Looking at things in a certain way

Posted on February 14, 2004 by Sparhawk

Today I was reading what I consider one of the best online journals around and had an epiphany: This world, behind the fluttering banners of “Big Pharm”, is walking right into the gates of hell (albeit with the sound of lulling music…)
It is such a shame that the voices of so many people – the real, internal voices – are being suffocated by dulling medicines. Mind you, most of them ask for it, cry for them – please take away this pain that, ever so intangible, resides in my head. Very few people have the spine, the courage or the vision to make use of such states of mind. Depression, in the hands of the very few, is a tool for artistic brilliance. We are however, bombarded from every side with sobering pitches of impending personal doom by succumbing to such states. Personally, I’d be much more concerned about falling into that river…
When I read or hear about depression, or when I am depressed – something that seems to creep up on me, every so often – I find that reading Hex 18 gives the situation some missing perspective.
The popular Spanish translation for the I Ching (Yi Jing) is Libro de las mutaciones as opposed to the popular English translation of Book of Changes. The key word, of course, is “mutaciones”, which translates into English, in a very straight forward manner, to “mutations”.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has this entry for change:

1 a : to make different in some particular : ALTER “never bothered to change the will” b : to make radically different : TRANSFORM “can’t change human nature”; c : to give a different position, course, or direction to
2 a : to replace with another “let’s change the subject” b : to make a shift from one to another : SWITCH “always changes sides in an argument” c : to exchange for an equivalent sum or comparable item d : to undergo a modification of “foliage changing color”

However, mutation has the following entry:

1 : a significant and basic alteration

While the word change leaves the door open to many different interpretations mutation is very specific. For me, the nature of mutation is the essence of the Yi. Which brings me back to Hex 18.
Hexagram 18 is perhaps one of the most misunderstood hexagrams in the Yi. Wilhelm/Baynes translates the name of 18 as Work on what has been spoiled (decay). Small wonder then that thanks to the most popular Western translation of the Yi a querent cringes every time this hexagram is obtained in a reading. Another one, Wu Jing-Nuan, translates it as Poison, Destruction. I prefer Richard Rutt though. His translation is Mildew His first line for this hexagram reads:

6 base: Milldew for a deceased male ancestor.
He has a son: thus, for a dead father, NO MISFORTUNE. DANGEROUS; but ultimately AUSPICIOUS

What other hexagram resonates so much with depression as Hex 18? Before popping that pill, toss the coins. Who knows, this may come up…

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Dragones negros…

Posted on January 29, 2004 by Sparhawk

Hace algunas noches tuve un sueño bastante inquietante y curioso. Como podrán saber, uno de mis hobbies es la fotografía. Siempre ando de arriba para abajo con una mochila llena de cámaras y lentes mientras mi trípode y monópodo viajan en mi camioneta a la espera de ser usados.
En el sueño, estaba viajando en mi coche por la rambla de una playa. Acababa de caer la noche. La playa corria de norte a sur y era curveada como si encerrara una pequeña bahía. Cada punta de la playa tenía un monte de altura regular que permitía ver la playa completa desde un punto de vista muy ventajoso. En un momento dado de mi paseo, cuando me estaba acercando al extremo norte de la playa y la ruta empezaba a subir al monte que dominaba esa parte, vi que la luna estaba saliendo sobre el horizonte. Una luna enorme y amarilla que iluminaba la costa completa y dejaba su imagen en el agua como si esta fuera el camino a algún lugar místico. Paré enseguida y saquè mi equipo de fotografía para ver si podía sacar algunas fotos decentes de tal visión inspiradora.
Una vez en posición, cuando estaba a punto de empezar a tomar las fotos, vi que sobre el horizonte, entre este y la posición actual de la luna, algo inmenso y negro venía volando hacía la playa. La forma de volar era bien curiosa ya que resemblaba a un animal que estubiera nadando en el aire, no volando. Alguien que haya visto a una serpiente nadando sabrá de que estoy hablando, solo que esto era en el aire.
Cuando la inmensidad negra estaba lo suficientemente cerca como para ver algún detalle, pude notar que no se trataba de un cuerpo singular sino que era un grupo de siete u ocho dragones negros que, a la vez que volaban en dirección a la playa, se entrelazaban en vuelo como un grupo de serpientes en un balde de agua. Cada dragón cargaba a un jinete que no pude ver en detalle. Sin embargo, noté que llevaban armaduras negras lo cual tenía el efecto de que los jinetes parecían parte del cuerpo de los dragones. La acrobacía de los dragones era algo fantástico, todo el tiempo haciendo ochos en el aire mientras entre si parecían anudarse imposiblemente.
Desde mi punto de vista, cuando los dragones estaban sobre las aguas de la playa, en línea recta entre mi monte y el monte del extremo sur, estos empezaron a nadar. El agua de la playa era absolutamente cristalina y les podía ver jugando debajo de la superficie. Yo sabía, sin embargo, que estas acrobacias no eran juegos y tenían un propósito bien definido. No puedo decir con seguridad pero puedo jurar que tal propósito no era benigno y tal certeza me llenaba de temor. Era como estar espiando el trabajo de un grupo de hechiceros practicando mudras mágicos con el cuerpo de estos animales místicos.
De más está decir, en el sueño sentía la urgencia de escapar de allí y buscar inutilmente de un refugio que me escondiera de estos dragones a los que sabía omniscientes.

