Hilary Barrett, I Ching

Archive for October, 2006

Spot the hexagram

Sunday, October 29th, 2006

What comes to mind when you read this story from Erin Pavlina?
To me, it reads like a recipe for creating hexagram 38 - opposition, polarity, alienation.
Start with two mutually incomprehensible ‘cultures’; include different languages, different expectations, different values and desires. Leave each culture to brew for 30 minutes (it only takes 30 minutes??), then [...]

New King Wen sequence book

Friday, October 27th, 2006

Calling all mathematically-minded Yeeks (that’s Yi Geeks) - there is a new monograph available from Berkeley:
STEDT Monograph 5: Classical Chinese Combinatorics: Derivation of the Book of Changes Hexagram Sequence
Richard S. Cook
The first and most enigmatic of the Chinese classics is the Book of Changes, and the reasoning behind its binary hexagram sequence remained an [...]

Gods of Chinatown

Wednesday, October 25th, 2006

Gods of Chinatown
An exploration of Chinese temples and gods. An interesting insight into beliefs alive and well behind closed doors - and not so far below the surface in the young artist.

Care of the cow

Saturday, October 21st, 2006

Happy Diwali!
I wondered what hexagram to write about for today… then learned from Wikipedia that ‘Diwali’ actually means ‘line of lights’ and that in Nepal, the first day of celebrations are marked by thank-offerings to the cow. So it had to be Hexagram 30.
‘Clarity. Harvest in constancy.
Creating success.
Rear female cattle, good fortune.’
The Chinese character [...]

I Ching experiments

Thursday, October 19th, 2006

Here is a somewhat daunting article rejoicing in the title of Studies Of The I Ching: I. A Replication - Statistical Data. You’d need knowledge of statistics to digest the whole thing, I think (not something I have). But the initial review of I Ching experiments over the years is interesting, and so are [...]

I Ching Sonnets

Monday, October 16th, 2006

I Ching Sonnets by Cliff Bennet - all 64 are here to read online.
From Hexagram 30:
“Let it be that I, while blinded in this temple,
Hold to thy radiance through my own and private night
And like sandalwood consumed at a shining high altar
Brighten thee more.”

Not grasping your self

Saturday, October 14th, 2006

This week I received Hexagram 52:

‘Keeping your back still,
Not grasping your self.
Moving in your rooms,
Not seeing your people.
Not a mistake.’
And I read in John O’Donohue’s Anam Cara:
“There is no direct, permanent or public access to the divine. Each destiny has a unique curvature which must find its own spiritual belonging and direction. Individuality is [...]