118. The I-Ching art of war - Julius Caesar (☶/☶)

Once upon a time, there was a moment in history filled with perilous and excruciating tension as soldiers from the thirteenth Roman Legion stood massed in the bitter dark. It was as if time was starting to stand still. As just in front of them flowed a narrow stream that marked two worlds. On one side, their side, was the province of Gaul and eight years of bloody campaigning. And on the other side, the road that led to Rome. To cross it meant civil war but to not cross it meant certain death. For those were the terms handed down to their general. When we first learn how to use the I-Ching, we are advised to ask only certain questions in a particular way with a strong reverence to the divine. Because of these limitations the I-Ching rarely gets used as a tool for everyday concerns. In this way we become instruments of enlightenment but without a useful purpose. For those needing a more easily understood example: Jesus could turn water into wine, but wine does not pay a bill wanting it paid in cash. Today, when once upon a time, became the reality that is now, my earthly Chinese wife looked upon a way to get through to me because nagging doesn't work, and asked, "This government business tax that must get paid, what I-Ching hexagram does it remind you of?" I answered, "Hexagram fourty-seven." "Good! And what hexagram do you want it to be?" "I want it either to be hexagram seven or hexagram fifty. And for both having changing lines five or six, but changing line six is better." We both knew that the next question would be, "What am I going to do about it to change what I don't want to what I do want?" So I took a pen and paper and marked down the hexagrams with arrows leading from one leading to the other. And I drew a long vertical dividing line between the two: The arrows showed I had crossed my Rubicon. A new way of consulting the I-Ching revealed itself to me. A threshold had been breached. I saw the two lines that needed changing to get me what I wanted and my world of the Qian (heaven) gua quantum shifted over to the Kun (earth) gua.