People often ask about the significance of the specific periods of time mentioned in the Yijing. Does this literally mean seven days, or ten years? Very occasionally, it can – but normally, these periods have symbolic value. It’s interesting to see that ‘seven days’ get three mentions in the Yijing:… Read more »Seven days
Sergio asked a big question for this podcast reading: how to deal with his sense that his life lacked meaning. Yi’s response was quite a modest, domestic one: Hexagram 37, People in the Home, changing at the fifth line to 22, Beauty: changing to ‘With the king’s presence, there is… Read more »Finding meaning
Measuring Hexagram 60 is called Measuring, or Limits – not in the sense of imposing restrictions, but of knowing where the edges are, and discovering or negotiating what’s workable. The original concept is the knots and segments of bamboo, and hence all ways of dividing up something big into smaller… Read more »Hexagram 60 as relating hexagram
Something I just came across… Alan Seale, in Create a World that Works ( a book I haven’t read, and no doubt should) described four levels of engagement with experience – from the most easily accessible to the most creative: Drama – the blow-by-blow, he-said-she-said reliving of events, in a… Read more »Levels of questioning?
The Yijing is an optimistic oracle: omens of good fortune come more often than those of misfortune. But on four* occasions, it goes one step further and promises great good fortune: ‘Enriching the home.Great good fortune.’ Hexagram 37, line 4 ‘Great good fortune, no mistake.’ Hexagram 45, line 4 ‘Welcomed… Read more »Great good fortune
‘Not yet across, creating success.The small fox, almost across,Soaks its tail:No direction bears fruit.’ There are ten places where the Yi says that ‘no direction bears fruit’, or (in the Wilhelm/Baynes version) ‘nothing furthers’: 4.3, 19.3, 25.6, 27.3, 32.1, 34.6, 45.3, 54.0, 54.6, and finally 64.0. It’s easy to see… Read more »No direction bears fruit
This podcast has a reading of my own, about creating a home. Yi answered with Hexagram 53, Gradual Progress, changing at line 5 to Hexagram 52, Stilling: changing to If you’d like to discuss a reading with me for a future episode (it’s free, as a ‘thank you’ for sharing),… Read more »Creating a home
