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The Pagan 'problem'
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thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat
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Re: The Pagan 'problem'
Sep 24, 2010, 10:22
Littlestone wrote:
Excuse my limited understanding of the I Ching, but isn't its guidance couched in such a way that it is intended to make the user make their own decision (i.e. it doesn't say "go to the shops"; "burn a bible"; "make lasagne", etc).

In a way, it's similar to a creative block remover (say, Eno's Oblique Strategies cards) that really get you to think around a problem and then ultimately reach your own decision. I didn't think it was about "belief" or "faith" as such. Like I say though, not my area of expertise so feel free to correct.


Spot on Mr t. The Richard Wilhelm translation has a forward by C G Jung that may be of interest. Writing in 1949 Jung points out that -

"The method of the I Ching does indeed take into account the hidden individual quality in things and men, and in one's own unconscious self as well. I have questioned the I Ching as one questions a person whom one is about to introduce to friends: one asks whether or not it will be agreeable to him. In answer the I Ching tells me of its religious significance, of the fact that at present it is unknown and misjudged, of its hope of being restored to a place of honor -- this last obviously with a sidelong glance at my as yet unwritten foreword, and above all at the English translation. This seems a perfectly understandable reaction, such as one could expect also from a person in a similar situation."

In other words Jung is projecting his conscious and subconscious onto the relatively simple answers the I Ching provides.


Thanks LS, that makes sense.
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