A rare thunderstorm shatters the Oregon twilight.\u00a0 Lightning strikes the foothills, thunder rattles the windows, the wailing wind drives sheets of rain sideways against the house.\u00a0 The lights blink off on off on.\u00a0 I shake the coins, drop them, count them, six times.\u00a0 The squall passes on to the next valley.\u00a0 The Oracle speaks.<\/p>\n
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IMAGE:\u00a0 A male warrior holds the funeral bundle of his child, preparing to place it in its burial site.\u00a0 His face reflects the shock, anguish, and horror that fills his heart.<\/em><\/p>\n I almost flinch.\u00a0 This is surely the most ominous of the 64 hexagrams.<\/p>\n INTERPRETATION:\u00a0 This hexagram depicts the inevitable result of carelessness and irreverence.\u00a0 The male warrior symbolizes the versatility and fortitude that are at the core of outer nurturing.\u00a0 That he prepares to place the funeral bundle of his child in its burial site means that strength cannot accomplish afterwards what nurturing can accomplish beforehand.\u00a0 That his face and heart are filled with shock, anguish, and horror means that he is in the grips of the most terrible truth:\u00a0 that which we most cherish cannot be replaced.\u00a0 Taken together, these symbols mean that you avoid causing suffering by honoring and nurturing all that your spirit touches.<\/em><\/p>\n Animism is the world’s oldest Life Way.\u00a0 It’s a world view in which everything has spirit, in which every thing is alive and aware.\u00a0 A world view in which all is sacred\u2014humanity no more or less than anything else.\u00a0 It is not driven by self-interest but by reverence.\u00a0 It’s not that I treat nature right so that I might live better, for instance.\u00a0 It’s that I treat nature right because it is the living body of the One Spirit.<\/p>\n The corpus of practices by which people interact with Spirit in a mutually beneficial way is called shamanism.\u00a0 The way in which human beings communicate with Spirit is a principal concern of shamanism and that gives rise to systems of divination.\u00a0 An Oracle gives voice to the essence of situations and the trends developing out of them\u2014it is the spontaneous response of the One Spirit to an individual\u2019s act of divination.\u00a0 The I Ching is one of the world’s best-known Oracles, having been in continuous use for at least 3,500 years. ACTION:\u00a0 The masculine half of the spirit warrior draws back from the brink before it is too late.\u00a0 It is not a time for pursuing desires and ambitions:\u00a0 those who cannot temper their strength run the risk of losing a source of that strength.\u00a0 When our masculine half goes too far in pursuit of goals and becomes short-sighted and impatient, it is necessary to balance it with the strongest medicine possible:\u00a0 real problems can be avoided only by balancing the masculine half with the power of the feminine half\u2019s protective love.\u00a0 It is the feminine half\u2019s sense of caring and reverence that holds the key to fulfilling the real goal of happiness, companionship, and a clear conscience:\u00a0 those who do not hold the emotions of caring and reverence dear to their hearts run the risk of causing pain for themselves and others.\u00a0 Just because we can acquire something doesn\u2019t mean we should, just because we can accomplish something doesn\u2019t mean we have to:\u00a0 stopping to really consider what we are risking, allowing ourselves to feel the full brunt of such an emotional loss\u2014this is the protective and loving nature of the feminine half\u2019s medicine.\u00a0 Likewise, stubborn pursuit of goals even in the face of warning signs, longing for something that threatens to cause suffering for others, refusal to change course when it endangers the greater good\u2014this is the short-sighted and zealous nature of the masculine half when it loses its balance and sense of proportion.\u00a0 Because you treat nature, other people, and your own creations with the care and reverence you would your own infant child, you counteract every self-defeating action before it ever arises in thought or feeling.<\/em><\/p>\n The spirit warrior is a man or woman who aims to defeat his or her enemy-within, his or her own self-defeating habits of thoughts, feelings, and reactions.\u00a0 The dual nature of Spirit, whether cosmological principles on the largest scale or complementary halves of each individual, are symbolized by the terms masculine and feminine.\u00a0 The masculine half is often thought of as direct purposeful action, such as the act of tunneling through a mountain to get to the sea.\u00a0 The feminine half is likewise thought of as unconditional open-hearted nurturing, such as the river that waters everything it touches as it winds around mountains to get to the sea.