Question #1-For the holidays this year, I wrote to three individuals that I've had difficulties with over the years in an effort to make peace with them. My relationships to all three, although very different one from the other, are similar in the sense that we all share a common personality type and we struggle to come to terms with it in relationship to each other. I ended up writing only one letter as it contained everything I wanted to say to ALL of them, only making adjustments to each one to reflect the individual nature of each relationship. However, the basic message was virtually the same for all three.

Of course, there were no demands or expectations made and I left the door open for them to maintain contact with me. I would very much like to work things out with these three individuals and be on good terms with them, and though I am under no illusions about who I am, who they are and what is involved in each case, still, I wonder what is the response I am likely to get and what I can expect from each of them. I cast the I Ching and got: 60/8 for X, 35/8 for Y, and 8/8 for Z. I focused on each person each time I cast, with the desire to understand what their reaction/subsequent responses to the letter are likely be.

I have a vague understanding of each reading based on what I know about X,Y, and Z personally and in relation to my rudimentary understanding of the I Ching but would be interested in anyone else's interpretations if anyone is so inclined. I am greatly curious about the repetition of #8 and would like to know more about the significance of this particular hexagram. Thanks.


Question #2-I would like to inquire about the nature of changing lines. If a line changes in the first hexagram (say line 1) is it's meaning similar or somehow relevant to the first line in the second hexagram? In other words, would one read the changing line in the second hexagram for FURTHER clarification on the original changing line?


Question #3-Hilary once mentioned that every month has a hexagram associated with it. For example, December and hexagram 24. In that case, what would be the hexagrams that reflect the other months? Also, is it possible for more than one hexagram to be associated with each month?


Finally, with the holidays upon us, I don't expect a response any time soon. However, I will be looking forward to any ideas and input that anyone wishes to share with me in the new year.

Happy Holidays to all who I've had the pleasure of communicating with this past year--I look forward to getting to know you all better in 2002.

with love,
Dharma

Hi Dharma!

Maybe I can help you a little with what I know.
1. About Hexagram 8 - at first glance it can seem to be obvious that you should pay attention to its main meaning: 'Uniting', 'Grouping' (as far as my Russian book gives some English names for this Hexagram in Appendix). But I think it's better for you to think, with what particularly this Hexagram is linked to you - you asked and you received an answer that only you can interpret most precisely.
2. Changing line in second hexagram (zhi-gua, resulting hexagram)? Using standard tool for divination, you receive 1 hexagram (ben-gua, basic hexagram, root hexagram) with (or without in some cases) changing lines, so you receive 2 hexagrams at least (I don't include here nuclear hexagrams, complement, reverse etc.). And you can treat them a) as 2 hexagrams or b) as one hexagram with particular lines. It's a kind of art for every foreteller - to which point pay one's attention. But second hexagram has no changing lines (but if you cast 2nd time and got your 2nd Hexagram of 1st time as root Hexagram in 2nd - so you can receive also changing lines for it, but it happens toooooooooo rare ).
3. I know 2 ways of distributing hexagrams on months. First is mentioned in 'Tao of I Ching' by Zhou Zong-hua (or Chou Tsung-hwa? or Jou Tsun Hua?), though there are no tables with it, you can make a table yourself using hints for every hexagram. Result will be connected with 8 Houses of Jing Fang. and second way belongs to Meng Xi (somewhere on the edge BC-AD, Western Han dynasty, as I remember), and there 4 hexagrams belong to 4 main seasons (or, more precisely, to 4 main events - solstices and equinoxes), and the rest 60 are distributed by 'months' - I mean solar (or agricultural) months, where New Year is February 4th plus-minus 1 day. The second chart I published in ChineseAstrology group, and the first... Maybe I'll publish it soon.
Good luck in your researches, and ask if there is something unclear to you.

Best regards,

Peter.

Hello Peter,

The basic definition of hexagram 8 - the words 'Uniting' and 'Grouping' - is simply not enough information for me to grasp it's essential meaning in regards to these situations I am looking at. I am requesting a much closer look at the heart of this hexagram that my own books on the subject don't seem to offer.

However, I think I understand your meaning regarding the changing lines. I take it that under no circumstance would the changing lines in the second hexagram be of any use to me unless I actually cast [it] as the primary hexagram, and in that case, the lines are of utmost importance. Yes?

