Jul 30 24
Ten of Wands
34. The Power of the Great
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.)
From “M.S.”: It is our experience/understanding that the “medium is the message” — that is, an idea, a thought, or an intention get translated, channeled and grounded in a form. This process is not pure; the idea/thought/intention must obey the rules of the form — or else the idea/thought/intention would not be intelligible. This is true whether the idea/thought/intention be spoken language, a fictional text, a text message, an online post, an online comment, any/all manner of laboratory pursuit, what one wears, any manner of art activity or political action or political discourse, whatever, etc., etc. — ALL are translation scenarios of loss and significant compromise.
It is also our experience/understanding that this process is largely invisible to most — which risks the thoroughly erroneous belief that a lossless pure thought to medium process is possible.
Again, a medium always contaminates a thought with the rules of its form. A portrait of a person in paint is not the actual person but a painted image. A text message is not a direct thought, but a thought translated/compromised into language bound to the very specific rules (and hidden corporate intentions) of a device/platform.
What is the best way to help people see this bedrock conundrum of basic impurity? The implications for corporate control here are dark and deep — the addictive illusions of agency, effective anger, mobility and profit developed and maintained to conceal relative poverty, self-affecting violence and infinite anxiety.
Well obviously you can’t teach the entire world; the “people” of your query should have been qualified/detailed a little better. But, in any case, your desire is a dignified one.
A good, realistic method for educating/collaborating with your peers regarding the dangers of ignoring the compromise/impurity of the idea/thought/intention translation to medium process is tucking such discourse away, at the bottom of a newsletter, as it’s being done here. It feels somewhat casual and non-obtrusive.
As well, don’t allow for thoughts of achievement or failure — rather mind your Ps and Qs throughout the process. Never believe that you are bigger than your inquisitiveness.
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Ten of Wands. One’s desire must overreach one’s grasp, otherwise no one would do anything — there’d be no tension for movement/hunger. However such a situation causes problems like the taking on of more than one can handle. Often such oppressive loads are not limited to oneself; they can leak out and burden all that are connected to you.
Our first and only hexagram this week is #34, The Power of the Great. Power, talent, momentum and achievement. It seems easy to imagine that were such aspects to be in accord, all would be wonderful. However each of these facets require their own vigilance and forethought. Power can lead to blind narcissism. Talent can be disorientingly mono-directional. Momentum can preclude one’s ability to be patient and accurate as regards timing. And achievement is always an illusion, as life is infinitely rich in variables.
- Be careful taking on too much — not only do you risk hurting yourself — but you can also burden those close to you, harmfully so.
- Success is an illusion, in the same way that failure is an illusion, in that nothing is ever stable. Be vigilant in “success”. Be vigilant in “failure”.
From “M.S.”: It is our experience/understanding that the “medium is the message” — that is, an idea, a thought, or an intention get translated, channeled and grounded in a form. This process is not pure; the idea/thought/intention must obey the rules of the form — or else the idea/thought/intention would not be intelligible. This is true whether the idea/thought/intention be spoken language, a fictional text, a text message, an online post, an online comment, any/all manner of laboratory pursuit, what one wears, any manner of art activity or political action or political discourse, whatever, etc., etc. — ALL are translation scenarios of loss and significant compromise.
It is also our experience/understanding that this process is largely invisible to most — which risks the thoroughly erroneous belief that a lossless pure thought to medium process is possible.
Again, a medium always contaminates a thought with the rules of its form. A portrait of a person in paint is not the actual person but a painted image. A text message is not a direct thought, but a thought translated/compromised into language bound to the very specific rules (and hidden corporate intentions) of a device/platform.
What is the best way to help people see this bedrock conundrum of basic impurity? The implications for corporate control here are dark and deep — the addictive illusions of agency, effective anger, mobility and profit developed and maintained to conceal relative poverty, self-affecting violence and infinite anxiety.
Well obviously you can’t teach the entire world; the “people” of your query should have been qualified/detailed a little better. But, in any case, your desire is a dignified one.
A good, realistic method for educating/collaborating with your peers regarding the dangers of ignoring the compromise/impurity of the idea/thought/intention translation to medium process is tucking such discourse away, at the bottom of a newsletter, as it’s being done here. It feels somewhat casual and non-obtrusive.
As well, don’t allow for thoughts of achievement or failure — rather mind your Ps and Qs throughout the process. Never believe that you are bigger than your inquisitiveness.
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Ten of Wands. One’s desire must overreach one’s grasp, otherwise no one would do anything — there’d be no tension for movement/hunger. However such a situation causes problems like the taking on of more than one can handle. Often such oppressive loads are not limited to oneself; they can leak out and burden all that are connected to you.
Our first and only hexagram this week is #34, The Power of the Great. Power, talent, momentum and achievement. It seems easy to imagine that were such aspects to be in accord, all would be wonderful. However each of these facets require their own vigilance and forethought. Power can lead to blind narcissism. Talent can be disorientingly mono-directional. Momentum can preclude one’s ability to be patient and accurate as regards timing. And achievement is always an illusion, as life is infinitely rich in variables.