\u00a0 Obviously, the goal of the spirit warrior is to bring her or his two halves into the kind of dynamic balance that allows for the optimum response to circumstances in the most timely manner.<\/p>\n Here, it is the stubborn pursuit of obsolete and self-destructive goals that the Oracle warns us against\u2014and encourages us to envision the irreparable loss of the true benefits of civilization, to feel the emotional pain of those losses ahead of time in order to motivate ourselves to immediate action.\u00a0 As it makes clear, this is not the kind of action that has brought us to an impasse:\u00a0 we can’t get out of a hole using the same shovel we dug it with.\u00a0 As the Life Way of ethical values and behaviors becomes more widespread and replaces the consensus of self-interest and needless consumption, the rigid patriarchal hierarchies supporting\u2014and supported by\u2014such decadence give way to self-directed egalitarian groups coordinating their efforts to protect what is valuable.\u00a0 It’s this emotional connection to what needs to be salvaged, this treating all things as we would our own child, that forges us together in a sense of shared purpose and mutual respect.<\/p>\n INTENT:\u00a0 The foolish ruin even that upon which they depend.\u00a0 When we recognize the sanctity of life, however, and work to protect it from unnecessary and pointless harm, then we safeguard our own spiritual foundation and that of all who touch our spirit.\u00a0 Consider what cannot be replaced and then cherish it, planting seeds of intent in the spirit realm to nurture it and keep it from being lost forever.\u00a0 Shun materialism and self-interest as you would a poisoned well:\u00a0 keep to the path of the balanced and harmonious way of life, revering all that the life-giving and life-sustaining forces themselves love.\u00a0 By maintaining an unbroken alliance with the helping spirits, the community of spirit warriors ensures that the hidden storehouse of life-giving power is never depleted:\u00a0 only in this way can human nature continue to draw upon the power to create its own, unforeseeable, future.<\/em><\/p>\n Not everything can be quantified and brought down to plans of action.\u00a0 Those who simply act as if they care and merely feign sincerity continue to make bad decisions because their intentions are still rooted in self-interest.\u00a0 Those who sincerely maintain that all of matter is imbued with spirit, on the other hand, do so from direct personal experience and treat their thoughts and emotions as inner actions that are just as consequential in the field of intentions as physical actions are in the field of material cause-and-effect.\u00a0 Within the shamanic Life Way, our inner actions are as significant as our outer ones.<\/p>\n The text of this hexagram closes with this demand on those wishing to transform civilization while there is still time\u2014that we open our hearts, drop off all the trappings of cynicism, and consciously wish the best for all.\u00a0 The curative demeanor for the coming Age is the feminine face of loving-kindness and good will, not merely a re-painted mask of the patriarchal grimace of conquest and dominance.<\/p>\n Typically, the Oracle’s answer involves two hexagrams, the first of which refers to the present or near future and the second of which to the future developing from those present trends.\u00a0 The present reading is no exception, involving line changes in the second and fifth places.<\/p>\n 2nd\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The primal relationship between humans and nature has been disrupted by your predecessors\u2019 short-sightedness.\u00a0 Look upon nature as you would your beloved and work to repair this rift.\u00a0 Begin by puncturing the bubble alienating you from the affection surrounding you.<\/em><\/p>\n The second line refers to local leaders and groups.\u00a0 Here the concern is clearly with remedying environmental problems, which have been initiated by earlier generations.\u00a0 As before, the Oracle advises us to become inspired not by appealing to our heads but to our hearts.\u00a0 But now, it reminds us that we have stopped pouring out open-hearted affection toward nature because we have closed ourselves off to the love and generosity pouring into us from the natural world.\u00a0 Being too absorbed in the strictly social sphere deprives us of the time and attention we need to share in the strictly natural realm.\u00a0 It takes no leap of imagination to foresee that we must strive for greater intimacy with nature if we are to salvage civilization or, in the worst case, survive its fall.<\/p>\n 5th\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0You have made a good start but do not really have the stomach for some of the difficult decisions ahead.\u00a0 Find someone trustworthy to enact reforms.\u00a0 Focus on encouraging people to advance by reminding them of the positive accomplishments of their predecessors that will remain in place.