I Ching with Clarity

The first thing you're going to notice about this episode is the change of music. The new recording is Kimiko Ishizaka's performance of the 9th of Bach's Goldberg Variations, from her wonderful Open Goldberg Variations project. I hope you enjoy it!

Three readings of mine get a mention in this podcast:

Guidance for the week at Grittleton: Hexagram 51, Shock, changing at lines 1 and 4 to 2, Earth.

How to cope with the bog of 51.4? 4 unchanging - Not Knowing

And advice for the next phase - Hexagram 1, Creative Force, changing at 1, 3, 4 and 5 to 4 again:

I'll explain them all in the episode!

Links I mentioned...

• Mountain above, about the name and trigram picture of Hexagram 4.
• Mark Silver on ignorance as a divine fence
• Grittleton! and also Young Grittleton, where players aged between 11 and 18 achieve extraordinary things.

And not least,

• this is where you can book your own podcast reading

(The photo for this post is of my 'cello with a few of his friends and relations in the corridor at Grittleton.)

So far, I've introduced the idea of ever-flowing constancy, and explored six places where the Yi advises it. There is just one more example:

Don't! 62.4

'No mistake.
Not going past, meeting it.
Going on is dangerous, must be on guard.
Do not use ever-flowing constancy.'

This is clear enough: do not use ever-flowing constancy.

Why not?

Because going on is dangerous, and you need to be on guard. That word, 'on guard', jie 戒, originally shows two hands holding a dagger-axe. It contrasts with the character I translated as 'defends' in the previous line, 62.3, which literally means an earth embankment. So the point of being 'on guard' is that you can move: turn around to face any threat, change direction when you need to.

When you use ever-flowing constancy, you always refer back to your own inner knowing as your guide, and then you are effectively inoculated against outside influence. But the small bird needs always to be aware of everything around it, always alert and ready to react.

The priority now is not to find a way through for your idea, but to stay in one piece. You need to keep checking in with your surroundings, not your inner knowing. (The line changes to Hexagram 15, which 'takes itself lightly' and isn't likely to imagine that its own inner truth - or principles, or sense of identity - is the most important factor.)

In practice, this line tends to mean things - and probably people - are changing, so maybe you need to do the same. Water, of course, never changes its nature and never stops flowing downhill. But then water also can't be injured by anything it encounters along the way.

(Here's an entertaining example of just how alert and responsive this line might be.)

Coda

As always, when I'm looking at all the occurrences of a single phrase, I go on a hunt for patterns. And to start with, I found a great many non-patterns.

Does the wateriness of the character come through? Well, Hexagram 8 is full of water imagery in both its trigrams and the myth of Yu the Great and the floods. Then 22.3 has watery text, and the trigram dui, lake, shows up a couple of times. But 2.7 and 52.1 are quite dry. (Unless you read the Mawangdui manuscript, where apparently the name of Hexagram 2 is written as chuan, 'river'.)

I briefly thought there might be some story-telling with the trigram changes. At 22.3, fire changes to thunder. Then at 42.2, thunder to lake, and at 45.5, lake to thunder. Only then 52.1 changes mountain to fire, and of course 2.7 changed earth to heaven. Nothing to hang your hat on there.

Similarly with the zhi gua of (new hexagram created by) each change. Yes, 2.7, 22.3 and 42.2 all change to rotationally symmetrical hexagrams (1, 27, 61) - but then 45.5 and 52.1 don't. (52.1 changes back to 22, where we've been before.)

The only pattern I can point to - without at all knowing what to make of it - is in the arrangement of the text for the six lines where ever-flowing constancy is a good idea.

There are three phrases it occurs in: 'ever-flowing constancy bears fruit', 'from the source, ever-flowing constancy', and 'ever-flowing constancy is good fortune'. And here's how these three are arranged across the six instances:

• 2.7: bears fruit
• 8.0: source
• 22.3 good fortune
• 42.2 good fortune
• 45.5 source
• 52.1: bears fruit

As you can see, there's a mirror between 22.3 and 42.2: fruitful-source-good fortune: good fortune-source-fruitful. So those six lines make a pattern with rotational symmetry, just like the zhi gua created by the changes of 2.7, 22.3 and 42.2 (1, 27 and 61). (Only not of 45.5 or 52.1, of course...).

And then the one line where this is not a good idea is itself in a hexagram with rotational symmetry, 62, so that this line change destroys the symmetry instead of creating it. Also, where 27 and 61 have yang lines on the outside containing yin lines, 62 is the opposite.

And no, I have no idea what this pattern might mean.

I Ching Community discussion

In this episode, Maggie and I dive into her reading about a possible new job: Hexagram 16, Enthusiasm, changing at lines 3 and 5 to 31, Influence.

