If the web were a hexagram...
Mar. 22nd, 2006 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
branchandrootSometimes, in I Ching, hexagrams go in pairs. Heaven over Earth and Earth over Heaven is one of those pairs.
One of the most common readings of this pair rests on the point that the movement of Heaven is upward while the movement of Earth is downward.
So Heaven over Earth, rather than being the happy, natural way of things, is a recipe for instability. Each of them flies off in its own direction, without any countervailing influences at all. It's a model of solipsistic extremism.
Earth over Heaven, on the other hand, is the concept of balance. The movement of each presses against the other and is held stable. Earth over Heaven can move in any direction at all, as long as both choose and move together. It's freedom, but also constraint, because, without that partner to balance against, it all unravels again.
Another interesting thing about I Ching is that each of the six lines in a hexagram can be stable or moving. A moving line will change into its opposite, solid to broken and broken to solid. So, for example, Heaven (three solid lines) with all three lines moving will be on its way to becoming Earth (three broken lines).
And now we come to the point of this. Our online text interactions with each other can be either Heaven over Earth or Earth over Heaven.
In either case, though, the lines are invariably all moving.
.
One of the most common readings of this pair rests on the point that the movement of Heaven is upward while the movement of Earth is downward.
So Heaven over Earth, rather than being the happy, natural way of things, is a recipe for instability. Each of them flies off in its own direction, without any countervailing influences at all. It's a model of solipsistic extremism.
Earth over Heaven, on the other hand, is the concept of balance. The movement of each presses against the other and is held stable. Earth over Heaven can move in any direction at all, as long as both choose and move together. It's freedom, but also constraint, because, without that partner to balance against, it all unravels again.
Another interesting thing about I Ching is that each of the six lines in a hexagram can be stable or moving. A moving line will change into its opposite, solid to broken and broken to solid. So, for example, Heaven (three solid lines) with all three lines moving will be on its way to becoming Earth (three broken lines).
And now we come to the point of this. Our online text interactions with each other can be either Heaven over Earth or Earth over Heaven.
In either case, though, the lines are invariably all moving.
.