Regarding the months - I take it that there isn't an easy way to explain the months and seasons or you would have done so. Your explanation remains unclear to me - the names and terms you use are all 'Chinese' to me and so I haven't the slightest idea where to begin locating the (reference) books that would explain the different versions that you mention. I do appreciate your input and help, though.

If you or anyone else can give a more indepth look at hexagram 8, and if it's possible to give a more direct explanation of the months/seasons (like A=B, sort of thing), I'd really like that.

Thanks for your time Peter.

Dharma

Hello Dharma,

About the Hexagram Calendar. It looks like this:


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

This hexagram calendar is sometimes called the "Blofeld calendar" because John Blofeld made it available in his I Ching. Based on another source, I have corrected Blofeld's calendar by swapping #30 and #20, #49 and #45.

The Chinese traditional lunar calendar consists of twelve months of thirty day each. Allowing five hexagrams for each month, each line of a hexagram corresponds to a day in the calendar. The four hexagrams of column 6 governed the seasons and intercalary time.

The months are designated by the first column of 12 hexagrams, in which yin and yang lines are not intermixed, so two hexagrams never apply to the same month.

Blofeld intended this calendar to be used in answering questions of time, and there is (or was) a webpage to help use it. The first day of the hexagram calendar is the first day of the Chinese year, which varies. As a rough approximation, the first month is February and the last is January, so December is the eleventh month and corresponds to hexagram 24.

This hexagram calendar is very old (maybe older than the I Ching) and is important in Chinese culture. It is used in the Forest of Changes and in the Classic of the Great Mystery (T'ai Hsüan Ching) -- books that were derived from the I Ching.

I use the system in Michael Nylan's "Elemental Changes," her translation of the T'ai Hsüan Ching. As you can probably tell, I am rather enthusiastic about the hexagram calendar.

May the light return to all of us in the coming year.

-Tom

Hi Tom!

I'm sorry, but you mistook a little with that chart. I know nothing about Blofeld, but this chart was 'invented' (so to say) by Meng Xi that I mentioned. And it seems to me that Blofeld interpreted it rather wrong: I mean that hexagrams in 5th column are truly belong to the next month (so 40th belongs to 2nd month, or month of Rabbit, 49th - to 3rd, or month of Dragon etc.), and the whole circle begins with 61st hexagram 'The Inner Truth', first line of which begins in Winter Solstice (so Chinese solar New Year, which begins about February 4th, begins also from 4th line of 62th hexagram 'Preponderance of the Small'). These 60 hexagrams (except those in 6th column) are distributed on a year and every hexagram rules over 6 days and 7 'fen' (about 1 hour and 20 minutes), so 60 hexagrams rule over 365,25 days. And 4 main hexagrams rule over: 29th - Winter Solstice, 51st - Spring Equinox, 30th - Summer Solstice and 58th - Autumn Equinox. I published both round and 'square' charts in IChing_YiJing' yahooGroup, you can find them in 'Files' folder.

Best regards,

Peter.

Hi Dharma!

About your first question on hexagram 8. I thought that while you mentioned that all four of you share the same personality type, hex 8 symbolizes just this fact you should take into account. Meanings of hex 8 not only 'Uniting', 'Grouping', but also 'Comparing', 'Competition' - and they are applicable because people with identical personality types are biased to both competing and learning from partner. So the last, Z, as far as I understand, will be the most 'pure' partner and opponent (because of static hex 8), and X and Y... We need to examine more than 1 moving line, so I try to interpret your results in 'Plum Blossom Divination' way. 60/8: you are presented here by trigram 'Kan'-Water, while X is 'Dui'-Lake-Metal. Quick and positive response. Nuclear hex for 60 is 27, and here appear 'Gen'-Mountain-Earth and 'Zhen'-Thunder-Wood, and it is bad for you, because Earth oppresses Water (you) and Wood gets energy from Water. This is what will happen in your mind while reading X's response. And from Water and Earth in hex 8 - you receive a support (upper Water), but with control also (lower Earth). But Earth is favourable, because there is Metal, that serves as a 'medium' between Water and Earth, so try to appeal to the very first response in hard times.
About case with Y: you are presented here by Earth, and Y is 'Li'-Fire. Good again: Fire nourishes Earth, response also will be quick and positive. Nuclear hex is 39, upper 'Kan'-Water is under control of your element - Earth, - and lower 'Gen'-Mountain-Earth strengthens you with similar energy. Picture with resulting 8 is identical, so we receive very strong Earth (3 from 6!), supported by Fire, and oppressing Water. While Chinese philosophy recommends to avoid such unbalanced situations, be careful while working together with Y, but you need to care about surrounding environment - try ot to oppress it much!
And finally with Z - obviously, too strong Earth (4 from 6!) oppressing 2 Water, and you here are Earth, so you will oppress Z in your working together or (more likely) in your competing.
So this is reading with my humble knowledge of I Ching, Plum Blossom and Chinese natural philosophy.
By the way, what did you mean under 'personality type'? MBTI profile? Or type on enneagramma? Or something else? I'm interested in different typological systems!

