Hexagram 24 – Earth over Thunder – 4/28-5/3

Fu – Return
Addiction – Invention – Silence .:. Codon Ring of Living and Dying

This hexagram comes to indicate a great turning point. It is much like the winter solstice when the longest night becomes gradually shorter, indicating the movement toward light. Although this is a very real turning point, it is still best to remain steadfast and inwardly focused. To rush now is to spoil the natural turning toward good fortune.

Earth over Thunder is all yin lines above a single yang line, and this is the pivot point around which we are turning. Receive the great potential inside and store this energy for the time of growth ahead. Allow things to open and change naturally without engaging the ego.

Many animals hibernate under the Earth until they are awakened by the first clap of Thunder in spring. Hence they return to the world activated by the Thunder under the Earth. The single yang line is like a seed planted deep within the Earth, waiting for the proper time to grow. That time has returned.

.:.

In the Shadow, we seem to be unable to change the endless patterns of negative behavior. Most people play the same tune over and over. Often this tune has been handed down unconsciously from parents, teachers and society in general. This key is rooted in the neocortex and is often a victim of addictive tendencies that run in tight cycles and maze like patterns. This is the realm of neurosis and self limiting behavior, and all are addicted to something at times. Thoughts can be the most addictive and this is only remedied by Silence. The cycles of addiction repeat with a gap between the cycle. This is the key, how we react to the gaps.

There are three lower bodies, physical, astral and mental. They all have different needs and the issues often occur when these desires are crossed. The physical body has desires which are necessary for survival. The astral has desires, but these are not essential to survival, but the wires get crossed and the mental body can not separate needs from wants. Disentangle the mind from the emotional body through pausing and the astral desires will quiet. Then the only things left are our physical needs and our true desire, to return to source.

Repressive – Frozen – when they hit a gap between desire cycles they freeze in fear and become stuck with no energy, depression. When it hits a gap it freezes in fear. This is wired into our neurology and can be reprogrammed with Silence.

Reactive – Anxious – is unable to feel the emptiness in the gaps and the depth of emotion, leading to an inability to connect to the source.

In the gap is the secret to life. Fear of the gap leads to Addiction, whereas presence in the gap leads to quantum leaps out of the patterned mind. This is the gift of Invention, where something new emerges out of the gap. From the pause, the holographic source emerges through new thought. It is represented in the grey matter in the brain, and new thoughts as they arise often surprise us. We are present in the moment and the creative spark moves in ever increasing spirals. Addiction moves in circles always collapsing into the same old patterns, whereas Invention moves in spirals, connecting it to the whole of the cosmos which moves in spiral motion from galaxies, to planets, to atoms. It is from embracing the gaps between thought and desire that Invention may dawn.

Silence is the natural background state of all of creation. There can be no thoughts in the realm of silence. This occurs when the awareness drops from the mind through the heart and into the solar plexus. Here there is no observer, no witness, the subject and object is merged. The Silence emerges through the illusion of the created world and dissolves the polarities.

Keys of the iChing .:. Jesse Chesnutt