I have been corresponding with James Hewes since he bought my font of the Chinese “glyphs” for the hexagrams. James has been doing research on ancient Chinese literature  and the origins of the I Ching. He is also creating interpretations of these characters/glyphs in the medium of clay. When I got that pressing urge to use real paint again I was inspired by seeing Jim’s clay I Ching characters.

Jim  wrote to tell me that I am using the wrong word and should not be calling the Chinese Characters “glyphs.” He always has something interesting and relevant to say regarding the I Ching so will include here a quote from his reasoning on this subject.

I think it is correct to call the Chinese writing as  “characters.”  When they speak of the ancient form the term “character” is still used rather than hieroglyph. Even the ancient bronze inscriptions are referred to as “characters.” I’ve never read anything that has referred to the characters as hieroglyphs except for one comparing the inscriptions on the shells to hieroglyphs. They seem much more abstract or primitively symbolic than say the hieroglyphs of Egypt.  Using glyph to me is like calling them dingbats. It’s really not correct.  When it comes to Chinese the meaning of the word is very important. Translation, interpretation or just mumbo jumbo. Too broad or loosely used and words meanings change character.

The way the Chinese classify their writing evolves this way.  First there was the “shell and bone” style writing on the tortoise shells and oracle bones. Then there was the “Bell and Pot” style writing for the characters cast on the bronzes. (14th to the 3rd century B.C.) Then the “Stone Drum” style of writing the character around the 8th century BC. probably the style in which Confucius wrote around 500 BC and much more sophisticated than mere hieroglyphs or dingbats. During the Waring states period 400 BC they used what is called a Greater and Lesser Chuan style of writing.  Some hundred of bamboo tablets with writing on them have been discovered from that period. It was close to the “Stone Drum” style.  Next came the Lesser Chuan or “Seal Style of 221 BC which Ch’in- Shih-Huang-Te (the First Emperor) made the official style in his attempt to unify the writing of China. The various artistic forms of writing today began with him and evolved since the unification of writing, though there was some beautiful script styles along the way too.

James Hewes

Just to back up my reason (even if incorrect in this case) for using the word glyph, I include here the dictionary meaning of the word.

glyph  (ɡlɪf)
— n
1.     a carved channel or groove, esp a vertical one as used on a Doric frieze
2.     rare  another word for hieroglyphic
3.     any computer-generated character regarded in terms of its shape and bit pattern

Since the I Ching is a lot older than computer-generated characters I defer to Jim’s correction.

Related posts:

1. I Ching Font – Hexagram Chinese Name
2. Happy Chinese New Year of the Dragon
3. I Ching Record Book

I constantly complain to myself about how long it has been taking me to complete work called, I Ching Meditations.

The reason it is taking me so long is because not only is this a huge task to make seven images and words for sixty-four hexagrams, I have started from the beginning several times as my medium changed over the years. I began this work before there was such a thing as a personal computer and Internet. My original I Ching inspired images were drawings, etching and paintings. I am also frequently side tracked with what I feel are other seductive tasks such as, The SketchBook Project sponsored by The Brooklyn Art Library.

My confession is that I have a new addition to my I Ching obsession.

All my illustrations that are seen here for I Ching Meditations were created on a computer with digital programs. I love making images using computer technology and my mantra is that the Internet is the greatest invention since the discovery of fire. Creating in this way is fun and rewarding and a very different experience from using any tactile medium. Every once in a while I am over come with a fit of wanting to use real paint. The feeling is physical, sort of like when I am very thirsty and need a drink of water.

Recently I suddenly felt that nagging urge to use the hands-on medium of paint again. There wasn’t any particular image I wanted to paint. I just wanted to “play” and enjoy the experience. I thought of the book Henry Miller wrote after he left Paris and was living in California, called, “To Paint is to Love Again.”  That’s a good way to describe it.

In order not to get side-tracked from my work on I Ching Meditations I decided to paint something simple and fairly small while staying connected to the I Ching. I began by using the Chinese glyph for hexagram one, as the basic starting point for an abstract design. I enjoyed the process so much I am compelled to complete all sixty-four glyph paintings and will gradually scan and post them here. The originals are each nine by twelve inches, painted with acrylics. I have had to make two promises to myself for this paint series. I limit the time I spend each day working on these paintings and do it as a treat, like having desert. I often work on them while I watch my two favorite television shows, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, combining two pleasures at once. The second promise to myself is that I will not start over on any painting until I finish all sixty-four.