It's not only about being 'open to the new', I think - also about being prepared and actively engaged with the process. Installing the feudal lords, embracing the marriage, writing the music to sing...

In the introduction I mention a similarity with episode 68, and at the end I talk about the Change Patterns course you can access inside Change Circle. (If you're already a member, you'll find it in the 'Enrich your understanding section' in the new Learning Guide.)

(The music is performed by Colin Carr and licensed by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.)

Some more examples of 'ever-flowing constancy'...

Renewal: 22.3

'Beautiful, as if dipped in water.
Ever-flowing constancy, good fortune.'

The imagery of this line resonates well with the wateriness of 'ever-flowing constancy', too.

22.3 changes to Hexagram 27, so this is where image and beautiful presentation look for Nourishment - and find it in the water. You might think of how the pebbles you collect at the beach are shiny and beautiful when wet. Or you might think of the bloom of youth on skin, and bright shining hair. Is this beauty a property of the skin, or the pebble? Perhaps, but not a fixed one. To keep it vital and shining, it needs constant Nourishment with moisture.

Ever-flowing constancy here means constantly renewing that connection. Never dozing off, no inertia, no complacency. Wilhelm, who thinks this line evokes a pleasant, mellow, wine-induced haze, says it is a 'warning not to sink into convivial indolence.'

It's a time to create and enjoy the lustre, but also to keep re-creating it: always reconnecting with the divination, or inspiration, or guidance, or reason why. If you got distracted by the shininess, or tried to maintain an image that was no longer true, it would dry and shrivel.

Ever-flowing constancy in 2.7 joined earth with the unceasing creativity of heaven. In the Oracle of hexagram 8, it provided a kind of inoculation against hesitancy. I think it has that same protective quality here: inner armour against seduction or distraction.

The gift: 42.2

'Maybe increased by ten paired tortoise shells.
Nothing is capable of going against this.
Ever-flowing constancy, good fortune.
The king uses this to make offerings to the supreme being: good fortune.'

Increase looking to Inner Truth: a beautiful reading to receive, and one I've written about before. (Getting less watery, though, unless you want to count the trigram change to dui, lake.)

Ever-flowing constancy is good fortune, and the king's offerings to the supreme being are good fortune: I think the parallelism suggests that those offerings are the way to show that kind of constancy here. You can see the meaning of zhen pivoting from 'divination received' to 'constancy required': from the unanimous 'long term augury' of the tortoise shell divinations to the king's offerings.

To respond adequately to such a powerful positive message, you live out your divination like a king, making the greatest offerings you can. In other words, you dedicate yourself and your work to the highest ideal, and make your very best effort. This should feel something like Hexagram 61, and especially like the fan yao of this line, 61.2: an unstinting outpouring of yourself.

Which is lovely... and... not necessarily easy. My experiences with this line seem to carry an inner logic of,
'Since you have been granted this exceptional certainty, inner security and confidence, now use it. And no, not just when you feel like it.'
There are a few examples in my journal where this line encouraged me to give more than I felt like giving, when I didn't really see why I should have to. But having the tortoise oracle speak to you ten times is not your cue to relax.

"Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." (Luke 12:48)

Commitment: 45.5

'Gathering together, has a position.
No mistake.
No trust at all.
From the source, ever-flowing constancy.
Regrets vanish.'

This is another instance where ever-flowing constancy feels quite demanding. Especially since what you have been given in this line is not the spiritual gift of unshakeable inner knowing, but 'a position'.

A 'position' is literally simply a place, and more specifically a rank, your place to stand at court. A good English equivalent might be 'a seat at the table'. In some of its earliest uses, it was a position of power and its concomitant duties: holding the position of ruler and governing. And also, it's the word used to denote line position in a hexagram.

So if you join these ancient meanings with the fact that this is line 5, you might get the idea that you are meant to be in command here.

A theme of Hexagram 45 is the intensity of investing your all in a single identity or purpose - be that the shared identity of a group, or committing all your efforts and energies to a single cause as an individual. So every changing line contains the reassurance that there is no mistake. This fifth line often comes up when you're starting to question the decisions that got you into this position in the first place. But with ever-flowing constancy, those regrets can vanish.

Once again, ever-flowing constancy feels quite demanding. The Oracle text of Gathering says that constancy bears fruit after the king has entered the temple and you have seen the great people - in other words, after you have made a full connection with inspiration and meaning, then you can be constant to it (much like 42.2 and the extraordinary tortoise oracle). But this line seems to work the other way around: you need constancy in order to engender trust.

In this, it's quite similar to the Oracle of Hexagram 8, the first occurrence of 'From the source, ever-flowing constancy'. It has the same sense that ever-flowing constancy is something you need to provide in order to restore trust. The ruler's position here is something like that of Yu the Great, having trouble inspiring the latecomer to join.