<\/em><\/p>\n The fifth line refers to leaders at the highest levels.\u00a0 Here it clearly faults them for lacking the character and resolve to make the necessary reforms.\u00a0 While we have little hope that they will voluntarily step aside and hand over the reins any time soon, we can see that the Oracle envisions a smoother, rather than a more drastic, transition of power.\u00a0 Ultimately, however, difficult decisions will have to be made, which entail reforms that can only be enacted by someone that people whole-heartedly trust.\u00a0 If a successful transformation of civilization is to take place, then the sacrifices people have to make will be made easier if they know what they are sacrificing for:\u00a0 a better world that will carry over the best of the past while jettisoning the rest.<\/p>\n Whereas the first hexagram and its line changes can bee seen to answer the first part of the question, At what crossroads does our global civilization stand now<\/em>, the second hexagram can be viewed as answering the second part of the question, In what direction does good fortune lie?<\/em><\/p>\n Image:\u00a0 A great feathered serpent hatches out of the earth as if from an egg.\u00a0 Its feathers are adorned with conch shells and it senses its surroundings with its bifurcated tongue.<\/em><\/p>\n The Plumed Serpent is the symbol of the enlightened human being.\u00a0 In a historical sense, it refers to the great Toltec spiritual and political leader, Quetzalcoatl, who lead his people into a time of great peace, prosperity, and cultural flowering.<\/p>\n INTERPRETATION:\u00a0 This hexagram represents the great forces released by the accumulated efforts of spirit warriors over the ages.\u00a0 The feathered serpent symbolizes the collective intent and vision shared by spirit warriors in every time and every place.\u00a0 That it hatches from the earth as if from an egg means that the community of spirit incubating within the material world emerges as a living, dynamic force of creation.\u00a0 The conches adorning its feathers symbolize the call for all to join the community of spirit.\u00a0 Its bifurcated tongue symbolizes the duality that is one.\u00a0 That it uses its bifurcated tongue to sense its surroundings means that you are attuned to the universal presence of the masculine and feminine creative forces.\u00a0 Taken together, these symbols mean that you align yourself with those whose only need is to bring benefit to their surroundings.<\/em><\/p>\n Though times are dark, we are the light bringing it to an end.\u00a0 For millennia, women and men with the highest motivations have dedicated their lives to the creation of a Golden Age of Humanity.\u00a0 That their names are not always celebrated in history books is of little matter\u2014their spirits live on just as ours will.\u00a0 Just as a pyramid is raised stone by stone, the world we wish to bequeath to the future is built life by life.\u00a0 The cumulative effect of light-bearing individuals inevitably tips the scale to an equally long period of history in which universal good will prevails.<\/p>\n Beyond this, the very nature of the One Spirit is to benefit all in equal measure.\u00a0 Joining forces with others who wish to practice unconditional benevolence is the path of good fortune.<\/p>\n ACTION:\u00a0 The spirit warrior reverses the flow of power, channeling it inside instead of outside:\u00a0 by storing up power internally rather than expending it externally, we are able to both free ourselves of habits and gain control over our actions.\u00a0 This inner autonomy also extricates us from social influences that strive to mold us into obedient marionettes even as it allows us to be more tolerant of the deeper motives of those social influences.\u00a0 From the spirit warrior\u2019s perspective, the original intent of religion is to awaken the higher soul to its potential freedom while purifying the lower soul of fear, greed, envy, and hate\u2014just as the original intent of government is to awaken the higher soul to its responsibility to others while instilling in the lower soul the capacity for self-control.\u00a0 From this perspective, the fact that religion and government acquire ulterior motives over time and begin to act in their own self-interest merely demonstrates that they are managed by human beings and must be viewed accordingly.\u00a0 Similarly, the fact that all religions and governments strive to awaken the higher soul and purify the lower soul\u2014even when they have forgotten how and why\u2014simply demonstrates that the quest for metamorphosis is a universal and irresistible force.\u00a0 Just as our inner autonomy releases us from the trap of depending on social influences for our sense of self, in other words, it also releases us from the trap of not seeing how those social influences contribute, however unintentionally, to the gradual unification of humanity.