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The Last of the Water Snake
I don’t know about you but I’m glad we have a New Moon and a Chinese New Year coming in a week from today. Yes, this is the last week for the year of the Water Snake and I’m not sorry to see him slither away!
We are soon moving into Wood Horse, or Green Horse energy. The New Year begins on January 31 and I am sensing some very good energy coming our way. I’ve hinted at this before and will expand a bit on my thoughts today. For next week’s Friday post I will report my I Ching Gua cast and reading, not just for the new month but for the entire New Year. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile here’s what I think we can expect for the Wood Horse Year. First Horse aspects: from Wikipedia we can read the characteristics of Horse energy and people:
Idealistic and impulsive, the Tiger, Horse and Dog [note Horse is a member of this trine] follow the beat of their own drum. Defiant against injustice, these three signs wilt without large amounts of physical affection and loyal support for causes. They are productive, enthusiastic, independent, engaging, dynamic and honorable. They can also be rash, rebellious, quarrelsome, hot-headed, reckless, anxious, moody, disagreeable, and stubborn. Although these three signs are loyal, they can be very protective when lied to.
I sense a lot of energy coming in with the Horse Year; “productive, enthusiastic, independent, engaging, dynamic and honorable” are excellent energy descriptions for what is coming.
Furthermore, it is a Wood Horse Year we are coming into. Not to get too technical here, but the fixed element for the Horse is Fire. Wood feeds Fire, naturally, so a Wood Horse Year will be all “fired up.” Fire is of the heart; Wood will feed the “enthusiastic, engaging, dynamic” characteristics of the Horse.
I am particularly looking forward to this Wood Horse Year because I am a Wood Rooster. First, Horses and Roosters get along well. Second, my Wood element will feed the fiery Horse with even more Wood element. What I have to watch for is not to “burn my energy” too brightly or hot (no “hot-headedness” for me).
I am not one to put a lot of trust in predictions. What I do enjoy is sensing the energies intuitively through the various tools I use, from drawing and reading cards of various decks to casting I Ching Gua (hexagrams) for the New Year and each of the subsequent New Moon. It’s working with these intuited energies that can make a difference rather than relying on a reading of astrological signs. That said I do believe that the overall energy of the Chinese Zodiac can have an impact on events. Why? Because we are always at choice; our choices are influenced and made based on what we believe. If I choose to believe the incoming Wood Horse Year has good, plentiful, helpful, productive energy in store for us, then I will tend to look for and feel these positive effects.
What is your birth sign and element? How do you think you may interact with the Wood Horse energy? Do a little research; have fun with it! Here is a link to the Wikipedia page to get you started: Chinese Zodiac.
And say goodbye to Water Snake!
Monday’s Poem: Dark Lady
We are now on the downward slide to the new moon and the Lunar New Year. At the end of January we will be celebrating the Chinese New Year and move from Water Snake energy to Wood Horse energy. I am very much looking forward to this change. For one thing my dominant element in both my Chinese astrology chart and as determined by my personality and behavior traits is Wood. So, I am anticipating great things in 2014. But first we have some cleaning up to do. We have another dozen days to clear away, let go of the old energies and staleness of the ending Water Snake year. It’s time to use the waning moon energy to take away the dreck of 2013. Release the old to make room for the new!
And to celebrate this feeling of cleaning house and letting go, the shrinking of the moon to darkness, I offer this poem I wrote about four years ago, at another pivot point. From January 28, 2010:
Dark Lady
Companion of the night,
You lead the way down
Where the Moon hides in the Sun.
All secrets are revealed.
Lover of darkness,
You show deep shadows
Where the Sun cannot reveal.
The unknowable rests there.
Wife to my healing spirit,
You carry me down
To discover there, together,
The deep Truth known through all time.
©2010 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
I CHING GUA FOR THE NEW MOON IN CAPRICORN
We not only rang in a New Year at midnight on January 1, we also experienced a New Moon at 7:14 AM Eastern time on the First. Lots of new energy to begin the year!
As one of my practices I cast an I Ching Gua (a hexagram of yin and yang lines) on each new moon to “read” the energies that are coming in for us. The I Ching or “book of change” can be used as a divination tool, not so much to predict what is coming but to get a sense of the energies of change that may be coming up through the month. This is another of the many “intuitive tools” that are available to us to help us sense beyond the usual three-dimensional ways through our five senses.
