August 2008 - Posts

Perspectives on Change II

This is the second of four articles looking at Change from different perspectives. Yes, four, another has  been written since last week.

In Perspectives of Change II  Stephen looks at the crisis of the modern world through the lens of  Archetypal Psychology.

The article suggests that we have only cast out the old gods in name and not in spirit. That the archetypes are still deep within us and, being unrecognized, now play out on the world stage in an unchecked manner. He explains how the Unconscious, full of archetypes and complexes and the Conscious mind can only be mediated by ‘Soul’.

This is very much C.G. Jung’s cry to the modern world on the imediate need to heal its culture or be damned by the demons which, if left unrecognised, are free to wreak havoc both personally and culturally.

Lastly he explains how a re-connection to our unconscious world enables four particular processes to inform our understanding and thus our actions in the world.

Kevin

posted Sunday, August 31, 2008 7:47 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

Perspectives on Change I

I have just posted a new article by Stephen. It is the first of a series of three looking at Change from different perspectives.

1 Perspectives of Change  takes Chaos Theory and applies it to our experience of Change. It shows how change can be smooth and how at times we enter into periods of Transformative Change, the catastrophic breakdown and reforming of our perception and circumstances.

The other two in this series are: “Soulmaking” and “Intertextuality” They will follow soon.

Kevin
posted Monday, August 25, 2008 7:48 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

I Ching - Working with Trigrams

Looking over the wall I see that there are some interesting developments at www.onlineclarity.com.

There is now a paid for member’s area there where some quite exciting work is taking place. The first task they have set for themselves is to explore the Shuogua. In particular looking at trigram imagery. and the way trigrams combine to form dynamic images within hexagrams. Quite different perspectives are being brought together.

There is also an Wiki I Ching Commentary which is already well developed and which, it is intended, will build and take shape as work progresses.

The membership contains both very experienced folk as well as beginners. It is a very co-operative space and Membership is also really quite affordable.

I think what excites me about this group is that there are wide ranging views and skill levels, yet they seem to have started a collaborative fertile place to share and learn.

Definitely worth checking out.

Kevin
posted Monday, August 25, 2008 7:32 PM by Webmaster with 2 Comments

Total Yijing V2.3 – I Ching Explorer and Casting Program

After months of recoding, bending, sawing and hammering Pete has finally made the Total Yijing application Vista compliant.

Anyone upgrading to it will be able to import their old readings from previous versions.

As before it will run on Mac OS with a suitable Microsoft compatibility application such as Bootcamp or others (Get good Mac advice for your machine here please).

This version has an updated text with a few extras – Stephen Karcher is always working over the text in the light of developments and from his experience of teaching the I Ching.

I find the text to be more friendly and accessible. It has come a long way since ‘Total I Ching’ was published.

We get emails from people who say they don’t like using a computer programs for the I Ching. We looked at making it into an eBook and quickly realised that it was easier to read and explore the I Ching using the program. This is better!

Additionally each hexagram has a ‘Notes’ page where folk can add as many observations and notes as they wish.

For amphibians only: Yes you can use your preferred casting method and then add the result into the program for interpretation and safe keeping.

And of course there is a free 15 day trial.

Look, this application has only had one careful elderly driver.

– OK?

Just take it for a drive while I go and get some tea. I do hate promotions – but if I didn’t tell you?....

Chuckling and very happy about this development.

Kevin

posted Sunday, August 17, 2008 8:21 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

2 The Diviner and the Divinatory Process – So why do we need divination?

There are many models which try to explain the place of divination in our lives. This is just one, but I think it’s a good one.

To understand the importance of divination in human experience we need to look at human awareness or consciousness. I am going to use the model developed by the Maya as explained by Ian Lungold in his film ‘Secrets of the Mayan Calendar’.

He first defines awareness as that knowing we have when we are aware that we are aware. This is the moment when we as a doer, watcher, or thinker, become aware of ourselves doing, watching or thinking.

He goes on to say that we naturally locate ourselves in time and space: I am at my desk and I am typing. There is only one moment and that is the present now and the place where I am. All of the knowledge and experience from the past only exists for each of us in the here and now. When we draw on experience we project ourselves backwards in our minds, we remember it, but we are still here and now.

When we think about what we are going to do we project our minds forward, but we are still only in our present place and in the time called now.

Modern societies work very hard to predict the future. We need to be sure that in the future we will have enough food, enough power, enough schools and hospitals. We have become very skilled at this. However sooner or later there will be an unexpected event which makes these predictions null and void. Though it would be foolish not to attend to this we can never think of every possible future scenario. At a personal level we spend a lot of time trying to do this too.
 
These attempts to gain certainty by projecting ourselves into the future have the effect that we become un-centred. We try to push ourselves outside of the awareness bubble of here and now which is the only place we can exist.

So let’s consider this:

Peace of mind requires centeredness
Centeredness requires certainty
Certainty comes from the recognition of the patterns in our lives and our world.

The I Ching identifies these patterns and through practice with it we can develop our abilty to be aware of them as they develop. We learn to see the trends and potentials of the time and events taking place. We can then better orientate ourselves to the flow of time moving through our window of awareness. (See diagram). Of course Ian suggests the use of the Mayan Calendar for this purpose and there are other tools as well such as the Tarot.


Mayan Concious


He points to two more dynamics and he says that ignoring them leads to an impoverished experience of our fuller selves and that our thoughts and actions would necessarily be out of step with ourselves and events.