Best regards,

Peter.

Wow!! What an incredibly rich amount of information I have here to process. Merry Christmas to ME!!

Thanks to Tom for the Blofeld calender which I will compare to the calendar charts that Peter sent me this past week. Many thanks to Peter for all the time and effort expended on my behalf--for the calendars and for making I Ching-sense of the hexagrams that came up.

So far, I've received a response from Z and the situation is as Peter describes. Great strides have already been made with this individual. Z was ready and willing to create peace between us so I am very happy I decided to write this letter. It's already been worth it. However, it is still quiet-on-the-western-front regarding X and Y. Since they both travel a lot, there is a possibility that they have not actually read their respective letters yet.

In regards to your question about personality types--I wasn't really refering to any system when I said that. Simply, we've all known each other for many years and we share similar backgrounds. Subsequently we share similar reactions and responses to stimuli. However, when I really think about it, astrologically we all have a lot of water (Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio) in our charts which explains the warmth and closeness we feel to one another when things are going well, but this same feature also makes us extremely sensitive and easily hurt when things are difficult, making us pull away from each other. (Also, X and Y have much activity associated with the first house in their natal charts making them slightly more ME oriented (meaning self-centered) than most people, making compromise a bit more challenging.)

Once again.....many, many thanks.....I really appreciate everyone's efforts. If I have any questions, I will return here and ask them and if I can answer any questions you have, please feel free to ask them.

May your holidays be filled with love and laughter!
Dharma

Hello Dharma,

I had the hexagram calendar well-organized in a table, but the Clarity editor dropped my spacing. Hope you can straighten out the columns.

About Question 2: "If a line changes in the first hexagram (say line 1) is it's meaning similar or somehow relevant to the first line in the second hexagram?"
-- Yes and No. IMO the lines have place value, so that every line at the same level has a somewhat similiar meaning.

Some persons do consider the paralleling line in the second hexagram, and also other features like nuclear hexagrams. These details can be elaborated endlessly. I agree that they are possible, but I personally do not find them helpful. Probably this is a bias of my minimalistic personality, and I like the yang-yin symbolism of the simple tradition approach.

I take the first hexagram as the initiating or yang hexagram and the second as the resolving or yin hexagram. I see the moving lines as the relevant aspects of the problem situation.

How one interprets a casting depends on personality and on one's understanding of the I Ching. I think people ought to experiment with different approaches and choose the one they find most productive.

If the Yi is consulted with reverence and one waits for valid insight, I suppose that any method would work.

-Tom

Hello Peter,

Thanks for calling my attention to the circular and square arrangements of the hexagram calendar that you published in IChing_YiJing' yahooGroup.

I was aware that the hexagram calendar was presented in more than one way. In the Midaughter Yahoo Group, 19 May 2000, Harmen Mesker posted a version of the hexagram calendar taken from Fung Yu-lan's 'A History of Chinese Philosophy' (Vol. II p.106-). This version differs from Blofeld's, and is, I believe, similar to the one you are using.

The square arrangement (WuJueWei.gif) is a puzzle: The month hexagrams are in the top row, and in the column under each month are the hexagrams that surround it in the circular arrangement (WJWCFull.gif), but in a scrambled order.

A circular arrangement may be converted to a table in various ways. Blofeld's presentation is simple and logical. It is likely to have been the original understanding of the circular arrangement.

In the circular arrangement (WJWCFull.gif), note that Blofeld's calendar divides the circle in clockwise order. This is the order in which Chinese circular arrangements are typically read.

