Hexagram 30 – The Clinging Fire

(Continued from Following the NASA Money Trail)

In a previous post, I talked about NASA’s one-million dollar question:

How would Christianity be impacted by the discovery of alien life?

I did promise that I would do a I Ching divination to answer, in part, that question, but the summer afternoon was drenched with cascades of sunbeams, and old Sol was shimmering so brilliantly that I could not resist walking out into that molten golden light.  The birds sang, and the fountain in the corner of my garden tinkled in response.  It was not a day to be working inside.

Since I usually do my writing and my I Ching consultation in my upstairs office, all the usual things that I associate with a I Ching casting was not on hand.  No worries.  This Taobabe can cast I Ching divinations on the fly and anywhere with adequate space to throw a few quarters around.

It was rather sunny this afternoon, so I opened up the patio umbrella for a bit of shade and grabbed a tall iced glass of Arnold Palmer.  Then I settled myself outside on my deck chair and got down to business.

First things first.

I plugged my headset into my iPhone and turned on some ambient rock music to give me a little bit of background noise so I could better focus.  Since I was already settled onto the deck chair and the day was so nice and inviting, I couldn’t see myself going back into the house to find some incense just to set the mood, so I found a perfectly adequate substitution.

From the bottom of my shoulder bag, I found a bottle of Le Jardin de Monsieur Li perfume and, with a shrug, sprayed it liberally all over myself.  I Inhaled deeply and was thoroughly convinced that the soft fruity-floral scent was some exotic incense, wafting over me.

I also found a half-eaten bag of Skittles and thew a handful of the colorful candy into my mouth, for that extra sugar rush.  After scrabbling around some more, I also located three fairly new quarters, a blue gel pen, and a scratch pad that I normally used for grocery lists and such.

So, with Eddie Van Halen shredding in my ears, I cast the coins in perfect rhythm to his throbbing guitar.  For each casting, I concentrated on the one question.

How would Christianity be impacted by the discovery of alien life?

The hexagram that came up after six throws was…….(drum roll)……

Li

The Perfume, the Hexagram, the Judgement:
I have to confess, as I was casting the throws, the lines began to form, and the clearer the form took shape, the more astounded I became.  When the last line was cast, I was like:

No way.

How in god’s hell could such crazy shit happen whereby I spray on some random perfume with the weird name, Le Jardin de Monsieur Li, and then, just by throwing some quarters into the air in random tosses, I get Li for the hexagram?

To add even more strangeness to this casting, the position that the hexagram Li occupies is south, and therefore, represents the summer sun.

This is an amazing coincidence since at the moment of this writing, I am actually sitting out in the summer sun, on the first day of the summer solstice, June 20, 2016, complete with a full strawberry moon and all.  (by the way, Happy Birthday Stephen!)  It truly baffles my mind how so many things fit together without a seam showing.

In order for the gentle reader to see the actual throws, I took a picture of the casting so you can see the numbers next to the positions.

This will be important a bit later in the reading as I go through the significances of the castings, but first, let’s look at The Judgement.

The Judgement:
The Clinging.  Perseverance furthers
It brings success.
Care of the cow brings good fortune. [1]

Li, the Bright Clinging Fire.

It is the fire that is ruled by the two broken yin lines in the second and the fifth place (second at the bottom and fifth at the top), with the second yin being the brighter of the two since it is closest to the source of the fire, which burns because it clings onto its fuel source.

In the ancient understanding of the word clinging, it means to depend on something, or to rest on something.  It also means brightness.

So how does clinging to something translate into brightness?  Let’s look at it in a different way.

In Book 1: The Text of the I Ching states:  What is dark clings to what is light and so enhances the brightness of the latter.  In this manner, the yang lines cling to the yin lines, thereby causing the yin lines to become brighter.

This idea was introduced in one of my earlier posts, Dark and Light Elements, Revisited, whereby I spoke about the relativeness of light and dark and how it is intrinsically tied to each other.

Here is an excerpt of that posting.

Imagine, if you will, a sculpture suffused in light.  Look at it closely. Do you see the exquisite curved features? If this had been nothing but light, there would be no features to see. It would all be a huge blob of light with nothing to define it, nothing to indicate its beauty.

The perfect definitions and the minute details are there only because there are small areas where there is no light. There is a perfect balance between the two, and the aspect ratio is different for each form, and also different for each function. 

In other words, simply by clinging to the light yin lines at the second and the fifth positions, those dark yang lines made the yin lines even brighter than they would have been, without the yang lines to give them definition and contrast.

Human life is Conditioned and Unfree:

The I Ching also states:

Everything that gives light is dependent on something to which it clings, in order that it may continue to shine.  The dedicated man clings to what is right and thereby can shape the world.  

Human life on earth is conditioned and unfree, and when man recognizes this limitation and makes himself dependent upon the harmonious and beneficent forces of the cosmos, he achieves success.  

The cow is the symbol of extreme docility.  By cultivating in himself an attitude of compliance and voluntary dependence, man acquires clarity without sharpness and finds his place in the world. [1]

This passage, as it applies to the question, how would Christianity be impacted by the discovery of alien life?  speaks volumes about the state of current affairs.  Since, according to the I Ching, human life on Earth is conditioned and unfree, this points to the fact that our very existence has been preordained, planned, seeded, directed, cultivated, and currently controlled by certain harmonious and beneficent forces of the cosmos for our benefit and protection.

Before you go ballistic about my assertion of the benevolence of these Cosmospolitans, please consider the fact that, had they wished to annihilate us, we would have been wiped out in ancient times.  Instead, they gave us wisdom, knowledge, and the various animal and plant stocks to live off of, and then they allowed us to learn and develop on our own.

