Subject: (urth) The Orcle, The Excession, The Outsider

From: Che Monro <flirt at technologist.com>
Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 19:16:22 +0000

Wise Ones,

In my simple curiosity I sought to enqire of the Oracle of Changes about 
it's own existance and spirituality. I used this oracle:

http://www.mdani.demon.co.uk/para/iching2.htm

to ask the question:

Are you well? Are you happy? I would like to know about the sprititual 
state of the Oracle of Changes.

To which I received the reply of Hexagram 28 or Great Excess, with no 
changing lines and thus no second hexagram.

~*~

Beyond the great pass

Crossing the great pass: the ridgepole is sagging
Harvest: to proceed probing Expansion

The great image says:

The marsh submerges the tree: Great excess
The noble one stands alone without fear, leads a life of recluse without 
melancholy

Life is a cycle, it is circular. It begins, it grows, and it goes down 
again. To make life a straight road to a distant future is a desperate 
attempt of human mind to make it never-ending. It will not help him – 
inevitably he will go down some day.

But if man accepts going down as a substantial, important and good part of 
life, not as a decline but as a indispensable phase, then he makes his 
living days twice as many.

Do not live as an old man or an old woman, live as a grand old man, a grand 
old lady. Without regret or fear, but with the riches of wisdom and experience.

This applies to everything, to enterprises, feelings, popularity. In 
everything all phases are important.

~*~

It seems to me that the oracle is saying that it is beyond the completion 
of the cycle, that it is old beyond age (and young beyond youth?). It 
exceeds all expectations, and yet at the same time, it is a broken stick 
(yarrow stalk?). It is a contradiction, a mystery, an exception to the 
rules. It is beyond the Great Pass. It comes from the other side.

This description reminded me of two things.

1. The Outsider from The Book of the Long Sun

2. The Excession of Iain M Banks - that paradigmn shifting outside event 
which changes the entire system and, eventually, reveals new understanding.

Could it be that the Outsider and the Oracle are one and the same? Perhaps 
someone with greater insight and understanding could help me to interpret 
this conundrum.

Thanks,

Che

Ché Franz Joseph Monro -- http://www.chemonro.com
che at chemonro.com    --     flirt at technologist.com

--

---

From: Joshuafalchion <joshuafalchion at aol.com>
Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 04:50:01 +0000

I doubt if Wolfe would see much of a connection between the Oracle of Changes 
(the I Ching, I presume) and the Outsider, who seems a fairly clear 
Christian/Moslem take on the Supreme Being or Increate.  But who knows ... I 
am no expert on the subject of the I Ching, and a connection could have been 
implied (although where I am not certain.)

Josh the Falchion

--