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When the Yi stops talking to you…

Posted on January 7, 2004 by Sparhawk

One of the worst things that can happen to a student of the Yi is that it will stop talking to her/him. Sure, you can keep asking to your heart’s content and something resembling an answer will come up, but, is it really “talking” to you? How do you know?
Since the moment I started using and studying the Yi I’ve had the feeling that a real sage inhabits the oracle. As a matter of fact, I doubt that many people using it seriously haven’t had that feeling at least once. C. G. Jung himself wondered about it and said as much. Once you get past the moment of surprise you then try to establish a relationship with that entity. It is only natural, and very human, to try to dialogue with something, or somebody, that appears to be talking to you.
But there lays some of the real dangers. Many people take this dialogue for granted.
The Yi, like any tired partner, can stop listening, and, when it does, it also shuts up. What results is that the querent ends up talking to himself. To a mirror that would only reflects what’s given to it and this, like with the mirror of Snow White’s Queen, is only what him/her wishes the most. Just an illusion.
Very few people have the maturity to see they are talking to a “yes” partner and everybody knows, or should know, what really dwells in such a partner’s heart.
Beware.

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Hilarious…

Posted on December 31, 2003 by Sparhawk

I almost fell off my chair laughing. I was just checking my web stats and saw that somebody arrived to my site using the following search terms:
“very smart thoughts”
No comments…

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Wild searches

Posted on December 17, 2003 by Sparhawk

Now, this is not a new sport. I was introduced to it by reading one of my favorite ranting blogs about
“ways to look at things”
. It is about looking into your website’s logs to see where the references to your site came from. Although I don’t have anything closer to some of the hilarious and weird searches that end up in his site, this one is the one that is taking the prize so far for me: hand signs comical

I’m starting to think that search engines like Google are becoming sentient and have a funny bone to boot. In this case I can only imagine that a deaf mute, with a great sense of humor, looking for new ways to charm his friends, landed in my site and is now as captivated by the Yi as I am…

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Karl Haushofer and Chinese Mysticism

Posted on December 16, 2003 by Sparhawk

I was browsing one of Gen. Cheng’s books and noticed the following name in western characters: “Karl Haushofer”. The fact of finding western characters in a completely Chinese written book is very interesting and prompted me to search the web for that name. I found this site with a brief biography of Mr. Haushofer. http://www.geocities.com/integral_tradition/haushofer.html
I will try to find some more information about him but the quotation below is very interesting. I can only guess what Mr. Cheng wrote about him…

Haushofer is known to have had a reputation for precognition, manifested when he was a young field artillery officer in the Bavarian army. In 1908 the army sent him to Tokyo to study the Japanese army and to advise it as an artillery instructor. The assignment changed the course of his life and marked the beginning of his love affair with the Orient. During the next four years he traveled extensively in the Far East, adding Korean, Japanese, and Chinese to his repertoire of Russian, French, and English languages.
Karl Haushofer had been a devout student of Schopenhauer, and during his stay in the Far East he was introduced to Oriental esoteric teachings. He became proficient enough to translate several Hindu and Buddhist texts, and became an authority in Oriental mysticism. Some authors even believe that he was the leader of a secret community of Initiates in a current of satanism through which he sought to raise Germany to world power, though these occult connections have been denied.
It is also believed that he belonged to the esoteric circle of George Gurdjieff. Others claim that he was a secret member of the Thule Society. Some authors have linked Haushofer’s name with another esoteric group, the Vril Society, or Luminous Lodge, a secret society of occultists in pre-Nazi Berlin. Before the war Professor Haushofer and his son Albrecht allegedly maintained close contacts with British members of the Golden Dawn.

Karl Haushofer’s son, Albrecht, was a Professor of Geography at the University of Berlin, and a consultant to the nazi foreign office and worked in the wartime resistance against Hitler. The Haushofers fell from grace. Albrecht was indicted in the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. Karl Haushofer was sent to the infamous Dachau concentration camp, and Albrecht to the Moabite prison in Berlin. Waiting for his trial and most likely execution, he wrote sonnets and hid them very carefully. On April 23, 1945, as Soviet troops closed in on the center of Berlin, the prison authorities released Albrecht and a group of fellow inmates. But immediately outside the gates a group of SS or SD men took charge of the prisoners, marched them to a vacant lot nearby, shot them, and left their bodies where they fell. Some weeks later, Albrecht’s body was found by his younger brother. The dead man’s right hand was hidden under his coat, still pressing to his heart the five folded sheets of paper bearing the sonnets.
The Moabit Sonnets were first published by a group of American Army officers in the occupation forces in Berlin. Since then they have been reprinted in Germany and many European countries and languages.
Following the war, Haushofer was interrogated by the allies and put to trial before the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, but acquitted. Together with his wife Haushofer committed suicide on March 13, 1946, in Pähl, W. Germany.

