Time Cycle,four seasons and their recognition

[dilson]

I have done a research about time cycle and the four seasons using Stephen Karcher´s site.(It was carried out some time and I wrote it down)
I have recently read Robin Armstrong´s teaching at www.thewakingdream.net relating to the four seasons and their recognition.
The information is conflicting and so I would like to share with the members of online clarity what I found and ask your insights about the topic.
In order to let the members have a better understanding of the topic , I am going to write the information researched at the time. From Stephen Karcher´s site:
The time cycle links four hexagrams that share the same nuclear lines through the symbols and images of the four seasons. Use the time cycle to relate your situation to one of these seasons and look backwards and forwards to see where it came from and how it can be developed. Technically, a time cycle is made up of four hexagrams that share the same four inner lines(2-5), lines that represent a core theme of change. The differing bottom and top lines(1 and 6) attached to this core have been used for ages to represent the four seasons. So:
Spring is yang below yin above
Summer is yang below yang above
Fall is yin below yang above
Winter is yin below yin above
Armstrong´s work suggests to observe the first and second lines to relate the hexagram to one of the four seasons. You can verify the information accessing www.thewakingdream.net, clicking on I Ching, then text arrangement, then sequence and you will read information about the seasons of the year. So
Spring is yang below yang above
Summer is yin below yang above
Fall is yin below yin above
Winter is yang below yin above
What to follow? Why is there difference to represent the four seasons?
Thanks in advance for any comment.
Dilson

 

[pocossin]

Dilson, Armstrong and Karcher are using different ideas of development. Armstrong's "first and second lines" are the two inner lines of the circular arrangement of the hexagrams in binary order:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ich/pl2-1.htm

Note that spring is on the upper left.

Karcher is probably using the idea that patterns develop from the bottom upward. This is the pattern of development of the inner (lower) lines of the Earlier Heaven arrangement of the trigrams.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ich/pl3-2.htm
-- Earlier Heaven arrangement is on the right

Note that spring is on the lower left.

 

[dilson]

Thank you

Pocossin,
I thank you for taking the time to answer the question.

Do you mean that both authors are right but using a different approach?
Armstrong mentions stages of darkness and light during the day as well as concerning the representation of the four seasons .
Karcher uses the time cycle as a mean to deepen a reading . Karcher´s method focuses on observing the first and sixth lines of a given hexagram to relate it to the four seasons.

Dilson

 

[pocossin]

Yes, I think that both authors are right but using a different approach. There are parallels to Armstong's method that are 2000 years old, and Karcher's method may be traditional too, but I am not familiar with it.

 

[hilary]

Agreed - looks like they are trying to do entirely different things. Robin, if I understand him, wants to replace the King Wen Sequence with something he considers more authentic; Stephen just wants to explore new tools for readings. Tom sums up the sources of their ideas nicely.

As for nuclear hexagrams... just to be different, I'm just getting interested in tracing them through the King Wen sequence rather than by the logical 'seasonal' cycle of lines 1 and 6. So if I receive 55 (nuclear hexagram 28), I'm looking back to 30, then at 55, and then forward to 56 and 62 to imagine how that inner work might evolve in practice. My first impression is that this is easier to relate to in terms of my own readings and experience than going through in 'seasonal' order (spring 55, summer 30, autumn 56, winter 62).

 

[robinarmstrong]

Hi Hilary and everyone,
My work with the I Ching is not trying to replace the King Wen version, but rather to clarify the difference between a natural experiential relationship to the changing light and darkness of the seasons in the Earlier days of the changes, to the mathematical/numerological associations in the Later Heaven arrangement of King Wen. My point is that there is a difference between mathematical abstraction and association, and the natural cyclic experience of nature. The relationship to nature is like a machine language code or dna, while the mathematical relationship is more mental and less connected to nature. The relationship of odd and even to the six lines of the hexagram are very insightful but different than the experience of light and darkness or hot and cold. In the mathematical approach, the randomness of numbers is a basic foundation for divination and relevance in the moment. In nature there is a natural sequence of change and very little is random. Spirit is bound to no one place, nor the book of changes to any one form!