etc). Out of this has developed out frontal lobes and they SUPPRESS emotions, DELAY their expression, IOW we see the same generic pattern of excitation mechanisms eliciting their own inhibition and so regulation. (note that this regulation needs training for it to work properly, otherwise it can be too suppressing or not enough)

Thus I would not be too concerned with you using your expression, your book, to 'regulate' yourself ;-)

As for 32 - it comes with a spectrum that can aid in fleshing-out the generic label. This is the X-ness of a hexagram where that X-ness describes the expression of hexagram X THROUGH hexagram Y described by analogy with hexagram Z.

e.g. the 27-ness of 32, its basic skeletal form, its infrastructure, is described by analogy to the characteristics of 14. Indicated here is a movement out from the centre (14 trigrams read with perseverence comes direction-setting, an ideology). You can see here the general form of the notion of commitment as expressed in 32.

I assume you used divination methods to come up with 32? (coins/marbles/yarrow sticks).

There is a way to communicate with the emotional elements at work in that the realm of emotions is relatively autonomous to our consciousness and so we can communicate with it as it 'resonates' with the context and so can show us the general hexagram that fits that context and so allow for our mediating consciousness to zoom-in for details. To 'talk' to emotions does not work off coin tossing etc - it works off general questions as covered in:

http://members.iimetro.com.au/~lofting/myweb/EmotionalIC.html

This can give you an insight into what is making you ask the explicit questions in the first place. What in the context is 'pushing your buttons'.

Chris.

 

[freemanc]

Oh, friends!

What a spectrum of replies! I'm a little gridlocked by wanting to respond to all of your insights and your goodwill and your wit. This'll be a messy post, I expect...

Bruce, It was good to be reminded that my relationships with both Y and TCB are for the long haul, like a marriage. It is a lovely, unexpected and mysterious relationship that has never cost me nearly as much as the joy it gave me. The only danger has been that "There is something ponderous and one-sided about the learning of the self-taught"... I'm afraid I'm so there...

Kevin, yes, the oracle does seem to be being playful with me. Seems that the readings that really rattle me are almost always witty and oblique as well...

Hilary, yes, it is favorable for me to decide where to go. I'm overwhelmed with grad school and the day job, but I'm reminded how much my efforts with TCB enrich me...

And Brad, yes, the point that there is no unchanging thing is right on. Even "finished" MSS; Moby Dick keeps coiling and winding and shifting, and Melville hasn't changed a comma in many a day. And likewise any halfway honest attempt to scale the Y... and more especially your scholarship, which I imagine will kick off lively things for a long, long time.

Chris, thank you very much for your enthusiastic and energetic post! I never really understand what you're saying, so forgive me for not engaging you in a more intelligent way. I gather that you think wading into these self-referential tangles is either OK or inevitable... certainly this is a respectably postmodern, or anyway, post-positivist kinda position, but I have to live with my limits in terms of what kind of depictions speak to me powerfully... as you know, these are kind of crude things, like rocks and bones.

And Chris! If you mean did I use a random number generator, yeah, three coins. (Not the Yijing dice gadget in the other post, which is still basically just a little random number generator.) I don't really understand other divination procedures, like Plum-Flower-Mind, etc.

All: Thank you for these helpful shifts of emphasis and perspective... I am resolved to continue our conversations, and hope to share in posting more often.

peace to all,

FC