Day 21,700 - 2010 1231

Day 21,700 - 2010 1231
Belov-ED Days - 4,611
Friday
James Oliver Smith, Jr.
http://josjr.com/

I Ching images

Fu Hsi 28: Shock, Thunder, Taking Action, Awakening
01 --- --- Thunder (Lightning, Electricity, Viper, Rattlesnake, Drums)
02 --- --- Foot
04 --------x The Arousal, The Movement, The Catalyst, The Shock

08 --- --- Thunder (Lightning, Electricity, Viper, Rattlesnake)
16 --- --- Foot
32 -------- The Arousal, The Movement, The Catalyst, The Shock

changing towards

Fu Hsi 32: Returning, Repeating, Turning Back
01 --- --- Earth (Ground, Valley, Canyon, Earthworm, Desert)
02 --- --- Belly, Solar Plexus
04 --- --- The Embracing, The Creation, The Yielding, The Centering

08 --- --- Thunder (Lightning, Viper, Drums, Rattlesnake, Electricity)
16 --- --- Foor
32 -------- The Arousal, The Movement, The Catalyst, The Shock

Day 26,696 - Images from the I Ching: Thunder [The Arousal] over Thunder [The Arousal] (Hexagram 28 - Shock) --> changing towards [lines 4] --> Earth [The Embracing] over Thunder [The Arousal] (Hexagram 32 - Returning) ... I have been looking at these images since the last day of 2010, contemplating them as I participated in a number of events taking place to celebrate the arrival of a new year and the arrival of yet another 60th birthday for the Contessa ... I was fascinated with the presence of the double Thunder image on the last day of a rather shocking year ... There are always surprising events taking place in the course of any year, although often these events are infrequent, mild or benign ... This year, however, has been truly filled with traumatic events for me, so the double Thunder feels quite appropriate ... After the events of this year I will probably never work in a full-time permanent, full-benefits job again, my post-surgery vision profile is simply too compromised for me to work in the same way again, and my experiences at the various celebrations brought home to me and The Contessa just exactly how compromised my vision has become.

Meeting with a poet, performance artist friend this past week at Sebastian Joe's another poet and performance artist friend, one who is well known and quite visually distinctive in presence came in and greeted me. I stared at him in total confusion, not recognizing him. I had to ask who was greeting me and was totally surprised at how completely incapable I was of recognizing him. At another party last night another friend came into the room entirely undetected by me. Suddenly, she appeared as though Scotty had just transported her into the middle of the room, a phenomenon I have had to become accostomed to.

With a lot of tools, techniques and many years of experience I have been finding ways to work with my computers, web sites and Kindles. Fortunately, the Kindle allows me to read and study. But the double Thunder wasn't satisfied with just taking my vision into the realm of impressionist art. It determined that my job should also disappear in much the same manner that the loss of my stereoscopic vision, my acuity and my ability to dilate my one functioning eye has made the world around me disappear, reappear, morph and pixelate ... But the inner and outer Thunder, despite its clammer and shock and awe is not all about high winds, lightning strikes, floods and driving rain, it is also about a heightened awareness of the world, the physical world, the world that we walk on, touch and hear as it churns through its cyclic paths in time and space ... In spite of how much we like to _see_ the world, and tend not to believe the world until we can see it, we do have bodies that are moving our heads, eyes, legs and hands through physical space ... We have lungs that breath in very physical air and we drink very physical water to lubricate everything we do.

The double Thunder has, in some ways/way, electrified, activated and set in motion a more visceral process of connecting with that which co-occupies my world, without the precarious visual burden of evaluating the world and all that is in it _before_ I touch it, taste it, smell it or even hear it ... I have become increasingly aware of how our prejudices are triggered by our _visual_ response to the world around us and all that is in it ... If you can't _see_ something, how can you react to its color, its shape or its movement? We actually have to engage the world when vision is not present of compromised. With sight we make judgements on whether or not we _want_ to interact with something or someone _before_ we get close enough to do so.

When I was in high school and still enthralled with the idea of being a herpetologist (one who studies reptiles and amphibians) I encountered a rattlesnake den at the foot of a cliff in Washington state. The rattlesnakes where hidden deep in the volcanic rubble beneath my feet, so I couldn't see them, but I could hear them quite clearly. Every step I took gave rise to more rattlers sounding off. Terror rippled within every muscle in my body. I was caught by the need to make a decision to either move quickly or stand still ... Within the I Ching, Thunder is movement, a catalyst, an electrically charged context. Ultimately, I moved. I moved quickly. Because of this experience I think of that rattlesnake den everytime I see Thunder forming within the I Ching stalks.

There is one changing line in this image. It is moving the outer Thunder to Earth. This new image is exactly at the midpoint of the 64 permutations within the I Ching sequence. This is a sign if returning, starting over. The end of the year is the beginning of another year. This is also the time when the sun starts its journey back into the sky. Within the outer Earth there is a centering, stabilising and centering force that enters the world around us, yet the catalyst of Thunder is still pulsing within, rumbling, impatient to act, but this time tempered by the presence of Earth.

Although I am fully aware that there are always more earthquakes, storms and floods that the Universe can (and will) bring my way, I find comfort in this substantive presence of the Earth embracing me, offering its valleys, canyons and even deserts to reveal new paths to explore ... Another year, new paths, new visions ... buon capodanno a tutti! ... Il Matto ...

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