Re: I Ching at tarot.com
silvereye said:
Has anyone tried the I Ching reading in tarot.com?
Have I used tarot.com? Well, there is a short answer… no. There is also a long answer, which I am going to give you anyway,
To me speaking with the IC is more like hearing from another, while with the Tarot it is like tapping into the universal unconscious. I guess if I was more Jungian than I claim
I would say I am communicating with my ‘wise old woman’, but to me it doesn’t feel like that. It feels like speaking with another spirit, not me. Let me give you an example.
The day before yesterday I had been having problems at work. I had pretty well been creating them myself, with my Aries personality, I knew that. Trying to have bigger fireworks than anyone else, and of course I was getting pushed back. So I went to consult the oracle, and I got 56, The Traveler, with lines 3,4 and 6 moving leading to 23, Splitting Apart. Now the image of 56 is fire, blazing rapidly, burning things up and moving on, over the solid, unmoving mountain. The lines I drew were not getting through to me. 3 and 4 are close to the position of power, but not in it, and that causes them to make mistakes. 6 is flat out just going too far for who you are. I was literally twisting inside, trying to see it. (I see it now, but somehow my eyes were veiled at that point) So, I did something that always works for me, but may not work for others. I often use the IC like some old timers use the Bible. I open it at random and read the lines my eyes are drawn to. Okay, sounds strange, but it is a bit like spreading out the deck quickly and randomly drawing a card for insight. The book opened at 48 The Well. Now 48 is wood below and water above and the surface image is dipping the bucket at the end of a wooden pole into the well to get water. I cannot think that most of you would not be able to see where that is going.
I find IC a stern but often wryly humourous voice. Anyway, my mind calmed and I saw myself, blazing away, while underneath me the bureaucracy was stolid and unmoving… and unmoved… by me. I saw that yes, I did have a good position, near but not at the top. And I took to heart the warnings about what behaviour that implies.
Lines 3 and 4 could be interpreted as ‘right now’, or ‘near past and right now’, while line 6 is divinatory in nature. Line 6 is the fire burning too hotly and destroying what you yourself created. The mountain (the bureaucracy) is not injured by this… it puts the fire (me) out, or lets it burn itself out. A warning. IC delivers warnings, as in… ‘if you continue on your current path’… much as the Tarot does. Know who you are. And of course… continuing on the current path leads to 23 Splitting Apart… everything is lost and you have to start over. 23 means losing your base, your foundations, generally going too high without being wide enough to support it. While it is true than often a seed falls to the ground and re-grows, you have to take into account how old you are and whether you have time or strength to start from scratch.
So, there is the long answer. I need a more personal connection so I don’t use computer programs for IC. But, what the heck, we are all different and if it works for you, I have no cause to complain!!
And, I know this is painfully long, but I do have one more comment for Emily. The reason the Wilhelm translation is a touchstone for most other works (except the Karcher/Ritsma translation) is that he spent decades living in China. He was a true Sinologue and immersed himself in the culture, without losing his identity as a Westerner. This is a more difficult achievement than it sounds. In this way, studying for years under a Chinese master scholar, he was able to translate the essence of a culture which has a long and very different history than that of the West. His great achievement was to bring this work to the West in a way that Western minds could absorb it. He was brilliant and deeply spiritual. He also translated other Chinese spiritual works, of which one I treasure is the Secret of the Golden Flower, a text for meditation. Since I do not seem to be able to meditate, I guess it didn’t ‘work’ for me, but I love its imagery anyway.
Sorry to be so long-winded.