Connecting the Dots: An I Ching/ Oracle Card/Tarot Card Triplet
AUTHOR’S NOTE: A few of years ago I came across a table of correspondences created by a couple of Russians that links the 64 I Ching hexagrams to the 78 tarot cards in a way that nobody else has done. Their website has been taken down, so I was fortunate to have saved a copy for experimentation. Lately I’ve been exploring the syncretism between the I Ching and the tarot, and I also have Anthony Clark’s delightful I Ching Pack of oracle cards, so I decided to bring the three together in a mixed-media reading. (The I Ching text is from the Wilhelm-Baynes translation, copyright 1977, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.)
The Question: Since we moved here five years ago I have yet to put down deep roots professionally, socially, emotionally or pragmatically in our new location, so I asked “What must I do to become more connected?”
The Hexagram: №16, Yu; Enthusiasm; Thunder over Earth (Yang in the fourth place is strong and commands obedience; the five yin lines are weak and offer their devotion to the leader.) Using Benebell Wen’s coin-toss method of divination, I received no “moving lines” (no “elder” yin or yang results) in this throw so I read the hexagram as “locked.”
Because five of the six lines are yin, relating to the binary “2,” it’s almost guaranteed that my main issues are inertia and complacency; the yin lines are subordinate to the single yang line, implying that lack of initiative and a need to be “led” loom large in the equation. (Guilty, methinks.) This is at least informally a “career-related” question so I took a closer look at Line 3, for which the advice is “Enthusiasm that looks upward creates remorse. Hesitation brings remorse.” (Roger that.)
Wen also notes that a “locked” hexagram “implies that the matter may be a lot more complicated than you realize, involving more moving parts than you’re aware of . . . the forces at play are so locked in that it would take an extraordinary feat of opposition and counteraction to unlock those influencing forces.” Hmm, defeated before I start? It sounds like “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
The Text: “The attribute of the upper trigram, Chen, is movement; the attributes of K’un, the lower, are obedience and devotion. This begins a movement that meets with devotion and therefore inspires enthusiasm, carrying all with it. Of great importance, furthermore, is the law of movement along the line of least resistance, which in this hexagram is enunciated as the law for natural events and for human life.”
The Judgment: “Enthusiasm. It furthers one to install helpers/And to set armies marching.”
The Commentary (condensed): The firm finds correspondence, and its will is done. Because enthusiasm shows devotion to movement, heaven and earth are at its side. Heaven and earth move with devotion therefore sun and moon do not swerve from their courses, and the four seasons do not err.
The Oracle Card: Enthusiasm (Profound and Lasting Enthusiasm, Versus a Passing Whim)
Thunder over Earth suggests music thundering across the plain: a day of festival and joyous relaxation.
The Tarot Card: Eight of Wands (“Swiftness” indicative of electricity, as in lightning or electronic communication; Mercury in Sagittarius shows remarkable sagacity and restraint, its sign of detriment reining in its volatility.)
Aleister Crowley’s Description: “In the Eight of Wands, fire is no longer conjoined with the ideas of combustion and destruction. It represents energy in its most exalted and tenuous sense; this suggests such forms thereof as the electric current; one might almost say pure light in the material sense of that word. (It) belongs to Sagittarius, which represents the subtilizing of the Fiery energy; and Mercury rules the card, thus bringing down (from above) the message of the original Will; it refers to the phenomena of speech, light, electricity. This card, therefore, represents energy of high velocity, such as furnishes the master-key to modern mathematical physics.”
My Interpretation: For some time now I’ve been toying with the idea of making a strong entrepreneurial push to gain local recognition in my field. I’ve had exposure nationally and internationally through my blog, my five e-books, my regular contributions to various publications and my participation in online discussion groups, but I really crave the face-to-face experience of dealing directly with clients. By the same token, I’m retired and don’t want another full-time career.
This multi-part reading suggests that such an initiative might be well-received at this particular time, and the Commentary for the hexagram could be read as promoting astrology over tarot. As a matter of fact, my “tarot euphemism” for the 8 of Wands is the “no time like the present” card. Following the “line of least resistance” mentioned in the I Ching text would seem to involve finding a sympathetic network with which to engage, but I’ll never know if I don’t try. (Working with clients remotely is always an option, but I’ve found it too impersonal.) In the past I’ve operated through commercial venues as my primary in-person outlet; however, “pickings are slim” here since area shops already seem to be well-served, and I’m not in a position to rent a space of my own.
For the moment, word-of-mouth is my main mode of outreach and growth has been negligible. But this stuff is primarily an intriguing hobby for me; I’m not putting food on the table with it so there’s nothing driving me other than an appetite for personal dialogue with like-minded people. I did once try drumming up interest through a regional arts-and-entertainment newspaper but that went nowhere so I need a more robust forum. All three of these symbols appear to be telling me “Strike while the icon is hot.” (Bad pun, sorry.)
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on May 21, 2024.
