We are, all of us, changing configurations… That is, changing configurations built from smaller changing configurations, residing in larger changing configurations. (We were trying to avoid simply saying: all is change…)

However it is phrased, all this change doesn’t make for an easy life.

This week we ask the oracle what is the recommended attitude for facing constant change (within and without)?

Most change involves a good deal of the unknown. Constant unknowing leads to fearful behavior (anxiety, neurosis, etc.). The first step to overcoming/befriending your fears/insecurities is admitting them.

Sharing your varied dreads with trusted/loving friends is the next step — doing this deflates worries and gives your overall sense of self durable dimension. DO NOT share your worries with undignified, untrustworthy, “fast” or shallow people — if you do, you will have more variables (and changes) to deal with, NOT LESS.

(To foster noble/proper friendships you must genuinely/lovingly encourage them unburden their own stresses with you — to lead is to serve.)

Lastly and perhaps most importantly (regarding a healthy comportment towards change) is to try earnestly to adapt to the time. An easy way to know what to adapt to, is to seek out that which has beautiful form, and THEN check if it is beautiful in substance as well. So, constantly seek to adapt to what is currently/relevantly solid in both beauty and substance — this should be your “lodestar.”



This week we pulled the Strength card, reversed. What is the shadow of strength? Fear — fear, anxiety and all manner of neurosis. Pay special attention to your defining fears this week. What do you avoid because of fear? What do you amplify to camouflage your fears? There is much strength in admitting and outing your fears.

Our first hexagram this week is #17, Following. Herein lies a version of the deep/lovely aphorism: to lead is to serve. “If a person is to rule they must first learn to serve.” But there are much subsequent fertile modifiers to that main thrust: “If a person tries to obtain a following by force or cunning, by conspiracy or by creating factions, they invariably arouse resistance, which obstructs willing adherence… The thought of obtaining a following through adaptation to the demands of the time is a great and significant idea…” “No situation can become favorable until one is able to adapt to it and does not wear themself out with mistaken resistance.” There were four changes this week, of which the specific notes are: surround yourself only with people who are dignified, a reliable/solid following is not gained by setting-up a weaker group as a scapegoat or butt-of-the-joke, and “every person must have something they follow—something that serves as a lodestar.”

Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #22, Grace. Here we have a rather specific admonition regarding “grace” defined as: “beauty of form.” Though it states that the “beauty of form — is necessary in any union if it is to be well ordered and pleasing rather than disordered and chaotic” it adds that grace “is not the essential or fundamental thing; it is only the ornament and therefore to be used sparingly, in little things.” Ultimately saying “by contemplating the forms existing in the heavens we come to understand time and its changing demands. Through contemplation of the forms existing in human society it becomes possible to shape the world.” The sum point seems to be this: valuing beauty is fundamental in all endeavors, but thinking beauty to be the main or only thing to consider, can lead to catastrophe — a beautiful surface can mislead if other depth examinations aren’t appraised.