Psychic Readings from The
Psychic Internet often feature images drawn from the
I Ching Oracle. To offer supplementary
information about these images for our clients,
and for the public, we have provided this archive
of brief articles.
For general information on
the I Ching Oracle, click here.
The
abstract images of the I Ching Oracle (usually
called "hexagrams") symbolize all of
the related and interacting aspects of reality.
In the following excerpts from actual Psychic Readings, the images of the I Ching
are discussed.
Click here for links to all
of the images.
Contemplation
Now see
how the same idea is expressed in the two verses
that are highlighted specifically for you by
today’s Reading from the image of
Contemplation. As you’ve already seen, a
central theme of this Reading is something about
the need for turning inward in contemplation.
From seeing the surface of things, how deeply can
you see into the heart of them? That is the
question that the oracle presents to you.
In the
first verse, the oracle says, “Contemplation
through the crack of the door. Furthering for the
perseverance of a woman.” As Richard Wilhelm
says in his excellent commentary on this verse,
“Through the crack of the door one has a
limited outlook; one looks outward from within.
Contemplation is subjectively limited. One tends
to relate everything to oneself and cannot put
oneself in another s place and understand his
motives.” He goes on to make some fairly
sexist remarks about how this viewpoint is proper
to a housewife. Because of the beauty of his
translation and his commentaries in general, I
hope we can forgive him for that dated
“charm” – especially since he is
only faithfully transcribing the traditional
Chinese approach to these matters. But the
essential matter to see here is that, in this
verse, we are talking about a very limited view
of things, which for us is neither male nor
female. The point is the narrowness of viewpoint.
And in passing on to the next verse, we are taken
into the sphere of a larger view of things.
Thus, in
this second verse, the oracle says,
“Contemplation of my life decides the choice
between advance and retreat.” And Wilhelm
says, “This is the place of transition. We
no longer look outward to receive pictures that
are more or less limited and confused, but direct
our contemplation upon ourselves in order to find
a guideline for our decisions. This
self-contemplation means the overcoming of naive
egotism in the person who sees everything solely
from his own standpoint. He begins to reflect and
in this way acquires objectivity. However,
self-knowledge does not mean preoccupation with
one's own thoughts; rather, it means concern
about the effects one creates. It is only the
effects our lives produce that give us the right
to judge whether what we have done means progress
or regression.”
As I was
suggesting above, there is an equation between
understanding the self and attracting your
destined mate into your life. To truly understand
yourself, you need now to see things from an
objective point of view. The image of
Contemplation literally describes a tower. It
describes the process of rising in altitude. This
is the point of view from which you can see
yourself as if on a stage. “Life is a
stage,” according to Shakespeare. Are you
making your character and role perfectly clear,
enunciating your lines so that others know how to
respond? How do you appear to the other actors in
the play of your life? Wouldn’t it be
wonderful if we could take all our friends and
relatives backstage, as it were, and, over a
glass of sherry in the green room, discuss it
down to the last detail? We should in that case
try to get our next performance right.
But as it
happens we have only one performance. This is why
your ART must be of the utmost. I am fascinated
by this word “art.” Of course we
usually think of art as something done on a
canvas. But we also say, “Our father, who
ART in Heaven.” Does God dabble with paints?
Well, “S/He” is the great and most
sublime Artist Creator of all things. And it is
said that we are made in “His” image,
so I take this to mean that we must also be
creators. We are little creators who hopefully
have enough “art” to paint at least a
pretty picture of our own selves in the world.
Soon other people join us, and suddenly it’s
a great mural or tapestry, with many panels, full
of life and color.
Well, our
lives are neither painted canvas nor stage-play.
But I think you get the point.
More on Contemplation
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