A note on the author
The author of these pages holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, having studied the History of Religions and ancient worldviews including the use of astrology in the Jewish Qumran community, by some discerning scholars held to be the cream of a widespread movement known to us as the Sons of Light, or, as they later came to be called, the Christians of the first century.
In the summer of 1979 I first met with the Chinese oracle I Ching in a way that in hindsight seems almost fated. While visiting a bookstore I overheard a customer ask a shop assistant whether they kept
some certain I Ching in store. Although never having heard of anything like an "I Ching" a chill went through my body and I could not but approach the stranger, a short, sharp-eyed Peruvian (as I found out), to learn something about the title that had
made me freeze on the spot!
The Peruvian didn't waste words. "It is a good book," he just said, smiling. I picked a paperback copy of the John Blofield
translation to read at some later time. As the stranger seemed to know a
lot about the topic I was on the lookout for, we agreed to meet for
lunch the next day and exchanged work phone numbers.
The numbers almost looked identical! They pointed, as it were, to the
same street and office building, but belonged to different employers. We
actually sat in rooms less than 50 meters apart with only a glass door
separating us! This was in "the Garrison," at that time said to be
Europe's longest office building complex.
The friendly and composed man from South America who worked in Sweden as
a statistician became my mentor in meta-physical matters during that
summer of 1979 when I was only 19. The I Ching in its various
incarnations has remained with me ever since.
I am also a self-taught data programmer, having worked for some years with databases and programming for the Internet. Before getting into this line of work, I had been wishing for some means to
minimize the time consuming process of manually calculating a Yin Yang Horoscope.
I finally got around to make a computer routine for this.
To let you know you are in fairly responsible company, here's my personal birth horoscope - in so far one trusts such data of course! I wrestled with the symbol for many years while trying to figure out what this astrology was trying to say. A birth on Oct 22, 1959 19:00 local time gives the sign Shih, perhaps best interpreted as "Leader of the masses" or "The General."
The word itself refers to the organized "working" or fighting force (the mass of soldiers)
but according to the I Ching translator Rudolf Ritsema also to the General in person.
The meaning is that there is ideally a complete accord between the mass and their "head" - the Army as ONE forceful and victorious
"mind-body." It so happens that Carl-Gustav Jung, the psychologist, was born under this sign too (partly,
since dual birth signs are very common). One may in the symbol of flowing water underneath the earth see his idea of the collective unconscious
as well as its central guiding principle holding everything together: the Self.
It is extremely unlikely that Jung knew of this system, which was not in his life-time translated into any western language. But I am sure he would have been delighted to see in the General a representation for the central,
organizing archetype of the Self of his theory, when connected to the idea of streaming underground water.
That is, a "way" or directive proceeding from the unconscious - that level of awareness beneath the restricted daytime ego which many of us have become due to constricted cultural views. As the Indian philosophers said: "mind is the slayer,"
and by that meaning the ego based discriminatory intellect, that part of us capable of dissecting any situation but totally lacking the capacity for understanding greater wholes. This Chinese method is all about grasping those "big pictures."
Shih is also one of the symbols having only one Yang line in the midst of Yins, a feature in itself of symbolic value in this form of Chinese astrology. Both this case and that of a single Yin among five Yangs would indicate a high degree of individuality and also, to differing extents, a tendency towards leadership, taking control, or building up an organization.
The sign Shih seems to occur regularly with politicians, giving a hint
of its planning and schematizing nature. But it is also applicable to
every set of tasks that involve having a group of people depending on
one. And it just so happened that I, after school, came to spend a good
many years in the business of taking care of society's aged, before
turning to academic life.
In fact, during this time I found no less than three young women born to
the root line of Shih among a small group of employees, clearly
indicating the group nature of the effort and the use of an army to
secure the wellbeing and security of those on behalf of whose the
fighting force had been gathered. This is not war for war's sake, but
war for defending the good values of a society.
A hexagram, then, may be viewed on many levels! It only presents the bare bones,
something akin to a Platonic idea or form, upon which life draws and
receives its shape.