To help with the interpretation of the Gua I rely on a book by Taoist Master Alfred Huang: The Complete I Ching. I find his translation to be thorough, detailed and clear. Of course there is plenty of room for my own reading of the Gua because the words and meanings of the I Ching can be open and obscure.
For January the Gua I cast using a 50-yarrow stalk method generated this hexagram:
The “x” and circles through the 3rd, 4th and 6th lines indicate they are “changing lines.” Master Huang recommends reading only the middle changing line when there are three. So, only the 4th line is used to generate a new, changed Gua as pictured below.
But first we need to understand “Hindrance.” This Gua is made up of two trigrams, Earth is the lower one and Heaven is the upper. This is not a particularly auspicious Gua because Heaven is above and drawing away from the Earth. There is a block here against progress. It is the opposite of “Advance” which is the preceding Gua in the I Ching sequence. But this is a natural flow: after advancing there comes hindrance. And, naturally, after a time of hindrance there can be further advance.
For me the energy here is to pause, for a short time. The Hindrance-Energy is on the way out with 2013. (Note the volatility of this initial Gua with three changing line.) Yet, there is no need to leap into anything big early in the New Year.
Using only the middle line, the 4th, as the changing line yields this Gua:
The Guan here is the same word as in Guan Yin the Goddess of Compassion. The literal meaning of her name is “Watching Sound.” In this sense Guan means meditating or concentrating.
The message for me is to meditate on any actions for the month and proceed with caution. In all things be an example. Watch yourself and also remember you are being watched by others. Contemplate before action. This Gua is approached from Hindrance. While the energy barriers are lifting and Hindrance is shifting there is no need for haste. Be considerate.
A further way to interpret a Gua is to form a new one from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines as the lower trigram and the 3rd, 4th and 5th lines as the upper trigram. This yields the “mutual gua” – in this case Bo, Falling away. This too holds a sense of warning energy. Conserve what you have. This New Moon will wax to fullness and then wane again. Proceed with caution during the waning moon.
Hindrance quickly yields to Watching early in the month. Meditate on all action. As the Chinese say about Pi: pi ji tai lai, which means: “Out of the depths of misfortune comes bliss. At the end of Hindrance appears Advance.”
Enjoy this moon-cycle and the start of this fabulous New Year however you wish to interpret the energies captured by the I Ching!
PS: My friend and astrologer, Gloria Hesseloff, had this to say about this Capricorn New Moon: “2014 invites us to continue ‘planting the seeds’ for the next 26,000 years, or at least the next few generations.” Planting seeds for generations certainly requires thoughtful patience!
MONDAY’S POEM: What is Reality?
I ended last week with an exploration of reality. Today’s poem is part of that exploration. I love what both the Heart Sutra and Chapter 11 of the Taoteching have to say about emptiness and form. They say it better than I can ever hope to but here, joining my experience with the magic of crystals and these wonderful sources of deep wisdom is what I have to offer on the subject:
What is Reality?
Is it in the crystalline structure of quartz,
Laced molecules frozen in a matrix
Of beauty, depth, meaning, space and time?
Is it in the atoms of silicon and oxygen
Who breathe life into shapes, designs, pictures,
Faces, vibrations and voices echoing through time?
Is it in the structures of the atoms, whirling bits
Of nothing winking in and out of existence,
Vibrating from nothing to something to nothing in no-time?
Or, is it like the spokes of a wheel that disappear
Around the spinning hub, a matter of perception?
What is real, the spokes or the empty hub?
The still spoke is real. The spinning spoke is not real,
Beyond perception. Form is no other than emptiness,
Emptiness no other than form!
Prajna Paramita!
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
You are a Multi-Dimensional Being! – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary’s post begins with a message from The Divine Feminine in which they say:
We are The Divine Feminine and speak to you from the Realm of The Divine Feminine. This is one of the Dimensions that you have been hearing about.
There is nothing scary about dimensions or the beings that inhabit them. Our role in coming into your life is to assist you in your path of personal growth.
So, in casting about for my response today, to this message about being “multi-dimensional” I decided to take them at their word to see if I could hear a message from them. Actually I have received one or two messages from this “realm” in the past when I ask them for help, guidance or support. So, why not ask them to comment, through me, on their own message with additional illumination?
And I received a very interesting message of my own from this realm. I repeat much of it here because it demonstrates my own multi-dimensionality and perhaps it can model for you how you, too, can access this or other extra-dimensional realms if you ask!
