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Times of year and the Yi

bexytea

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Hi everyone,

Given that there are Chinese correspondences for just about everything, does anyone know of the existence of any information regarding different hexagrams and the times of the year that they represent? Eg 3 is obviously associated with Spring when the seeds start to sprout, 57 would be Autumn/Fall due to the prevalence of Wind... all of this is pure logic based on my knowledge of Chinese medicine and some of the Yijing - Wondering if anyone has explored this before and if any translations exist.

Thanks,

Bexytea
 
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Nevermind

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There are some seasonal hexagrams. Basically if you see hexagram that has pure Yang or Yin lines on bottom or top(or whole hexagram), that will be seasonal and either Yang will increase(so from the Winter to Summer Solstice) or the other way around.
If you look at the translations usually they are mentioned.
 

stevef

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You may be interested to find that John Blofeld has a table at the back of his book which indicates the time of year for each hexagram. Also Alfred Huang in "The Complete I Ching" mentions the month to which each hexagram pertains. This echoes the Blofeld calendar ( but with a few differences) For years I wanted to acquire a map, supposedly attributed to Fu Shi, which indicated the position of each hexagram in a yearly cycle, but reached a dead end. Any map or diagram I found indicated a logical rather than intuitive progression. There is a logic, however, mentioned by Nevermind above, in that Yang increases steadily, etc. There is a couple of threads in the dark past on this site which discusses the Blofeld calendar and the seasonal aptness of a hexagram.
 

stevef

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Furthermore, I'd like to mention a book which indicates that the flow of chi, and the seasonal correspondence, are different for men and woman. Yang flows up a man's back and down a woman's front. Hence the point at which there is a correspondence of the season for a man an a woman would be the opposite. Spring would feel its great power (hexagram 34) in a man's back, and, alternatively, in a woman's front. As a poet, I have found this extremely important in intuiting the essence of a hexagram. For your information the book is "Moving with Change: a Woman's reintegration of the I Ching, Rowena Pattee.
 

stevef

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Actually, your placement of hexagram 3 and 57 are close to the calendar- such intuition is effective in discerning the validity, and hence, power of using Blofeld's calendar. Hexagram 3 is just after hexagram 24- right at the beginning of the reappearance of Yang- winter rather than spring, although things are sprouting then ( at least here in Tasmania where I live- even before the solstice some camellias are already in bloom) 57 is in late late summer. I can recollect some poems of Basho where, already, he anticipates the chill of autumn in the winds that blow at that time, although, of course, it can be very hot at this time, too.
 
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diamanda

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I've saved a table of months, and seasons, from two older Clarity posts (months here, seasons here).
Here they are, if you don't want to read through long threads:

JANUARY 11 5 17 35 40 51
FEBRUARY 34 16 6 18 49
MARCH 43 56 7 8 9
APRIL 1 14 37 48 31 30
MAY 44 50 55 59 10
JUNE 33 32 60 13 41
JULY 12 57 45 26 22 58
AUGUST 20 54 25 36 47
SEPTEMBER 23 52 63 21 28
OCTOBER 2 64 39 27 61 29
NOVEMBER 24 3 15 38 46
DECEMBER 19 62 4 42 53

WINTER 51
SPRING 30
SUMMER 58
AUTUMN 29
 

bexytea

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When you do acupuncture on the 8 extra meridians you use the left master point and the right couple point on women, and the right master point and the left couple point on men, so that makes a lot of sense. There are a few more modern books correlating each of the hexagrams with acupuncture points and meridian theory but what you've just described with hexagram 34 sounds a lot like Tai Yang or Yang Ming meridians (part of 6 channel Shang Han theory) - Greater Yang or Yang Brightness (possibly 55?)... But I am sure there is something in at least one of the Chinese Med classics somewhere.

I agree about intuition as it's the essence of the thing that is important, but correspondences are correspondences for a reason and I think they are also valid as a tool for study, to help us get more of an understanding. My background is a juxtoposition of Chinese Medicine, Western mystical tradition and straight up common sense and gut feeling. It's a bit of a hodge-podge and I have found that often things which rely too heavily on correspondences (read "dogma") become WAY too convoluted and, rather than creating something simple, accessible and useful, end up being so difficult to understand that it's pointless even thinking about them unless you have a spare 20 years up your sleeve.

Sounds like a fantastic book, I shall look it up immediately! Thanks for sharing =)
 

bexytea

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When you do acupuncture on the 8 extra meridians you use the left master point and the right couple point on women, and the right master point and the left couple point on men, so that makes a lot of sense. There are a few more modern books correlating each of the hexagrams with acupuncture points and meridian theory but what you've just described with hexagram 34 sounds a lot like Tai Yang or Yang Ming meridians (part of 6 channel Shang Han theory) - Greater Yang or Yang Brightness (possibly 55?)... But I am sure there is something in at least one of the Chinese Med classics somewhere.

