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Using Crossline Omens
Each Pair or set of two interconnected hexagrams in Change generates a set of other paired figures across its Internal Matrix. These sets of Generated Pairs do many things. They describe the overall interchange between the themes of the two hexagrams involved; they connect the Pair in question to other sites in the overall Matrix or Sequence and produce the Karmic Nodes; and, perhaps most important for those of us who need specific help in negotiating a tricky situation, they generate the Crossline Omens. While the Transforming Lines of Change show particular points where it is at work, the Crossline Omens open the hidden pathways through which the possibilities of transformation can be realized.
How the Crossline Omens are Made
Crossline Omens trace the inner pathways of Change across the Internal Matrix of a Pair. They begin in a given Transforming Line in one hexagram, move through the lines generated in the Relating Figures associated with the change as a whole, and emerge in the connected Transforming Line of the second hexagram.
Each Transforming Line in the texts we present is made up of a translated text and a commentary that offers direct divinatory advice. Beneath it is the Crossline Omen. It begins with a description of the Line Position, the place or voice from which Change is “speaking” or “calling” and a Decimal Notation of the Omen then offers images from the lines in the Generated Pairs that describe the hidden pathway between the interconnected Transforming Lines. (The phrase Go back and accept the challenge is a reminder that a particular Crossline reads backwards in the King Wen Sequence). The final phrases of the Crossline Omen relate you to one of the Four Gates of Change (1, 2, 63, and 64 - through successive nuclear hexagrams) and, when relevant, include a description of the hidden zone of transformation that is exerting an influence on the process.
What the Crosslines Do
A Crossline Omen represents a dialogue between the Primal Powers, the Dragon and the Dark Animal Goddess (hexagrams 1 and 2), in a very specific situation. It offers a profound and precise portrait of change in a given moment, a little epiphany of spirit and enlightenment that emerges from the interconnection of the opposites. The Transforming Lines and the Crossline Omens in Change seem to exist in a sort of compensatory or complementary relationship related to the old myth of the King and his Dark Brother or Sage, or the Sun Tree and the Moon Tree with the flow of the underworld Ghost River connecting them. The Transforming Line shows the overt situation while the Crossline Omen shows a hidden pathway or dark teaching (nei yeh) that compensates, modulates or reinforces the overt situation, opening the hidden transformative potential and offering suggestions about how to realize it. In practice, I have found these deep pathways can truly contribute to an understanding of the precise ways Change is moving, linking us to the magical transformative power of the mythological mind. They are where we encounter the real transformative power of the oracle, what I call the Voices of Change.
Using the Crosslines
I tend to use the Crossline Omens as Voices at the culmination of a Reading, setting up a context of intellectual and feeling associations first by circulating through all the positions of the Reading Matrix. The only way I can really illustrate this (rather than analyzing it) is to take you through an example of building the contexts, asking you to enter the spirit of the reading so you might experience what the Voice of the Crossline can do when it is dropped into the web of connections. Here is the example. We asked a question to Change about how we can best read the answers it gives us.
Question: What would you (Change) like to say to us about reading your answers to our questions?
The Answer: Hexagram 3 Sprouting as the Primary Figure, with a Transforming Line in the first position, producing the Relating Figure 8 Grouping. The answer is notated like this 3, 9/1 > 8 Grouping.
As we worked through the Reading, we built up a rich context for the Crossline. We learned through the Relating Figure that we are related to the overall situation of “Reading an Answer” through a radical change in the way we group our thoughts and the people with whom we feel spiritual kinship (8). As Winter, this means finding the seed of the new by grinding away old forms of thought, which was reinforced by Grouping’s Core Theme (23), the need to “strip the corpse” of an old identity and its old ways of thought. We had a clue to how we can enter the extended realm of the reading in the Trigrams: inner devotion to this process can give us the ability to manage the flow and flux of life, the endless images and ideas life is constantly generating. We must not impose an a priori idea or plan on this flux, but empower the images and ideas that arise to help connect us to the great change of awareness.
The Pair told us that we are in an Inspiring phase when we encounter the images of Change, seeking inspiring inner images, and that we are also in early childhood here, seeking a way to find an identity within its great world. We must establish the deep foundations of Change within, enveloping and nurturing the “birth of the new,” for there is great hidden potency here, a possibility to “renew the time.” The disordering of our previous ways of thinking would be a conspicuous sign that the process is really beginning.
The primary Figure (3) talked about the difficulties, the confusion and the profusion we face when we first encounter the richness of the images of the Change. This encounter can sprout a new world of meaning, an approach to real centers of power. It can inspire us, rousing new growth. We might see ourselves as seeking a bride, a “sprout,” a new imaginative or anima possibility, massing our strength to find it and looking for clear signs to differentiate and relate the various kinds of imagery. The push behind this search is a release from whatever in the past holds our creative energy in check.
The Response gave us our first reading strategies: Do not impose ideas, accept the myriad intuitions. Follow the yielding path and empower helpers – the related figures of the Matrix that can open the various perspectives. We must gather this energy to surmount the obstacles to understanding, to break through the conceptual crust, the hard pounded earth of old ideas and monotonous, deadening language. This is an exciting time, full of possibilities, the opening of a new world of insight and imagination that can reveal the sacred cosmos.
