And look – here’s a new, dedicated I Ching political blog, no less:
Mme. Zaratamara consults the I Ching
(I really must stop browsing and playing with my new toy, and get some proper work done!)
Mme Zaratamara – who is left-leaning – asked the oracle how the US could get out of Iraq. And received Hexagram 33, Retreat (no, really…) changing to 57, Subtle Penetration.
(She misread the changed hexagram – I sympathise. I don’t think I’ve ever actually sent a reading out to anyone with the wrong hexagram, but I’ve come very close.)
So to get out, Retreat. Gently, subtly, maybe under the influence of the repeating winds of public opinion, who knows. Worth noting that Hexagram 33 is about self-preservation, too.
33,2
‘Holding onto it, use yellow cowhide.
It will never be capable of getting loose.’
Hmmm… a Wilhelm-influenced reading might see this as a concerted retreat by the whole alliance. But I naturally see us as ‘tied’ there, even creating bonds of loyalty that require us to finish what we started.
Then I see the second line in Brad’s notes:
“It disgust him to think of his wonderful thing in the hands of inferior people”
Ah.
Line 4:
‘Loving retreat.
Noble one, good fortune.
Small people, obstruction.’
Later – I think this would be later – retreat is an act of love. The junzi can do it… the small people experience it as a failure.
This one feels clearer to me straight away. My own notes on the line say,
“I think this is where the love comes in: drawing back for the good of someone else, or to allow them to come to you, or to allow space for all concerned to grow in their own way. (The love need not be directed specifically at another person.)… It looks like a paradox, withdrawing with love – no wonder small people don’t get it.”
Mme Z has a different take on her reading, of course: politics are bound to tinge interpretation for both of us. But to me, anyway, Yi’s voice sounds altogether neutral.