What happens when you consult an oracle?

I am not talking about the simple way how so many people ask an oracle. 

"Does he love me?" (yes or no??)

"Is this house a good investment?"

"Tell me if today will be a good day?"

Many just want the yes or no, but hopefully they will glean some advice from the answer.

Shenshu poem 40

In a clear water region like bluegreen jade

The boat sails upstream

with the moon right overhead

Steadily and in the center

I cannot understand the mysteries

But who runs counter makes mistakes

The seeds of losing his life

This poem of the Shenshu 'feels' very much like an answer of the Yi feels to me. I do my best, I stay in the center, I know about the mysteries, I feel them in my bones. But what to do? "I" has no access to the mysteries.

幾the seeds

This Chinese character of a previous blog-post (Nov.25, 2018) is part of this. The seeds, the tiny beginnings of what will happen. It is like the story about the butterfly flapping its wings causing a tornado somewhere else on our planet.

The seeds germinate in the 'mysteries'. We all feel their existence but nobody can describe the mysteries. They are like the invisible roots deep below the forest, but without their tangible reality. They cannot be touched, and yet they 'are'. Maybe they are pure energy.

An oracle has access to this realm, but it cannot do it on its own. It needs the cooperation of your soul. Or the other way around. Your soul has to turn the key and then the oracle is a means to actually open the door. An oracle is not the only way to open your soul.

Old pond

frog jumps in

sound of water

(Matsuo Bashô)

When you read a Haiku, you can only 'see' the image if you unlock your soul. 

It is very similar to 'understanding' an oracle. 

The words are only the key to the door. 

Your soul has to turn the key and open the door.

Hex.57 Wind - when your number comes up

巽

Xun, Wind, the name of hexagram 57

   Shuogua: For putting all things in motion there is nothing more vehement than thunder; for scattering them there is nothing more effective than wind.

   In many cultures there are images of gods or other forces which make life begin and make it end. Thunder makes seeds germinate, Wind is the 'chooser' which decides about the life-span.

The character Xùn is a picture of a table with two seals on it. Later two hands were added. Wieger: “To elect, to choose. Two 卩 seals of officials, placed upon a 兀 table, to be committed to those who were elected, chosen."

   Meanings of Xun: choose, elect or being elected, humble, modest, gentle, subtle, practice, penetrate, resign (like -throne), dispose, calculate; regulate, equip.

In the Mawangdui Yijing: 筭 Suàn: counting sticks (271 pieces, before abacus), exch. with Suàn: count, calculate, number, figure, elaborate (a plan), sum, combine, project, strategy, foresee, to divine, life-span, food-basket. 

   Your seal has to do with what you are made of, and also what you do with your talents and opportunities. Nobody can see the wind, only its effects. Treebranches swaying, dust-devils dancing, waves, bending grass. The wind penetrates, but where it cannot enter, things stagnate and decay. You are supposed to develop yourself, to move and to enter adventures, and never ever come to a standstill. Because 'you' don't matter, what matters is what you do with it, how you move.
In many cultures wind and fate are strongly connected.

Shuogua: Xun suggests the idea of wood; of wind; of the oldest daughter; of a plumb-line; of a carpenter's square; of being white; of being long; of being lofty; of advancing and receding; of want of decision; and of strong scents. It suggests in the human body, the idea of deficiency of hair; of a wide forehead; of a large development of the white of the eye. (Among tendencies), it suggests the close pursuit of gain, even to making three hundred per cent in the market. In the end it may become the trigram of decision.

Hex.61 Fu, from captives to inspiring confidence

Captive, truth, sincerity, inspire confidence. 

The tag of hexagram 61 is Zhong Fu, inner truth. The character fu appeares 42 times in the Zhou Yi.
Originally it meant captive. It is a picture of a child and a claw: grasping a (small) person.

Bronze character 'fu'.

When the troops returned home, they had to show their conquests. They did it by showing the captives or the number of killed enemies.
Hauling along corpses for a long journey home is not a good idea, so they only brought the ears.
The ears brought home were proof that they told the truth. So the character started to mean truth, sincerity, inspire confidence.
The number of people is still sometimes counted in ears: six ears: three people.

In hexagram 55 line 2 it says: "To proceed brings doubt and anxiety. With confidence Fa gathers." (Fa is the personal name of Wu, king Wen's son).
Wu 'has the power to inspire', he convinces his people and the allies that the eclipse is not a bad sign, on the contrary. It is an omen of the fall of an empire - the Shang of course...

Loan characters (or the poetry of a nation)

浚

This character, jùn, is the first character of the bottom line of hexagram 32. Its meanings are "dredge, dig, excavate, develop, extract, deep, many, unblock the waterway; digging wells and pools".

