I Ching - 2007 Year in Review
Keeping A Hexagram Journal I keep a I Ching hexagram journal.
That way, I can record my readings, the change lines, and special notes or insights, etc.
This is a good practice; the I Ching has a cumulative effect over time.
The more I use it, the more insight I tend to get.
And the revelations tend to build on one another, like the bricks that build up a house.
Keeping a journal allows me to go back and review my readings over the last year.
In doing so, I get to see patterns, not only in my questioning, but in my thoughts and feelings surrounding the issues I faced during the year.
I Ching journaling also enables me to detect recurring themes in the oracle's answers.
In addition, I tend to internalize the wisdom of the book more when I write my readings down.
Review of 2007 Readings After reviewing the hexagrams I received in 2007, I noticed quite a dramatic shift from 2006.
In 2006, my predominant hexagrams were numbers 21 and 45: REFORM and ASSEMBLING.
This corresponds well with the tenor of 2006.
In 2006 I was facing literally a life or death health situation.
To know how to "move with the tao" in that situation required a wholesale REFORM of old attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.
I literally had to disassemble and re-ASSEMBLE virtually all of my former spiritual and moral education in order to survive the storms of 2006.
Thankfully, I was able to find the help and strength from spiritual friends who carried me through.
Last year, in 2007, the situation was different.
The prevalent tenor of last year was #28 CRITICAL MASS.
To be sure, there were "a profusion of elements all struggling to take form" in the Self, both spiritually and materially.
The air was definitely "full of multifarious factors all demanding due attention.
" Pivotal decisions had to be made, after 2006's health struggles, about basic life issues: job, living arrangements, family, friends.
DETERIORATION (#23) and ADVERSITY (#47) were also recurring motifs in 2007.
Though deterioration often connotes something negative, last year's deterioration was unmistakably positive, as old self-defeating, life-denying habits of thought and conduct were summarily eliminated, one by one.
What deteriorated was the old life that no longer worked; what supplanted the old life was a new life that is better than I could have hoped for.
This reminds me of the words of Jesus:
It teaches us how to stop resisting change.
It educates us on the meaning of the specific changes in our lives.
It alerts us to threatening change coming in the near future.
And it affirms us when we successfully manage the changes of the past.
So, it is apropos that 2007 was a year of immense change; the tao would have it no other way.
Much of that change involved #23 DETERIORATION.
Of course, whenever there is deterioration, there is always ADVERSITY.
Change is never easy.
Hence, number 47.
I experienced great adversity last year, but I'm all the better for it.
And I'm looking forward, with eyes of faith, to the wonderful things in store in 2008.
Gandalf the Grey has now become Gandalf the White (Lord of the Rings).
That is a perfect metaphor for the changes I experienced in 2007.
That way, I can record my readings, the change lines, and special notes or insights, etc.
This is a good practice; the I Ching has a cumulative effect over time.
The more I use it, the more insight I tend to get.
And the revelations tend to build on one another, like the bricks that build up a house.
Keeping a journal allows me to go back and review my readings over the last year.
In doing so, I get to see patterns, not only in my questioning, but in my thoughts and feelings surrounding the issues I faced during the year.
I Ching journaling also enables me to detect recurring themes in the oracle's answers.
In addition, I tend to internalize the wisdom of the book more when I write my readings down.
Review of 2007 Readings After reviewing the hexagrams I received in 2007, I noticed quite a dramatic shift from 2006.
In 2006, my predominant hexagrams were numbers 21 and 45: REFORM and ASSEMBLING.
This corresponds well with the tenor of 2006.
In 2006 I was facing literally a life or death health situation.
To know how to "move with the tao" in that situation required a wholesale REFORM of old attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.
I literally had to disassemble and re-ASSEMBLE virtually all of my former spiritual and moral education in order to survive the storms of 2006.
Thankfully, I was able to find the help and strength from spiritual friends who carried me through.
Last year, in 2007, the situation was different.
The prevalent tenor of last year was #28 CRITICAL MASS.
To be sure, there were "a profusion of elements all struggling to take form" in the Self, both spiritually and materially.
The air was definitely "full of multifarious factors all demanding due attention.
" Pivotal decisions had to be made, after 2006's health struggles, about basic life issues: job, living arrangements, family, friends.
DETERIORATION (#23) and ADVERSITY (#47) were also recurring motifs in 2007.
Though deterioration often connotes something negative, last year's deterioration was unmistakably positive, as old self-defeating, life-denying habits of thought and conduct were summarily eliminated, one by one.
What deteriorated was the old life that no longer worked; what supplanted the old life was a new life that is better than I could have hoped for.
This reminds me of the words of Jesus:
"If anyone is in Christ, the old has passed away.2007: A Year of Enormous Change The I Ching - not to mention the tao, for that matter - is all about change, and how to move with change.
Behold, all things are made anew.
"
It teaches us how to stop resisting change.
It educates us on the meaning of the specific changes in our lives.
It alerts us to threatening change coming in the near future.
And it affirms us when we successfully manage the changes of the past.
So, it is apropos that 2007 was a year of immense change; the tao would have it no other way.
Much of that change involved #23 DETERIORATION.
Of course, whenever there is deterioration, there is always ADVERSITY.
Change is never easy.
Hence, number 47.
I experienced great adversity last year, but I'm all the better for it.
And I'm looking forward, with eyes of faith, to the wonderful things in store in 2008.
Gandalf the Grey has now become Gandalf the White (Lord of the Rings).
That is a perfect metaphor for the changes I experienced in 2007.