Mar 18 25
Seven of Pentacles
16. Enthusiasm
18. Work on What Has Been Spoiled
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”: Doing the opposite of someone you hate or disagree with seems a transcendentally horrible method...
...Let’s say there were two doctors that completely despised each other. If their hatred led them to be opposites, that is, to provide converse methods of care to their patients — (because having the same appearance of ethics and techniques filled them with mortifying discomfort) it would be disastrous. One would reattach a severed hand, whilst the other would cauterize and throw the hand in the bin. One would set a broken bone straight, whilst the other would break it more completely.
Can anything be done about preventing people from inhabiting/promoting the cozy, glamorous, opposite of those they hate, that is, to form character (primarily) by hateful inversion? It is our understanding that compromise and interdependence is an absolute reality, for every aspect of this world, whether living or inanimate (it is not a choice). This very sentence has come into existence from a string of unbroken elements extending all the way back to antiquity (and even further to grunting apes) AND involves real time, contemporaneous systems of expectation and presumption, of magnitudes enough to make an MIT evolutionary biologist’s head spin off.
To further modify, why isn’t everyone constantly talking about what a transcendentally corporate environment our ideas and beliefs are now formed in (not the other way around). That now, all ideas must be short, violent, and oversimplified. (A decade ago these types of repugnant, unsubtle, ideas were relegated mainly to conservative and religious systems, but now they’re everywhere.) Thoughts, ideas, and opinions have become like fast food — that is, sweet, fatty, salty, fast and deadly; they kill us while making a very few rich.
Please advise.
If you can, you must continually work to inspire yourself and others out of this brutish digital age. Devise an alternative. If you keep publicly working you might be able to gain momentum enough to collaborate with larger groups of like minded people — this is really the only way to effect change (that is, through large groups).
You must be (or stay) positive. Work and positivity. Work and positivity. Work and positivity. (As opposed to lazy and/or angry scheming.)
How did this age come about? Are we still in the trajectory of the printing press? The trajectory of language itself? We must first know the causes of corruption before we can do away with them… so that a relapse may be avoided.” “Success depends… on proper deliberation.”
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Seven of Pentacles/Coins. Hesiod’s Works and Days is a perfect parallel here. Both the card and the Greek poem emphasize perseverance and hard work as the only reasonable avenues toward peace of mind and self worth. As well, usefulness is promoted over dramatic heroics. Patience over unchecked yearning. Sweat over idleness.
Our first hexagram this week is #16 — Enthusiasm. When energies are in accord they will move with momentum along the path of least resistance. The latter part of that statement is usually associated with weakness (“the path of least resistance”); in this case it is a simple fact to be meditated on. An isolated individual doesn’t shape nature alone, they may catalyze a reaction, but it is only through collective energy (enthusiasm) that large scale effects are achieved. As well, “enthusiasm” is the spark that inspires all positive energies and motivations.
There were four changes this week, of which can be summed up thus: regular/constant working blocks destructive hesitation; also, confidence born of consistent work destroys doubt.
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #18, Work on What Has Been Spoiled. “We must first know the causes of corruption before we can do away with them… so that a relapse may be avoided.” “Success depends… on proper deliberation.” The lines here are about preparation, not outward action. The preparation should consist of the reduction of signals and meditation on personal faults. So, befriend past errors then begin again (relatively speaking). The re-upping should include a stirring/drumming up all the good aspects of life (partaking in that which brings one healthy joy and casting out all that is degrading and gross). Then, regularizing these beautiful aspects of life into an oft tended rhythm, whilst never forgetting the past errors and what caused corruption and stagnation. The result should be a certain durable tranquility.
- Hard work is the only reasonable avenue toward peace of mind and self worth.
- Emphasize patience; discourage unchecked yearning.
- Be useful to yourself and others, with a mind towards the long term; quiet heroics.
- Regular working blocks destructive hesitation and doubt.
- Confidence born of consistent work destroys doubt.
- “We must first know the causes of corruption before we can do away with them.”
From “MS”: Doing the opposite of someone you hate or disagree with seems a transcendentally horrible method...
...Let’s say there were two doctors that completely despised each other. If their hatred led them to be opposites, that is, to provide converse methods of care to their patients — (because having the same appearance of ethics and techniques filled them with mortifying discomfort) it would be disastrous. One would reattach a severed hand, whilst the other would cauterize and throw the hand in the bin. One would set a broken bone straight, whilst the other would break it more completely.
Can anything be done about preventing people from inhabiting/promoting the cozy, glamorous, opposite of those they hate, that is, to form character (primarily) by hateful inversion? It is our understanding that compromise and interdependence is an absolute reality, for every aspect of this world, whether living or inanimate (it is not a choice). This very sentence has come into existence from a string of unbroken elements extending all the way back to antiquity (and even further to grunting apes) AND involves real time, contemporaneous systems of expectation and presumption, of magnitudes enough to make an MIT evolutionary biologist’s head spin off.
To further modify, why isn’t everyone constantly talking about what a transcendentally corporate environment our ideas and beliefs are now formed in (not the other way around). That now, all ideas must be short, violent, and oversimplified. (A decade ago these types of repugnant, unsubtle, ideas were relegated mainly to conservative and religious systems, but now they’re everywhere.) Thoughts, ideas, and opinions have become like fast food — that is, sweet, fatty, salty, fast and deadly; they kill us while making a very few rich.
Please advise.
If you can, you must continually work to inspire yourself and others out of this brutish digital age. Devise an alternative. If you keep publicly working you might be able to gain momentum enough to collaborate with larger groups of like minded people — this is really the only way to effect change (that is, through large groups).
You must be (or stay) positive. Work and positivity. Work and positivity. Work and positivity. (As opposed to lazy and/or angry scheming.)
How did this age come about? Are we still in the trajectory of the printing press? The trajectory of language itself? We must first know the causes of corruption before we can do away with them… so that a relapse may be avoided.” “Success depends… on proper deliberation.”
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Seven of Pentacles/Coins. Hesiod’s Works and Days is a perfect parallel here. Both the card and the Greek poem emphasize perseverance and hard work as the only reasonable avenues toward peace of mind and self worth. As well, usefulness is promoted over dramatic heroics. Patience over unchecked yearning. Sweat over idleness.
Our first hexagram this week is #16 — Enthusiasm. When energies are in accord they will move with momentum along the path of least resistance. The latter part of that statement is usually associated with weakness (“the path of least resistance”); in this case it is a simple fact to be meditated on. An isolated individual doesn’t shape nature alone, they may catalyze a reaction, but it is only through collective energy (enthusiasm) that large scale effects are achieved. As well, “enthusiasm” is the spark that inspires all positive energies and motivations.
There were four changes this week, of which can be summed up thus: regular/constant working blocks destructive hesitation; also, confidence born of consistent work destroys doubt.
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #18, Work on What Has Been Spoiled. “We must first know the causes of corruption before we can do away with them… so that a relapse may be avoided.” “Success depends… on proper deliberation.” The lines here are about preparation, not outward action. The preparation should consist of the reduction of signals and meditation on personal faults. So, befriend past errors then begin again (relatively speaking). The re-upping should include a stirring/drumming up all the good aspects of life (partaking in that which brings one healthy joy and casting out all that is degrading and gross). Then, regularizing these beautiful aspects of life into an oft tended rhythm, whilst never forgetting the past errors and what caused corruption and stagnation. The result should be a certain durable tranquility.