From The Divine Feminine:
Dear one, of course we will speak to you! You are our beloved. You care for us as you care for Rosemary. You know there is a male component to us, just as there is to Rosemary. You mirror that component for us just as we mirror the feminine component of you. This is what your blog, Men and the Goddess, is all about. You men need us as that mirror. We are the Yin to your Yang, the Moon to your Sun. You need us to absorb, reflect, soften and affirm your very being. We need you for your strength, your action, your sending out the energy that animates it all.
The Goddess is in you just as the God is in us. We are inseparable yet dual. We inter-penetrate one another, affirm one another, in fact, manifest one another. And there is the problem with the dual nature of existence, of consciousness, just as there is a necessity to it. Often there is an imbalance in our natures. In you men, when the masculine over-powers the feminine, there is too much action, too much aggression. When the feminine over-powers the masculine there is too much inaction, too much passivity. The mirror image of this imbalance is true for women.
Balanced men offer the greatest hope for human survival and the evolution of consciousness. Balanced women offer the same hope. Partnership between such men and women offer extraordinary gifts to humanity. You, in partnership with Rosemary, model this balanced duality of purpose and power. Together you begin to restore balance in the energetic realm.
Now, this is not to dismiss The Divine Masculine. They too need their outlet and their balance. It is true that we are now in the forefront because the balance toward the masculine power has been so over-weighted as to almost lose sight of purpose! But as the work proceeds to restore this balance a restoration of appropriate masculine power will be needed for right action to emerge. This is your work. This is your calling. The work you envision with men is part of this restoration of balance. Working with the Tao and Qi is a way to help with balance. The ancient wisdom of China holds the keys to balance. They, the Taoists knew the importance of The Feminine, The Divine Feminine.
Keep to the path. Always return to balance.
And so it is.
Well, I did ask! Now I have to be congruent with the message I received! How does this message speak to you?
New Moon in Virgo I Ching Divination
Yesterday, September 5, 2013 at 7:38 AM Eastern time, the moon aligned with the sun in the astrological sign of Virgo. Of course this alignment is what happens when we have a new moon every 29 days or so. And whether or not you “believe” in astrology, there is no denying that the moon in its tracks and phases across our night skies has a profound influence on the planet and us. I pay close attention to the movement of the moon; I enjoy correlating its movements with its influences.
If you have been following this blog for a while you know that on each New Moon I cast an I Ching Gua, a 6-line hexagram of either solid (yang) or broken (yin) lines. There are 64 possible arrangements of these 6 lines into Gua. And there are many books and guides to assist in the interpretation of the intelligence contained in these 6-line arrangements. I use The Complete I Ching, The Definitive Translation by Taoist Master Alfred Huang.
For this New Moon in Virgo I cast this Gua:
Its name is Ding, which Master Huang interprets as “Establishing the New.” This hexagram follows a Gua that means “Abolishing the Old.” Essentially the meaning here is a new and stable situation must be established after over-turning the old status quo. For example in the event of a political revolution, as happened in China when the I Ching was codified, a new government had to be established to stabilize and manage the country.
So, what does this mean today, for us, and how does it inform the energies and influences we can expect in the coming weeks?
Both Rosemary and I have mentioned in our blogs that we are in the process of reviewing and restructuring our businesses. This is very much in line with our recent move and our need to reestablish all our possessions into their new home. In many ways we are “establishing the new” as Ding suggests. And this is certainly what a New Moon calls for. With the turning of the moon it is good to let go of things (objects, parts of businesses, relationships, habits, practices) that no longer serve us. The waning moon time is a great time for “house cleaning.” Then with the arrival of the New Moon it is good to bring in the new and fresh, whether these are ideas, processes, practices and even new things for the household.
I consider the casting of Ding for this month as very auspicious. It confirms exactly what we are in the middle of doing. It offers us the supporting energy to move through this process of assessment and then “establishing the new.” And the mutual Gua is exactly in line with what we are doing. The mutual Gua is formed by using the middle lines to form a new Gua, so the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines become the lower trigram and the 3rd, 4th and 5th lines become the upper trigram. This yields the new Gua, Guai, or “Eliminating.” According to Master Huang the mutual Gua contains a hidden meaning for deeper interpretation of the original Gua. And “Eliminating” is certainly in line with this directive to “establishing the new.” We are eliminating everything that no longer serves us, both for our household and our businesses. Those items and processes that no longer serve are not needed, in fact would only weaken, “establishing the new.”
For the initial Gua all the lines were strong, which means none of them were changing lines. This can be inauspicious because it points to a period of stagnation; there is no forward progress. But I am looking at this as a time for stabilization. I am glad there are no changing lines in this cast; after all the changes of the past month I am looking forward to this period of stability!
