Episode 82: On The I Ching

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2020

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Book of Changes, or I Ching, is more than an ancient text. It's a metaphysical guide, a fun game, and -- to your hosts at least -- a lifelong, steadfast friend. The I Ching has come up more than once on the show, and now is the time for JF and Phil to face it head on, discussing the role it has played in their lives while delving into some of its mysteries. REFERENCES I Ching, Wilhelm-Baynes translation I Ching, Stephen Karcher translation Game of Thrones, HBO series George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire George R. R. Martin, “Sandkings” in: Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories H. P. Lovecraft, American writer Graham Harman, Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy Aleister Crowley, “777” Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Cannibal Metaphysics Joel Biroco, Calling Crane in the Shade (website) Philip K. Dick, American novelist Lionel Snell, a.k.a. Ramsey Dukes, British occultist Richard Rutt, _Zhouyi: A New Translation with Commentary _ Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast Redmond and Hon, Teaching the I Ching Weird Studies, episode 72, On the castrati Weird Studies, episode 77, On the fool tarot card Anonymous, Meditations on the Tarot The Usual Suspects (movie) Colin Wilson, The Occult Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:03.3	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:23.3	For more episodes or to support the podcast, go to weirdst. I'm J.F. Martel.
0:52.8	The Yi-Ching, or Book of Changes, is a 3,000-year-old Chinese
0:57.6	divination text. By randomly generating a hexagram and consulting the section of the book devoted to it,
1:04.7	the Yiching user gains insight into a given situation, its past, presence, and future. In other words, the Yeeching is an
1:12.3	oracle. In the introduction to his wonderful translation of the text, Stephen Carter writes,
1:17.9	quote, consulting an oracle and seeing yourself in terms of the symbols or magic spells it
1:23.1	presents is a way of contacting what has been repressed in the creation of the modern world. It puts you
1:29.1	back into what the ancients called the Sea of Soul by giving advice on attitudes and actions
1:34.2	that lead to the experience of imaginative meaning. Oracular consultation insists on the importance
1:40.7	of imagination. It is the heart of magic through which the living world speaks to you.
1:46.2	The modern interest in alternative cultures and the old ways is a reflection of our need
1:50.6	to recover this heart of magic, for it is the way our inner being speaks, thinks, and acts.
1:57.0	The Heart of Magic.
1:59.0	Some listeners here will remember our episode from two weeks ago on M. John
2:03.2	Harrison's novel The Course of the Heart. That too was all about recovering the heart of magic
2:08.8	for the modern world. There, however, we met characters who were forced to create their own oracle,
2:15.1	to spin a fiction that could serve as a conduit back to the heart.
2:19.0	I can't help but wonder if they could have spared themselves the trouble simply by getting
2:23.2	their hands on a copy of the I Ching. In my experience, and in Phil's too, the Yiching has proven
2:29.1	to be the surest and safest road back to that strange place where inner and outer, past and future,
	...

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