The act of making these glyph paintings may be like taking vitamins to keep my system in good health. They become a meditation themselves as I focus on shapes of the Chinese calligraphy that signifies the meaning of the hexagrams. I think of them like the manuscript illuminations from those early days of books when works were hand painted with elaborate initials.

I begin here with the glyph painting for hexagram one, The Creative.

I recently posted the image and line one for Hexagram 14 in a Page. The rest of the lines and hexagrams to follow there.

Related posts:

1. I Ching, Hexagram 2, Chinese Character Painting
2. I Ching Prescriptions: Choosing Change
3. I Ching Record Book

The image I include is one from my book, I Ching Prescriptions, showing the “Pre-heaven” and the “Post-heaven” arrangement of the trigrams that Kartar Diamond discusses in the article.

Which Came First, Feng Shui or the I-Ching?

You may be familiar with the practice of Feng Shui and some of the symbolism associated with the eight Trigrams. Each “trigram” is associated with a part of the body, colors, an element, a family member, and a direction. These trigrams are each symbolized with three lines. The word “tri-gram” means “three lines.” The lines can be broken or solid and in a certain order to depict the unique trigram and direction.

For instance, the Qian Trigram is three solid lines stacked on top of each other and associated with the direction of Northwest (post-heaven sequence) and the father in the family structure. The Kun trigram is three broken lines, symbolic of the direction of Southwest (post-heaven sequence) and the image of a mother.

What the heck is “post-heaven sequence?” Some people reading this know what this means, but for the lay person let’s just say that there are two versions of the trigrams in relation to the directions associated with them. We have something called the “pre-heaven sequence” which is used for different types of insight in a Feng Shui analysis and it is the more “obscure” arrangement of the eight trigrams when a person studies these theories.

These same three-lined symbols are grouped in pairs to form “hexagrams.” And it is the 64 hexagrams of the I-Ching which are symbolic of profound and mystical advice that adherents seek when they turn to the I-Ching for inspiration. We can say that the I-Ching, (also spelled Yi Jing) is an ancient Oracle or Book of Divination closely related to the fundamentals of Feng Shui. There is even a ring on the Chinese Feng Shui compass that identifies the 64 hexagrams.

When I was first trying to decide if Feng Shui was really my destined professional calling, I threw the coins to do the simple calculations on the energy assigned to the timing of my question. The answer I got from the I-Ching? I got hexagram #55 which translates as “Feng.” It is the pairing of the two trigrams: Thunder above (Zhen Trigram) and Fire Below (Li trigram). It was more than ironic. This might be the equivalent of wondering what you should do with your life and randomly opening up a book to a Chapter Title that says “You Are Already Doing What You Are Meant to Do.”

You may assume the trigrams and the I-Ching are irrelevant to modern times, but early on in my studies of Chinese metaphysics, an acquaintance sent me a book on the trigrams in relation to DNA. We don’t know who or how many people originally figured out these mathematical correlations, but they surely happened over long periods of time and after meticulous observation of the cycles of nature. More theories about the trigrams are continuing to evolve in modern applications and interpretations.

Eight Trigram theory is quite practical and predictable and there are many applications that can be used to help people. For example, the Zhen trigram is associated with the direction of east and the eldest son. If a house is missing the east sector of the floor plan, it can make it harder for a couple living there to conceive a baby boy. If a family moves into a house with a missing east sector, the eldest son in the family may have some struggles or some thing wrong with his health. If the east sector of a house has something wrong with it or in ill-repair, like a crack in the foundation, this could also harm the eldest son in the family. The more you learn about the trigrams, the more you will see them as a mirror to our lives.

No related posts.

If you have been viewing this blog for a while you know that I have been working for a long time on my graphic interpretation, I Ching Meditations.  This version is different from my Prescriptions which are direct and easy to use, just like taking a pill might be. During the process of creating  images for I Ching Meditations I experience each hexagram as a whole, with the 6 lines as one continual organic process.

Creating an image for each line of a hexagram is a slow and meditative process. I have to live with the hexagram during this process and came to feel that it is as if I had asked the I Ching a question and received all changing lines. I absorb the meaning of each line as it relates to the hexagram as a whole in a different way than when I ask a question and then read only the lines that changed. This process of working with the I Ching led me to the idea of choosing a situation for I Ching guidance rather than to only rely on the synchronistic method. I have read a number of I Ching articles on how to use the I Ching where the writer says to read only the lines that are changing for guidance. So I’m proposing a concept here with a different approach that goes against the traditional directions for consulting the I Ching. I use both methods.

