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.
Limitation
Imagine
the musician coming to the center of the stage at
Carnegie Hall for a recital. This moment follows
upon years and years of the most intensely
disciplined preparation. No musician comes to
Carnegie Hall but through the path of Limitation,
which is described in the first of the two images
that we have drawn for you today from our I Ching
Oracle. This image, by the way, describes a
highly favorable situation from the point of view
of balance and distribution of energies. You
might think of this image as a description of the
process by which all great power is made useful
and productive – indeed, it shows how great
power becomes truly creative.
The
tricky part, for the musician, involves knowing
how to release the energies that express this
kind of creative power. Remember, years of
discipline have been applied to the most minute
control over every aspect of the musical
performance (in Chung Yi’s Tao of
Organization, as translated by the great Thomas
Cleary, the name of the image of Limitation is
translated as “Discipline”). Literally,
every single note has been rehearsed over and
over again thousands of times. There is not a
single move of arm or finger or breath that has
not been calculated (measured) down to the finest
degree (I have already commented on the
association of Limitation with the idea of number
and measure). But, then, where is the creativity?
Ah! That
is the trick. And, in my view, it is entirely a
psychological trick. In essence, it is simply a
matter of trust, which is a psychological
attitude. This means, in practice, trusting that
one has only to let oneself go in order to do
exactly the right thing. It’s not a matter
of TRYING any longer. For, spontaneously,
wonderful things happen for the practiced
musician, even wonderfully unexpected things.
Every musician has had the happy experience of
playing, on an occasional basis, what ordinarily
seems impossible on a regular basis. All the
conditions come together now and then, and the
most difficult musical passages flow through the
hands like water going down hill. Water can be
relied on to do this. One can trust it to do
this. Water is always content to flow downhill.
In fact, this metaphor is exactly the one that
Richard Wilhelm uses in his commentary on the
verse that is highlighted specifically for you by
today’s Reading from the image of
Limitation. In that verse, the oracle says,
“Contented limitation. Success.”
In the
same way, the great musician knows how to let go
of herself in trust, to let her creative waters
flow down hill – but, of course, she does
this on a regular basis instead of an occasional
one. She knows the psychological trick of
releasing perfect knowledge in the body and soul,
knowledge that, in the case of the amateur
musician, is usually locked up under a lot of
psychological baggage involving fear, false
intent, insecurity, etc. The obstacles are not
physical, but psychological. What some people do
not realize is that the trick itself has to be
practiced, but in our Reading for you today we
can see clearly that you will be performing the
trick as if you have already practiced it many
times, and finally mastered it. Perhaps the
keyword of this Reading really ought to be
“trust,” and specifically
“self-trust.” I’m talking about
trusting yourself to do the right thing quite
naturally and without trying.
More on Limitation
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