Jun 28 22
Two of Wands
29. The Abysmal (Water)
60. Limitation
Petite Reading:
The summation of the three oracle returns this week are pretty good advice for one’s kit — generally speaking:
🤔
Complete Reading:
This week we pulled the Two of Wands. Is learning and experience best developed out in the world or does it mature better in the calm/collected environs of one’s own space (home, library, laboratory, etc.)? Clearly it is both. Theories untested in the real world are quite useless but so is being distracted by the constant novelty of markets or jungles. It is up to us as individuals to get the balance right.
Our first hexagram this week is #29, The Abysmal (Water). The metaphor here is of the movement of water. That is, proper conduct should be like water; water has a way — it follows a course. The individual also has a course they must follow — do not resist but be sincere. It states: “if you are sincere, you have success in your heart.” Water is also constant of action; so you too should be constant: “water reaches its goal by flowing continually.” There were two changes this week, of which the specific notes are: if you are caught in a rip tide you should not swim directly against the current but on a long diagonal back to shore as well if you find yourself in quicksand extricating yourself by your own will is out of the question — be patient til the proper help comes along or yell like crazy.
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #60, Limitation. The discourse here centers around the reality of setting boundaries or limits in a universe of infinite/inexhaustible possibilities. “Limitations are troublesome, but they are effective” though “it is necessary to set limits even upon limitation.” “The individual attains significance as a free spirit only by surrounding themself with these limitations and by determining for themself what their duty is.” And again using figurative language: “A lake is something limited. Water is inexhaustible. A lake can contain only a definite amount of the infinite quantity of water; this is its peculiarity. In human life too the individual achieves significance through discrimination and the setting of limits.”
The summation of the three oracle returns this week are pretty good advice for one’s kit — generally speaking:
- Experience (writ large) is a conscientious balance of going out into the world and collating the collected information back in a safe environment. One or the other will not deliver a full Experience (or perspective).
- You can’t directly fight what is happening to you; you have to work with a dominant energy somehow.
- Meaning only exists through limitation.
🤔
Complete Reading:
This week we pulled the Two of Wands. Is learning and experience best developed out in the world or does it mature better in the calm/collected environs of one’s own space (home, library, laboratory, etc.)? Clearly it is both. Theories untested in the real world are quite useless but so is being distracted by the constant novelty of markets or jungles. It is up to us as individuals to get the balance right.
Our first hexagram this week is #29, The Abysmal (Water). The metaphor here is of the movement of water. That is, proper conduct should be like water; water has a way — it follows a course. The individual also has a course they must follow — do not resist but be sincere. It states: “if you are sincere, you have success in your heart.” Water is also constant of action; so you too should be constant: “water reaches its goal by flowing continually.” There were two changes this week, of which the specific notes are: if you are caught in a rip tide you should not swim directly against the current but on a long diagonal back to shore as well if you find yourself in quicksand extricating yourself by your own will is out of the question — be patient til the proper help comes along or yell like crazy.
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #60, Limitation. The discourse here centers around the reality of setting boundaries or limits in a universe of infinite/inexhaustible possibilities. “Limitations are troublesome, but they are effective” though “it is necessary to set limits even upon limitation.” “The individual attains significance as a free spirit only by surrounding themself with these limitations and by determining for themself what their duty is.” And again using figurative language: “A lake is something limited. Water is inexhaustible. A lake can contain only a definite amount of the infinite quantity of water; this is its peculiarity. In human life too the individual achieves significance through discrimination and the setting of limits.”