With this New Moon in Virgo and this particular I Ching divination, are there parts of your life that need to be examined, things to eliminate that no longer serve you, processes or practices that need to be reestablished? This is a good time for this review. The Moon’s energies and the energies of this time will support you through “establishing the new”!
New Moon in Leo I Ching Divination
The New Moon in Leo occurred on Tuesday, August 6 at 5:51 pm EDT this year. We had completed the heavy lifting of our move to Severna Park the day before. We were united with all of our stuff for the first time in over two years. Of course we didn’t know where everything was yet (still don’t) as the job of sorting and searching, finding places for things and finalizing what we need and what we can store or purge in another round of down-sizing proceeds. As we look at the stacks and array of boxes to be opened and managed the task seems daunting.
With this background it is no surprise that I cast a highly appropriate initial Gua for the month ahead! At least I was able to find my yarrow stalks and my current favorite “bible” on the I Ching, Alfred Huang’s The Complete I Ching.
Here is the hexagram I cast as the starting point:
Notice it is made up of two identical trigrams; the name in Chinese is Dui or Lake in English. Master Huang says this word means something more like a swamp or marsh, similar to rice paddies. When put together the hexagram is also named Dui. The meaning of the hexagram is Joyful.
Notice that the initial, lowest line has a circle in the middle of it; this was cast as a nine and means it is the changing line for this Gua; it changes from a yang, closed line to a yin, open line yielding a new Gua with a very different meaning. So, as the month opens I have a joyful period to experience. I equate this to the joy of being reunited with all my stuff, of setting up a new household where everything is where I want it to be, even those items that need to be stored or purged. Rosemary and I are both in a state of great joy that we now have a new home to both live in and work from.
The specific meaning of the changing line gives another layer of meaning; the yao text refers to “inner harmony” as the basis for joy. This is excellent advice. Yes, while all the surroundings are lining up to bring joy, the primary source of joy is always inside. As long as I remain harmonious inside, all the boxes and frustration of sorting and deciding can remain incidental to the overall state of being joyful.
How are you being joyful this August? Seek inner harmony and all external circumstances can drop away.
Now for the approached gua, the one formed when the initial yao changes from yang to yin:
This is Kun or Exhausting. No surprise here! After the strenuous move and all the sorting, deciding, arranging and purging I do expect to experience a level of exhaustion. This gua also refers to other resources, like money. It will be easy to over-spend as we are joyful about settling in and enjoying our new spaces.
Symbolically, the lower trigram moved from Lake to Kan or Water. With Water under Lake the lake drains away, resources diminish.
According to Master Huang, the Sage rides out these periods of low energy and drained resources, realizing this time too shall pass. The advice here is conserve what little energy remains. Go inside to consider next moves. Wait out the period of exhaustion; there will be plenty of opportunity ahead.
How do you deal with exhausting states? The advice of this gua is to conserve and wait.
As another note the mutual gua for Kun is Jia Ren or Household! The mutual gua holds additional meaning for the reading. I am again not surprised that Household comes up; for me at this time my household is both the source of joy and exhaustion!
How is your household bringing you both joyful and exhausting experiences?
Perfection in the Imperfect
In yesterday’s post I told the story of my misplaced sunglasses and my frustration/anger/lesson/awareness/self-love/love development. I am still processing this as a real opportunity for insight and growth. The day after I found the glasses I wrote this in my pages:
It is a better day today because I found my sunglasses. I know, it’s silly to have spent so much emotional energy on this little thing. And when did they turn up? After I had let them go, let go of all that emotional energy, accepted the loss and the lesson and put a good face on the rest of the day. And there is even a deeper lesson in the outcome: accept the lessons as soon as they arise with their teachings! Don’t spend the emotional capital on these small things. Save it, store it. This is true awareness.
Practice Awareness! This leads to perfection. Above all stay in the energy of Love as much and as often as possible. This is the true perspective and the true path to the Tao.
Whether the sunglasses turned up or were gone forever is immaterial. The lesson is the true and best outcome here. The first priority is Practice->Love. This is the Ultimate Way. And the Penultimate is Awareness->Perfection. The first leads to the second. Of course there is a tight feedback loop through all of this. Practice goes to awareness and perfection and Love – the end of it all. But the persistence in the practice comes from Love too. And the awareness comes from Love and practice. It is all tightly woven and I have much to continue to learn and bring to Perfection.
