Oct 15 24
Six of Pentacles (reversed)
39. Obstruction
31. Influence (Wooing)
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.”: Though we immensely like the subjects of ghosts and aliens, we often wonder if it is an odd preoccupation, as we generally feel surrounded by the equivalent, if not actual, aliens and ghosts, at all times — like, is there any need to go seeking such things as we humans ultimately live in a haunted and alien land. Trees, plants, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and all animal life (and of course other humans) are not sewn up as far as our understanding of them, making them all pretty alien. And as for ghosts, humans, in a very real way, are haunted and performed by language, histories and thematic drives fit for any apparition roaming the hills of folktales... Is a preoccupation with ghosts and/or aliens more of a diversion from being unable to make sense of our immediate world?
“La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers
Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles;
L’homme y passe à travers des forêts de symboles
Qui l’observent avec des regards familiers.”
“Nature is a temple where living pillars
Let slip sometimes confused words;
A human passes through forests of symbols
Which observe them with familiar eyes.”
(from Les Fleurs du mal, The Flowers of Evil, Charles Baudelaire)
Much of what you said rings true and real. But the question at the end, is more presumptuous than the lovely bulk of your proposition. Within Baudelaire’s poem we find something similar to the way the “presence of an observer” affects observable states in quantum physics (the maddening transition/collapse from “all possible states” to the “certainty of a single, definite state”).
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Six of Pentacles (reversed). When upright the implication is an appropriate distribution of accumulated wealth. When reversed as it is here, the tone is greed and/or ingratitude and/or blackmail and/or tokenism.
Our first hexagram this week is 39, Obstruction. “The hexagram represents obstructions that appear in the course of time but that can and should be overcome…” The advice is to “persevere” even when “one apparently must do something that leads away from their goal. This unswerving inner purpose brings good fortune in the end. An obstruction that lasts only for a time is useful for self-development. This is the value of adversity.” And further: “Difficulties and obstructions throw a person back upon themself. While the inferior person seeks to put the blame on other persons, bewailing their fate, the superior person seeks the error within themself, and through this introspection the external obstacle becomes for them an occasion for inner enrichment and education.”
There was one change this week of which the specific note is: after a failed solo attempt it has become apparent that more hands are needed to complete the task — you must regroup and recruit some dedicated friends to finish; another solo attempt will only yield disaster.
Our second hexagram or how best to meet the changes is #31, Influence (Wooing). The stimulation of favorable (and healthy) circumstances require an attitude of humbleness and receptivity. “By keeping still within while experiencing joy without, one can prevent the joy from going to excess and hold it within proper bounds.” To understand this receptivity it is advised to consider mutualities/attractions in the non-human world. The interdependence of sun, water and plants is a good example — their relationship is reciprocal and mutually reliant — it is implied that this should be mimicked in the human spirit. “All success depends on the effect of mutual attraction.” “Attraction between affinities is a general law of nature.” From these attractions “we can learn the nature of all beings in heaven and on earth.” “Heaven and earth attract each other and thus all creatures come into being.”
- Be wary of false generosity — whether receiving or giving.
- “All success depends on the effect of mutual attraction.”
- Obstructions are opportunities for learning.
- Many mandatory tasks cannot be accomplished by oneself — therefore a consistently humble and deferential attitude toward interdependence is necessary.
From “M.S.”: Though we immensely like the subjects of ghosts and aliens, we often wonder if it is an odd preoccupation, as we generally feel surrounded by the equivalent, if not actual, aliens and ghosts, at all times — like, is there any need to go seeking such things as we humans ultimately live in a haunted and alien land. Trees, plants, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and all animal life (and of course other humans) are not sewn up as far as our understanding of them, making them all pretty alien. And as for ghosts, humans, in a very real way, are haunted and performed by language, histories and thematic drives fit for any apparition roaming the hills of folktales... Is a preoccupation with ghosts and/or aliens more of a diversion from being unable to make sense of our immediate world?
“La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers
Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles;
L’homme y passe à travers des forêts de symboles
Qui l’observent avec des regards familiers.”
“Nature is a temple where living pillars
Let slip sometimes confused words;
A human passes through forests of symbols
Which observe them with familiar eyes.”
(from Les Fleurs du mal, The Flowers of Evil, Charles Baudelaire)
Much of what you said rings true and real. But the question at the end, is more presumptuous than the lovely bulk of your proposition. Within Baudelaire’s poem we find something similar to the way the “presence of an observer” affects observable states in quantum physics (the maddening transition/collapse from “all possible states” to the “certainty of a single, definite state”).
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Six of Pentacles (reversed). When upright the implication is an appropriate distribution of accumulated wealth. When reversed as it is here, the tone is greed and/or ingratitude and/or blackmail and/or tokenism.
Our first hexagram this week is 39, Obstruction. “The hexagram represents obstructions that appear in the course of time but that can and should be overcome…” The advice is to “persevere” even when “one apparently must do something that leads away from their goal. This unswerving inner purpose brings good fortune in the end. An obstruction that lasts only for a time is useful for self-development. This is the value of adversity.” And further: “Difficulties and obstructions throw a person back upon themself. While the inferior person seeks to put the blame on other persons, bewailing their fate, the superior person seeks the error within themself, and through this introspection the external obstacle becomes for them an occasion for inner enrichment and education.”
There was one change this week of which the specific note is: after a failed solo attempt it has become apparent that more hands are needed to complete the task — you must regroup and recruit some dedicated friends to finish; another solo attempt will only yield disaster.
Our second hexagram or how best to meet the changes is #31, Influence (Wooing). The stimulation of favorable (and healthy) circumstances require an attitude of humbleness and receptivity. “By keeping still within while experiencing joy without, one can prevent the joy from going to excess and hold it within proper bounds.” To understand this receptivity it is advised to consider mutualities/attractions in the non-human world. The interdependence of sun, water and plants is a good example — their relationship is reciprocal and mutually reliant — it is implied that this should be mimicked in the human spirit. “All success depends on the effect of mutual attraction.” “Attraction between affinities is a general law of nature.” From these attractions “we can learn the nature of all beings in heaven and on earth.” “Heaven and earth attract each other and thus all creatures come into being.”