So what is it that you need to do here? Basically, keep on showing up. Getting the position might have felt like the end, but you've really scarcely begun. You need the imagination, anticipation and motivational drive of the relating hexagram 16, Enthusiasm - though without losing touch with the demands of the present moment.

In a group setting, if you show your loyalty and commitment for long enough, people will start to trust you. As Wilhelm puts it, you need 'steadfastness and intensified, unswerving devotion to duty.' For an individual, self-trust comes from constantly doing the thing. (We might expect self-belief to come first, which would make life a lot easier.)

This line could describe the writer who sits down and writes every morning, whether they feel inspired or not. This is how they prove to themselves, every day, that they are a writer. The experience is not necessarily going to be fun. Just look at the fan yao, 16 line 5:

'Constancy in sickness.
Persevering, not dying.'

Foundation: 52.1

'Stilling your feet,
No mistake.
Ever-flowing constancy bears fruit.'

This line makes me realize that I have over-emphasised the wateriness of ever-flowing constancy in the past. It continues like a river; it doesn't 'flow like water'.

In this line, you stop, pause for thought, and then you can listen to guidance. Stilling your feet seems to fulfill much the same role as the original oracle consultation in Hexagram 8: keeping you in touch with truth and out of trouble.

This line changes to Hexagram 22, Beauty, which makes me reflect that sometimes keeping still can be the clearest sign and demonstration of loyalty. 'We shall not be moved,' the protesters sing, and hold fast. 'I don't have anywhere else to be,' says the good friend who stays by your side. 'Loyalty' strikes me as a very good word to describe ever-flowing constancy.

And keeping your feet still shows that you won't be pushed off course. You will fully express who you are, where you are - which becomes a whole lot clearer to yourself and other people when you are not in reaction.

So ever‑flowing constancy means being true to yourself, as opposed to responding to demands or stimuli from the outside. In readings, I've seen this mean not trying to anticipate what other people would like or what they might do. It's a solid foundation for all the quiet self-possession of Hexagram 52.

(Just one more example to come, and a coda.)

(This is, aptly enough, going to be a series of posts - though not an endless one...)

Introducing 'ever-flowing constancy'

Zhen, 'constancy', is the fifth word of the whole Yijing:

乾元亨利貞
qian, yuan heng li zhen

'Creative force, from-the-source creating-success, harvest in constancy.'

Or for those translators, like Stephen Field, who are trying to reconstruct the original, Bronze Age meaning:

'The Vigorous. Your primary plea is heard. A good omen.'

Zhen, constancy, is the quality that will carry the inspiration through into reality - or the omen you've been given to carry with you. And from the outset, it's clear there is more than one kind of zhen: the mare's constancy (or an omen favourable for a mare) in the oracle of Hexagram 2, the contrast of small and great constancy in 3.5.

And in the seventh line text of Hexagram 2, the one consulted if all six of its lines are changing, 利永貞 : 'harvest in ever-flowing constancy'. This kind of constancy shows up again in the oracle of Hexagram 8, and then in 22.3, 42.2, 45.5, 52.1 and 62.4. So... what is this? Isn't it something of a tautology - isn't all constancy 'ever-flowing', or perpetual, or enduring?

'Ever-flowing'?

The word I've rather awkwardly translated as 'ever-flowing' is yong: 永 .
You can see from the ancient character where I got the idea:

It shows a human figure swimming in the river, wholly immersed in the current - and indeed, with an extra 'water' radical added, it does mean 'swim'. The Shuowen, the first Chinese dictionary, said it 'shows the perpetual flow of water in its underground courses'. (I wonder why they thought of it as underground - the waters that flow under all the world.)

But its core meaning is simply perpetual, everlasting, eternal. In its earliest usage, it described something that continued from generation to generation, or the continuing protection of heaven that promises a long life. What continues better than running water?

Yijing translators read it simply: 'lasting perseverance' for Wilhelm/Baynes, 'practice constancy perpetually' for Lynn, 'forever steadfast' for Minford (book 1), 'enduring persistence' for Bradford Hatcher. Or for the Bronze Age version - 'beneficial divination for the long term' (Redmond), 'an omen of favor in the long term' (Field), 'long term augury' (Rutt)... and so on.

On the face of it, the 'reconstructionist' version rather hollows out the meaning, turning it from a way of living into a simple prediction. (And in the process, making the word zhen quite redundant: we're consulting an oracle, so not likely to forget that this is an augury...) But I think you can see how the two meanings, 'lasting divination' and 'everlasting constancy', blend together. If the divination you're given is for the long term, then it's something you can count on, and whatever idea you were bringing to the oracle is worth persevering in.

One at a time...

We can learn more about the idea of 'ever-flowing constancy' by diving into each instance of it. What's special about this kind of constancy?

