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Interpreting hexagrams

Comments on whole hexagrams, individual lines and so on

The nomads gain

Hexagram 25, line 3:

‘The calamity of Without Entanglement.
Someone tethered a cow.
Nomads’ gain,
City people’s calamity.’

Bede Griffiths on the Abyss

I’ve started re-reading Bede Griffiths, Return to the Centre, a wonderful book I first attempted to understand when I was 16. This time through, I have help. I think of hexagram 29, the Repeating Chasm, as a dark place of bottomless depths. Yi talks of ‘holding fast your heart’ here,… Read more »Bede Griffiths on the Abyss

Notes on Hexagram 50

Nelson emailed me after the last newsletter to say he’d been getting a lot of readings around Hexagram 50. So here are some thoughts on what’s going on in the Vessel, which I hope might help with a variety of readings. The name of Hexagram 50 is ding: the sacred… Read more »Notes on Hexagram 50

Layers of story

The more I look into the King Wen sequence, the more depths I discover. Take the two hexagrams that describe grand, historic events of legendary proportions: 49, Radical Change, and 55, Abundance. Hexagram 49 describes the time of revolution, when the Zhou people overthrew the Shang. And hexagram 55 has… Read more »Layers of story

Hexagram 7 and the army of you

I love those times when wise people unwittingly echo the Yijing. Here’s one such moment: How to make commitments you will actually keep. Scott Young talks about how, in order to keep our commitments, it helps to understand that we’re a community of selves. The motivated one, the apathetic one,… Read more »Hexagram 7 and the army of you

Hexagram 9: Small Taming

También disponible en español (A good friend who received Hexagram 9 in response to a profound personal reading, as part of the image of her self, asked me how I saw it. So here are some pictures of Small Taming.) The key concept for hexagram 9 and hexagram 26 is… Read more »Hexagram 9: Small Taming