It is increasingly difficult to know how to speak to this moment. I do not want to enhance fear or hopelessness, nor to encourage passivity. I do not want to amplify one horror and ignore another. I do not want to name all that is happening internationally and forget what is happening in my own community. There is, in fact, so much that I want to say, share, reflect on, and learn about that I go through waves of cluttered silence. Sometimes, it is a storm with a very quiet center.
For now, I will share with you some of the very beautiful wisdom that arose on Sunday morning right here, in this intimate corner of the world. We gathered to spend time with a Taoist divination tool that has served kings, generals, artists, and musicians for thousands of years in understanding right action and right being in any given moment.
We each asked the I Ching one of three questions:
What do I need to hear about these times?
What do I need to know about my role in these times?
What do I need to know about [insert topic of personal/collective concern here]?
Out of sixty-four hexagrams, the first two people who raised their hands to share had received the same response: Hexagram 58, Joyous Communication.
Inner light shines outward and attracts a kindred spirit. To seek joy is to seek discourse that will advance knowledge and deepen your compassion. To maintain joy, engage in lively intellectual discourse with your peers. (From the Bennebel Wen translation)
We then learned that at least two others had received this response.
Another two people, who have long worked in social justice and the healing professions, inquired about their role and received Hexagram 60, Limitation.
In human life, the individual achieves significance through discrimination and the setting of limits. Therefore what concerns us here is the problem of clearly defining these discriminations, which are, so to speak, the backbone of morality. Unlimited possibilities are not suited to people; if they existed, our lives would only dissolve into the boundless. (From the Wilhelm/Baynes translation, with adjustments for gendered language.)
Many others shared, and the responses were profoundly relevant to the individual inquirer, providing specific messages and reminders as if from their ancestors, and this is the whole point. We need to remain singular, transforming, connected-to-our-souls people in the midst of all this suffering and chaos. In addition to the acts of resistance, the caretaking and mutual aid, this maintenance of self-becoming is the thing that will see us through. We will never see a way to the other side of any of this if we let the weight of other people’s actions crush us into emptiness or mass-mindedness. Evolution is individual before it is collective.
I have been sitting with what the I Ching expressed to me on Sunday, as I didn’t have the time while hosting to reflect on the nuance of what was being conveyed: Hexagram 46, Pushing Upward, changing to Hexagram 5, Calculated Waiting.
Waiting is not mere empty hoping. It has the inner certainty of reaching the goal. Such certainty alone gives that light which leads to success. …One is faced with a danger that has to be overcome. Weakness and impatience can do nothing. Only a strong person can stand up to this fate, for their inner security enables them to endure to the end. This strength shows itself in uncompromising truthfulness to themselves. It is only when we have the courage to face things exactly as they are, without any sort of self-deception or illusion, that a light will develop out of events, by which the path to success may be recognized. This recognition must be followed by resolute and persevering action. For only the person who goes to meet their fate resolutely is equipped to deal with it adequately. (From the Wilhelm/Baynes translation, with adjustments for gendered language.)
If you weren’t able to be with us on Sunday, the full recording is available here for paid subscribers.
Whether you were with us live or watched the recording, please share what the I Ching expressed to you. I’d love to hear.
