Decay
Last night I consulted the infallible Chinese oracle, the I Ching. I got 18. Ku. Work on What Has Been Spoiled[decay]. No changing lines.
The Chinese character ku represents a bowl in whose contents worms are breeding. This means decay. Stagnation. This implies guilt, the conditions embody demand for removal of the cause. Hence the meaning of the hexagram is not simply "what has been spoiled" but "work on what has been spoiled."
What has been spoiled through man's fault can be made good again through man's work. It is not immutable fate that has caused the corruption, but rather the abuse of human freedom. Work toward improving conditions promises well, because it accords with the possibilities of the time. We must not recoil from work or danger, but must take hold energetically. We must first know the causes of corruption before we can do away with them, hence it is necessary to be cautious during the time before the start. Then we must see to it that the new way is safely entered upon, so that a relapse may be avoided. Decisiveness and energy must take the place of the inertia and indifference that have led to decay, in order that the ending may be followed by a new beginning.
When the Iraq invasion occurred I was compelled to end a long hiatus in my political involvement. I then spent the years following, tense, in pain, and caught up in my society's fear. Now that this phase is drawing to a close, I feel great relief, and have started to return to myself, turning away from the constant vigilance of the government, while still maintaining my social responsibility in order to work on what has been spoiled. The time has come. I am no longer agonizing with every twist and turn of the news, but I am bidding farewell to the now impotent figures who have dominated the political scene and I am preparing for the next play. One in which I intend to carry some influence. The rich remains of decay can soon nourish growth. I know it will with me.
posted by jm at 9:59 PM
3 Comments:
And i am with you jm, our number surprises even me. The old is falling away, the new will be ready. Some of us have been readying for a long, long time.
Thank you for a lovely post.
Second that thought . . . love the I Ching, though it's been years since I did anything with it. This ties in so well with Pluto - death, rebirth & transformation. But ya gotta have the fertilizer to make things grow!!! The lowly earthworm is a magnificent enricher of soils (as opposed to dirt)!!
I think some of us were born ready, tseka. I've felt out of synch with the group forever. My perceptions are different, my tastes are different, my goals are different, my path is singular. I've always prepared just in case there was a slot for me, and the recent political events might have opened this up. But maybe not. I joined with, but still felt that torture, murder, lying, fearing, falling, hurting, hating together, trying to laugh together at nonfunnyness, belonging at all costs and the like were not my areas of interest. So here I am, stuck in the middle, maybe the birth passage, where I can't go back but will have to venture forward on the path I know is best. I can't imagine acceptance in this oblique view, but I have no choice. It does appear that there are possibly more people of like mind than I thought. There is work to be done.
The old is always falling away, with the new accompanying it. It depends on our own evolution, where we stand. There's a slightly different calling for everyone, but now I think there is a spurt of collective growth being addressed, and some people are emerging from a period of being underground, incubating. We'll know what to do when, as long as we stay aware in the extrasensory way we naturally do.
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