Trumps and Trigrams: A Syncretic Exercise
AUTHOR’S NOTE: In my recent essay (linked below) on syncretism between Western astrology and the I Ching, I correlated the twelve Ptolemaic signs of the zodiac with the eight I Ching trigrams and, via synthesis between consecutive signs, with twelve of the 64 hexagrams. In doing so I resorted to a good deal of inspiration, imagination and ingenuity by tapping some trigrams to do “double-duty” (and sometimes “triple-duty”) as either the dominant (upper) or subordinate (lower) halves of the resulting hexagrams. In this model, the Cardinal and Mutable signs and their trigrams are treated as dominant and the intervening Fixed signs and trigrams are always subordinate. Here I’m devising ways to “mix-and-match” the zodiacal trump cards of the tarot to produce a range of hexagrams using their associated trigrams.
Below is the list of trigram correspondences based on my previous post:
Aries; Cardinal Fire; The Emperor: Trigram Li (dominant Fire)
Taurus; Fixed Earth; The Hierophant: Trigram K’un (subordinate Earth)
Gemini; Mutable Air; The Lovers: Trigram Sun (dominant Air as Wind)
Cancer; Cardinal Water; The Chariot: Trigram K’an (dominant Water)
Leo; Fixed Fire; Strength: Trigram Li (subordinate Fire)
Virgo; Mutable Earth; The Hermit: Trigram Sun (dominant Earth as Wood)
Libra; Cardinal Air; Justice: Trigram Ch’ien (dominant Air as Heaven)
Scorpio; Fixed Water; Death: Trigram Chen (subordinate Water as Thunder)
Sagittarius; Mutable Fire; Temperance: Trigram Li (dominant Fire)
Capricorn; Cardinal Earth; The Devil: Trigram Ken (dominant Earth as Mountain)
Aquarius; Fixed Air; The Star: Trigram Sun (subordinate Air as Wind)
Pisces; Mutable Water; The Moon: Trigram Tui (dominant Water as Lake)
I’m unaware of any precedent for the above assignments. In The Book of Thoth, Aleister Crowley associated “Yi King” hexagrams only with the ten Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, the sixteen court cards and the Minor Arcana ascribed to Sol in the Golden Dawn system. So what you see is entirely the result of my own contemplation.
To practice this exercise, I shuffled the 12 zodiacal trump cards and randomly pulled two as a “daily draw” to show the I Ching “tone” or theme for the day. (With so few cards, I selected the pair from a “fan” instead of trying to cut the thin sub-pack.) Using the trigrams connected with the two cards, I formed a hexagram by applying the “dominant-and-subordinate” assumptions of the model shown in my previous essay. Then I read the Judgment and the Commentary from the Wilhem-Baynes edition of the Book of Changes to come up with an oracular outlook.
Reversals are not used in this approach, but it might be reasonable to allow them and then assume that a reversed trump card would just “flip” the related trigram over to create a mirror-image of its usual orientation; the normally-derived hexagram could then be allotted to the daylight hours and the “flipped” version to the night-time period. There are no rules for any of this, so it’s wide-open to speculation and experimentation.
If two “dominant” cards are pulled, the more robust and assertive of the two should be used for the “upper” trigram. For example, if the Emperor (dominant Cardinal Li) and Temperance (dominant Mutable Li) appear in the draw, the Emperor would unquestionably win any “arm-wrestling match” between the two and would therefore take the upper position. If two subordinate cards are pulled, the least robust or assertive one would assume the “lower” place. For example, if The Hierophant (subordinate Fixed Earth) and Death (subordinate Fixed Thunder) are pulled, the undemonstrative nature of Taurus and Venus would obviously cede the top spot to the more vigorous energy of Scorpio and Mars.
This may take some judgment on the reader’s part, so don’t go with your first impressions. Note that the only way to come up with “doubled” trigrams (such as in the first hexagram, Ch’ien, and the second one, K’un) would be to shuffle together the 24 zodiacal trump cards from two decks (which is not an unthinkable way to accomplish this).
Here is an example reading for Wednesday, May 8, 2024.
Hexagram 50: Ting (The Cauldron)
The Judgment: Supreme good fortune; Success.
The Commentary: “Through gentleness the ear and eye become sharp and clear. The yielding advances and goes upward. It attains the middle and finds correspondence in the firm; hence there is supreme success.”
The Commentary is particularly interesting. I usually shoot pool on Tuesdays with other local retirees, and last Tuesday my aim was anything but “sharp and clear.” I was having trouble striking the center of the cue ball with the tip of the stick and was putting unintentional spin on the object ball. It goes without saying that I didn’t make many of my shots since I couldn’t “attain the middle” of the pocket; I definitely have to acquaint myself with a firmer touch. In order to “up my game” (advance upward) I’m going to have to exercise more “yielding” calmness and patience as I approach the table. I’m reading this as useful advice about preparing myself mentally for next Tuesday.
As a final note, let’s suppose that either the Emperor or the Star came up reversed in the draw. “Flipping” the symmetrical “yang-yin-yang” Li trigram would have no effect on the subsequent hexagram since the Emperor would still maintain its dominant position, but doing the same thing for the Star would create Hexagram 38, K’uei (Opposition), which brings ambitious Li into conflict with laid-back Tui and promises good fortune only in small matters. (We could certainly argue that becoming better at billiards is a “small matter” indeed!)
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on May 14, 2024.