\u00a0 Reversing the flow of power, we gain inner autonomy and, paradoxically, become one with the universal civilizing force.<\/em><\/p>\n We give away our power when we are dependent on something, especially when we are dependent on it for our sense of self.\u00a0 We reclaim our power when we pull it back from externals and cultivate an independent sense of self, one not reacting to circumstances in a predictable and automatic way.\u00a0 When we can no longer be manipulated by others or controlled by our own unmanageable desires, we achieve the kind of autonomy that is free to respond to the needs around us in creative, innovative, and successful ways.<\/p>\n Such autonomy also frees us from seeing overly simplistic snapshots of complex processes.\u00a0 It allows us to consider the potential value of social institutions that have fallen into disrepair and disrepute, especially by considering their original value and working to revive it.\u00a0 When a temple was to be rebuilt or enlarged in ancient Mexico, for example, the old temple was not torn down and replaced\u2014the new temple was built around and over the old one because it was recognized that it was the site itself that people already held sacred.\u00a0 The shock of dramatic transformations of culture can be mitigated by slowly and methodically reshaping the institutions people have long held in esteem.\u00a0 History holds clear examples of failed reforms that attempted to remake society from the ground up.<\/p>\n INTENT:\u00a0 The wise become independent even from what they revere.\u00a0 Like children who are grown up and independent of the parents they love and admire, spirit warriors take their place among the community of spiritual equals.\u00a0 Because you use this lifetime to bring the most benefit to others, you incubate the higher soul that is preparing to hatch from the lower soul:\u00a0 joining in the collective labor shared by spirit warriors in every time and every place, you contribute directly to both the fulfillment of humanity\u2019s destiny and the creator\u2019s vision.\u00a0 Becoming part of the universal civilizing spirit, you contribute directly to the founding of a free and harmonious world of equals right here within this world.<\/em><\/p>\n Wisdom isn’t so much knowledge as it is freedom\u2014freedom in every sense imaginable.\u00a0 Freedom even from what we have held valuable, since everything changes, rigidifies, loses its original impetus and takes another direction.\u00a0 And freedom, especially, from emotionally-charged words, since they are among the most potent manipulators of behavior.<\/p>\n Breaking through the barriers that have long been used to divide and conquer a world of peers, we are, individually, a microcosm of the greater metamorphosis at work on the whole of civilization.<\/p>\n Thunder still echoes in the distance but the rain has stopped.\u00a0 I close the book, put away the coins.\u00a0 Not quite as ominous as it started out, the Oracle’s answer to my question doesn’t just point to the darker side of human nature\u2014in fact, it spends much more time illuminating the light half of our nature.<\/p>\n Perhaps, ironically, it is easier for us to stare into our darker half than it is for us to gaze into our own nobility.\u00a0 It would be the cream of the jest if civilization faltered and crumbled simply because we averted our eyes from the Smoking Mirror’s reflection of the grandeur of our true nature.<\/p>\n \u2014Oracle Cast\u00a0 2 June 2009<\/p>\n \n The Toltec I Ching<\/em><\/a>, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just been released by Larson Publications.\u00a0 It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams.\u00a0\u00a0 Its subtitle, 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World<\/em> hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.<\/p>\n \n This article first appeared on the Reality Sandwich website July 7, 2009:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.realitysandwich.com\/oracle_and_smoking_mirror<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tezcatlipoca, the god of the Smoking Mirror of ancient Mexico, wore an obsidian mirror on his chest that reflected the true nature of anyone looking into it.\u00a0 Those who could not gaze at their reflection without averting their eyes lost … Continue reading
\nFor all who perceive the world as something grander and more noble than a merely materialistic set of mechanistic causes and effects, the Oracle issues this dire warning of imminent loss.\u00a0 The last line of the Interpretation reminds us that the only thing that cannot be taken from us without our permission is our spirit of reverence and good will toward all.<\/p>\n![\"63thumb\"](\"http:\/\/thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/63thumb.jpg\" "\\"63thumb\\"")
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