• Eight stands and things to associate with each if you care
• To avoid drudgery

Eight stands and things to associate with each if you care

LOOK TO a map. It has eight directions. Each map direction (east, south-east, and so on) can be aligned with half of a yearly season, and also an animal - maybe two and three animals.

Suggestive scheme:

Each season is compared to main phases in the human life too, so we speak of the spring of life, the summer of life, the autumn of life, and the winter of life. Such alignments are frequently made use of to express wisdom, for example that age is not like youth, by so many metaphors. Now for a song about seasons by the Irish musician David McWilliams (1945-2002):

Four Seasons

In the spring of my youth, as my knowledge was a growing

I yearned for the freedom, that age would be a-bringin'

Through Summer learned of women, and drinkin' and livin'

And thinkin' that takin' was better than givin'

Now the Autumn is here, and time's falling fast

And I cling to my dreams, like a man who has lost

For I've taken everything, that I could steal

With thoughts in my mind that time cannot heal

Ah, but now it is Winter and my hands have grown cold

And there's no one to talk to, my sins to unfold

No there's no one to talk to, no one to blame

I wish I could go back and start over again.

A life does not have to go that bad, and all the main phases may turn out well, in fact. It is in part in the long art of living. The art of living supposedly consists in accepting libido-related life stages, and making optimal use of them and of the circumstances, making such kind of hay when the sun shines, since human id (libido) tends to change during a life-time. You get older and stop digging very loud music, for one thing.

However, the description of seasons are not all-round valid. Just how and when the seasons appear, depend on latitudes, climates and how regulated life has become - on such things. Springs comes earlier in the south than in the north, simply put.

As for the token animals, in some respects a lot of other animals could serve too, depending on which aspects to them are in our focus first and foremost. For example, the beaver, the dam builder, might just as well be a sign of early spring as the baboon, and the fledgeling duck too, in its way. In Chinese astrology the rat (rats and beavers are rodents), is the sign of the "ebullient Ram (Aries)", and Aries is the first spring sign in the Zodiak. Thus, there are many conventions to drag into this if we want to. But I won't - not right here and now.

When we focus on certain characteristics of the seasons and the animals here, we arrive perhaps haltingly at some natural correspondences that is, in some respects a baboon has a springlike quality. Hallmarks of the animals around and of the seasons too, all according to a system that goes for seemingly fit natural correspondences.

You will find that in the handed-over ancient I Ching tradition there are some things to be associated with each heavenly direction for the sake of clarity. I have surfed these symbols of thought, and furnished replacement animals for some of them for the sake of purported clarity. You will have to assess how far this makes sense to someone like yourself. However, the main point is: The associated animals are here to assist memorisation of the separate ports. If you don't like these items, feel free to place the ancient ones wisely in their stead.

At this point it should be made clear: Don't go for a deep change for the sake of change only, but do it to enhance winning chances through such as clarity of figurative imagery, and other means too.

Trigrams and hexagrams

I Ching consists of sixty-four hexagrams. You can see a hexagram here (hexa - six). It has an upper part of three lines - a trigram (tri, three). It has a nether part, one more trigram. There may be eight different upper trigrams and eight different lower trigrams.

In the illustration, the upper trigram is called Kan (abyss etc), the lower trigram is called Chien (heaven etc). They make up the hexagram called "Nourishment" and similar things.

All the I Ching hexagrams are here: [Link A], and [Link B].

Avoid drudgery

There is much to avoid in life, and some things to go for. It helps to discern among them.

Think "well-well" to fit in and avoid drudgery.

Some live much like human slaves here on this earth, not freewheeling at all. It is not good. This saying could help some, and maybe not: "Try to appear somewhat unrecognisable, a little haphazard too, if conditions work against you in constricting, urbanised ways. Maybe it could help, maybe not." As a matter of fact, it is rather typical of how ancient Taoist philosophers lived, according to such as Lin Yutang.

THERE IS some similarity between procuring an oracle saying and the acts of a clown. And both a saying and a clown need to be understood in a context, next in their connections, and then you should find out how far there tends to be suggestive, impressive meanings for you personally.

What is more, there may be good reasons to be largely unimpressed by criss-crossed ceremonials, pomp and outward splendour - by other things that come in your way to serve some majestic-looking others more than yourself, basically.

Thus, it should be good and work well for a hen or home-builder to beware at least mentally the very first moment a great-looking clown asks others to build things for him, for his old ideals, and go on well as he says. The point is, you could do better, but will you ever find out unless you search some alternatives that are thought to be odious by those who may profit on you where you go ahead "just as usual", or "as before?" Let that be a question.