Choose Your Changes

• When consulting the I Ching as a prescription, instead of asking a question in the traditional coin throwing approach, decide what issue in your life that you either want to deal with or are now involved in.
• Look at the list of the 64 Prescriptions. Decide what prescription you need.
• Look up the prescription distillation in the book and see how the advice applies to your life.
• Each I Ching prescription has seven parts to it; the general meaning at the top and the six phases written from the bottom up.

I have created a chart of all the hexagrams and their opposites that shows what a hexagram transforms to if all the lines change.

I have created a poster of the 2 charts which can be purchased at my Zazzle store .

Clicking  the Plus one icon blow will take you to a free download of a PDF of these 2 charts.

[gplus count="true" size="standard" redirect="http://adeleart.com/ChangingLines.pdf" ]

Related posts:

1. Changing I Ching Meditations Blog Format
2. I Ching Prescriptions: Choosing Change
3. Prescription for Splitting Apart

An excerpt from the Introduction in the book:

What are I Ching Prescriptions?

The I Ching Prescriptions are a different way of working with the I Ching. Many people wonder how could anyone take seriously an answer to a question arrived at by tossing coins. For this reason they decide that the I Ching is not for them. You don’t have to believe in synchronicity. You don’t have to take the time to understand the poetic symbolic language of the I Ching. When people dismiss the I Ching because it relies on random chance they miss out on the philosophy embedded within it. A philosophy, based on nature that has survived for thousands of years has a message worth pondering.

I wrote this book for people who are not drawn to the more complex translations that often require one to read the responses like one would a dream. Not everyone responds to symbolic language. I wanted to make the Prescriptions direct and easy to use, just like taking a pill might be. I don’t know how an aspirin works. I just know that it does. This does not mean I do not appreciate all the other I Ching interpretations. I get benefit from them. I love symbols, poetry and symbolic language. If I didn’t I would not have been consulting the I Ching for so many years.

Choose Your Changes

When consulting the I Ching as a prescription, instead of asking a question in the traditional coin throwing approach, decide what issue in your life that you either want to deal with or are now involved in.

• Pick your prescription. Decide what prescription you need. Look up the prescription distillation in this book, read it and see how the advice applies to your life.
• Each I Ching prescription has seven parts to it; the general meaning at the top and the six phases written from the bottom up. These lines are written on top of the image of a tinted color of the trigrams that create the hexagram.
• There are seven paragraphs of counsel for each hexagram prescription that can be used — one for each day of the week. Focus on or meditate on the prescription you have chosen. Keep a record over the next seven days as you follow each step. Write down what happens for you in the process.

Related posts:

1. The Sketch Book Project and I Ching Prescriptions
2. Prescription for Hexagram 58, The Joyous
3. Prescription for Splitting Apart

I have been working on a new book, soon to be released, called I Ching Prescriptions. So I decided to make a small black and white version of the book for my submission to the project. The exhibition is now open to the public. To my dismay at the thought of anyone ever seeing my work I found out that 28,839 artists from 94 countries contributed to the project. The exhibition began in Brooklyn and will travel to Austin, Texas, San Francisco, Californina, Portland, Maine, Atlanta Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Washington, DC and Winter Park, Florida.

After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view. Participants in the exhibition can choose to receive an email if anyone checks out their book telling you that some one actually looked at your book. How cool is that? But when I saw the numbers of books entered I gave up hope that anyone would find mine. However, to my delight I did get such a notice.

The exhibition has received a lot of news coverage. I have even seen a video news report on this from Japan which you can see here:

There is also a page about the show In the in the Feb 27, 2011 issue of New York Magazine.

Meanwhile, the larger, color version of I Ching Prescriptions will be published soon. Stay tuned.

Related posts:

1. I Ching Prescriptions: Choosing Change
2. Changes for I Ching Record Book
3. I Ching Record Book

This card based on four I Ching hexagrams, is appropriate for any holiday or occasion. It might be used for a birthday, well wishes, friendship or just saying hello. It is not necessary to be familiar with the I Ching to appreciate its message of Peace, Inner Truth, Friendship and Riches.

