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vertical axis wind turbines

Qian as the axis

This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series Book of Stories

Looking at a reading the other day, I found myself revisiting (after a gap of ten years) the idea of qian, heaven – the name of Hexagram 1 – as a central axis. It’s a concept that shows up in many ways… What does qian mean? The character qian is… Read more »Qian as the axis

Words of Radical Change

This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Book of Stories

Half an idea about the third line of Hexagram 49, Radical Change – ‘Setting out to bring order means a pitfall,Constancy means danger.As words of radical change draw near three times,There is truth and confidence.’ Overall, this is telling us that radical change isn’t something you get at once, like… Read more »Words of Radical Change

Fuxi writing a trigram. By Guo Xu (1456–c.1529) - ‘Fuxi, the maker of men’.

Some Yijing origins

There’s more than one story of the Yi’s origins… Mythical origins The story begins in the 29th century BCE with Fuxi, China’s first emperor, who may have had the body of a serpent. It was through his insight that the trigrams were discovered, and people could begin to understand their… Read more »Some Yijing origins

spade in earth

Astonishingly literal

We love the layered profundity of the Yijing’s imagery – the way it can speak direct to the soul, giving us entirely new ways of seeing our situation. We know that the Vessel of Hexagram 50 might be a university, or a mindset, or a state of health, or any… Read more »Astonishingly literal