The I Ching
Many years ago, when I was working for the Attorney General of Virginia, one of my co-workers came into my office with a book. “I thought you’d like to look at this.”
It was a copy of the I Ching. The Book of Change, perhaps the oldest book on the planet. The I Ching is a guide to the way things change—simultaneous awareness of agricultural cycles and social patterns, courtly manners and battlefield strategies, cosmic events and inner development. Over the millennia it has communicated cosmic order with startling accuracy.
Although I had never heard of it, I felt as if it was alive, calling to me.
Behind the closed doors of my office I tossed 3 coins six times to determine its message for me that day. The first I Ching I ever tossed was Hexagram 1 with no changing lines. Essentially, it said: the time is exceptional in terms of inspiration, energy and will. The force of this time is the primal directive that propels us into our destinies regardless of what our reasoning or recalcitrant minds may think. You may always trace back to the beginning, but there will never be an end to what you are about to set in motion.(I Ching Workbook, R.L.Wing.)
Reading that message, which was accompanied by a full blown chill, I felt my world shift. I had met an old friend, an oracle, one I recognized from lifetimes ago. One I could trust.
Over the years, the I Ching has guided me by revealing immediate tendencies in the cosmos. (I know that sounds strange, coming from a psychic. But we all have guidance in one form or another.) When I want to know the big picture, not the immediate circumstances that Tarot provides, I turn to the I Ching. She has never let me down.
Last July I tossed the same Hexagram that I had tossed prior to 9/11. Hexagram 51 with no changing lines (I tossed it again in November.) Early in January a client also tossed 51 with no changing lines. I/we were put on notice that something big was about to take place. I didn’t doubt it for a moment, I just wondered what the Black Swan would be.
Hexagram 51
The sudden force of stored and kinetic energy in the cosmos will be released in a powerful and SHOCKING display. Like the clap of a thunderbolt in the hushed moments before a storm, it will instill in the hearts of all who hear it an intense reverence and awareness of the overwhelming power of nature. All things in the cosmos will be rounded to movement through fear.
In human affairs it can manifest as a SHOCKING turn of events, an unpredictable, cataclysmic occurrence inspired by invisible but irresistible forces. If your first reaction to this is fear and reverence, then good fortune will follow.
Carry on with what you are engaged in but be certain that you have most of the elements of your life under control. Affairs that are pending and unfinished business will cause difficulties during shocking times. Yet, if these times inspire you to make innovative changes in your life, in your relationships and in your Self, you will meet with vitality and success.
Messages like this are the Great Mystery: “How does it know? How does this work?” I have only tossed 51 three times in my life, that I can think of. I remember because my physical reaction to it is always intense—a chill, filled by an underlying anxiety. The real key is that I can’t begin to imagine what it is warning me about. In our chaotic world I expect things like political upheaval, wars, stupidity, even the stock market crash. But not a pandemic. Not a pandemic that closes business in our country where money/profit rules.
The Buddha taught that the one thing that can be counted on, is that nothing can be counted on. The Tao says “everything changes”. Such is life.
But I forget that everything changes. Lulled by normality of my life, I believe that tomorrow will be just like today. Today just like yesterday.
Quarantine could be seen as a retreat, a world-wide retreat—an opportunity to find the True Truth—to determine what in our life is real.
There is something refreshing about not rushing out the door as soon as I get up, or practicing yoga or lifting weights alone. I find that I am more inclined to pick up the phone and call a friend. In fact, all of my client sessions are being held over the phone. Even our twice-weekly routine of going out to breakfast has changed. We eat here. (After all, we do have hens.)
Last, but not least, there is also a good possibility that I will write those newsletters/blogs I have been promising for a year. This blog is just the beginning of a long overdue conversation with my inner self.
Be well,
Winter