Bereft of Words
This glacially unfolding worldwide travesty has me bereft of words. So for this post I look to others: there is a prescient century-old quote from Rudolf Steiner; a copy of an I Ching throw (the first I have done in a decade at least, of course #33) asking for clarity on this lockdown situation, take it however you will; the third from Philip K. Dick’s last novel. Forget the Orwell versus Huxley debate–we currently inhabit a full Phil-Dickian cosmos.
“Materialistic physicians will be asked to drive the souls out of humanity . . . I have told you that the spirits of darkness are going to inspire their human hosts, in whom they will be dwelling, to find a vaccine that will drive all inclination toward spirituality out of people’s souls when they are still very young, and this will happen in a roundabout way through the living body. Today, bodies are vaccinated against one thing and another; in future, children will be vaccinated with a substance which it will certainly be possible to produce, and this will make them immune, so that they do not develop foolish inclinations connected with spiritual life – ‘foolish’ here, of course, in the eyes of materialists . . . a way will finally be found to vaccinate bodies so that these bodies will not allow the inclination toward spiritual ideas to develop, and all their lives people will believe only in the physical world they perceive with the senses . . . people are now vaccinated against consumption (tb), and in the same way they will be vaccinated against any inclination toward spirituality. This is merely to give you a particularly striking example of many things which will come in the near and more distant future in this field.”
—Rudolf Steiner The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness (1917)
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#33 Tun/Retreat
The power of the dark is ascending. The light retreats to security, so that the dark cannot encroach upon it. This retreat is not a matter of man’s will, but of natural law. Therefore in this case withdrawal is proper; it is the correct way to behave in order not to exhaust one’s forces.
In the calendar this hexagram is linked with the sixth month (July-August), in which the forces of winter are already showing their influence.
Retreat. Success. In what is small, perseverance furthers.
Conditions are such that the hostile forces favored by the time are advancing. In this case retreat is the right course, and it is through retreat that success is achieved. But success consists in being able to carry out the retreat correctly. Retreat is not to be confused with flight. Flight means saving yourself under any circumstances, whereas retreat is a sign of strength. We must be careful not to miss the riught moment while we are in full possession of power and position. Then we shall be able to interpret the signs of the time before it is too late and to prepare for provisional retreat instead of being drawn into a desperate life-and-death struggle. Thus we do not simply abandon the field to the opponent; we make it difficult for him to advance by showing perseverance in single acts of resistance. In this way we prepare, while retreating, for the countermovement. Understanding the laws of a constructive retreat of this sort is not easy. The meaning that lies hidden in such a time is important.
Mountain under heaven: the image of retreat. Thus the superior man keeps the inferior man at a distance, not angrily, but with reserve.
Change lines:
2nd place: He holds him fast with yellow oxhide. No one can tear him loose.
Yellow is the color of the middle. It indicates that which is correct and in line with duty. Oxhide is strong and not to be torn. While the superior men retreat and the inferior press after them, the inferior man represented here hold on so firmly and tightly to the superior men that the latter cannot shake him off. And because he is in quest of what is right and strong in purpose, he reaches his goal.
4th place: Voluntary retreat brings good fortune to the superior man and downfall to the inferior man.
In retreating the superior man is intent on taking his departure willingly and in all friendliness. He easily adjusts his mind to retreat, because in retreating he does not have to do violence to his convictions. The only one who suffers is the inferior man from whom he retreats, who will degenerate when deprived of the guidance of the superior man.
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The shift from this situation is to Hexagram #57, Gentle Penetration, the hexagram of homecoming. The Gentle shows the exercise of character. Through the Gentle one is able to weigh things and remain hidden. Through the Gentle one is able to take special circumstances into account.
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“Over-valence is a notion about the possibilities in the human mind, possibilities of something going wrong, that did it not exist, it could not be supposed. The older term is idée fixe. Over-valent expresses it better, because this is a term derived from mechanics and chemistry and biology; it is a graphic term and involves the notion of power. . . an idea that once it comes into the human mind, the mind, I mean, of a given human being, it not only never goes away, it also consumes everything else in the mind so that, finally, the person is gone, the mind as such is gone, and only the over-valent idea remains . . . Jung says, upon the entering of that idea into the person’s mind, nothing new ever happens to that mind or in that mind; time stops for that mind and it is dead. The mind, as a living, growing entity has died. And yet the person, in a sense, continues on . . . in this regard you herewith are a machine. You are no longer human.”
—Philip K. Dick The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982)
Painting is John Waterhouse’s Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus (1905)
Standing firm on this stony ground
The wind blows hard
Pulls these clothes around
I harbour all the same worries as most
The temptations to leave or to give up the ghost
I wrestle with an outlook on life
That shifts between darkness and shadowy light
I struggle with words for fear that they’ll hear
But orpheus sleeps on his back still dead to the world . . .
“Orpheus” by David Sylvian (1987)
