Oracle for the Week of 9.27.21
The I Ching is a book of Chinese wisdom, the accumulated experience of over 2,500 years of diviners and sages, and beyond that of unimaginably ancient oral traditions; it’s a guide to an ethical life, a manual for rulers, and an oracle of one’s personal future and the future of the state. The book of divination is based on eight symbolic trigrams and sixty-four hexagrams.
The oracles have been offering people help and wise, genial guidance for generations. It will tell you what challenges and opportunities you are likely to face if you take a particular path, and how you can negotiate the obstacles you meet. This is the opposite of 'fortune telling'. Being told what will happen, as if your own choices had nothing to do with the outcome, is deeply disempowering. The I Ching tells seekers what effects their choices will have, and helps them to develop strategies to achieve their goals.
One needs to apply wisdom received in this post to upcoming events as they unfold during the coming week. The developing oracles will be posted for your convenience every week on Sunday evening.
K’UEI
Opposition
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THE JUDGMENT
OPPOSITION. In small matters, good fortune.
When people live in opposition and estrangement they cannot undertake a great undertaking in common; their points of view diverge too widely. In each circumstances one should above all not proceed brusquely, for that would only increase the existing opposition; instead one should limit oneself to producing gradual effects in small matters. Here success can still be expected, because the situation is such that the opposition does not preclude all agreement.
In general, opposition appears as an obstruction, but when it represents polarity within a comprehensive whole, it has also its useful and productive functions. The oppositions of heaven and earth, spirit and nature, man and woman, when reconciled, bring about the creation and reproduction of life. In the world of visible things, the principle of opposites makes possible the differentiation of categories through which order is brought about in the world.
THE IMAGE
Above fire; below, the lake:
The image of OPPOSITION.
Thus amid all fellowship
The superior man retains his individuality.
The two elements, fire and water, never mingle, but even when in contact retain their own natures. So the cultured man is never led into baseness or vulgarity through intercourse or community of interests with persons of another sort; regardless of all commingling, he will always preserve his individuality.
THE LINES
Nine at the beginning means:
Remorse disappears.
If you lose your horse, do not run after it;
It will come back of its own accord.
When you see evil people,
Guard yourself against mistakes.
Even in times when oppositions prevail, mistakes can be avoided so that remorse disappears. When opposition begins to manifests itself, a man must not try to bring about unity by force, for by so doing he would only achieve the contrary, just as a horse goes farther and farther away if one runs after it. If it is one’s own horse, one can safely let it go; it will come back of its own accord. So too when someone who belongs to us is momentarily estranged because of a misunderstanding, he will return of his own accord if we leave matters to him. On the other hand, it is well to be cautious when evil men who do not belong with us force themselves upon us, again as a result of a misunderstanding. Here the important thing is to avoid mistakes. We must not try to shake off these evil men by force; this would give rise to real hostility. We must simply endure them. They will eventually withdraw of their own accord.
Nine at the top means:
Isolated through opposition,
One sees one’s companion as a pig covered with dirt,
As a wagon full of devils.
First one draws a bow against him,
Then one lays the bow aside.
He is not a robber; he will woo at the right time.
As one goes, rain falls; then good fortune comes.
Here the isolation is due to misunderstanding; it is brought about by outer circumstances but by inner conditions. A man misjudges his best friends, taking them to be unclean as a dirty pig and as dangerous as a wagon full of devils. He adopts the attitude of defense. But in the end, realizing his mistakes, he lays aside the bow, perceiving that the other is approaching with the best intentions for the purpose of close union. Thus the tension is relieved. The union resolves the tension, just as falling rain relieves the sultriness preceding a thunderstorm. All goes well, for just when opposition reaches its climax it changes over to its antithesis.