This I Ching card has a full color print for the Hexagram Peace on the front. The inside two pages contain the Hexagrams for Inner Truth, Friendship and Riches. The card is designed so that when you turn the card over Hexagram 13, Friendship turns into Hexagram 14, Possession in Great Measure or Riches. As I Ching people know, when you turn the hexagram of Inner Truth over you still have Inner Truth.

The card contains the images of the I Ching lines, the Chinese character as well as text in English for each Hexagram. The colors used are those that are defined by the trigrams contained in each hexagram. The background of each hexagram uses a tint of the trigram colors in a gradient blend of both colors.

Related posts:

1. Hexagram 13 – T’ung Jên / Friendship in the Open
2. I Ching Prescriptions: Choosing Change
3. I Ching Confession

I have a few review copies so if you are interested in reviewing the book on Amazon send me a message with your email.

I have also created a PDF interactive version of the Record book as a companion for this book so that you can print out your questions and responses. Sty tuned for that information.

I Ching Record Book

Related posts:

1. I Ching Record Book
2. Changes for I Ching Record Book
3. How to Use Your I Ching Record Book

Stay tuned for more news on The I Ching Record Book.

Related posts:

1. I Ching Record Book
2. I Ching Record Book
3. How to Use Your I Ching Record Book

Assuming that you are reading my review in this I Ching blog you will find it no secret that I have a long time interest in Syncronicity, the I Ching being a quintessential synchronicity tool. I also assume that any reader of this blog is an I Ching devotee and has does not have to be convinced of the existence of synchronicity. Since two of my own experiences are included in this book my challenge is how to be objective in this review and what to write to those seasoned in synchronicity to convince you to buy the book.

I discovered the MacGregor’s blogs in early 2009 when I found a site called Astro Yoga. I had just finished creating a series of designs for T-shirts on Cafe Press, called Astro Yoga Babes. I fell into a vortex of synchronicity when I discovered that while I had two blogs, one on Yoga and one on the I Ching, the MacGregors had their two with not only related subject matter but one with the same name of what I was working on.

While waiting for The 7 Secrets of Synchronicity to arrive, and before I knew that two of my experiences were in it, I dreamed about a man I had not seen in 20 years who had a major impact on my life and in my synchronicity experiences. So I was stunned to see the episode on page 35 – 36 in the MacGregor’s book. I had no idea that story was going to be included because Rob had not posted it on his blog. You can read his post HERE.

Bones

The bones of The Seven Secrets are in two sections:

The Secrets

Knowing, Heart, Theory, Creative, Clusters, Trickster, and Global

The Magic

Diving Synchronically, Animal Oracles, Journeys and Engaging the Divine.

Meat

The meat of the book introduces us to various ways we experience synchronicity. Each chapter gives examples and instructions for developing or enhancing synchronicity experience. There are many exercises for developing synchronicity. Here’s a list of some of them:

Developing Awareness
Breath work
Pay Attention to Your Feelings
a check list for, How Attuned are you?
Hints on Sensing the future
Telepathic Sending
Remote Viewing
Psychometry
How Open Are You?
Engaging Your Creativity

In the Chapter on Clusters there is a discussion about the appearance of numbers in groups. I was particularly interested in the discussion about the number 23.

I’m convinced that the I Ching is connected to the structure of our basic DNA. The MacGregors’ book discusses how the number 23 is often related to death. In the Wilhelm version of the I Ching Hexagram 23 is named Splitting Apart. This seems appropriate to point to the “split” that comes before joining with another set of 23 chromosomes to become a new embryo. I learned that it takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate through the human body and that the axis of the earth is 23.5 degrees or more amazing, that the DNA pattern shows irregular connections at every twenty-third section.

As for the question, How could the I Ching possibly work?” Carl Jung said in his forward to Wilhelm’s I Ching, “The less one thinks about the theory of the I Ching, the more soundly one sleeps.”

The Chapter on Global Synchronicites has a Healing Energy Exercise that is synchronistic for this time. It’s an exercise on healing for global disasters. I am sure that this exercise had to be written well before the recent oil spill catastrophe that has been going on for well over a month now.

The four chapters in the section on Magic, begins with, Divining Synchronicity, a discussion of the I Ching which includes another one of my experiences of synchronicity that was pretty amazing as it not only included an I Ching reading but a dream. This experience is an example of synchronicity that keeps me hooked into both the I Ching and dreams. The chapter also talks about Astrology, Tarot, Stichomancy and a way of using colors for divination synchronicities.

