Mar 22 22
Queen of Swords (reversed)
37. The Family [The Clan]
For those who tire of human interactions, what does the oracle have to say about the non-peopled places and an individual’s desire to get away from the endless human-type topicality?
If there is no order within, there will be only cruelty and disruption without — this is true whether one is standing solitary in the the desert or in the density of a rush hour subway. All you can do is struggle to speak the truth to others and yourself — always.
To be clear, speaking the truth is like bedrock — a stable place to develop order from. But understand that speaking the truth is the most difficult thing to do as it is always changing aspect (though it is always found in the same place). Truth’s changing countenance often makes it without immediate profitability; this is why 99.9% of humans avoid it.
This week we pulled the Queen of Swords reversed. To us, the Queen of Swords when thought of as a whole — that is both upright and reversed, seems the perfect representation of nature (both human and the rest of it). When upright there are clear boundaries and constructive interaction; when reversed there is unrelenting cruelty and disruption. This week it came reversed.
There were no changes this week therefore we have only a single hexagram: #37, The Family (The Clan). “When the family is in order, all the social relationships of mankind will be in order… the family is society in embryo…” We take this as something like when there is order within, there is order without. Relatedly, there are some nice notes about the necessity of honesty in expression to make all of this work: “influence on others must proceed from one’s own person… one’s words must have power, and this they can have only if they are based on something real… if words and conduct are not in accord and not consistent, they will have no effect.”
If there is no order within, there will be only cruelty and disruption without — this is true whether one is standing solitary in the the desert or in the density of a rush hour subway. All you can do is struggle to speak the truth to others and yourself — always.
To be clear, speaking the truth is like bedrock — a stable place to develop order from. But understand that speaking the truth is the most difficult thing to do as it is always changing aspect (though it is always found in the same place). Truth’s changing countenance often makes it without immediate profitability; this is why 99.9% of humans avoid it.
This week we pulled the Queen of Swords reversed. To us, the Queen of Swords when thought of as a whole — that is both upright and reversed, seems the perfect representation of nature (both human and the rest of it). When upright there are clear boundaries and constructive interaction; when reversed there is unrelenting cruelty and disruption. This week it came reversed.
There were no changes this week therefore we have only a single hexagram: #37, The Family (The Clan). “When the family is in order, all the social relationships of mankind will be in order… the family is society in embryo…” We take this as something like when there is order within, there is order without. Relatedly, there are some nice notes about the necessity of honesty in expression to make all of this work: “influence on others must proceed from one’s own person… one’s words must have power, and this they can have only if they are based on something real… if words and conduct are not in accord and not consistent, they will have no effect.”