Webcress

The Bachnut Journal

42. Yi – Increasing

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Sequence of the Gua

After Heaven and Earth have come into existence, myriad beings are produced.

Qian and Kun are the origin, the source of Creation.

Commentary on the Symbol

Wind and Thunder support each other. An image of Increasing. In correspondence with this, the superior person follows the good when one sees it, and corrects one’s fault when one finds it.

Decision

Increasing. Favorable to have somewhere to go. Favorable to cross great rivers.

Commentary on the Decision

Increasing. To decrease what is above is to increase what is lower. The joy of the people is boundless. Increase of what is lower comes from what is above. Its way is greatly brightened.

Favorable to have somewhere to go because it is central and correct, and is therefore blessed. Favorable to cross great rivers because the wood is floating on the water and sent forward by the wind.

Increase moves with gentleness and mildness it proceeds daily without limit.
Heaven bestows and Earth accepts. Thereby things increase without restriction.
The Tao of increasing always proceeds in harmony with the time.

Daodejing 42

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Life when it came to be,
bore one, then two, then three elements of things.
And thus the three began:
heaven, earth and man—to balance happenings.
Cool night behind, warm day ahead,
for the living, for the dead.
Though a commoner be loath to say that he is only common clay;
kings and princes often state how humbly they are leading,
because in true succeeding high and low correlate.
It is an ancient thought, which many men have taught:
that he who over-reaches and tries to live by force
shall die thereby of course,
and is what my own heart teaches.

Vernal Equinox 2017

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It was fortunate that the Spring Equinox happened so close to the launch of this site. It gives me an opportunity to demonstrate how I have used the I-Ching over the years.

The I-Ching is often referred to as an oracle or divination. However, I think it’s wrong to approach the 64 possible outcomes with an overly specific question. Here’s why I feel this way. One day, early on in my eagerness to understand the I-Ching, I consulted the oracle more than once, asking a different question each time. The oracle responded with 4. Childhood. In the Decision for Childhood is this admonition:

It is not I who seek the ignorant, the ignorant seeks me. On the first divination, I gave light. Repeating again is contemptuous. Being contemptuous, I give no more instruction.

I decided at that point I would ritualize the times that I confer with the I-Ching to the changing of the seasons. I consider it a pre-requisite to have a firm understanding of the Dao-de-jing before tackling the I-Ching. It’s important in order to form the holistic approach—the concept of balancing opposites. I consider it a cosmic evaluation of my present and near future condition.

Here’s the outcome for today, the beginning of Spring 2017. In my mind this is my guidance for the next three months.

42. Increasing


One of the reasons I’ve created this site is so that I have a historical record of my outcomes. It also helps me stay more in sync with my seasonal outcomes. It’s easier to reference during the season and thus provides a better guide to help stay in tune with the present circumstances.

The redesign of Webcress has taken me two months. The new WordPress site went live on the 16th of March 2017. The Spring Equinox was March 20 and Sebastian Bach’s birthday is March 21. I had a conjunction of my interests for the Spring 2017 I-Ching consultation. The outcome was 42: Increasing. It’s one of those interesting coincidences(?) that it has been exactly 42 years to the month since I began consulting the I-Ching.

Ironically, 42 is also Deep Thought’s “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything” in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. That has led me to actually take a closer look at the significance of the number 42. Let’s start with the Wikipedia reference: 42 (number).

You can see how referring to the I-Ching is simply a way of weaving together the threads of current circumstances. The I-Ching is not supplying an answer in the strictest sense. Rather, it is presenting a way of holistic understanding in a form that requires careful thought and exploration. In that way it opens up new ways of comprehending one’s proper path relative to opposing forces.

I haven’t even begun to talk about the content of 42’s guidance. This dialog will continue until the Summer Solstice consultation.