5/31/2023 0 Comments Modern poets i chingThe rope may not be long enough to reach the water. The problem is whether or not we can draw from it. The water in the well is the inexhaustible source of life. Or the Jug breaks, it brings misfortune (185).Ī further commentary on the hexagram goes on to explain how to interpret the image of the well: it is the center of the village or town, for without a well, the community could not exist. The I Ching explains the meaning of the image and so makes this judgment concerning the situation: The wood goes down into the earth to bring up water, as in water drawn into a bucket, or roots reaching down into the earth for water. Searching in the table of 64 hexagrams, I found that the top trigram= “K’AN, the abysmal, water,” and the lower trigram=”SUN, the gentle, wind, wood.” Together they form the hexagram CHING/ THE WELL, hexagram # 48 (185). ![]() Even number totals are broken lines odd numbers are straight lines. Using the traditional coin toss method of divination to get the two trigrams, I tossed 3 coins 6 times. Baynes), I consulted the oracle on the likelihood of my writing a successful review of the 64 poems included in Indebted to Change. For about a decade I was quite enthralled with the I-Ching and frequently consulted the oracle by casting the yarrow sticks or coins to conjure up the hexagrams that would show me the current configuration of my state of being, what forces were bringing themselves to bear at that moment, and what I should and should not do before my situation evolved or “changed” into another configuration of forces and events.Īs Jung did before he wrote his forward to my Wilhelm translation of the I Ching into German (subsequently translated from German to English by C.F. ![]() When I was asked if I might write a review of Stephen Falconer’s new collection of poems, I thought I’d at least take a crack at it, being somewhat familiar with the I Ching, discovering it through the writings of Karl Jung and his theory of synchronicity, (a hypothesis that the coincidence of events in time and space, even subjective and objective ones, can be more meaningful than mere chance), though I do not know Chinese and am not a scholar of Chinese history with a knowledge of ancient texts. There are 64 poems in Indebted to Change, which deliberately parallel the 64 hexagrams in the I Ching, or The Book of Changes, an ancient Chinese book of divination and philosophy. ![]() Stephen Falconer, Indebted to Change: The Beggar Poet’s I Ching, Resource Publications, Eugene, Oregon, ISBN 978-1725298316, 280 pages, $25.00
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