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Other examples of the Shih principle
In certain, less well-to-do parts of the world, memory has been kept
alive of the murdered (1996) Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme because of
his
efforts towards increased equality in the distribution of
wealth. He was shot dead in the street because of his refusal
on one fateful occasion to bring his bodyguards along. He very much wanted to
walk the streets as a commoner, which is typical of this hexagram,
elevating, as it does, the masses to the uppermost portion of the
symbol.
Possibly his premature death was reflected by the ruling third line, counting from the bottom: "The army perhaps has a wagon full of
dead bodies. Grief and sorrow!" If so, that line puts him to task for
carelessness in conducting his military expeditions and serves as a
reminder for anyone born to the same line to keep his (or her) wits
about him at all time, not taking an apparent peaceful situation for granted. All is permitted
and might occur in love and war.
But then again, his birth was another case of those complicated situations where two hexagrams are about equally strong,
the one modifying the other. His other symbol certainly was not without its share of warnings either. Ming Yi - The Darkening of the Light!
This is a serious situation where one will escape wounding only by "hiding the light under a bushel." Prime Minister Palme met with a uncommon amount of hostility and hate
emanating from right wing extremists in his native country during the last few years preceding the murder. Some considered him arrogant, which of course may be hinted at in hexagram Ming Yi if read as a piece of advice: "one is to play down one's uncommon intelligence - darken one's light voluntarily - not to create too much opposition from those of lesser abilities." When in Rome, do what the Romans do.
The symbolism did of course set in long before his fortunes changed for the worse, having been born to one of the most powerful upper class families only to turn to politics, taking sides with the less fortunate. On a national level he became a social democrat, a representative of the working classes. Now, the theme of the General implies one person picked out from among the masses and appointed
leadership, so obviously this "apostasy" may itself be considered a "hiding one's light" or appearing as a "solar eclipse." Palme voluntarily "darkened" his heritage. This resolve to turn against the self-satisfied elite and the consternation this caused is perfectly described by the bottom line of Ming Yi, his other ruling line, which talks about "harsh criticism" coming from his Master.
Another time this archetype of conflict between entities of differing stations may have manifested in a pure way was when Palme's sharp criticism of
USA's foreign policies and war in Vietnam caused the Americans to withdraw their representation in Sweden and for a time close their embassy. That debacle too, was perfectly illustrated by Ming Yu - only this time Palme's hexagram was projected on the warring Americans as being the "light-darkened," those suffering an eclipse in their understanding.
To this day, Palme was the most intelligent politician to have come out of our country. I do not think the combination of hexagram Shih's water and earth can fully explain Olof Palme's extraordinary vitality of mind. However, the presence of fire in his complementary theme Ming Yi is rather telling.
This system very rarely assigns the symbol of fire to a birth hour,
indicating its special connotations.
Some other famous "Generals" in no particular order: composer Eric Satie, musicians Pete
Townsend and Carlos Santana (the latter yet another "pure" General), actors Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Depp.
Depp is a low-key type of hero as indicated by the fourth line
which tells of an "army inclining to retreat."
Perhaps most interesting is film director Robert Altman whose specialty
is seen in films like Shortcuts and Nashville where a great many
separate threads are slowly revealed to be related to each other.
Compare that to the General firmly keeping all the various aspects of
the battlefield in his mental grasp. Naturally the ability for
organization appears with many other birth symbols as well but Shih
seems hell-bent on the matter of an organized flowing whole per se.
Still, a birth in the "time" of Shih spells out defeats as well as victories and, perhaps, the tendency to view every situation in terms of warfare; as a case either to be won or else to face annihilation.
Discerning the finer nuances must wait until the war is finished, and
that is the task of the top line, which in turn may explain the site
author's long-lasting interest in various astrological methods for
establishing what motivational forces are in effect.
I believe knowing about the pros and cons of
one's birth sign(s) to be potentially helpful. In fact, the good thing about any type of astrology is that it provides
food for thought, and regardless whether you accept or reject its truth
claims, it will set your mind in motion.
Now, I hope you find this eastern astrology an interesting one. Siwert Aldenryd, Sweden
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