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.)

  • Without intuitive fluidity one is deeply handicapped.
  • In dark times “it is essential to be cautious and reserved.”
  • Preparation is the application of experience.


Question from “F.F.”: In times where the mechanisms and vehicles of information (“technology”) are constantly and wildly changing — deep, subtle thinking, or thought, fully saturated with a multicameral education, is going to be rare — propaganda and all manner of wagon circling, will dominate. (By “thought fully saturated with a multicameral education” we mean a type of mentality, whether formal or autodidactic, that maintains something like a sincerely thirsty and open respect for, or combination of, philosophy, mathematics, computation, literature, science, art, engineering, theology, sociology, and psychology.)  So in such times as these, as it is now, should one find their place in populist power structures or should one carry the torch for subtlety, art, and education, risking irrelevance and invisibility?


Oracle reply: You must NEVER lose touch with yourself (personal history, strengths, biases, loves, aspirations, etc.) but for the time being cultivate reserve (a lack of showiness)  — but when the time is right/appropriate, your preparation will lead yourself and others from a kind of chaos into a kind of loving/respectful order. 


Complete Reading

This week we pulled the Queen of Cups (reversed). Something may be amiss with emotions and intuition; the flow of emotional self awareness may be blocked — without intuitive fluidity one is deeply handicapped.

Our first hexagram this week is #36, Darkening of the Light.  Here we have an intimation that a darker facet (of personality or of social order) is dominant. There is much direct advice here: “Perseverance must dwell in inmost consciousness and should not be discernible from without.” “In social intercourse one should not try to be all–knowing. One should let many things pass, without being duped.” As well “maintain” your “inner light.” The changes here point to two specific considerations. One, do not depose a wrongdoer (or a wrong aspect) too swiftly, as bad aspects are often part of integral structure (take time to replace). And two, discovering the true purpose of a dark force may show that there is no correcting it — leave it alone and move away from it, or risk further misfortune or contamination.

Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #45, Gathering Together.  It is only through a large group, collected by a singularly selfless spirit, that great societal change/works are achieved. The individual must inspire emulation. “Only collective moral force can unite the world. Such great times of unification will leave great achievements behind them.” But there’s a warning and recommendation here: “Human woes usually come as a result of unexpected events against which we are not forearmed. If we are prepared, they can be prevented.” Before involving yourself in any large scale endeavors, make diversity of method and a flexibility of outcome, ever-present modes.