Feb 25 25
Six of Swords (reversed)
39. Obstruction
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 “MS”: Though the following may seem silly, hackneyed, and even repetitive. It is nevertheless something we are massively struggling with.
We are sincere believers in the notion that the medium is the message. Our slightly slanted definition: the context and the carrier of a message, determine the ultimate meaning of a message. The originary content of the message — however well intentioned, poetic, or passionate — will always be dominated/shaped/contaminated by the rules of the medium (carrier).
We find this highly distressing, since the current, dominant medium is absolute shit. Interlocking, corporate digital networks (social media platforms, media-sharing platforms and news platforms) which only reward and foreground transcendentally hyperbolized communications. (The friction of which is turned directly into trillions of dollars of ad revenue, bestowing oligarchical power on their owners — whether of the left or the right.)
Insanely, the world’s population believes the opposite, that these digital networks/platforms simply promote the message as the message — that the medium (these corporate digital networks) are pure conduits without contaminating properties. The populace can’t seem to see that any communication (no matter how true or good) transmitted on these mediums instantly becomes part of an incendiary, gamified, exacerbation of differences — addictively reinforcing the crudest narcissisms and false centers of self.
(It is all so far away from the truth of compromise. BTW compromise isn’t a choice — everyone does it every second of every day — a name is a compromise, every thought is a compromise, the building blocks of all human existence are compromise. “Being correct” is only pretending to be correct — it is an illusion. 🙄🙄🙄)
How do we change our personal medium, to get off of this wheel of toxic garbage? How do we develop a sincere medium off to the side of all this completely unintelligent and utterly selfish insanity? A medium of self?
This really is a deeply serious question for us. We have found some serious solace in non-religious spiritual material like the poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley and late Alan Turing via Philip Ball, as well as meditation, but are still very much struggling to keep a momentum going.
Please advise.
Well, it seems that you are in a time of transition, but it is being slowed or even stopped because of some sort of clinging to the past. This past bias seems to be putting the blame or cause on other people.
It’s almost like the advice is to courageously embrace personal change whilst rejecting non-personal, broader movements (i.e. the global transition to the corporate greed/fear networks) — like retreat into studying and art making.
We are not Christian or at all biblically oriented but a relevant proverb is bubbling up (particularly to your “medium is the message” concerns): resist not evil. We take this to mean do not consider any people, even reprehensible ones, as enemies — because you will be defined by them. If you are defined by the disgusting behavior of other people your medium will be returned hate (which requires the falsity of being right/correct) as well as useless, reciprocal, and endless resistance.
Retreat, unclench and try to forge your own way. You may have to give up a lot that is weighing you down.
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Six of Swords reversed. When upright the card is a symbol of moving on and sober transition. When reversed, as it is here, the indication is of being trapped in the past; like being haunted or haunting. The only choice, for a trapped and recursive spirit, is to release the baggage that is keeping it shackled to its situation. Work on letting go and moving on!
Our first and only hexagram this week is #39, Obstruction. Not much need for interpretation — this week the text is crystal clear as is... “Here an individual is confronted by obstacles that cannot be overcome directly. In such a situation it is wise to pause in view of the danger and to retreat. However, this is merely a preparation for overcoming the obstructions. One must join forces with friends of like mind and put themself under the leadership of a person equal to the situation: then one will succeed in removing the obstacles. This requires the will to persevere just 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…” “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.”
- To move on you must let go of that which is too heavy to carry.
- Retreat from danger is fine as long as it is study/preparation for overcoming the obstacle.
From “MS”: Though the following may seem silly, hackneyed, and even repetitive. It is nevertheless something we are massively struggling with.
We are sincere believers in the notion that the medium is the message. Our slightly slanted definition: the context and the carrier of a message, determine the ultimate meaning of a message. The originary content of the message — however well intentioned, poetic, or passionate — will always be dominated/shaped/contaminated by the rules of the medium (carrier).
We find this highly distressing, since the current, dominant medium is absolute shit. Interlocking, corporate digital networks (social media platforms, media-sharing platforms and news platforms) which only reward and foreground transcendentally hyperbolized communications. (The friction of which is turned directly into trillions of dollars of ad revenue, bestowing oligarchical power on their owners — whether of the left or the right.)
Insanely, the world’s population believes the opposite, that these digital networks/platforms simply promote the message as the message — that the medium (these corporate digital networks) are pure conduits without contaminating properties. The populace can’t seem to see that any communication (no matter how true or good) transmitted on these mediums instantly becomes part of an incendiary, gamified, exacerbation of differences — addictively reinforcing the crudest narcissisms and false centers of self.
(It is all so far away from the truth of compromise. BTW compromise isn’t a choice — everyone does it every second of every day — a name is a compromise, every thought is a compromise, the building blocks of all human existence are compromise. “Being correct” is only pretending to be correct — it is an illusion. 🙄🙄🙄)
How do we change our personal medium, to get off of this wheel of toxic garbage? How do we develop a sincere medium off to the side of all this completely unintelligent and utterly selfish insanity? A medium of self?
This really is a deeply serious question for us. We have found some serious solace in non-religious spiritual material like the poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley and late Alan Turing via Philip Ball, as well as meditation, but are still very much struggling to keep a momentum going.
Please advise.
Well, it seems that you are in a time of transition, but it is being slowed or even stopped because of some sort of clinging to the past. This past bias seems to be putting the blame or cause on other people.
It’s almost like the advice is to courageously embrace personal change whilst rejecting non-personal, broader movements (i.e. the global transition to the corporate greed/fear networks) — like retreat into studying and art making.
We are not Christian or at all biblically oriented but a relevant proverb is bubbling up (particularly to your “medium is the message” concerns): resist not evil. We take this to mean do not consider any people, even reprehensible ones, as enemies — because you will be defined by them. If you are defined by the disgusting behavior of other people your medium will be returned hate (which requires the falsity of being right/correct) as well as useless, reciprocal, and endless resistance.
Retreat, unclench and try to forge your own way. You may have to give up a lot that is weighing you down.
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Six of Swords reversed. When upright the card is a symbol of moving on and sober transition. When reversed, as it is here, the indication is of being trapped in the past; like being haunted or haunting. The only choice, for a trapped and recursive spirit, is to release the baggage that is keeping it shackled to its situation. Work on letting go and moving on!
Our first and only hexagram this week is #39, Obstruction. Not much need for interpretation — this week the text is crystal clear as is... “Here an individual is confronted by obstacles that cannot be overcome directly. In such a situation it is wise to pause in view of the danger and to retreat. However, this is merely a preparation for overcoming the obstructions. One must join forces with friends of like mind and put themself under the leadership of a person equal to the situation: then one will succeed in removing the obstacles. This requires the will to persevere just 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…” “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.”