I Ching Lunar Phases

[Harmonious Emptiness]

The following link has a rather complicated explanation of how to determine trigrams and hexagrams that accord to the moons to phases:

 

http://www.ralph-abraham.org/articles/MS%23104.Moonhex/moonhex.pdf

 

 

The following page provides all lunar details, including the altitude and azimuth coordinates which are needed to use tables 4 and 5 of the former link:

 

http://www.calsky.com/cs.cgi/Moon/1

 

for example:

Altitude:     -3.89°  [for table 5 above]            Azimuth:    104.43°   [for table 4 above]  Direction: East-Southeast ESE

which equals Lake over Earth

 

 

I had read that the yin-yang symbol mapped the lunar cycle and had seen a few other connections with this, but don't know much about it otherwise, so I"ve posted some basics in hopes other people might be able expand on them some more.

 

Apparently there are seasonal considerations as well?

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Edit to add: thanks Daeluin for bringing this up in other threads. Hopefully you'll have some more time to share some of what you've learned on the subject....

Edited July 14, 2014 by Harmonious Emptiness

[Daeluin]

Thanks for this topic! That's an interesting system for getting hexagrams through the moon cycle. I've never seen the post-heaven order of the trigrams applied this way in the English translated taoist classics I've read, but that doesn't mean it isn't valid in it's own way.

 

I've only just started reading Pregadio's translation of the Cantong Qi, and it seems to go deeply into matching the trigrams and hexagrams to the lunar and solar cycles.

 

Just a taste:

Book 1

3 The monthly cycle of the hexagrams

In one month there are 6 nodes of five days;

warp and weft abide by the command of the sun.

Altogether they are sixty:

The firm is external, the yielding internal.

At dawn of the month's first day, Zhun ䷂ is on duty;

When sunset comes, Meng ䷃ takes charge.

One hexagram for each day and each night:

Their operation follows the Sequence.

With Jiji ䷾ and Weiji ䷿ comes the clear light of the month's last day;

After the end there is another beginning.

The Sun and the Moon set periods and measures;

movement precedes, quiescence follows.

 

So this seems pretty simple to follow. Pregadio notes this is the lunar month. 60 hexagrams means 4 hexagrams are unused. The first 2, ䷀ and ䷁, and double water ䷜ and double fire ䷝. A lunar month is really 29.5 days long, so that seems to indicate a 59 hexagram cycle.... perhaps the yijing never wants to feel unsettled. (Pun intended - Cleary translates hex 64 as unsettled.)

 

 

I had read that the yin-yang symbol mapped the lunar cycle and had seen a few other connections with this, but don't know much about it otherwise, so I"ve posted some basics in hopes other people might be able expand on them some more.

 

The yin-yang symbol mapping is simpler and more common, and describes the basics of the rising of yang during the waxing moon, followed by the rising of yin during the waning moon.

 

In the 30 day system from above with 6 nodes of 5 days, we would use 6 of the trigrams and 12 of the hexagrams. All yin aligns with the new moon; all yang aligns with the full moon.

 

☷ ☳ ☱ ☰ ☴ ☶

 

and

 

䷁ ䷗ ䷒ ䷊ ䷡ ䷪ ䷀ ䷫ ䷠ ䷋ ䷓ ䷖

 

These are known as the "Sovereign Hexagrams" and govern the "firing process".

 

 

Apparently there are seasonal considerations as well?

 

Seasonally they apply in the same way. The Winter Solstice is the yin most time of the year, after which yang begins to build until yang is full at the Summer Solstice, after which yin begins to build until yin is full at the winter solstice.

 

Personally, I think the principle is more important than the day or month association. For example, we could say the month of wu (horse), which is centered around the day of the summer solstice, is ruled by hexagram 1, ䷀. However, at the very moment of the summer solstice, yang culminates and the seed of yin is born, however small, and begins to grow. The month itself is still more yang than the other months, but the effective hexagram to read is relative to the situation at hand.

 

Thanks

 

I hope this is helpful for you. Using the sovereign hexagrams might be an easier way of studying this if you are just beginning like it seems. Good luck!

[Daeluin]

Edit to add: thanks Daeluin for bringing this up in other threads. Hopefully you'll have some more time to share some of what you've learned on the subject....

 

Very glad to share.

 

One thing to add is - when we are able to slow down enough to feel the way the firing process works with the sun and the moon and the day, we can learn to identify the effects and dissolve them, thus neutralizing the effect as we become one with it. Ultimately in inner alchemy I suspect the idea is the same - to merge with the breath so finely that we ultimately transcend it.

 

Here's my other post with some observations on this.

 

OK.... another thing is important to note, in my experience anyway. I've found that if I do something a little more extreme in one part of the lunar month, when the same part of the next lunar month comes there is an increased tendency to follow those same footsteps. And the same applies to the year, etc.

 

Also what I do before ending my day, I tend to do when I wake up the next day. It's all about slowing down and exploring our momentum.

Edited July 14, 2014 by Daeluin

[ValleyStream]

I am very interested in understang the coorelation between Yijing and the lunar phases. This thread is full of very useful information. Thanks, guys!