First he says we have ‘Personal Intent’. This is not located in our conscious mind, it isn’t our will. It is not our intending to do this or that. The Jungian view locates this personal intent deep in our persona. These are our potentials and shortcomings, the promise of what we might become as we try to fulfil the potential of our being. This might, for some, include the persons karma, or from the early I Ching phillosopphy, Ming, a mix of personal fate and destiny.

So in order to extend our awareness to its full potential we also need to recognise the patterns of who we are as individuals. We need to seat our being and actions at the point where our inner intent matches the outer patterns. Again the I Ching helps us to reflecrt on whe we are and how we might proceed in accrdance with the time.

So what of the future in this light? Is it simply made up of events waiting to flow into our ‘now bubble’? We know from the sciences that phenomena are patterned and that they most often approximate to universal laws. However, Daoism, like the Mayans, holds that that there is a flow of ‘Creative Energy’ which patterns both ourselves and outer world events.
 
If we accept this model then an intuitive awareness of the flow of Dao is essential if we are to locate ourselves and our actions within this centred yet expanded reality.
 
Lastly Ian proposes that, “What we pay attention to we become aware of.” This is important. Modern society tends to encourage us to shun intuition and of awareness anything outside of time, place and causality. We are encouraged to use our thinking mind and to ignore our inner world and intuitive abilities. (This is a little odd as many great scientific developments have been founded on intuitive leaps.) Using the I Ching goes a long way in training us to be aware of patterns and to pay attention to our intuitive selves. Divination also lays the patterns out before us.

So what does the use of the I Ching do to the diviner? Their intuition and their ability to recognise the patterns of events around them are both increased. Interestingly those of a more thinking approach to the world also gain. They learn to spot the patterns around them and within themselves and by relating them to the I Ching pattern book, they can behave accordingly.


In my next piece I will look at a view of our intuitive self and its relationship to our thinking mind. I will look at ways of entering our deeper intuitive reality, what can happen there and, mischievously, compare that to psychic experience.  

Kevin

Post Script - I notice that the Diagram of the Mayan model of 'all encompassing reality' has eight segments - Now where have we seen a fundamental categorisation of eight essential principles before? Maybe a coincidence.
posted Sunday, August 17, 2008 7:12 PM by Webmaster with 3 Comments

1 The Diviner and the Divinatory Process – Introduction

Some time ago I wrote about two perspectives of approaching the I Ching as a divinatory tool.  I promised to write about the divinatory space and what happens there.
 
This is an introduction to a series which will explore the divinatory process.

When we divine with the I Ching we can enter what is often called a divinatory space. I think of this as being in a bubble where the diviner’s awareness engages with new and shifting ideas and perspectives. The diviner’s awareness shifts around until there is a sense that they can perceive the situation being enquired about in terms of the nature of the time and the changes taking place within it. The result is a better sense of the pattern of change being asked about and the questioner’s part within it.
 
Ideally the questioner, for whom the divination carried out, will then gain a clearer understanding of the forces of change acting on and around them together with the choices they can effectively make. They are better able to orientate themselves to what is happening both in their world and inside themselves.

There is perhaps also a knowing or intuited awareness which flows into this bubble to inform the diviner. In addition the diviner also brings the nature of who they are into the process. This is their persona, their values, beliefs and disbeliefs. So to understand the divinatory moment we need to look at the diviner as well.
 
In exploring this space and the processes which take place within it we will visit some interesting places such as the nature of wisdom and why the regular use of the I Ching brings a heightened awareness of our surroundings. Also how it can help us stay centred and experience a greater peace within ourselves.

Finally I will explore ways of creating the divinatory space so that the process results in more clarity and less divinatory confusion.

These ideas can only outline this process which I think goes far and beyond the human ability to comprehend. For this reason I would say, “Don’t believe in any of it. Understand it then try it. That is the litmus test.”

This work is the fruit of a long journey which has involved me in a ruthless cutting away of fanciful ideas and a painful dumping of ideas which I have wanted to be true in order to get at a simple workable truth about divination and ways of increasing its effectiveness.

My starting point in the next piece is, “Why do we need divination?” and "What does practice of divination do to the diviner?"

Kevin
posted Sunday, August 10, 2008 9:11 PM by Webmaster with 2 Comments

G.V. I Ching Links page has been updated

I have just updated the I Ching links page  on our site. It has been expanded with ‘new to here’ links as well as updates to some of the sites which were already listed.

I have tried to select only those sites which I think speak with some deeper sense of the I Ching from their perspective. There must be many omissions so if you feel there is a site which would merit inclusion please let me know.

Academic and mathematicians’ sites are deliberately left under represented. This is because we are primarily interested in divination and the  field of I Ching studies is massive. Hopefully the I Ching web links sites and directories will make up this shortfall.

At last I have got around to looking properly at the maths behind Terence McKenna’s Time Wave Zero theory. I have always felt uncomfortable about the subjectivity of the historical events he fits into it. They seem a little too  Western-centric. Additionally there is little allowance for the Butterfly Principle of Chaos theory fame, where something seemingly insignificant changes the world. Now I find that there is a considerable body of mathematicians who believe the maths underpinning it is flawed too.

OK, OK, I know I should'nt get so uptight about it, but I can't bear to read yet another glib blog listing a dozen proofs that 2012 is upon us and the I Ching is one of the models which substantiates this. Check the link.

Hmm... Where was I? Oh yes, I hope you find some new and interesting stuff in the new links page!

Kevin
posted Sunday, August 03, 2008 11:22 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments