I had hoped to be posting now with news that I’d got the transcript and recording ready for you. But I’m sorry to say I’m not quite there yet: I was out on Saturday playing in a rehearsal and concert, and I still have a bunch of editing work to do. Almost there, though.
To whet your appetite for when I do get this finished – and it really shouldn’t be long now – here’s what we talked about:
I used to play around trying to predict the outcome of tennis games with Yi. I still find it fascinating as a way of learning more about hexagrams. Big singles tennis matches are huge contests between two people – everything each individual has goes into it. And then they’re much analysed and talked-about, occasionally even by people who know, and the players give interviews afterwards… human character and ability (and luck) under the magnifying glass.
I imagine anyone who’s consulted with Yi must have had the experience. Ask question; receive answer; say ‘Huh??’
And this is where it’s easy to go wrong – where the desire that caused us to ask in the first place won’t accept this lack of clarity, and we find a reason to ask another question, quick. (I touched on this in my post on ‘How long does a reading last?‘ – in response to which Steve Marshall pointed out that answers to big questions can last ten years and more.)
I started a thread about this at the I Ching Community, and people have contributed some excellent information and ideas. Follow the link at the top of the page to get to the beginning of the discussion.
For anyone who uses them, ‘Tarot Doug’ has written a detailed review of 10 sites with free online tarot readings.
I first met Margaret Pearson at a talk she was giving in Clare Hall, Cambridge, about the Yijing and her upcoming translation. She handed out excerpts from her first drafts, including Hexagram 11, and I started reading with great interest. Simple, fluent translation… a couple of ‘why did I never realise that?’ moments… A gently lucid commentary that I can see myself quoting in readings in future.
Then I looked at the Image – and there, instead of the usual ‘ruler’ or ‘prince’, was the queen, ‘guid[ing] the natural forces of both sky and earth’. Oh dear, I thought. She’s just arbitrarily converting the male to the female, I thought. After all, this character means a male ruler, right?
Um. It ain’t necessarily so.
Here’s a very-frequently asked question. This relationship may have been going ecstatically well or this project may have been an intolerable risk yesterday/ last week/ last month, but is that still the case? How long does a reading apply for?
