34 Ta Chuang: The power of the great

34 Ta Chuang: The power of the great
Persistence in a righteous course brings reward
The thunder runs over the sky

We can find several times the advice not to exit from a righteous course. Persistence means to proceed as usual, without sudden or big changes.
This sign is coupled with March-April months, in which the sun rise up more abruptly and the weather changes more rapidly.
We could be tempted to read this hexagram as a great power that rise and rule the world, a strong voice that overcome all the others and subdue the opponent. This could also mean that the stronger it is the better the result.
We must read it, on the contrary, as a sign of prudence, balance, wise use of the rising power, because it is growing and fighting with the old power (in this case the cold, obscure, winter, “Yin” power).

The thunder over the sky is a power that may come out of control, like the weather in march-april may very easily be too cold or too hot ot too rainy, this is a period that tell how the whole year will be.
If the rising power is balanced, it will develop even better and everything will flourish richly.
It is clear that this hexagram speak of a changing period, and the risk is a loss of balance between today and tomorrow.
We can notice that in all the I Ching when we find a strong power, we are always dealing with changing situations,
while the quiet periods are empty of power.
So we can also see that I Ching consider always connected the power with the changes, because the power, even if very strong, in the end will always and inevitably produce movements.

Hexagram 22 PI Grace

Hexagram 22 PI Grace

I’d rather call it “Embellishment” or Ornament.
The hexagram indicates the enlighting of a mountain side by a fire.
This is an embellishment that doesn’t even touch the essence of the hard and heavy mountain.
It is just a superficial beauty, it is a mean, not a situation we have to look upon.
So the sign warn us not to consider it a favourable situation only for small things, not pretending to touch the inner side of the hard situations.
I think aestethic is something different, I think that aspect speak, of the essence, and so real beauty speaks of really good essence. In this case the essence ir rocky and heavy, and we must be careful in
trustin this kind of grace.

Hexagrams 33 TUN Retreat and 36 MING I Darkening of the light

Hexagram 33 Retreat

This sign has a meaning very close to the Latin use if “Retreat/Go up Aventino hill”.
It was the story of an ancient Roman governor that proposed new laws for the people and had to retreat on the Aventino hill because of the violen reaction of the senators.
This means that even if we are right and acting for the good, we have to wait in a safer situation, searching for the right moment to go on.

Hexagram 36 Darkening of the light

Adversity means progress throughout persevering in midst of difficulties. It is not a permanet damage.
It seems more than all to be a lack of consciousness, a darkening of phsychic and/or physical perception.
It is a transitory period that will necessary pass after the night.

Hexagram 34 The power of the great

34 Ta Chuang: The power of the great
Persistence in a righteous course brings reward
The thunder runs over the sky

We can find several times the advice not to exit from a righteous course. Persistence means to proceed as usual, without sudden or big changes.
This sign is coupled with March-April months, in which the sun rise up more abruptly and the weather changes more rapidly.
We could be tempted to read this hexagram as a great power that rise and rule the world, a strong voice that overcome all the others and subdue the opponent. This could also mean that the stronger it is the better the result.
We must read it, on the contrary, as a sign of prudence, balance, wise use of the rising power, because it is growing and fighting with the old power (in this case the cold, obscure, winter, “Yin” power).

The thunder over the sky is a power that may come out of control, like the weather in march-april may very easily be too cold or too hot ot too rainy, this is a period that tell how the whole year will be.
If the rising power is balanced, it will develop even better and everything will flourish richly.
It is clear that this hexagram speak of a changing period, and the risk is a loss of balance between today and tomorrow.
We can notice that in all the I Ching when we find a strong power, we are always dealing with changing situations,
while the quiet periods are empty of power.
So we can also see that I Ching consider always connected the power with the changes, because the power, even if very strong, in the end will always and inevitably produce movements.

Sentences and Comments suggestion: a way to understand

I tend more and more to avoid reading and interpreting the single I Jing words in literal sense.
If we try to analyze them like precise symbols, we will end in doing some endless digging just like a
psychoanalytic process.

We know very well that psychoanalysis don’t drive in any good place, it’s much easier that
we get lost in a fog of a symbol orgasm. If we try we can build up, from any casual word, such a long
chain of meanings – or symbols if you like – that we can get wherever we want.

That’s I don’t like.

I want the I Jing to tell me something, and I have to rest silently, listening to the suggestions that comes
directly into myself without passing through the ear.

It is just a process very similar to dreaming. I don’t care very much about the literal sense
of the images, I care of the impact of the whole situation upon the feelings and sensations, mine and
of the applicant.

Then, ony after having understood the situation “feelings”, we can try, together, to bring back these feelings
and sensations to his relevant situation, giving to it the same “colour” of the I Jing response.

Sign # 16 Enthusiasm & Repose

I’m again reading and meditating each hexagram, and I found a crytical point at sign 16, usually called
“The Exciting” or “Enthusiasm”. It is the thunder over the earth, a perfect sign.
Not to say of all comments, I found in John Bolfeld’s book the name “Repose”, because he says that,
according to a chinese expert this sign means “where it is used favourabily, it must be undertood as
the kind of of mental repose which follows the absolute confidence that the action now being taken
is the right one.”
I like this meaning, because under the thunder there is the earth, which is the basis of the sign, so
tha action is done upon a “cool” groung, calm, still, looking backward to your ancestors.
The action of making music and sacrifice means action in your house or anyhow on your land,
while in enjoinig times and not in war or conflict. It is, in some way, an indoor activity and not a
“productive” activity.
And it gives an alert: “Big is indeed the meaning of times in this period.”
This means that you have to follow the progressive unwrapping of the sign, always keeping the earth
under your feet while runnig like a thunder.
Going on, however, I found that the next sign #17 “Following – Repose” is a thunder lying under the
lake, the winter repose after action. We have also to know that in chinese culture, following the
other’s will (in sign #17) is seen a serene state of mind, that is in some way a better explanation
of what Blofeld says about sign #16.
I tend to think of a mistake while writing the book, but in the meanwhile Hilary Barrett “Clarity” write to me:
“I think this is ‘enthusiasm’ in the literal sense, being ‘filled with god’, filled with spirit. Much the same idea as ‘inspiration’, just the difference between Greek and Latin! The challenge of it is to find the connection, as you say, to the earth under your feet, to the ancestors who walked here first – we’d say ‘staying grounded’. I think that’s what the ancient kings were doing for people. In spring, they’d all be running round shouting and singing anyway, but the kings composed music so this singing was not just a fantastic cacophony, but grounded and connected… and maybe, even, restful. I suppose the ideal person could have the full inspiration-imagination-enthusiasm of 16 and repose at the same time…”
In the end the important message from I Ching is inspiration and suggestion, surely not the rational explanation of a situation, which is impossible – and badly wrong trying – to do in divination.

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64 Before Completion

This is the last sign of the serie, after this point everything is starting all over again,
and that is called our future.
Anything you will do, that you wish or not, will be there,
and it will have an I Ching sign.