I’ve been lucky enough to meet up with Dr Margaret Pearson, and she has very kindly promised to be the ‘guest speaker’ at our next webinar. As you’ll know if you came to the last one with Stephen Karcher, this means we get to ask her questions! The subject is ‘Women and the I Ching’, and there is some discussion going on at the I Ching Community about potential questions to ask. (Or you’re very welcome to add your suggestions as ‘comments’ to this post.)
Though I’ve introduced Margaret as a scholar of ancient China, and Yi translator, she’s not just a ‘dry’ academic. She divines with Yi, too, for herself and helping other people. She has an imaginative, very lively approach to the Yi, and she is something of a walking gold-mine of knowledge and insights – the kind of knowledge of the Yi’s historical roots that I think we really need to get a deeper, clearer understanding of our readings. (And all mercifully free of any new-agey hybrid fluff-monsters. Which is nice.)
Well, I want to get her talking about yin and yang (female and male, etc…), to begin with. And especially about the various lines and hexagrams that actually mention women, to get a better insight into the experience behind them, and the inner logic of the thing.
Meanwhile at the ICC, Hester suggests the ‘lines about women’ in Hexagram 37 in particular – which is very interesting, as I don’t know whether Margaret (who is interested in the pre-Confucian Yi) will actually see three lines about women there, or just the one… – and ‘Yly2pg1’ mentions relationships between ‘female’ trigrams, as well as a theory of hexagram 2 that’s quite new to me.
So please feel free to join in the discussion there, or just to post your suggestions/questions here as comments. Or indeed both 😉
Well I have asked and received the hexagram
#10 twice in the last two days.
The questions were different.
So this is my call on this:
The tiger may protect me from what
is called the female demons on the north – south
axis –
The tiger is the spirit of one of my ancestors –
I believe.
If or when a male does harmful things (in my case
create turmoil in her life when it was quiet
and settled)
to a righteous female then you really have
to watch out.
Without getting really personal this is what
happened to me.
Things are a lot better though it is still a dangerous
situation.
Nelson
2 questions for the webinar: Is it legitimate to change the negative tone of hexagram 44 to a positive one in feminist-leaning versions of the I Ching?
Is it wrong for the I Ching to praise women who accord with traditional female roles as in hexagram 37 and does this demean women?
Hi Ed,
Thanks for all your comments, here and on the hexagram 12/ ‘non people’ page. I really hope you will come to this webinar, as you have pinpointed exactly the issues we need to deal with: how to divine about a modern world with a book that apparently espouses very outdated views of gender roles?
I think that what Dr Pearson has to say about the translation of Hexagram 44 and the identity of the ‘powerful woman’ who sent later commentators into such a tailspin, and indeed about the original nature of yin and yang, will be a real eye-opener.
Can’t wait for elucidation on Hexagram 44… it has always troubled me in the Baynes edition. I think it’s important to recognize the variety of feminine and masculine archetypes which play out in various energies of life/the Ching and not be so limited as to the lens of ‘feminism’, which never quite escapes needing to be redefined by every new generation of women since it’s inception. The larger concepts of the Feminine however, the Great Mother, the Lover, Kali, the High Priestess, the Goddess, the Shekinah, etc…. these never seem to need revision. Food for thought.
Hilary says
“Well, I want to get her talking about yin and yang (female and male, etc…), to begin with.”
If you think Yin/Yang are opposites, just like the Greek thought of polarities, I think you are heading the wrong direction. Nothing is totally Yin nor totally Yang.
OPPOSITION Everything has two opposite aspects. Yin & Yang struggle with and control each other.
INTER-DEPENDENCE Yin & Yang define each other and therefore one cannot exist without the other. (If there is no down, which way is up?)
MUTUAL CONSUMPTION & SUPPORT Yin & Yang each give of themselves to nourish the other.
INTER-TRANSFORMATION YIn can become Yang and Yang can become Yin. In fact, this is inevitable if the growth of one or the other is uncontrolled.
INFINITE SUBDIVISIBLITY There is always a bit of one in the other. Anything can be subdivided again and again.
Fixed categorization would violate the laws of Yin & Yang and Yin & Yang are so entwined that one cannot exist without the other. They are irrevocably two parts of a whole.
To understand Yin/Yang the following chapters of Tao Teh Ching might help: 2,22,26,28
Reality consists of the place of origination (masculine; Tao; 1 of the I Ching) and the place of perfect manifestation (feminine; Teh; 2 of the I Ching). What does the I Ching say when 2 takes the place of 1?
One question I would like to see asked is
about the question of evil spirits. What are they
and how do they influence events – how can
they be overcome.
Nelson
Questions for Women & I seminar
I would like to read discussion of/know more about:
1 the correct interpretation of the Receptive – often (I believe misleadingly) referred to as the Passive (ie Haxagram 2).
2 How a woman should interpret the reading when it seems to specifically mention a father/son relationship etc
Looking forward to hearing more about this…
Caro