As the situation stands, we warlike humans are actually our own worst enemy.  We do far more damage to ourselves than anything we could possibly dream of, coming from anywhere else.  Unfortunately, external forces are in motion, which will require that we leave behind our warlike stances on everything.

Li, the Clinging Fire reminds us to be humble.  Although we are destined for greatness, we are still very young, as a species, and hardly the hottest thing out there in the universe.  There are beings far, far, advanced and living on other planes of existences, who are guiding our evolution into godhood.

This limitation that the I Ching speaks about is not set up as a means to enslave humanity but rather to protect us from troubled times ahead.  Just as little children cannot yet roam free and unmonitored due to their lack of understanding of the potential dangers of such external forces, humankind is also guided by these harmonious and beneficent forces of the cosmos so as to avoid the various dangers that a very young civilization can still encounter.

The Cow:

There is a reason why the cow is sacred in India.  Most Hindus respect the cow for her gentle nature which represents ahimsa [2], the idea of nonviolence, or non-injury, which is also part of the main teaching of Hinduism.  The cow in this case, stands for docility and gentleness.  Humans are very warlike and quick to destroy others and themselves for various nefarious reasons.  If we seek a more peaceful stance like the gentle cow, we will be less likely to attempt destruction of ourselves and the planet.

Judging by our basic lack of abilities to manage our own affairs and to love each other, our place in the Universe is still that of children.  Therefore, we still need guidance and protection from those harmonious and beneficent forces of the cosmos.

In this high flux, end-time of rapid change, the I Ching urges us to comply and depend on these harmonious and beneficent forces of the cosmos to achieve success.  We have to assume a more peaceful stance (like the cow) in order to comply and depend on them to get us through this extreme time.

In order to comply and depend on them, we must first acknowledge their existences.  In acknowledging the existence of these harmonious and beneficent forces of the cosmos, we are clinging to what is right, and therefore, are able to shine brightly and find our place in the Universe.

Now we look at The Image.

That Which is Bright Rises Twice:

The Image:
That which is Bright Rises Twice:
The image of FIRE
Thus the great man, by perpetuating this brightness,
Illuminates the four quarters of the world. [1]

The Image formed from Hexagram 30: Li, is where I have a bit of an issue.  It states:  That which is bright rises twice.

I have no clue what to make of it.  The sun is bright, but it only rises once.  The only way for the sun to rise twice in a day is if there are two suns.  Since we only have one sun at the moment, I Ching may be indicating something that might resemble the sun.  After all, there are two complete sets of fire within the Li hexagram.

On the other hand, I Ching may also be stating in a straight and bald way that there are (or will be) two suns in the sky.  The great man should then, be perpetuating this brightness, which would, in turn, illuminate the four quarters of the world.

How does this said Great Man perpetuate this brightness?  Through the clarity of his nature, he causes the light to spread farther and farther and to penetrate the nature of man ever more deeply.  Using clarity means no subterfuge, no obfuscation of facts.  Perpetuating the brightness means allowing the brightness to shine and not making attempts to deny or hide the light.  Illuminating the four quarters of the world requires the great man to become  a Human CCC Tower, and spread the love, information, awareness, etc. outward, into the Human Collective Consciousness Connection.

The Lines:

Going back to the original question:  How would Christianity be impacted by the discovery of alien life?  The answer lies in the lines.  Delving into the details of the casting, we inspect the most important lines that have been isolated and remarked upon.  My casting produces the following numbers:

Seven in the first place
Eight in the second place
Nine in the third place
Seven in the fourth place
Six in the fifth place
Seven in the sixth place

Looking at the casting, we have two important lines:  Nine in the third place, and Six in the fifth place.

Nine in the third place means:
In the light of the setting sun,
Men either beat the pot and sing
Or loudly bewail the approach of old age.
Misfortune

The light of the setting sun signifies the end of an era.  We are at end game, folks.  This tiny slice of time will not return again within our lifetimes (unless we can figure out how to extend our lives for more than 26,000 Earth years).

At this high flux juncture, there will be many who will lose their inner freedom.  They will be gripped with a madness which will cause some to be gnashing their teeth and tearing out their hair, panicking like rats caught in the riptides of a sinking ship.  Others will be engaging in uninhibited revelry, gorging themselves on all manners of pleasures to try and enjoy themselves before their time is up.  Don’t do this!

The I Ching cautions against this lack of control and spells out Misfortune as the result of these actions.  For the awakened and aware person, it makes no difference whether we are at end times or start times.  We are here for a purpose, a reason, and our inner freedom allows us to control our actions in ways that will be beneficial to us as well as those around us.

Six in the fifth place means:
Tears in floods, sighing and lamenting.
Good fortune

With this six in the fifth place, it looks as if the sun really will set.  The good news is, IT’S NOT THE END.  The I Ching clearly states, via this casting, that all the tears and the lamentation for the passing of this era will be replaced by good fortune.

Here the zenith of life has been reached.  Were there no warning, one would at this point consume oneself like a flame.  Instead, understanding the vanity of all things (the holographic nature of all things), one may put aside both hope and fear, and sigh and lament:  if one is intent on retaining his clarity of mind, good fortune will come from this grief.  For here we are dealing not with a passing mood, as in the nine in the third place (which we didn’t get from this casting), but with a real change of heart. [1]

Here, I Ching is telling us that we have been given AMPLE WARNING of what is to come.  I Ching is also saying to us that we should not be consumed with grief for this era’s passing because good fortune will be upon us as the dawning of the new era returns.

This is not a passing fad, folks.  This is real.  This is coming.  Brace yourselves.

Here we go!

…

[1] I Ching, Book of Changes:  Hexagram 30

[2]  Ahimsa