Dec 13 22
Two of Cups (reversed)
64. Before Completion
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.)
M.S. asks: What advice is there to combat the motion sickness when one changes phases in life? We ask this knowing that, from certain angles, life’s “phases” (like infant, toddler, older child, pre-teen, teenager, early adulthood, etc. etc.) could be seen as purely linguistic — nevertheless, to us, there are real differences between a toddler and a teenager, and a 37 year old adult and a 47 year old adult (permeable and variant as they may be). So yes, again we ask, when one knows that an internal responsibility has shifted and there will be a subsequent change to one’s psychological physics, causing a mild to severe disorienting queasiness — can anything be done to offset this?
It is a frustrating business being a human. It could be said there are two main attributes to human psychology, one, that we live in an indeterminant interstice between past and future — and two, humans see (and perceive) the world in differences (often binary oppositions) whilst nursing an endless desire for mellifluous flow between all things. Frustrating indeed!!
So, yes, when it happens that we feel we need to make a transition in life, the feeling can be sickening.
A way to think about transitions: a musician doesn’t think a piece of music they play a piece of music. But when they encounter a new piece of music they must practice it (that is, think it). Practice is often annoying and disheartening — buuuut it gets better. So much so that the musician no longer has to think about it — they can just play.
Change takes time and committed, deep personal reckoning.
As for mitigating the disorienting discomfort of transitions, take time with the above. You ultimately (for the most part) know which changes are forthcoming — get ahead of them in your fashion. But if you wish to live in fantasy — get used to being sick.
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Two of Cups (reversed). An essential equilibrium is in high tension. At least the disproportion is binary so it is less complicated than imbalances comprised of more than three parts… Things will not progress until the two sides receive proper emphasis through impartial and brave analysis.
Our first and only hexagram this week is #64, Before Completion. This hexagram relates a kind of difficult reckoning of change. “If we wish to achieve an effect, we must first investigate the nature of the forces in question and ascertain their proper place. If we can bring these forces to bear in the right place, they will have the desired effect and completion will be achieved. But in order to handle external forces properly, we must above all arrive at the correct standpoint ourselves, for only from this vantage can we work correctly… Accordingly, in times before completion, deliberation and caution are the prerequisites of success.” What is the nature of your difficulty of transition — it is a deep internal question first. An additional note, though our entire existence has an external cause (like none of us asked to be born — we were conceived without consultation as it were) we develop as people in isolation. There may be confusion here that though the external world acts upon us, its effect happens in the isolation of our internal being (call it a soul, a consciousness, or what have you). Dig deep within for change — only then is powerful, nutritive outward expression effective.
There were no changes this week; how we enter the week will relatively be how we exit it.
- An essential equilibrium is in high tension.
- Things will not progress until the main aspects receive proper emphasis through impartial and brave analysis.
- Dig deep within for change — only then is powerful, nutritive outward expression effective.
M.S. asks: What advice is there to combat the motion sickness when one changes phases in life? We ask this knowing that, from certain angles, life’s “phases” (like infant, toddler, older child, pre-teen, teenager, early adulthood, etc. etc.) could be seen as purely linguistic — nevertheless, to us, there are real differences between a toddler and a teenager, and a 37 year old adult and a 47 year old adult (permeable and variant as they may be). So yes, again we ask, when one knows that an internal responsibility has shifted and there will be a subsequent change to one’s psychological physics, causing a mild to severe disorienting queasiness — can anything be done to offset this?
It is a frustrating business being a human. It could be said there are two main attributes to human psychology, one, that we live in an indeterminant interstice between past and future — and two, humans see (and perceive) the world in differences (often binary oppositions) whilst nursing an endless desire for mellifluous flow between all things. Frustrating indeed!!
So, yes, when it happens that we feel we need to make a transition in life, the feeling can be sickening.
A way to think about transitions: a musician doesn’t think a piece of music they play a piece of music. But when they encounter a new piece of music they must practice it (that is, think it). Practice is often annoying and disheartening — buuuut it gets better. So much so that the musician no longer has to think about it — they can just play.
Change takes time and committed, deep personal reckoning.
As for mitigating the disorienting discomfort of transitions, take time with the above. You ultimately (for the most part) know which changes are forthcoming — get ahead of them in your fashion. But if you wish to live in fantasy — get used to being sick.
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Two of Cups (reversed). An essential equilibrium is in high tension. At least the disproportion is binary so it is less complicated than imbalances comprised of more than three parts… Things will not progress until the two sides receive proper emphasis through impartial and brave analysis.
Our first and only hexagram this week is #64, Before Completion. This hexagram relates a kind of difficult reckoning of change. “If we wish to achieve an effect, we must first investigate the nature of the forces in question and ascertain their proper place. If we can bring these forces to bear in the right place, they will have the desired effect and completion will be achieved. But in order to handle external forces properly, we must above all arrive at the correct standpoint ourselves, for only from this vantage can we work correctly… Accordingly, in times before completion, deliberation and caution are the prerequisites of success.” What is the nature of your difficulty of transition — it is a deep internal question first. An additional note, though our entire existence has an external cause (like none of us asked to be born — we were conceived without consultation as it were) we develop as people in isolation. There may be confusion here that though the external world acts upon us, its effect happens in the isolation of our internal being (call it a soul, a consciousness, or what have you). Dig deep within for change — only then is powerful, nutritive outward expression effective.
There were no changes this week; how we enter the week will relatively be how we exit it.