Bagua

Bagua

Friday, March 24, 2017

On the Scope of the Great Work


On a personal level, the Great Work involves each individual's progress to manifesting the Superior Individual, and attaining to the level of the Sage (Enlightenment).

But on a greater scale, the Great Work involves the spiritual evolution of humanity as a whole.
In that greater scale, the work you do applying Virtue in the world is not meant to change the world at this present time, but to lay down currents of Change that will change the world over the course of cosmic Time. 

Presidencies, nations and whole civilizations will come and go while we perform the Great Work.
Things happening in the world now are the ripple-effect of things Initiates did 300 years ago.

The things we do with consciousness now will ripple forward to change the entire world 300 years from now.
The Great Work on this scale is done not for one's own gratification, because it is not anything any of us will live to see.





It is work to change the future.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

The Magician's I Ching Facebook Group now has Over 2000 Members!


The Facebook group created in honor of The Magician's I Ching, but which is a general discussion group for all I Ching related subjects, has now reached just over 2000 members!






So if you haven't already joined the Magician's I Ching Facebook Group, please consider joining!  It's free, and filled with interesting conversation and material related to the I Ching and I Ching studies.  It's open to people coming from western or eastern traditions.  It's very welcoming to newcomers to the I Ching, and you can get questions answered or useful advice. But it also has many very learned and highly experienced advanced students of the I Ching, and if you are one of those people you'll find some excellent higher level discussion about some of the finer points of I Ching study.

While you're at it, please consider joining the Yi Fa Society.  Members of the Yi Fa Society also have a (secret) discussion group, and benefit from a complete and detailed training program for studying Yi Fa Qi Gong and the I Ching.   Members of the Yi Fa Society are taught additional Qi Gong and I Ching secrets that are not available anywhere public.

At higher levels of membership, the advanced exercises of Yi Fa Qi Gong are taught, and students are provided large numbers of instructional materials (whole books, like "Secret Techniques of the I Ching", "Universal Yi Fa", "The Yi Dao", and "the Great Book of Yi Fa", among others) on how to deepen their work with Qi Gong and I Ching for self-transformation and the work of enlightenment.

Members of the Yi Fa Society can work personally with me to keep up their practice, to resolve problems in their practice, and to develop discipline and structure in their spiritual path.   Members also have the opportunity to have monthly Skype meetings with me for the same purpose.

Yi Fa Society membership is not free, but basic membership is on a monthly donation basis set by each student.


If you are interested in joining the Magician's I Ching Facebook group, just click on the link and join, and start reading and sharing with us!

If you are interested in joining the Yi Fa Society, please contact me, here or on Facebook.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

What to Know Before You do an I Ching Casting






The I Ching can be used to for divination about literally any subject. It is said that it covers all possibilities within the "world of 10000 things" (the manifested reality in which we exist).   So it's not just for thinking about very profound or advanced 'spiritual' questions. It's also not just for thinking about very mundane and ordinary subjects (romance, relationships, family, money, business, etc).  It can be equally effective for any of these things!

And yet, some I Ching castings end up working 'better' for the caster than others.  Why is that?
First, of course, is the level of training and understanding one has in working with and interpreting the I Ching.  The more you study it, and the more you consider its form, its text, its whole system, the better you'll get at using it. That part is pretty obvious (even though for some reason, many people never bother to go beyond the most basic level of understanding with it, even if they use it a lot; I've met some people who have used the I Ching fairly regularly for years and never even actually read the whole text!).

But whatever your level of training and understanding with the I Ching, there is also the fact that sometimes you will do castings that will seem to 'work' really well, providing you clear understanding of the question you are asking, and at other times, it will seem like the answer you get doesn't 'work' for you at all (in the sense that you aren't able to get a clear answer, or that what you get in the casting doesn't seem to be right).

Here are things you need to keep in mind when you are considering doing an I Ching casting about a question:

1. What is the level of Necessity for the casting? Is this something that you do not have a clear idea about without casting for it? Is there a strong emotional sense of intensity to seek out the answer?

2. Do you have the sense that there is something you may be missing, that you hope the I Ching could clarify?

3. How likely are you to interpret the casting objectively?

4. How open will you be to proceeding with the advice the I Ching may present to you?


None of these are points that should necessarily be taken as reasons not to do a casting. But they should give you an idea of whether you're really at the right spot to do the casting or not, and sometimes they may lead you to change your attitude about the casting you are about to perform, before you engage in it. 

The more intense the necessity is for a casting, the more likely that it will be fruitful.

The more clear you are about what it is you are needing from the casting, the more accurate the casting is likely to be.

The more you prepare yourself to be objective in your analysis of the casting, the more likely that you will not mislead yourself in your interpretation.

And the more serious you are about following through with the advice given by the I Ching, the more likely that the casting will provide concrete, direct and meaningful advice.