Clinging to where we are and what we have become is also resisting future growth.
Today’s I Ching – 30 – Clinging
Fire above, Fire below.
Clinging follows Double Danger in the order of the Hexagrams.
Spirit explains:
Double danger is moving from danger into greater danger.
Fire over fire suggests the direction we have taken.
Now what? I ask, sensing a personal message.
Open your eyes and your mind, He tells me.
We must look back, now and then, to see
Where we have come from.
Are we moving uphill or down?
Without looking back we can’t measure our progress.
I think I get the message, approval of
My moments of nostalgia.
Simple Seeker Society 
Yes, since this is a planet/place of contrasts in context to a soul growing and learning, it seems memory plays a part. However, some get so attached to their ‘story,’ often a child’s story, at that, that memories become clouded and distorted. And this, too, likely has purpose – if only to awaken us to our proclivity to solidify illusion. Cheers, Jean!
“to solidify illusion”. That is so powerful, Bela, and so very self-affirming. If we look at our misty illusions and dare to ask ourselves; What would they look like and how would they work for us, here and now. Dreams are important, but they should be required to be possible. Sometimes I shock myself at seeming to be, at times, too rational, and at other times, a mystic beyond mysticism. Life is so curious. Today I read a FB comment, on a Jungian discussion blog, that seemed totally out of place. But it made me stop my critical thought, and stare at the concept that seemed almost designed for me. “Et tu,Brute”. It was supposedly from Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar, being attacked by his fellow senators. He initially, firmly resisted until he recognized his friend and protege, Brutus, among them. He was so overwhelmed with Brutus.s betrayal, that he surrendered to his fate.
You might ask, what has this to do with Jean’s life? But, perhaps we have all been expectantly so utterly betrayed by someone whom we cared very much for and would never have believed that what we now experienced could happen. I know, it sounds melodramatic, but it happens. It did happen to me, again and again, as if in ever-more intense situations and involving, as the betrayer (from my personal perspective, of course) someone closer and closer to my heart. I then suddenly recalled something that my spirit teacher once told me when I complained about the difficulty of the life lessons He seemed to have designed for my enlightenment. “Whatever it takes”.
It took a lot. I am such a slow learner. But, I am capable of learning. With each degree of betrayal I was able to gradually come to terms with and accept that their actions must have made sense from their perspective. Unconditional love emerged in my soul. Let it be. Each time a cried bitter tears to the universe with the complaint that “It,s not fair” but I never felt rage. That, Bela, was part of the lesson, for me to come to know that my center of emotion and thought was somewhere between Ego and Self. I was moving upward. Or, had I moved beyond hostile emotions in earlier lifetimes and was now just becoming aware of where I was, in that respect.
Unconditional love, I came to understand is not away up there beyond earthly desires and attachments. It is a foundation level. We, by nature, care for everyone, and then we care more for some than we do for others. It took me a lifetime to learn that simple reality.
I hope I haven’t bored you with this insight that may make no sense to anyone beyond myself. And I thank you for even noticing that I exist.
Love,
Jean
I love The I Ching and would like to know more about it.
That’s a beginning, Bojenn. If you’re seriously interested in studying I Ching, then, perhaps you could google I Ching and see what turns up. You’ll probably be swamped with information. Don’t fall into being trapped into paying money to learn. Just following a few I Ching blogs will help you develop a general understanding and then you will come to understand it all from your own unique perspective. Nobody (I hope) thinks the way that I do, and much of my understanding comes from an inner voice that I call Spirit. Of course, it could be my own higher (or deeper) consciousness. Who knows? Not me. But, I have learned so much about human nature from I Ching, and also from Tarot (also available by following web sites related. Ancient wisdom has been handed down to us in ways that we now refer to as mystical. But, a mystery is simply something we don’t understand, yet. Thank’s for commenting, and good luck with whatever and wherever you go.
Never learned much about I Ching…would you suggest just trying to tackle the text to start?
If you have never studied the I Ching, then beginning with the text would make sense, as a beginning. But, in itself, it might be confusing to someone from our culture, at this time, as it was written nearly 2,000 years ago, and for people who already understood, practiced, and believed in the power it had to foretell consequences, much as the early Greeks visited the Delphi Oracle to ask for guidance. We’ve come a long way since those times, or have we? People still go to psychics to get their fortune told, or to astrologers to learn what the stars have to say about how they should live, and why things are not going, or are going well for them, and, “Am I going to meet a lover and live happily ever after.” That’s not the game my Spirit teacher plays with me. He uses the wisdom, and there is wisdom in all old teachings,, even though it has been buried in nonsense, much of the time. But, the basic structure and pattern of the I Ching, Kabbalah Tree of Life, Tarot cards, etc. can still be a valuable teaching tool, for those who believe it has something to teach us. Perhaps it’s a case of either being drawn to it, or away from it. Different strokes for different folks. Personally, I have learned much about human nature, and my own personality in particular by listening to and questioning – we must never resist our own questions. Your seeming skepticism is a sign of intelligence. If you are sincere, I wish you luck. Trust your own intuition above all.