The Shaman Speaks said there is a rousing force at work deep in the River of Ghosts now that will reward us for our hermeneutic labor if we accept the shock of its enlightening force. The old world is dissolving all around us as we encounter the images of the Change, while a fertile new cycle sprouts within to open in our imagination. If we want to realize this we must give each kind of image its place in the new world that is emerging.
The Core Theme of the Primary Figure (23) is the same as the Relating Figure, reinforcing its meanings. So we must focus on the necessity to strip away all our cognitive pre-conceptions, our need to assimilate the images of Change to moral patterns or philosophical ideas. We must “give freely to what is below”, activating the hidden force of the complexes, to use psychological terms, letting the bright light of our ego-certainties flow back into the fertile darkness. This connects us to one of the Hidden Winds that flow through Change, here the Earth, the Goddesses (2) and their great power of realizing things, making the symbols real in our lives and imagination.
The Inner Operator (24) spoke a great return in the inner world that re-establishes our relation to something that as been lost or repressed in the development of our identity and our culture. We should see whatever emerges as we strip away our cognitive patterns, all the little intuitions and insights carried by the psycho-active images, as truly significant and nurture them carefully. Bar the passages, it says. Leave the complicated and return to the simple. As our inner inspiration, this can bring a great faith in the realm of the feminine and the overall processes of life. It will let us respond fully, joyously and spontaneously when the real meaning emerges rather than engaging in more logic-chopping and premature analysis.
The Outer Operator (44) told us about the connection between the inner images and the events of a reading, a connection the old diviners called xiang or “matching.” Here the “matching” will come through “strange encounters,” synchronicities that occur as the new feminine power works its way into our relation with outer events (44) from below. Things will “grip” us with a power outside of logic. Then, in the words of Dazhuan, “spontaneously the Way will arise.”
The Ideal Form (36) told us this is the time to accept the difficult journey and spread the mandate (Ming) to the “hidden lands,” the shadowy parts of the soul. This can change the way we perceive ourselves and our world and let us be of real help to others. It is what brings deliverance from the past, inculcating a deep faith in the feminine processes of life. The Shadow Site (62) said we must not proceed through being very Small, adapting to what already exists, but through a Great new image or purpose. We are not preparing a legacy for future generations here, but concentrating the work at hand - our own birth into the tradition and the help we might give to others in the present moment.
The Time Cycle showed the Hidden Wind of 2 Field and the feminine power of Earth acting through the Core Theme of 23 Stripping. It enters the cycle at the Fall position, described by 20 Viewing and the Ancestor’s Eyes. This is the place where we “harvest the crop and gather the insights.” This Figure is about divination and the effect of a new ancestor spirit that is released from the world of death and mourning. So we begin our reading of the answers from Change here, in the Tower where initiation begins, looking out at the world to see the effects of this spirit, of the cleansing of our ancestral or parental images. We watch the hidden signs from a distance and think of the common good. We begin to set up teachings for all and ascend to a higher level of awareness.
The energy and insights gathered here are then pushed on into Winter, represented by the Relating Figure 8 in our basic reading, a new grouping of thoughts. Here the personal grinding occurs, stripping away the chaff to find the seeds of new growth. It is where the new world represented by the symbols of Change and their way of connecting to ancestral energies truly grips us. We are challenged to find a new base of mutual support and spiritual kinship, to become part of the new group of lords and helping spirits that emerges.
The Hidden Wind then pushes us on into Spring and our Primary Figure 3, the Sprouting of a new world that springs up through our experience of the giving the symbols a place in our heart-mind. As we establish the new world, confront the difficulties, seek the bride and watch the World Tree emerge, a new kind of significance dawns that can give us the ability to use the clear signs that relate the groups of kindred spirits and kindred meanings to deliver us from the suffering of the past.
As Summer ripens the fruits of our reading process, we experience the Blessing that comes from the sacrifice of our intellectual presuppositions (42) and can extend them to others. This is a fertile and expansive time, a time of creative transformation in which we can help the energies of Change extend themselves. We acquire a place where we can influence the world we live in, where we visualize improvement, shift our position and give the omens an enduring form. I would ask you to hold all this in mind, envision your self as one who is first entering the great mysteries of “reading Change,” and feel how the Crossline resonates. This Voice speaks to the very Beginnings of the profound change that a reading can work in our awareness and give us directions on how to root or sprout it in our heart ands in our world.
Inspiration Beginning (3.1 [8.1 : 7.6] 4.6): You have is a connection to the spirit that will carry you through, filling the vessels to overflowing. You receive a mandate to lay out a new city and receive the dwellers. Go back and accept the challenge. Do not act like an outlaw, violent and impulsive, for you would be smiting the very envelopment that will bring things to maturity. Find supportive friends. Be open and provide what is needed. You are being influenced by a transformation at the inner centers of life, when the Ghost River (29) emerges from Earth (2) to change the face of the world.
If we have done our work well in the overall Reading, this Voice will act like a stone thrown into a still pool, the pool of meanings our reading has created, and its effects will ripple out into our awareness in an ever-increasing circle. This spreading circle of awareness is what we can take away with us. It then becomes our job to give it an enduring form, so that it can influence our life and the lives of those around us.