Oct 17 23
The Magician (reversed)
3. Difficulty at the Beginning
29. The Abysmal (Water)
These first few lines are the general aphoristic returns for the week. They are raw and uninterpreted; there to use how you’d like. (The specific readings follow.)
From “M.S.”: We understand the state of desire to be the actual center line of human existence. That is, we live in persuance not arrivals — persuance is a healthy state, arrival is an unreal, goal state (niether healthy nor unhealthy). As well, we understand language to be polysemic and individual human experience to be almost infinitely diverse.
Humans are always in danger of overshooting or overdetermining persuance/desire (like with myopia, megalomania and all manner of addiction). How best to manage this state of desire?
The Magician, emergence and flowing like water, are a powerful triad.
People who end up in an overdetermined selfish place (megalomania and/or addiction) likely paid no heed to the complexity of their future, thus are stuck with only singularly-aimed and bullish skills. (This is not always someone’s fault, obviously).
One thing that can easily be predicted about any future, is that it will be complex. The main preparation for such complexity is awareness — awareness of the varied forces that are always at play (both personally and externally). As well, one needs to concurrently develop the poise to keep calm within such difficulty.
The Magician is not a personage loyal to fantasy or to reason — they are an all encompassing figure. The Magician’s chief quality is perhaps their sensitivity and perceptiveness.
So, “to manage the state of desire” be like the Magician who never believes in arrivals but desires only to be aware. Be forever respectful of Causality and then let your Agency flow like water.
Complete Reading
This week we pulled The Magician (reversed). The magician is one who tries to bring together all the forces, all the elements — to contrast them and to see their interactions and unique qualities — not to understand them. For pushing together (symbolically) wands and pentagrams and swords and cups would NOT create wholeness but a respect of sorts. When reversed, as it is here a grotesquery has occurred, an insolence to the “magic” endeavor; like the querent left “the circle” without finishing the “right” or entered “the circle” disregarding the humbleness and sacrifice necessary, to preserve the well being of all involved. STOP TRIFLING and DISRESPECTING; it is dangerous. MAGIC IS REAL (our heads and actions and world are held aloft by forces we couldn’t begin to understand.)
Our first hexagram this week is #3, Difficulty at the Beginning. The I Ching is also called The Book of Changes. One of the chief types of changes in this world is emergence. The guidance here is about beginnings. The starting point of a process is a time to be highly aware — one needs to remove biases as much as possible, to make sure to arrange things in a healthy way before a rhythm is established. Farther on there will be little easy time to reorient elements that are out of whack or proportion. None of this is easy: “In order to find one’s place in the infinity of being, one must be able both to separate and to unite.”
There were two changes this week, of which the specific notes are: there are many aspects to get right in an early stage, one needs a qualified team, arrogance must be avoided in securing such individuals also, in a difficult emergence avoid offers of short term cheap help, they are more often than not disastrously expensive in the long term.
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #29, The Abysmal (Water). The metaphor here is of the movement of water. That is, proper conduct should be like water; water’s way is to follow a course. The individual also has a course they must follow — do not resist but be sincere. It states: “if you are sincere, you have success in your heart.” Water is also constant of action; so you too should be constant: “water reaches its goal by flowing continually.” As well, be patient, if a way of action doesn’t reveal itself — let the waters rise and “wait until a way out shows itself.”
- Understand that “magic” is real, in so far as you couldn’t begin to understand the forces that impact you and that you are impacting; if you do not aspire to act in light and love (literally and symbolically) you are causing actual harm.
- Respect your tasks. Respect your goals.
- Stop trifling.
- The starting point of a process is a time to be highly aware.
- “In order to find one’s place in the infinity of being, one must be able both to separate and to unite.”
- “If you are sincere, you have success in your heart.”
- Decision making is best when it acts like water, that is, it follows a course.
From “M.S.”: We understand the state of desire to be the actual center line of human existence. That is, we live in persuance not arrivals — persuance is a healthy state, arrival is an unreal, goal state (niether healthy nor unhealthy). As well, we understand language to be polysemic and individual human experience to be almost infinitely diverse.
Humans are always in danger of overshooting or overdetermining persuance/desire (like with myopia, megalomania and all manner of addiction). How best to manage this state of desire?
The Magician, emergence and flowing like water, are a powerful triad.
People who end up in an overdetermined selfish place (megalomania and/or addiction) likely paid no heed to the complexity of their future, thus are stuck with only singularly-aimed and bullish skills. (This is not always someone’s fault, obviously).
One thing that can easily be predicted about any future, is that it will be complex. The main preparation for such complexity is awareness — awareness of the varied forces that are always at play (both personally and externally). As well, one needs to concurrently develop the poise to keep calm within such difficulty.
The Magician is not a personage loyal to fantasy or to reason — they are an all encompassing figure. The Magician’s chief quality is perhaps their sensitivity and perceptiveness.
So, “to manage the state of desire” be like the Magician who never believes in arrivals but desires only to be aware. Be forever respectful of Causality and then let your Agency flow like water.
Complete Reading
This week we pulled The Magician (reversed). The magician is one who tries to bring together all the forces, all the elements — to contrast them and to see their interactions and unique qualities — not to understand them. For pushing together (symbolically) wands and pentagrams and swords and cups would NOT create wholeness but a respect of sorts. When reversed, as it is here a grotesquery has occurred, an insolence to the “magic” endeavor; like the querent left “the circle” without finishing the “right” or entered “the circle” disregarding the humbleness and sacrifice necessary, to preserve the well being of all involved. STOP TRIFLING and DISRESPECTING; it is dangerous. MAGIC IS REAL (our heads and actions and world are held aloft by forces we couldn’t begin to understand.)
Our first hexagram this week is #3, Difficulty at the Beginning. The I Ching is also called The Book of Changes. One of the chief types of changes in this world is emergence. The guidance here is about beginnings. The starting point of a process is a time to be highly aware — one needs to remove biases as much as possible, to make sure to arrange things in a healthy way before a rhythm is established. Farther on there will be little easy time to reorient elements that are out of whack or proportion. None of this is easy: “In order to find one’s place in the infinity of being, one must be able both to separate and to unite.”
There were two changes this week, of which the specific notes are: there are many aspects to get right in an early stage, one needs a qualified team, arrogance must be avoided in securing such individuals also, in a difficult emergence avoid offers of short term cheap help, they are more often than not disastrously expensive in the long term.
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #29, The Abysmal (Water). The metaphor here is of the movement of water. That is, proper conduct should be like water; water’s way is to follow a course. The individual also has a course they must follow — do not resist but be sincere. It states: “if you are sincere, you have success in your heart.” Water is also constant of action; so you too should be constant: “water reaches its goal by flowing continually.” As well, be patient, if a way of action doesn’t reveal itself — let the waters rise and “wait until a way out shows itself.”