Ian wrote to ask me: “How can an English-speaking science graduate link to I Ching?” Nice question, thanks! The ‘English-speaking’ part is relatively easy: use a couple of distinctively different, good translations. Don’t be misled by the preoccupations of mad natural linguists (like this one) into believing you have to… Read more »I Ching for scientists
There are some beautiful new papers at Denis Mair’s Yijing Poetics site. I’m currently engrossed in ‘Maybe a daisy chain’, a new story woven from the Sequence of hexagrams. What I find most remarkable – and liberating – about this is how utterly different it is from the story I… Read more »New Yijing poetics
Imagine for a moment that you are a sage, and I have a question for you: “Will I ever be at the summit of Everest?” I’d guess that the first words out of your mouth are a question – or several: “Well, do you want to climb Everest?” “Have you… Read more »The Mount Everest question
Hexagram 14, line 6 was part of my reading for the week. It hasn’t been a great week, and I’ve been using my reading not only for its advice, but also as a reminder, a kind of talisman. Waiting for the pharmacist to make up my Mum’s prescription, I went… Read more »Hexagram 14, line 6
It occurs to me that back in an agrarian society, every ordinary activity would have its ritual place in the bigger scheme of things. Ploughing, sowing, harvesting, storing and ripening – these things have so much latent meaning that we still use them as part of our daily language even… Read more »Another question for the I Ching
The week before last, I was itching to get started on something, and Yi told me to ‘strip away’ and to have no direction to go. And I realised that I could go anywhere. Then last week, with far more ideas and possibilities in mind than I’d dreamt possible, Yi… Read more »Pushing Upward, but where to?
“The Vessel contains something real. My companion is afflicted, Cannot approach me. Good fortune.” I’ve experienced this line several times, but always found it hard to grasp why it could mean good fortune. It describes those times when you have something good within you, some realisation, joy or purpose –… Read more »Substance in the Vessel: Hexagram 50, line 2