I agree about intuition as it's the essence of the thing that is important, but correspondences are correspondences for a reason and I think they are also valid as a tool for study, to help us get more of an understanding. My background is a juxtoposition of Chinese Medicine, Western mystical tradition and straight up common sense and gut feeling. It's a bit of a hodge-podge and I have found that often things which rely too heavily on correspondences (read "dogma") become WAY too convoluted and, rather than creating something simple, accessible and useful, end up being so difficult to understand that it's pointless even thinking about them unless you have a spare 20 years up your sleeve.

Sounds like a fantastic book, I shall look it up immediately! Thanks for sharing =)
 

bexytea

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Sorry guys, just getting my head around posting on this forum interface. Diamanda, those are wonderful, thank you for posting them and linking.

Now I just have to translate them into the Southern hemisphere =)
 

stevef

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Hi there again. Note, too, however, that Blofeld’s (Fu Shi’s) calendar is based on the moon cycle, and therefore doesn’t correspond precisely with the solar calendar. For us, in the Southern Hemisphere, the beginning of the cycle, Hexagram 24, has just begun on the new moon 24th May. Also the seasonal hexagrams Diamanda mentioned don’t match up with Blofeld’s calendar. That is:
Summer- 30
Autumn- 58
Winter- 29
Spring- 52
Now to complicate things, Huang agrees with this correspondence except for Spring which he maintains is hexagram 51.
It is reasonable to concur with Huang here- after all Spring is that season full of bursting energy. However, somewhere I can recall about someone experiencing a meditative peace in Spring- I guess I have too. So there may be good reasons for one hexagram corresponding in one place than another and, alternatively, somewhere else. Overall, my study or living through the correspondences (30 years) have given me good cause to think the calendar remarkably perceptive- but, in this example, is Spring 51 or 52. Are there deeper, occult, mystical reasons why a meditative 52 is more appropriate? Imaginatively now- does a living earth take a deep breath and pause when the growing energy is rushing all about? Being aware of Western mystical tradition you may have read Rudolf Steiner. His Calendar of the Soul attempts to correlate inward thinking/ feeling soul forces with an external natural, spiritual forces at the appropriate time of year. One verse in Spring declares:
I feel the force of cosmic life:
Thus speaks my clarity of thought,
Recalling its own spirit growth
Through nights of cosmic darkness,
And to the new approach of cosmic day
It turns its inward rays of hope.
So here, too, is a sense of the deep appropriateness of meditative keeping still at this time.
So we have reasons for one or the other. Should one dogmatically choose 52 as stated in Blofeld, or think it an error? I chose 51 as it makes rational sense to me, and intuitively it feels right. A similar decision as to the aptness of each hexagram in Blofeld’s calendar can be made and as you say another 20 years or so would come in handy.
 

stevef

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sorry about the funny words-I have no idea what happened- I don't have much success in editing my posts- please read- doesn't match up with Blofeld's calendar
 
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Nevermind

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Chinese Solar Calendar isn't fixed too. While the lunar calendar can be with a lot more differences(leap month etc.) the Solar Calendar also can have even 2 days difference sometimes, depending on the Solar Terms(position of the Sun).

The Seasons... In both the Solar and Lunar calendar they use the 12 earthly branches and 10 heavenly stems to attribute to each month of the year.

Seasons are divided by elements, so the Spring belong to Wood(and have the branches of Tiger and Rabbit, that is Yang Wood and Yin Wood), Summer is Fire(that is Snake and Horse, Yin Fire and Yang Fire), Autumn is Metal(that is Monkey and ROoster, again Yang Metal and Yin Metal) and Winter is Water(pig and rat, Yin water and Yang Water).

But each month is actually 3 branches, at the end of each month there is Earth Branch that is taking back the element of previous month.

From Yi Jing books, we can see the process described here:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Changes-Unchanging-Truth-Ching/dp/0937064297
However if we are interested in that, any BaZi book will go into much details.
And there are many, for example first element is always rising of the element. Second element called Peach Blossom sometimes, is the element in it's pure form, and the Earth at the end is Tomb/Graveyard for the previous season.
Equinoxes and Solstices are always in the Peach Blossom branch, and that makes sense being that element "peak".

So there is movement and dynamic that is always there and that can be complicated at times, but always will go either to He Tu or Lou Shu(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_River_Map and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo_Shu_Square) .


Back on the Hexagram...
Systems I work with consider only a few hexagrams connected to specific month, even though every hexagram has element.
In the questions we ask and look at, Hexagram is showing the whole situation and what is learned from everyone involved.
So in that sense the relation to the month is a lot more then just the element.

Every Water hexagram will suggest a situation that is connected to going in, but the seasons are used practically.
For example I can remember more then a few questions where it was showing very exact time frame as it is suppose to do, one interesting example, the second hexagram was 24.Return and that is attributed to Zi Rat Yang Water month.

And in the Chinese solar calendar that month was starting a few days after the question was asked.
The way I read it was that all changes that are happening will be complete for that few days, so the new situation will show up on the first day of the new month and it was very accurate.


So just my view here, but from what I'm aware of, the hexagrams that are practically used to show specific month are only the hexagrams that are attributed to that months in most translations. Everything else can have relations to months, and will always have some element, but it won't be showing it as a time frame for something to happen.
 

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