Jul 02 25
Queen of Cups
4. Youthful Folly
50. The Cauldron
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.)
Question from “B.M.T.”: What are the oracle’s thoughts about evolution vs. balance? That is, how can things be evolving (“self-contained”, life replication processes, affected by contact with varied random phenomena, causing adaptive mutations) whilst also being thought of as part of a system that has a precondition for absolute balance? Isn’t the latter a rebranded form of religion; a desire for supernatural harmony and intelligibility? Kind of like a secularized, cloaked religious dogma and a demand for purity?
Oracle reply: It would be nice to know why such a question is asked. Your point seems true enough in its logic, but what about outside the logic tunnel of the question? Like, what is best for people who are informed by different sources — even bad sources? All people are misinformed — no one has the whole picture (not even remotely). The presupposition of your question seems to be that were people to recognize the faultiness of their foolish perspective this would birth a more positive outcome? Maybe. But quite sincerely, maybe not. The world has been, at best wacky, and at worst a thoroughly horrible nightmare — for a very long time (neither science nor spirituality could be definitively blamed).
The I Ching states very clearly that the unifier of the masses is a shared “spiritual” belief — it does not say that well reasoned logic unifies — as maddening as that might be...
Are you the student here, really looking for answers? Or a teacher, that is teaching without being asked? If the teacher, you must continue to educate yourself, develop being a genuine model, patient for emulation, — not pontificating ostentatiously. If you are the student then you must eschew the logic of your youthful beliefs and humbly seek a master. This is true whether you are talking about evolution vs. the tendency of people to believe in ecological purities or whatever.
Complete Reading:
This week we pulled the Queen of Cups. Loving intelligence, emotional intelligence — a card of mature, stable intuition. Here is an encouragement to tap into the place just beyond conscious reason, and just before the totally abstract place, of the mind.
Our first hexagram this week is #4, Youthful Folly.
Here is detailed the optimal relation between a student and a teacher — the student must always seek the teacher and not the other way round.; A student should be curious; a teacher should be patient. Where a student is modest a teacher should be resolute like an oracle. Both student and teacher must have a perseverance that “never slackens until the points are mastered one by one.” The student “must be conscious of their lack of experience and must seek out the teacher. Without this modesty and this interest there is no guarantee that they will have the necessary receptivity, which should express itself in respectful acceptance of the teacher. This is the reason why the teacher must wait to be sought out instead of offering themself. Only thus can the instruction take place at the right time and in the right way.” — If this is done, “real success is sure to follow.”
There were two changes this week of which the specific notes are: emulation of another’s strong appearance is cheap and will not lead to a dignified outcome, also, clinging to hopeful fantasies yields humiliation (but the humiliation can ignite a possibility for important learning).
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #50, The Cauldron. A cauldron holds nourishment to feed a large group of people. The emphasis here, is not on the ingredients though, or the iron that constructs it, but of remoter causalities of sustenance — figuratively, the rain and sun. That is, the far, far off sun and the rain (fickle or persistent as they may be) are what truly make the cauldron’s nourishment possible. As well, the degree to which wood delivers a robust flame, depends upon the strength of the relation of the tree and its environment — the sun and rain being the foundational elements of this production. The I Ching states that this cumulative image represents the need for group spirituality, that is, society needs a unified reverence of the larger mystery and out of reach forces, for large scale nourishment to exist — isolated, cynical, individuality will only bring strife.
- When asking yourself a sincere question, first breathe deep, then listen very carefully for the first answer — that is, before reason and all the other emotions corrupt the signal.
- The student must always seek the teacher; NOT the other way round.
- Emulation of strong appearances is cheap and will not lead to a dignified outcome.
- Clinging to hopeful fantasies yields humiliation [but if properly contextualized (recognized) the humiliation can ignite the possibility of important learning].
- Isolated, cynical, individuality only brings strife, however, change is possible with dignified unity — mass unity that coils around an agreed upon “spirituality”.
Question from “B.M.T.”: What are the oracle’s thoughts about evolution vs. balance? That is, how can things be evolving (“self-contained”, life replication processes, affected by contact with varied random phenomena, causing adaptive mutations) whilst also being thought of as part of a system that has a precondition for absolute balance? Isn’t the latter a rebranded form of religion; a desire for supernatural harmony and intelligibility? Kind of like a secularized, cloaked religious dogma and a demand for purity?
Oracle reply: It would be nice to know why such a question is asked. Your point seems true enough in its logic, but what about outside the logic tunnel of the question? Like, what is best for people who are informed by different sources — even bad sources? All people are misinformed — no one has the whole picture (not even remotely). The presupposition of your question seems to be that were people to recognize the faultiness of their foolish perspective this would birth a more positive outcome? Maybe. But quite sincerely, maybe not. The world has been, at best wacky, and at worst a thoroughly horrible nightmare — for a very long time (neither science nor spirituality could be definitively blamed).
The I Ching states very clearly that the unifier of the masses is a shared “spiritual” belief — it does not say that well reasoned logic unifies — as maddening as that might be...
Are you the student here, really looking for answers? Or a teacher, that is teaching without being asked? If the teacher, you must continue to educate yourself, develop being a genuine model, patient for emulation, — not pontificating ostentatiously. If you are the student then you must eschew the logic of your youthful beliefs and humbly seek a master. This is true whether you are talking about evolution vs. the tendency of people to believe in ecological purities or whatever.
Complete Reading:
This week we pulled the Queen of Cups. Loving intelligence, emotional intelligence — a card of mature, stable intuition. Here is an encouragement to tap into the place just beyond conscious reason, and just before the totally abstract place, of the mind.
Our first hexagram this week is #4, Youthful Folly.
Here is detailed the optimal relation between a student and a teacher — the student must always seek the teacher and not the other way round.; A student should be curious; a teacher should be patient. Where a student is modest a teacher should be resolute like an oracle. Both student and teacher must have a perseverance that “never slackens until the points are mastered one by one.” The student “must be conscious of their lack of experience and must seek out the teacher. Without this modesty and this interest there is no guarantee that they will have the necessary receptivity, which should express itself in respectful acceptance of the teacher. This is the reason why the teacher must wait to be sought out instead of offering themself. Only thus can the instruction take place at the right time and in the right way.” — If this is done, “real success is sure to follow.”
There were two changes this week of which the specific notes are: emulation of another’s strong appearance is cheap and will not lead to a dignified outcome, also, clinging to hopeful fantasies yields humiliation (but the humiliation can ignite a possibility for important learning).
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #50, The Cauldron. A cauldron holds nourishment to feed a large group of people. The emphasis here, is not on the ingredients though, or the iron that constructs it, but of remoter causalities of sustenance — figuratively, the rain and sun. That is, the far, far off sun and the rain (fickle or persistent as they may be) are what truly make the cauldron’s nourishment possible. As well, the degree to which wood delivers a robust flame, depends upon the strength of the relation of the tree and its environment — the sun and rain being the foundational elements of this production. The I Ching states that this cumulative image represents the need for group spirituality, that is, society needs a unified reverence of the larger mystery and out of reach forces, for large scale nourishment to exist — isolated, cynical, individuality will only bring strife.