Jùn héng: unrelenting steadiness, or deep-digging steadiness. 

This same character pronounced as xùn is a place-name: Xùn. A place which is known for its deep waters.

氵夋

 At left 'water', at right an old character with the meaning 'move slowly'.

夂 允 

Which in turn consists of 'move' and 'permit, consent, fair, just right'

The scientific approach is to choose between those two meanings. Either 'deep', or Xun, but not both at once.
Poets (and Chinese) have a different approach: both. Because the two meanings enhance each other.

If you want to make clear how deep and exhaustingly something is being done, wouldn't it make the picture more complete to compare it to the place Xun? Everyone knows that the waters there are so deep and dangerous!

In Rutt (Zhouyi, 1996): "...the place-name had oracular force because of its danger". It is the same force poets make use of. Oracles and poets both use imagery to convey their message. Both speak to your heart, not that much to your mind.

Hex.38.5 His ancestor bites through skin

Who is the ancestor?

宗

I always wondered what the ancestor meant. I found this:
The ancestor can be a leader, grandfather, a person of authority in a family, husband, anyone who has the position to exercise some control. 
This is China long ago, feel free to change it to the female version if that fits better.

宀 示

The character consists of 'roof' and 'altar'. It refers to a certain type of thing or person that has a leading role or is the first: sovereign, leader, eldest son, respect, fundamental, ancient emperor temple, an ancient ritual, official title, take charge of the ritual of sacrifice. I think it is a picture of the little altar in a house where the family honors their grandfather/mother and so on.

The fanyao (corresponding line of the relating hexagram)

38.5 Regrets go away. The clan leader bites through skin. Proceed, how can it be faulty.
Trigram Fire turns into Heaven. Controlling but not too much (just skin, not through hard bone or so).

10.5 Decisive treading. Determination: danger.
Trigram Heaven turns into Fire. Decisive but not too much.

38.5 changes into 10.5 if it is 'old yin', 10.5 changes into 38.5 if it is 'old yang': they are each other's fanyao.

What does it mean in an answer?

If one of the two is too strong, they will clash. If it is the one in authority (or thinks he/she is) it will be 'faulty'. If it is the one of 10.5: being decisive is good, but it always involves risk; how much depends on its flexibility.

Hex.3.3 "The noble one knows the seeds"

幾

In hexagram 3 line 3 is the character ji, which is intriguing. It can be translated as "seed", the very first beginning of something, when it is not yet really visible. 

幺 戍

It is composed of 幺 (small, doubled) and 戍 (frontier guard). From Wieger: Frontier guards “are attentive to the least movement, to the smallest event".
幺 is actually a picture of silk - very slight, thin, hardly visible.

There are more lines with this character, but all of them about the moon being 'almost' full. On the verge of being full, but just not yet. It is a moment when things can change. A full moon is a time of 'much', but being on the verge of full is a meaningful but still rather undefined moment. See 9 line 6, 54 line 5 and 61 line 6.

望

There is another character with the meaning 'full', which simply tells us that the moon is 'round', a symbol of success or the kind of mind which can reach success. But the character 'full' in these three lines also means 'hope', prestige and it is also the name of an ancient sacrifice, or to offer a sacrifice to the dead whose remains are buried far away and to mountains and rivers, sun, moon and stars.

Contrast, reflection and contrasting reflection

  Most pairs in the Yi are reflections of each other. Like a mountain in a lake: upside down.

 Another combination is the 'contrast': every yang line in one hex is a yin line in the other and every yin line is a yang line.

 Above is the example of a reflection pair, 3 and 4, and their contrasts, the reflection pair of 49 and 50. Hex.3 and 50 are contrasts, hex.4 and 49 are contrasts.

  When you cast hex.3, the Yi gives advice. But 4 does have some meaning in the advice as well. It is the view from the other side. Not advice about what you should do now, but sometimes it is helpful to see "the other perspective".

  The top is now at the bottom, the bottom at the top. Line 3.1 becomes 4.6, and so on. Line 3.5 is about finding a good place. Its reflection, 4.2, is also about a time without solid facts, but now about caring for what is present already.

  Hex.3 line 5 changes to hex.24, hex.4 line 2 changes to 23, which is - of course - the reflection of 24, because that is how it works.

 Between 3.5 and 4.2 is a reflection. For hexagrams and for lines it works the same. In hex.3 there is a beginning without anything already finished.

 In hex.4 the start is present, but you don't know yet how to proceed.

Starting or learning - two sides of a similar dilemma. In hex.3 you have to start acting. In 4 you have to learn how to act.