Day 21,676 - 2010 1207

Day 21,676 - 2010 1207
Belov-ED Days - 4,587
Tuesday
James Oliver Smith, Jr.
http://josjr.com/

I Ching images

Fu Hsi 43: Incompletion, Before Ending, Not Yet Fulfilled, Beginnings
01 -------- Fire (Sun, Hearth, Campfile, Forest Fire, Energy)
02 --- --- Eye
04 -------- The Clinging, The Clarity, The Divination, The Vision

08 --- ---x Water (Fog, Rain, Mist, Mud, Steam)
16 --------x Ear
32 --- --- The Abyss, The Danger, The Nourishment, The Confusion

changing towards

Fu Hsi 61: Contemplation, Watching
01 -------- Sky (Stars, Planets, Birds, Flight, Atmosphere)
02 -------- Head
04 -------- The Seeking, The Creativity, The Intelligence, The Logic

08 -------- Mountain (Tower, Ledge, Cliff, Wall, Building, Lookout)
16 --- --- Hand
32 --- --- The Unmoving, The Restful, The Protection, The Obstacle

Day 26,676 - Images from the I Ching: Fire [The Clinging] over Water [The Abyss] (Hexagram 43 - Incompletion) --> changing towards [line 2,3,5] --> Sky [The Seeking] over Mountain [The Unmoving] (Hexagram 49 - Retreat) ... Fire over Water is, at its core, a most disquieting image ... Water rising up to quence the clarifying gaze of Fire ... Confusion, fog, uncertainty, mists and doubt collect into a thick cloud, like a heavy blanket that is thrown upon the embers and flame within the hearth ... The light goes away ... The warmth dissapates ... Our orientation is destroyed ... So we end up in a cold, dark dungeon with no sense of where we are, how long we have been there and when we will ever get out ... Ever feel that way? ... As my sight worsens, I think often of these things ...

Once, when coming home from school in Greeley, Colorado back in 1962 (one of the thirty houses I lived in across five states between birth and seventeen) I found the house empty, dark and locked, a latch-key kid without a key ... I was ten ... Even though this experience was not all that unusual for me in my youth, it still (fifty years later) stands strong in my mind and body as a reminder of what a non-childhood was like ... I just curled up on the doorstep like a stray cat. I found it interesting the Italian has a word meaning exactly that: raggomitolarsi, (Ripiegarsi su se stessi, rannicchiarsi; freq. con specificazione locativa: r. vicino al fuoco). 'gomito' is elbow, so this would mean to _literally_ curl up (bend onself) around the elbow. My body still feels that cold, confused isolation of that moment and that childhood.

Another interesting facet of this image of Fire over Water is that each line possessess the opposite Yin(Seeking)/Yang(Embracing) element from what is traditionally considered its "natural" position. The _odd_ positions (1,3,5) are generally considered to be natural "Yang" positions and the _even_ (2,4,6) are considered "Yin" positions. In this image all of the lines are in their opposing positions. We often express feelings similar to this when we say things like "I was born in the wrong era" or "i was born to the wrong parents" or "I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning". I could easily say (and frequently do) that losing my job just at the time when my vision started to deteriorate more aggressively, in the midst of the worst economy in my life, three years _before_ being able to file for early retirement was bad timing ... I will have to plan that sequence better next time ... But, at the same time I could also say that it was a good thing that the Kindle came along three years ago and that I started to scan and digitize my whole library five years ago so that I would be able to read to day was good timing ... Images such as Fire over Water are signs of incompleteness, the state of being lost and insecurity ... That is the nature of fog and that is why so many accidents occur when fog settles in ... That is the context of Water ...

But ... this is the ever-changing universe where the inner and outer realities are constantly in motion ... This time, half of the lines are old and dying and these changes will bring the outer Fire towards the Seeking Sky of Creativity and inner Water towards the Unmoving, ancient Mountain ... The Sky, even though it stretches from horizon to horizon, has no choice but to back away, retreat and yield to the Unmoving substance of Mountain, a reminder that when one is faced with a cold sleep on a cold step at the foot of a locked door that stepping back, taking a breath and curling up (ragomitolando come un gatto) like a cat may be the best thing to do, even if you are only ten years old ... Il Matto ...

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