Aug 25 26
Death
42. Increase
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 “M.A.X.”: If it is impossible to know anything absolutely (like, the ridiculousness of being absolutist about language, and language’s statements, as language is really a truncated proxy/placeholder, which can only create a separate dimension from that which it describes, being a really good example) — why is everyone so confident about everything? Information is transcendentally fragmented and controlled by bad actors of all kinds (and carries all the fundamental problematics of language, as said) — it must simply be that humans feel uncomfortable living outside of rhythms, so they’ll go with whatever’s easiest, or safest in appearance? The proverbial — We don’t have to outrun the bear, we just have to organize in a like minded group to feed those that don’t go along with our nonsense beliefs, to the bear — and all that?
Oracle reply: It is true, “society” is in some sort of corporate/political trance (a mesmerism a la Kiyoshi Kurasawa’s film Cure and his reference to that book Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France by Robert Darnton) — rhetoric bound, no longer able to digest subtlety (that is, sensationalist), many pseudo-proofs (bolstered by cleverly exacerbated disappointments) — but that’s the way it is right now. This is the life you are situated in.
Your subtlety seems to be intact. This is good. Treasure it. Detailed knowledge/experience will help you navigate, improvise, and adapt in this wild jungle.
A suggestion for your journey (in addition to accumulated knowledge)... Say a sort of prayer whenever you can, in the morning, throughout the day, into evening, and before sleeping. This is not a religious request to a god (or whatever) but an orienting acknowledgement. Simply acknowledge you are a small, derivative entity in a great complex, interconnected universe (not powerless, not meaningless, but certainly situated in a world of transcendentally more-powerful-than-you forces). It is not good to feed illusions (illusions are requisite in life, kinda like hope, but your relation to them is important).
I ask all that is more powerful than me, all that I can’t understand, for help to find the light (illumination, insight, clarity). I ask for help rejecting darkness (power based on short term gain). I ask for the strength, clarity, and the energy to recover quickly from times where I fall short, or get lost, in the process of gaining light. Energy, clarity, strength, and light. Energy, clarity, strength, and light... I ask this in an energetic spirit of surrender and participation.
Complete Reading:
This week we pulled Death. Change. A new beginning. But also, it is worth considering, that the appearance of this card is a kind of mystical occurrence — an opportunity to think about a transformation — of spirit — an invitation to break from the transcendentally literal nature of human perception — to break free from the youth map into a kind of maturity.
Our first and only hexagram this week is #42, Increase. Here we have the clearest advice to increase the strength of the group and then the self. To strengthen/nurture a group of people (a team, a country, a self, a family, etc.) all one really need know is this: “to rule truly is to serve.” As for strengthening/improving oneself, the counsel is equally clear and plain: “When a person discovers good in others, they should imitate it… if a person perceives something bad in themself, let them rid themself of it… these ethical changes represent the most important increases to personality.” That’s it.
- You must let go to receive. Change and growth require pruning and surrender.
- To lead is to serve.
- Imitate the good you see in others. If you see something bad in yourself, make it a priority to get rid of it.
- Stop embroidering your symptoms in that windowless room (it makes the greedy richer).
Question from “M.A.X.”: If it is impossible to know anything absolutely (like, the ridiculousness of being absolutist about language, and language’s statements, as language is really a truncated proxy/placeholder, which can only create a separate dimension from that which it describes, being a really good example) — why is everyone so confident about everything? Information is transcendentally fragmented and controlled by bad actors of all kinds (and carries all the fundamental problematics of language, as said) — it must simply be that humans feel uncomfortable living outside of rhythms, so they’ll go with whatever’s easiest, or safest in appearance? The proverbial — We don’t have to outrun the bear, we just have to organize in a like minded group to feed those that don’t go along with our nonsense beliefs, to the bear — and all that?
Oracle reply: It is true, “society” is in some sort of corporate/political trance (a mesmerism a la Kiyoshi Kurasawa’s film Cure and his reference to that book Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France by Robert Darnton) — rhetoric bound, no longer able to digest subtlety (that is, sensationalist), many pseudo-proofs (bolstered by cleverly exacerbated disappointments) — but that’s the way it is right now. This is the life you are situated in.
Your subtlety seems to be intact. This is good. Treasure it. Detailed knowledge/experience will help you navigate, improvise, and adapt in this wild jungle.
A suggestion for your journey (in addition to accumulated knowledge)... Say a sort of prayer whenever you can, in the morning, throughout the day, into evening, and before sleeping. This is not a religious request to a god (or whatever) but an orienting acknowledgement. Simply acknowledge you are a small, derivative entity in a great complex, interconnected universe (not powerless, not meaningless, but certainly situated in a world of transcendentally more-powerful-than-you forces). It is not good to feed illusions (illusions are requisite in life, kinda like hope, but your relation to them is important).
I ask all that is more powerful than me, all that I can’t understand, for help to find the light (illumination, insight, clarity). I ask for help rejecting darkness (power based on short term gain). I ask for the strength, clarity, and the energy to recover quickly from times where I fall short, or get lost, in the process of gaining light. Energy, clarity, strength, and light. Energy, clarity, strength, and light... I ask this in an energetic spirit of surrender and participation.
Complete Reading:
This week we pulled Death. Change. A new beginning. But also, it is worth considering, that the appearance of this card is a kind of mystical occurrence — an opportunity to think about a transformation — of spirit — an invitation to break from the transcendentally literal nature of human perception — to break free from the youth map into a kind of maturity.
Our first and only hexagram this week is #42, Increase. Here we have the clearest advice to increase the strength of the group and then the self. To strengthen/nurture a group of people (a team, a country, a self, a family, etc.) all one really need know is this: “to rule truly is to serve.” As for strengthening/improving oneself, the counsel is equally clear and plain: “When a person discovers good in others, they should imitate it… if a person perceives something bad in themself, let them rid themself of it… these ethical changes represent the most important increases to personality.” That’s it.