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Book Three

Posted on December 13, 2003 by Sparhawk

The diagrams of third book are now online. This book is quite special in that is has lots of math formulas and tables. As with the other two books, there are diagrams that are repeated, however, for the sake of integity, I will not suppress any duplicate diagrams from any of the books. I am of the opinion that the more contextual information the better.

As with the second book, this one has page numbers and a good reason for me to include the Index for further reference.

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Here goes the second book…

Posted on December 11, 2003 by Sparhawk

I just finished scanning and uploading the diagrams of the second Gen. Cheng’s book. I brought some books to work and used the scanner I have in the office. It is a slower process than using a camera but to use a camera one needs good, indirect light. Something I didn’t have around today. In any case, I think the results are more uniform with a scanner anyway.

As you can see, these scans include a cover picture, an Index and lots of tables I found together with the diagrams. Many of the diagrams I have seen already in the first book. The tables, on the other hand, may shed some further light on them and I think they are a very useful addition. The nice thing about the pages of this book is that they do include page numbers and if you read the Index you may be able to make up the chapter they are in. If anybody needs further information from any given chapter, let me know.

I was very happy to learn that Steve Marshall found some of my first diagrams useful and experienced some kind of epiphany while looking at one of the thumbnail pictures. He found a very interesting pattern in the circular Xiantian diagram by Shao Yong.

Well, I’m in the shipping business and one thing I see all the time on the bridge of the ships I board, are compasses. The pattern that Steve found is strikingly similar to a “Rose of the Winds” in a marine compass. I consider this to be a great find and I’m sure many more hidden patterns await in these diagrams.

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Starting the scanning of my Chinese Yi books

Posted on December 7, 2003 by Sparhawk

Today I started scanning my set of chinese Yi books. As you can see from the pictures, they are mostly scans of the diagrams in the books.
I am posting this in the hope that some of my fellow Yi students, who can read chinese, are able to study them and share their opinions here or in the Yi forums I frequent.

The link to the pictures is here: Yi Book 1

Please beware that the scans are detailed pictures and therefore are big files. I did this on purpose for those serious enough to download them and study them in detail. They are big for the purpose of zooming in the detail of the Chinese characters that accompany the diagrams.

I have nine more, Yi related, Chinese books. This is the first one I scanned.

There are 73 pictures in the above link. I hope you enjoy them.

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Have you ever looked for signs?

Posted on August 30, 2003 by Sparhawk

Well, I am always looking for them. I don’t usually find them, but, sometimes they just jump at you. For the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed a few. Some of them can make you reflect about what comes next…
A few nights ago, I was driving home for dinner when something to my left caught my eye. Since I live in a semi-rural community in New Jersey, the sight of animals by the road don’t particularly get my attention. However, this was a sad sight. A beautiful little fawn, stil covered with small white patches all over its body, was standing along the road, just watching across to the other side to a field of green soybeans. I followed its sight and to my right I saw his mother, laying on the ground, dead. Doing fifty miles an hour did not help and could not spend much time thinking about it. That is, until I got back to work from dinner and the fawn was still there, still staring across the road and, not yet weaned off his mother, trying to graze, not knowing what to do next.
The next morning the fawn was gone. One can but wonder what would happen to it. The turkey buzzards, however, were hard at work feeding on the carcass of the doe by the side of the road. Now, this and on itself is nothing much to give you many signs. What made me think of them is that when I rode back home that night, on the side of the road, next to the dead and half eaten doe, were the flat carcasses of two buzzards. Now, don’t misunderstand me, for all the carrion they eat, they are very smart birds, not mentioning the fact that in the area where we live they are used to stay away from cars on the road. I’ve never before seen a buzzard ran over by a car… Do you see? The combination of this facts are a sign of things to come.
Another little sign manifested itself yesterday when I was on my way to Delaware from home. A beautiful green Katydid climbed to my side mirror for a ride. What’s interesting, besides being a first, is that from the time I left home until I decided to stick my hand, pick it up and let it fly, some 6 miles away from where I started, the little creature just hung to smooth back of the mirror like a kid holds to the front of a seat on a wild rollercoaster. Amazing! The katydid sustained an air draft of up to sixty miles an hour, the little antennae flying back like the long mane of a biker riding a Harley down Route 66. I still don’t know how it did it but I reached a point where I was afraid the air draft would dislodge it from the mirror and the poor little thing would become a green splatter on the windshield of the car behind me. At the toll both of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, I carefully picked it up (I had to tug a little…) and let it fly away. All along I’ve got the feeling that it was trying to say something to me.
Today I searched for some information on katydids and synchronicity brought me to a site where Chinese Cricket Culture is discussed. For that alone I owe my little friend a heartfelt thank you!

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