 Clarity's I Ching Newsletter: Issue 59 "Now welcome Summer with thy Sunne soft" Chaucer |
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"Dear Hilary,
Before one year a friend of mine give me the book of I Ching. She said it is a book of oracle and when I started to read it I found that it is a real assistant to me. One day I asked it should I leave my house and go to the country (because of the war in that time) and the I Ching answered me not to leave my house and to stay at home. After that my friend who left Baghdad and went to country suffer so much as he told me and I didn't suffer and the area which I live in it was so safe. We felt so secure (me and my neigbour) when the US army enter the area and captured the terrorists. I still respect I Ching as if it a treasure of wisdom.
regards,
Thaera Ahmed
Baghdad Iraq"
"Ms. Barrett:
Please forgive me for this late response to your kind consideration of my question. My computer has been far from cooperative in our efforts to communicate.
Thank you for your sensitive readings of Hexagrams 17 and 24 in consideration of my question concerning retirement. Your reading certainly is most sensitive and insightful- gentle and compassionate, as if we were lifetime companions. Your interpretations have offered me newfound confidence and support and are a summary of all that is important to my decision.
I wish you to finally know that I have now decided to retire and that this school year will be my last year. I now know that, in retirement: I will: “…Follow my own path”.
Your reading has inspired me to share with you my own path and how the I Ching has been a part of the tapestry of my life.
I grew up a mountain man in western Minnesota- a child of Nature’s theatre of seasons. From the moment of first awareness, I became dimly aware of relentless, and sometimes cruel, dramatic changes. Life on our tiny, rural farm was a scrabble for mere existence locked in a struggle with the dualities of Nature. As a reflective, hard working, Nordic lad, I wrestled to order the changes swirling about me.
Local Lutheran Pastors offered guidance for my struggle. This struggle was to be answered through a Divine Purpose: “It’s God’s Will”. This patient, long suffering panacea left me still empty, and never dimmed my fervent quest, which by now was in high gear.
Somewhere around my twelfth year, I swore a fierce self-promise: I was “…going to leave the farm, absent myself from the terrorism of the four seasons and the ever increasing mortgage- this to discover answers to life through travel and study”.
I sit now, 56 years later, with a resume full of interesting positions- all centered about the Human Condition. I have read nearly all of it, witnessed its depravity and inspiration, have spoken to everyone around it, and even considered some of it for myself.
My tale remains optimistic, but my fragile grasp on life’s Dualities has sprung from an unlikely source for a Minnesota farm boy. The I Ching was eventually to become my Source while I meandered through the existential cul de sacs of life. I decided that this Book, which still survives after 3,000 years, must have something to say to me.
I cannot remember when I first stumbled upon the I Ching, somehow it suddenly appeared in my life. With my usual zeal, I poured over the literature and first purchased the Wilhelm translation, later to add Karcher and various other texts.
I then began casting hexagrams until it seemed I would run out of pennies. But truth was to remain elusive. The I Ching readings seemed to retreat into a highland mist- evasive, elusive and unformed, beyond my ken. At times, I sensed a fleeting contact, but during other times it seemed as if the I Ching was toying with me. But I persisted.
After many faithful years with the I Ching, I now sense it has indeed been speaking to me, but at a spiritual level far above my earthly consciousness. A mystic map of change had been slowly becoming a part of my unconsciousness, beyond my immediate awareness. This patient, sometimes-exasperated I Ching had always been working with me. My first reminder was to be: What is important is ineffable.
My ambivalence and sometime lack of personal courage have clouded my struggle with the I Ching. Sometimes, the I will suddenly respond to my question with a startling clarity and purity. It is at this very instant that I shrink back hoping to deny and to avoid such a message. I have stood there many times, at the very edge of resistance and hesitation. But it is in this same Crucible that my growth has been most assured.
