Dec 02 25
Eight of Wands
37. The Family
13. Fellowship with Men
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 “A.W.”: In wanting to gain a broader audience in a creative practice, does one tune their imagination to a more general cultural substrata, or unflinchingly dig deeper into their own hole?
Oracle reply: The quality of your output is determined by the order of your immediate “house” (the persistence and organization of your talent and passion: “firm and consistent conduct” in your closest sphere). The influence of your output is determined by how much you actually engage “the goals of humanity” that is, “concerns that are universal.” That’s it.
Also, there should be no consideration of starting — the process has already begun. You’re already in the arc of your process. You already know what your talents and weaknesses are — because you’ve already started.
(Also, also, when parking on the street at night, don’t leave things in your car. 😘)
Complete Reading:
This week we pulled Eight of Wands. It is underway. The process is airborne, not before, not finished. If you are waiting you are not getting it, as it has already started.
Our first hexagram this week is #37, The Family. “When the family is in order, all the social relationships of humankind will be in order.” The family is society in embryo; it is the native soil on which the performance of moral duty is made easy through natural affection, so that within a small circle a basis of moral practice is created, and this later widened to include human relationships in general. “Words have influence only when they are pertinent and clearly related to definite circumstances. General discourses and admonitions have no effect whatsoever. Furthermore, the words must be supported by one’s entire conduct, just as the wind is made effective by its duration. Only firm and consistent conduct will make such an impression on others that they can adapt and conform to it. If words and conduct are not in accord and not consistent, they will have no effect.”
There was one change of which the specific note is: “Well-being prevails when expenditures and income are soundly balanced.”
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #13, Fellowship with Men. Here it is taken as a given that fellowship, that is, the mutual support and respect of other people, is wanted. [In recent times, with so much celebrated lack of nuance, monetized antagonisms and gamified divisiveness, for some, this may no longer be a given — but we (along with the I Ching) are taking the fellowship of people as a desired (and even) optimal state.] So, to bring about mellifluously communal situations it is suggested there be a “yielding nature among many firm persons.” “True fellowship among people must be based upon a concern that is universal. It is not the private interests of the individual that create lasting fellowship, but rather the goals of humanity.”
Also, “here, clarity is within and strength without — the character of a peaceful union of people, which, in order to hold together, needs one yielding nature among many firm persons.”
And more, “fellowship should not be a mere mingling of individuals or of things — that would be chaos, not fellowship. If fellowship is to lead to order, there must be organization within diversity.”
- You are already underway; in the arc of the flight (beginnings should not be considered).
- The health and efficacy of one’s output depends on the order of one’s house (one’s immediate sphere).
- “True fellowship among people must be based upon a concern that is universal... the goals of humanity.”
Question from “A.W.”: In wanting to gain a broader audience in a creative practice, does one tune their imagination to a more general cultural substrata, or unflinchingly dig deeper into their own hole?
Oracle reply: The quality of your output is determined by the order of your immediate “house” (the persistence and organization of your talent and passion: “firm and consistent conduct” in your closest sphere). The influence of your output is determined by how much you actually engage “the goals of humanity” that is, “concerns that are universal.” That’s it.
Also, there should be no consideration of starting — the process has already begun. You’re already in the arc of your process. You already know what your talents and weaknesses are — because you’ve already started.
(Also, also, when parking on the street at night, don’t leave things in your car. 😘)
Complete Reading:
This week we pulled Eight of Wands. It is underway. The process is airborne, not before, not finished. If you are waiting you are not getting it, as it has already started.
Our first hexagram this week is #37, The Family. “When the family is in order, all the social relationships of humankind will be in order.” The family is society in embryo; it is the native soil on which the performance of moral duty is made easy through natural affection, so that within a small circle a basis of moral practice is created, and this later widened to include human relationships in general. “Words have influence only when they are pertinent and clearly related to definite circumstances. General discourses and admonitions have no effect whatsoever. Furthermore, the words must be supported by one’s entire conduct, just as the wind is made effective by its duration. Only firm and consistent conduct will make such an impression on others that they can adapt and conform to it. If words and conduct are not in accord and not consistent, they will have no effect.”
There was one change of which the specific note is: “Well-being prevails when expenditures and income are soundly balanced.”
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #13, Fellowship with Men. Here it is taken as a given that fellowship, that is, the mutual support and respect of other people, is wanted. [In recent times, with so much celebrated lack of nuance, monetized antagonisms and gamified divisiveness, for some, this may no longer be a given — but we (along with the I Ching) are taking the fellowship of people as a desired (and even) optimal state.] So, to bring about mellifluously communal situations it is suggested there be a “yielding nature among many firm persons.” “True fellowship among people must be based upon a concern that is universal. It is not the private interests of the individual that create lasting fellowship, but rather the goals of humanity.”
Also, “here, clarity is within and strength without — the character of a peaceful union of people, which, in order to hold together, needs one yielding nature among many firm persons.”
And more, “fellowship should not be a mere mingling of individuals or of things — that would be chaos, not fellowship. If fellowship is to lead to order, there must be organization within diversity.”