THE REGULAR "clown" you seek to bow down in front of, may suggest you respond in serious ways and apart from the natural ways also. Think nothing of him if that is the case! What is more, he can be less serious and far less well-meaning than gentle others around, less well-doing than most others thought. He could be less dear inside than you considered possible too. And he could mean to have you trapped and made us of terribly much in the long run.

At any rate, you're also supposed to make the best out of what comes out of clowns or circumstances confronting you or your next of kin, for example.

Seeking alternatives to rut-living: There are some splendid ideas to find inside oracle teachings. If you turn to them to loosen up and find quite good suggestions, there is a certain process to be alerted to. You should not ignore that:

• You have to crack open ideas and catch the valuable substance inside, and present it in ways that suit yourself, first of all.
• Then, if you have done the right thing, have a smile on your face for some more days. It could be that you deserve it, and even full well.

The desire to turn to an oracle teaching may suggest you need a more serious response . . . one that says such as "build well, it may appear haphazard to many others. All the same, try. If you can do nothing better, it couldserve you better than anything else around ever will. But I won't guarantee it, since "there's many a slip twixt cup and lip. (American)" and so on.

TO CONSULT respected oracles is in vogue the world over.

There are many things to resolve in a life-time. It can help some to go for seeing a whole picture and contemplate it well before starting to look more intent into parts of it and work with them as fits. That standard approach calls for retreating somewhat so as to gain a wider perspective if not a whole picture, and retreating from combat may not be all bad - and yet, in some cases it may be equal to getting outsmarted!.

So it depends on you, first of all, to decide whether you had better strive on and win or lose, or retire to get a survey and a plan before struggling. There are many strifes and struggles - for living, for a good home, for competing with the Joneses, for a favourable education, a decent neighbourhood, and much else. Some struggle to make their breasts look large, too - more and more, and far into the pathetic. And before that: unnatural.

Plastic surgery and much clownish cosmetics, for example

And to some it may seem next to impossible to go against a rather sick trend in life, because of conformity. The natural look is not in vogue in all places; many are discontent with how they look, and unable to accept it. Inferority feelings may or may not go along with it all, but they are definitely played upon by those who seek to make money off weaknesses of others, by unneeded plastic surgery and imported takes that hardly do others good than the profit-makers. What is not recognised at first among many, is that their weaknesses are up to grossly exploited. Next they get neurotic and silly too., implants and all.

Now I don't talk against all kinds of cosmetic surgery, even though I refer to many of the drawbacks and repercussions of largely unneeded cosmetic surgery, for example. In some cases it might do well to remove the mole that bugs you, and much else. It boils down to: If you are in control, you might just get away with it. And the more you remove yourself from nature's designs, the more you may be inherently fooled, and lose money on it too. There are many things to consider, and we may not know things full swell or for sure unless we try a bit.

And you may succeed if you yourself don't do it full well.

If something seems impossible, the good-humoured clowns (read: oracle sayings) may give some needed hints or even resolutions to plumb too, all the same: Cheerful to look at, the non-wicked clown calls for straightening and realignment, which could work very well for some, and not for many others. There are some clowns that do things like these, and some that never do it. Thus, beware and find able clowns that do well. Let them entertain you if you are up to it, but refrain from bowing low to them and copy them wholesale, for that may not work well. A society of clowns . . . in part inspired from America, as is the case much too often and much too much. Glamour isn't all, for example.

THE GOOD clown may portray ambitions and goals that are common and much shared in humankind. Probing into them, he sometimes makes fun of it, sometimes he seems to weep inside his overdone mask. It could happen.

The clowns you come across could even reveal your goals in fair ways, but maybe in unforeseen, unexpected ones. Your part is to get more alerted to it, if it happens.

Good goals may meet with much resitance, great goals may find more resistance than many others. Polite but resolute actions could make some resistance dwindle - maybe for a while, maybe not all of it. You have to be prepared that if you advance, there is a chance you disturb some fixed balances, and then you may weary out easier -

The seemingly haphazard ways of the oracle-liker, on the other hand, may be too good to be found out. And there you have it; it is the legitimation and maybe the inroad to your own fabulous or good uses in these waters.

WHAT IS more, we deal in what may be called root proverbs and proverb-looking tenets ever so often on these pagaes. We suggest you look into savoury proverbs of the Bible too, while you're at it. Not a few of our underpinnings can be valid in such a setting too. If you learn to consider the rather likely interpretations and good uses on top of that, it could work for your good, after all. Hence, learn splendid proverbs and next try to apply them as well. Expert uses of proverbs is a new route opened up to you on these pages.

Have good proverbs to hear or read often. It helps to think of them, try to understand and next use select, favourite items to your own advantage where possible. Now go ahead if you're frisk enough," said the hawk to the hen.