Hilary Barrett, I Ching

I’ve just been looking at an article by Edward Shaughnessy about the Fuyang Zhouyi: a fragmentary copy of the earliest part of the Yi, dating from 165BC. And what struck me most forcibly was how little has changed. The fragments show hexagram and line texts more or less identical to what we divine with now. [...]

While researching for the ‘journeys’ session I came across this page of research results of Anthony Barbieri-Low. Scroll down to the last one on the page, and you’ll find a beautifully clear reconstruction of a Shang chariot. A little below this there is a link to an animation of the reconstruction, with the ‘camera’ slowly [...]

Hexagram 37, People in the Home, defines a safe space. Within it we can find our place with one another, and become confident enough in our own identities that we can eventually reach out beyond its walls.

The first line of the hexagram sets up those all-important walls:
‘With barriers, there is a home.
Regrets vanish.’
It’s a very clear line: walls create a home; they separate ‘inside’ from ‘outside’, so there can be a secure, close-knit group within. In readings, this line very often points to the need to set limits, to have ground rules, without which there can be no mutual understanding. Fences, as Wu Jing Nuan comments on this line, make good neighbours.

Here’s a 10 minute excerpt from the ‘Journey Imagery’ webinar last Saturday. I’m still working on the recording and transcript, whenever I can snatch a spare moment from readings (which is not very often lately). But I can at least show you ten minutes from the first section of this three hour marathon, on ‘crossing [...]

I find it makes a difference if instead of drawing each line of my hexagram as I go, I draw it first in my mind’s eye. Closing my eyes and visualising clear, creamy paper, and drawing on each line with a broad-nibbed pen. Or keeping my eyes open and seeing the lines in the air. [...]