I was unaware that Rob had co-written a book called The Book of Color Divination which is mentioned in this chapter and something I must try. As an artist, I love color and at various times in my life have had obsessions about different colors. So now I have a new synchronicity game to look forward to.

Heart

At the heart of The 7 Secrets of synchronicity are the many amazind true stories that people have experienced and shared with us.

I know people who never experience synchronicity. Their minds are not only closed to the fact that these things happen to people, they are adamant about that with derision. Once I had a dream about a relative in which she had a specific operation. I was perplexed since the dream made no sense to me and the prevailing view in the culture of most therapists was that every thing you dream is a projection about yourself. Since I have been recording my dreams and checking up on people I dream about, I have found that about 80% of my dreams about other people are about the person in the dream. P.S. I found out later that the relative who had the operation in my dream, in fact had that operation. When I wrote and told her about it, hoping to open up the conversation about the subject of dreaming, she handled it by ignoring my letter.

I’m taking the time to elaborate on this subject of why non believers do not have synchronistic experiences because they shut themselves out from the possibility. You have to take the time to notice what is going on and then open your mind to what ever it is you find. Drop logic!

Just in this process of reading the MacGregor’s book on synchronicity I have had a rash of them, some relating to what was written in the book. I am here to testify, that the more one focuses on the fact of synchronicites as a part of life, the more you will experience them. Reading MacGregor’s book is a way of opening up to more experiences of synchronicity.

Skin

Since I’m using the human body as a metaphor for an overview of The 7 Secrets of Synchronicity, I can’t resist talking about the the physical look of the book. So I add to this review that the skin – what we see on the outside – the choice of type, the subtle printing on the paper to make the edges look patterned, the highlighting and setting apart of the exercises and general design all add to my enjoyment of reading The 7 Secrets of Synchronicity.

Sight / Insight

I have had many experiences of synchroncity, the most powerful of which have been through dreams where I have dreamed a future event. I would not have been aware of this at the time but keeping a record of dreams, along with a daily journal, helped me to discover that. I end here with a question. The MacGregors refer to dream knowing as sychronicity. The definition of synchronicty in Secret 1:

Synchronicty: the coming together of inner and outer events in a way that can’t be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer.

When I dream of an event ahead of time, even if I have no clue that this is what the dream is until later, this does not feel or look the same as an I Ching reading that hits the mark. It feels like my psyche has traveled out of time. That looks different to me than any other kind of synchronistic event. These dreams, while certainly not daily events, have been numerous enough so that I cannot dismiss them no matter how much disbelief I get from telling these dream experiences to people who do not have these experiences and do not believe that I do even though I have proof. The capacity for denial seems to be even larger than the capacity for belief.

While dreaming about an event before it happens that it not something I could possibly know or influence at the time feels to me like something more than, or other than the other synchronicity experiences. Does any one out there want to talk about that?

As I post this I note on the MacGregor’s Synchronicity blog that it is Trish’s birthday today.

A Happy HAPPY Birthday Trish!

The MacGregor writing duo has a list of many books and various literary awards including Rob’s well known Indiana Jones series of novels. Besides being prolific writers, Rob is a Yoga instructor and Trish an Astrologer.

From the book:

Trish MacGregor and Rob MacGregor have been professional writers for twenty-five years. One synchronicity after another led to their many nonfiction books on dreams, psychic development, astrology, yoga, the tarot, divination, and animal symbolism. In 2003, they took over the writing of the popular Sydney Omarr astrology series. This acclaimed, award-winning author team has appeared on the Learning Channel, the History Channel, and the Sci-Fi Channel; in April 2009, Rob was filmed for the History Channel’s UFO series.
Rob also wrote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and six other original Indiana Jones novels, which have sold millions of copies. He won the coveted Edgar Award for Prophecy Rock, a YA mystery, and its sequel, Hawk Moon, was an Edgar finalist.

Trish, writing as T.J. MacGregor, won the Edgar in 2003 for best original paperback for Out of Sight. Her books have been translated into thirteen languages. They live in Wellington, Florida.

Related posts:

1. Carl Jung, Synchronicity and I Ching
2. I Ching Record Book
3. I Ching Prescriptions: Choosing Change