Hexagram 8 - Bi
2006 Fall: Firmament


I Am a Boat
Mud
Firmament
Linguistic Image: Bi
A Robin Appeared
Firmament Natal:
April 13 - 18
Earthdial - Part 2


Line Analysis of the
Codes of 'I'
Trigram Arrangement
in Moondial
AH - Daily Clock
120 Year Cycle of
Natal Destiny - BI


Reference Guide
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Ding / Settlement
Linguistic Image:
Bi - Firmament
BY PURPLE YANG


Dear Readers,

So far, this hexagram has been the most challenging concept for me to swallow and digest since I started this 16-year project 4 years ago. And it is getting more and more difficult for me -- to the degree that I want to quit, but I cannot.

I cannot come to peace with using the name of Union as it has commonly been translated.

The English word "union" is very cognitive and conscientious; it is more mental when a physical relationship should suffice. Whether it is combined with un-and -ion , or unite or unity, "union" is too arbitrary or forceful to me for the transliteration of the Chinese character Bi. Especially in modern day economic and political usage, the word "union" is applied between labor and management, established legislations and acclaimed rights. Union is a body away and aside from the political lobby and capitalistic alloy, working with labor and its established, earned, and contributed rights.

It is not a neutral or free word anymore.



In Chinese, the character of Bi for the Water over Earth hexagram is the perfect expression of the divine creative female power below, over, and through undivided and unquenched masculine fire. The single yang line of the upper Water trigram holds the entire five creative threads and matter, matrixes, and lines to the point that this line itself is the dotting eye of God, the first visible light of the universe, and the most expressed joy in our eyes.

By inverting or flipping the Army (Shi, Hexagram 7) of the universe, signified by the teacher of love and the power of grandmother, Bi makes blood and water the same fluid, a tear and oil the same expression, dew and a view the same image, light and blue the same distance. When blood combines with water, the flesh is alive. When a tear speaks for the heart -- through silent joy and a salient agreement -- no external force is needed to unite or tie. No extra effort is required to bind or bond, mind or mount.
[ click here for full article]
from the Tao Te Ching

1 The Supreme is self-aware.
   Below is the angelic.
   Next is the fearful.
   At the base is mother.

2 Without faith, how can there be
   trust,
   Even in the face of true words?

3 Meritorious deeds complete affairs.
   Thus, people call me Nature.


Daode Jing
Chapter 17: MOTHER
~ Laozi
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