Introduction: 2.7

Its first appearance is pretty special: the exceptional reading of Hexagram 2, Earth, changing at every line to Hexagram 1. If you're consulting with yarrow stalks or something with the same probabilities, this is the least likely reading in the book - and I haven't received it yet.

I wrote about it once, years ago, as earth revealing heaven: the place where all the inspiration of hexagram 1 can shine through and activate every grain of earth's realising power.

Looking at the two hexagrams just as I might for any other zhi gua relationship, leaning towards Hexagram 1 seems to emphasise how the noble one of Earth 'has somewhere to go' - is beginning the noble one's journey through the Yijing, searching for a place to be of service. And the journey will continue, powered by Hexagram 1's ceaseless creativity:

'The heavens move ceaselessly.
A noble one in his own strength does not pause.'

Earth meets life force, and does not pause; life just keeps unfolding. (As any gardener will tell you: the weeds won't take a week off just because you do.)

What could this be in readings? As you can imagine, it's not easy to find examples to learn from - but the I Ching Community has two. The first seems to encourage a renewal of the querent's original commitment; the second, embracing the new. Looking at the two together, I think it's not about old or new, but about something you know, deeply, when you come down to it.

Ever-flowing constancy here would mean paying acute and tireless attention to that guidance: not following impulse, but what is true. Hexagram 1 especially, with its lapidary yuan heng li zhen, comes with an inner sense of something that is meant to be. This is true; this should be real.

Or as Wilhelm puts it:
'By holding fast to what is right, it gains the power of enduring.'

The source: Hexagram 8

Ever-flowing constancy's next appearance is not in a line text, but the Oracle of Hexagram 8 - Seeking Union, Belonging.

'Seeking union, good fortune.
At the origin of oracle consultation,
From the source, ever-flowing constancy.
No mistake.
Realms not at peace are coming.
For the latecomer, pitfall.'

What happens here?

I'm persuaded that this hexagram is alluding to the story of Yu the Great: how after his labours to conquer the floods, he called a gathering of lords and spirits to found a new community. And Fang Feng, famously, came late to the meeting (the word translated as 'realms' is actually his name) and was executed.

This is the origin of oracle consultation (I've shared musings about this before), so naturally constancy flows from here. It comes from the moment in divination when you recognise its imagery, feel what belongs and how it's a good fit. And it also comes from the sense of community, feeling how you belong and are a good fit. (I think the search for human belonging is 'at the origin of oracle consultation' for most of us!)

Why would we need ever flowing constancy here?

It certainly fits well with the wateriness of it all: Yu's story, and how it's visible in the trigrams of this part of the book. But there's more to it than that, I think.

LiSe tells the story:

"Water over the Earth: it is an image of the big river flooding the earth, devastating everyone living in its range. The only way to fight this kind of danger is to be like water, to go on and on, no matter what the cost or how long it takes. Earth also means 'a mass', a large group, which may be the only way to summon enough strength. When a person with an unstoppable power like water leads a group, big enterprises can be completed."

"To be like water, to go on and on, no matter what the cost or how long it takes." That was Yu's own story - years of hard, muddy toil - so perhaps the same quality is still needed here.

The only problem I have with this is that it sounds quite grim, and more like Hexagram 7, the Army, than 8. The Zagua, contrasting the two, says,

'Seeking Union means delight; the Army means grieving.'

Delight is the guiding principle of Seeking Union: it might be work, but it has to feel right. Once it does, once you have that moment of recognition (of what a reading is saying, or that you have found your place), then it is no mistake to keep going in that commitment - and it never can be, no matter where it leads.

And this comes through in the inner logic of the oracle text, from 'good fortune' to 'pitfall':

'Seeking union, good fortune.

This feels right!

'At the origin of oracle consultation,
From the source, ever-flowing constancy.
No mistake.

I can flow on endlessly from this divination - this knowing - and avoid mistake. And here is the mistake I'll avoid:

Realms not at peace are coming.
For the latecomer, pitfall.'

'On second thoughts... here are lots of new people / here is a whole lot of new information... and now I'm not sure how I feel. Maybe it isn't right after all?'

Seeking Union actually contains the danger of endless indecision: if I'm always seeking what feels right, I might neglect what I know to be right. Ever-flowing constancy is how to avoid that disastrous hesitancy by staying true to the original knowing: not just being constant until circumstances change, but without end, always renewing the connection.

(22.3, 42.2, 45.5, 52.1 and 62.4 still to come...)

I Ching Community discussion

In this month's episode, Slavica is asking what to do about a developing relationship. Yi responds with Hexagram 13, People in Harmony, changing at lines 1, 2 and 6 to 28, Great Exceeding:

I hope you enjoy listening - and if you'd like to join WikiWing, you can do that here!