top of page
Search
Writer's pictureElizabeth Lee

Mysteries of the Snake

Tomorrow begins the 9th Solar Term of the Ox Year, which I translate literally as Awns Grow. There are many variances of this translation, including Beard Grain, Grain in Beard, Seeding Millet, and Corn in Ear.

Chinese language and meaning is full of poetry and nuance, but the basic jist of this period is that the grain has matured with vitality. The stiff bristle of the grains jut forth like a beard. The crops vibrate happily in the wind and summer solstice is just around the corner.


How have your crops been growing?


The Oracle Card for the week is Yin & Yang, and important concept in Chinese Cosmology. From nothingness, Wu Ji 無極, the great emptiness, came Yin and Yang. Wu Ji is often represented by a circle. Yin and Yang separates the circle into dark (yin) and light (yang). These forces create a duality and polarities, each opposite containing a piece of the other.

Yin and Yang spin in an unending circle of change, from which all forms evolve, dividing infinitely. First, Yin and Yang doubled forming the 4 elements with the earth element at the center (5 Elements). The 4 elements multiply to become the 8 Trigrams, the Ba Gua. From the Ba Gua the 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching are derived.


Wu Ji, Yin Yang, the Elements, Ba Gua, and the I Ching are quintessential aspects of the Chinese perception, Chinese medicine, Feng Shui and basic principles of Taoist reality. Not surprisingly, this also mirrors what scientists now call the Big Bang Theory and the concept that the Universe came from nothingness, started with a bang, and is eternally expanding.


Card No. XII in the traditional Major Arcana is the Hanged Man, symbolizing Reversal, waiting and change. Yin and Yang compliment this concept, with additional layers. The Snake is the 6th animal of the Chinese Zodiac, representing deep mystery and divination. FuXi, a half-man snake, with NuWa, the half-woman snake created humanity. Some attribute the I Ching to FuXi, which has been used for thousands of years in prophecy and clairvoyance.


8 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comentarios


bottom of page