"Be aware of the details," said the oracle...

Something fundamental and (as yet) indescribable has shifted in me over the last four-five days (I am uncoiling from a harsh depression that began in January). Some of this new spaciousness of mind is about the time of year (I recently remarked to a friend, "Most animals come out of their burrows in the spring ... I'm coming out at the end of summer!") -- I was the kid whose primary joy at the first day back to school lay in new notebooks, pens, markers, doodle-pads ... One of my life's holy trinities is reading, writing, and thinking ...

With this clean-slate excitement sits a weird sense of being unsettled; slightly tipped to one side -- élan vital can feel overwhelming to one whose psyche has long been used to despair.

I asked the oracle about this bizaare sense. The response: Hexagram 62, CONSCIENTIOUSNESS, with the second line changing to 32, ENDURING.

Wow.

Focus on one thing at a time ... Tend to small details ... go slowly ...

Reach out for help ... yield to support ...

Marry an ethic that quiets your mind; root your self in solid, sturdy love.


Wilhelm writes of two "exceptional situations" that are "instanced" in the second changing line of 62: an "alteration of generations" -- a "deviation from the rule," and "extraordinary restraint."

A deviation from the rule with extraordinary restraint that leads to to persistence, tenacity, presence, commitment (H. 32). Where the "alteration of generations" is concerned, this is not rebellion, but conscious disengagement from archaic, obsolete rule ... a subtle stepping back -- not to regress (again!!) but to see.

Wilhelm also writes of giving "preponderance to reverence." It is good to honour what has lasted and lived a long time, before letting (some of) it go.

It is so good to see that I can step back in this space-making sense.

Thunder rumbles through both hexagrams -- 62 and 32 ... but in 32, a mountain stands as well. In both images, thunder passes over (rather than rising from within the earth) -- it passes over, and on.

What remains is quiet; contained; aware.

Sweet relief.

(Photo: "Mountain Pose," by Outdoorsie, via flickr.com)