This whole notion of Perfection is a sticky one, especially for an Enneagram Type 1! OK, the Universe is already perfect. It is a whirling mass of delightful energy with an incredible force of Consciousness driving it. Call it Qi, call it the Tao, the Collective Consciousness of the All, Source, God/Goddess. It is perfect in its creation and its evolution. This is a key understanding. This does not mean that I am perfect, that everything I do is perfect. It does mean that there is no imperfection in Creation. It means that all the imperfections somehow blend into a perfect set of lessons for us all and we learn them to lead to the Ultimate Perfection of the Plan for the Universe. Somehow our mistakes are correcting over the long haul. They are necessary to spur and guide the evolution of consciousness.
The secret here is acceptance. It’s one thing to realize this at some level, to write about it intellectually, to think it through and see the logic of it. It is quite another thing to live by the rule: All imperfections are necessary to form the Perfect Whole. There is an implicit acceptance here that is required to the fulfillment of the Perfection – Prajna Paramita!
This is the Heart of Perfection. Acceptance: acceptance of the form and formlessness, the empty limitlessness, the mistakes, illness, old age, death – all part of the Heart of Perfect Wisdom – Prajna Paramita!
Is this the Buddha’s real meaning in the Heart Sutra, that all the imperfections in the world, all the suffering, all the strife are all part of a greater Perfect Whole? Acceptance, surrender, is the pivot point of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths. And how can there be anything left after that surrender but pure Love?
Peace and blessings!
MONDAY’S POEM: Vital Force
The feeling of Qigong:
Vital Force
Formlessness
Empty force
Breathing in
Deep down
Belly out
Rootedness
Feet connect
Bubbling spring
Qi rises
Radiating upward
Earth offers.
Root chakra seals
Lower Tan T’ien stores
Energy forms
Prana expands
Heart opens
Expression flows
Mind merges
Vision extends
Crown reaches
Heavenly Love.
Humans link
Heaven and Earth
Form and formless
Eternally One.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Cancer New Moon I Ching Divination
The New Moon in Cancer was Monday morning, 3:15 am Eastern Daylight Time on July 8, 2013. And as I like to do, I cast a Gua, an I Ching hexagram (6-line figure) to determine what the energies will be like during this next moon cycle, for the next 29 or so days. (The next Full Moon is on July 22nd, at 2:16 pm; and the Leo New Moon is on August 6th, at 5:52 pm).
For this divination I use the yarrow stalk method and I use Toaist Master Alfred Huang’s The Complete I Ching to help me with the interpretation of the Gua.
The divination on Monday yielded a complicated picture: the numbers I cast, from initial (bottom) to top were 6, 9, 8, 8, 8, 9. The hexagram this generates is pictured here:
The initial 6, and the two nines at positions two and six are all changing lines. This indicates a lot of change coming during the month – great potential for transformation. Master Huang’s advice when given three changing lines is to read the middle line only to simply the interpretation. The initial gua then is Meng which Master Huang translates as “Childhood.” The interpretation of this initial hexagram indicates the month begins with the innocence of childhood. Wisdom is covered or hidden and needs to mature. There is good energy in youth; strong energy to gain and grow in insight and ultimately wisdom. The image of the gua is of water flowing out of a mountain, or a fresh spring. There is vitality in this initial hexagram.
Then the second 9 (middle changing line), a weak yang line become a yin line. This generates a new, accomplished gua composed of five yin lines and a yang line at position six. The accomplished gua is pictured here as Bo, “Falling Away”:
The image of this hexagram is Mountain over Earth and represents a top-heavy, unstable and unsustainable situation. Energies may be fluctuating later in the month.
The key here then is to shore up the erosion and regain some stability. Support will be required; be prepared to ask for help.
Another key is to trust in the transforming energies. We’ve known for some time now that 2013 is a year for great transformation. And the only way forward toward transformation is through the gateway of change, of instability. Awareness and preparation of our energies here is vital to moving through the transformation process as smoothly as possible.
The bottom line for me is to be prepared for the coming changes and also, going back to the “innocence of youth”, trust in the outcome.
PS: Here is another form of divination, and a great way to prepare of coming changes! Rosemary’s next Conversation with The Other Side is scheduled for this Saturday, July 13. It promises to be another wonderful evening. For a sample of the depth and detail of the messages you can expect to hear, she has posted some samples on her website: Sample Messages. Go to the link to hear and see how this works and how you can benefit with messages from The Other Side! Attendance is easy from any where in the world! Get the details here
Men and The Goddess 