My Map is much frayed, tattered, and heavily creased with thousands of miles yet to be charted. But, I now sense more order and personal acceptance in my quest as I continue my lifelong struggle with the duality of Nature and Human Existence.
PERSONAL READINGS:
I offered my retirement question for your consideration and was delighted to see your response in my E mail listings.
I then decided that before I read your response, I would offer this question to the I Ching: “Ms. Barrett is about to offer me a response to my question about retirement, what should be my thoughts as I read her response?”
The answer was Hexagram 23, fixed. Karcher entitles this Hexagram: STRIPPING. Karcher speaks thus: 'This is the end of an old cycle and the preparation for the new. The old structure is dissolving so new action can emerge. That is where heaven is moving. Adapt to what is coming. Do not impose your will.'
The synchronicity of our two casts and the everlasting Mystery of the I Ching, stunned me! The I Ching, for one magical moment, had also joined our hearts, far above our earth bound existence.
I leave you now and offer my warmest personal regards, affection, and gratitude for the part you and the I Ching have played in my journey.
Charles Swenson
Vista, California
™DIY Corner: Help from the I Ching with decisions: a quick introduction— Click 'Play' to listen, or click this link to use your ordinary audio player.
™Hexagram of the Month: 8, Seeking Union ˜ This is one of those hexagrams connected with the story of Yu the Great, the conqueror of the floods. After his years of labour, he summoned lords and spirits to meet him on a mountain-top to found the new world. Fangfeng arrived late, and his punishment was execution. (The word usually translated as 'on all sides' is also Fang's name.)
There are many stories surrounding this time: Yu killed monsters, banished demons, drained noxious swamps. In essence, he was making a world fit for people to live in again. Remember that Seeking Union comes only after the intense, focussed campaign of the Army.
'The Army means grieving. Seeking Union means delight.'
In the time of the Army, the ends justify painful means and 'collateral damage'. But now that concentration of effort has created a new time, when choices are made not out of grim necessity, but out of a sense of what flows naturally and harmoniously.
Yu's new world is a safe space for people to make choices without being inhibited by old fears. And this is very often the meaning of this hexagram in divination, especially when it's unchanging: you choose! You choose what to believe and how to understand your world; you choose where you belong in it. Most of all, you choose your relationships, which make up the fabric of your world. If your life were a blank slate, with 'the rules' and 'the priorities' erased, what would you draw?
‘Seeking union, good fortune.
Retracing the oracle consultation to its source: fundamental, ever-flowing constancy.
Not a mistake.
Not at rest, coming on all sides.
For the latecomer, pitfall.’
The first message here is that it is good to make these choices, to be in there at the centre of things and get involved. It is not good to be like Fangfeng and try to balance indefinitely on the fence. 'Seeking union, good fortune... for the latecomer, pitfall.' Better to be in there at the centre of things, to be involved.
And then - this is one of the hexagrams Yi most often uses to question you. Retracing your consultation to its source means asking yourself where your question comes from. Not where it leads to, not its logical consequence, but the deep-seated vision, or value, or need that gave rise to it.
The 'source' might just be the future you are envisaging. This is what you orient everything towards - and the strongest magnet drawing new experiences and possibilities into your life without rest, and from all sides. It is 'not a mistake' to take the time to find that source!
The trigrams seem to be telling the same story of founding a new world of relationships:
'Above earth is the stream. Seeking union.
The ancient kings founded countless cities to connect those named as feudal lords.'
Relationships are meant to form as naturally as water flows together. That is, to be based on natural connections and inclinations, not just on a sense of duty or necessity. But they don't create and maintain themselves: if you expect your relationships to be alive and healthy when you need them, you need to create the places and occasions to renew the connection.
One offsite gem:
Paulo Coelho's site has randomly selected mini-parables and lessons. Very beautiful.
Within about 10 minutes of sending out the last newsletter I had an email saying, 'Aren't you going to include the links to the I Ching Community any more?' Of course I am. Here they are:
I provide personal I Ching readings from £25.
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