Blofeld divides the circular arrangement at the month hexagram, putting the month hexagram first. Thus, the Blofeld 10th month is 2 64 39 27 61. It seems reasonable to me that division should be made at the month hexagram and with the month hexagram first, rather than last as in Fung Yu-lan's book.

These reasons are why I believe Blofeld has it right.

There is also evidence internal to the sequence of hexagrams. No one explains why the hexagrams are in that particular sequence. The patterns of the 12 monthly hexagrams and of the 4 seasonal hexagrams are obvious. It is possible to make sense of the sequence in the first month by gestalts of the hexagram pictures, and I believe that that is the principle governing the whole sequence. If so, the hexagram calendar may have originated in Shang times.

If you have more information on Meng Xi or the hexagram calendar, I'm interested.

-Tom

Hi Tom!

Thank you, I went to 'Midaughter' and found that message by Harmen Mesker. I even began corresponding with him at autumn on this theme, but he was rather busy.
Yes, I took that two charts from Fung Yu-lan's 'History of Chinese Philosophy' (though I used Chinese issue, Beijing, 1964), but I also found it in 'Big Dictionary of Zhou Yi' (Beijing, about 1984), with brief comments on five titles. While these sources was speaking about the same stuff (but maybe 'Dictionary' simply copied Fung Yu-lan's explorations), I decided that the right order begins from 61st hexagram in Winter Solstice. In 'History...' also was enumerated 72 'hou' (5-days), and they began from Winter Solstice too, so in a period of 'month' there are 5 hexagrams and 6 'hou'.
BTW, using 'month' is rather wrong - 5 hexagrams (at least, in Meng Xi's system - or should we refer to it as 'Fung's system'?) cover periods from one 'zhong-qi' (middle seasons) to another. And look, they lie very good on periods of signs of Western Zodiac: 62, 24,..., 38 lie from 'Winter Solstice' to 'Big Frost', and it is Capricorn, then 46, 19,...,42 lie from 'Big Frost' to 'Rain Water', and it is Aquarius etc. Strange parallel. But I know almost nothing about this system though - only that was written by Fung. And I'm also interested in information on it!
BTW, as I mentioned before, Zhou Zong-hua wrote another distribution in his 'Tao of I Ching: a way to divination'. Distribution by months is rather simple and based on 8 houses of Jing Fang, but his connections of hexagrams and their auspiciousness in different seasons... Do you know about it?

Regards,

Peter.

Hello Peter,

I posted to Midaughter on Han Hexagram Calendars and gave directions to Meng Xi's circular arrangement. Your observation that the winter solstice falls on the first line of hexagram 61 is very valuable to me. I had been puzzling over that issue for about a year.

I am working through Michael Nylan's translation of the Taixuanjing, and she is unclear about the exact location of the solstice. I couldn't decide whether it was in hexagram 27, hexagram 61, or in an intercalary period. I now see that the symbolism is best for the solstice to be in hexagram 61, just like Meng Xi's calendar.

No, I'm not familiar with Zhou Zong-hua.

Thanks for you help with hexagram calendars.

-Tom

peter said:

Hi Tom!

I'm sorry, but you mistook a little with that chart. I know nothing about Blofeld, but this chart was 'invented' (so to say) by Meng Xi that I mentioned. And it seems to me that Blofeld interpreted it rather wrong: I mean that hexagrams in 5th column are truly belong to the next month (so 40th belongs to 2nd month, or month of Rabbit, 49th - to 3rd, or month of Dragon etc.), and the whole circle begins with 61st hexagram 'The Inner Truth', first line of which begins in Winter Solstice (so Chinese solar New Year, which begins about February 4th, begins also from 4th line of 62th hexagram 'Preponderance of the Small'). These 60 hexagrams (except those in 6th column) are distributed on a year and every hexagram rules over 6 days and 7 'fen' (about 1 hour and 20 minutes), so 60 hexagrams rule over 365,25 days. And 4 main hexagrams rule over: 29th - Winter Solstice, 51st - Spring Equinox, 30th - Summer Solstice and 58th - Autumn Equinox. I published both round and 'square' charts in IChing_YiJing' yahooGroup, you can find them in 'Files' folder.

Best regards,

Peter.

Click to expand...

I know this is a very old post, but if you could help me find the files folder where you posted this that would be amazing! I'm looking to see the times of year that the hexagrams are correlated with