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In my head I was imagining all sorts of clever arrangements once the I Ching paintings are complete; infinity loops, reflections, mirrors and the like, but then James commented "When you complete the trigrams, they will make a striking Ba Gua."

It makes complete sense for the form of the whole to be consistent with (and contain) the form of its parts. Anything else would be sophistry and deliberate cleverness!

Still very incomplete at this stage (Sun half done, missing Ken) but I think this actually adds meaning, clarity and will really help my endeavor to make this self-explanatory.

 

There has been a lot of discovery in this process!

Next time around (!) I would like K'un/brightness at 12 o'clock/north, Ch'ien/darkness at six/south (a vertical polarity of graduated blends) with Li/red and K'an/blue at three/east and nine/west (a horizontal polarity of high contrasts) - the remaining four modulate between these at the 45 degree angles. This would be the layout for each painting as well as the overall form.

i.e. rotate each painting 22.5 degrees within its frame. However although this would orient the colors to the frame, the boundaries would then look like a sinking ship!!

Below is a (ghastly quality) first look at a mirror frame!! Lawks!! 

 . . . but what's that growing on the verandah? Papyrus!

Here are fifty stalks each as long as my index finger!

I was initially drawn to the I Ching from the mathematical/logical aspect and have always tried to exercise a certain Confucian pragmatism when it comes to fate and chance, but hey, it's always good to explore the things you mistrust and here was an opportunity to try out the ritual of the I-Ching and experience the poetry.

 

Fifty stalks is way more involving (and ritualistic) than three coins!

 

This morning my papyrus stalks told me that "nourishment of the small" would move, as long I didn't let the rim of the wheel disconnect from the hub, to the pigs and fishes of "inner truth".

 

 

I am charmed!

Things that the Oracle has told me . . .

Nothing personal of course, but here's a few that hit home:

 

Each of which, of course, is clearly expressed in 1/8^th of one of these paintings!

Thoughts Regarding Fate/Chance

I have only consulted the oracle twice so far, and each time the advice given has seemed pertinent - even strengthening. Would it be any different selecting a page at random? 

The ritual with the fifty stalks is quite involving and painstaking. There is much activity with the right hand and holding with the left. I very much like how the stalks are counted in groups of four, representing "completion" and these are no longer important - it is the remainder where the action is.

Nigel Richmond says there is space for both conscious and unconscious participation in the ritual and this seems important.

My conscious choice has always been for will rather than chance - but in practice I wonder?

For me the interesting thing that this exploration has uncovered is that there is nothing subjective about the I Ching - it presents a system for analyzing movement, and then explores the consequences of this system according to it's own rules. The more I study the more I admire the logic, consistency and completion that this system has.

Here's the sequence for Li and K'an

(K'an is still in process - the paint is now so thick I am not sure it will ever dry!)

Here's a couple more base colors - I really like these!

Where are you?

Here's the base geometry:

The painting surface is divided into eight equal segments and four evenly spaced concentric circles.

The concentric circles are further divided to reflect a cumulative sequence of choices:

Inner Circle = No Choice = Unity = Undivided

Second Circle = First Choice = Semicircles = Halved

Third Circle = Second Choice = Quadrants = Thirds

Fourth Circle = Third Chice = Octants = Quartered

n.b. the number of segments represents the number of possibilities arising from successive binary choices.

The number of rings represents the number of choices made (which is also the number of trigrams).

Colors are keyed to the eight possible trigrams i.e. the possible combinations of broken and unbroken lines (or, in modern parlance, circuits).

Movement from one color/trigram to the next is by adding a new upper line and discarding the lowest line. This is why there are only four movement patterns - the bottom line of the trigram is not counted so in fact you are only looking at the logical possibilities of two lines:

On On

On Off

Off On

Off Off

Bugger - here's the next dilemma:

Tui looks better rotated - but when I did this digitally I accidentaly cropped the square to an octagon.

Of course these should be octagons - but shouldn't the rotation be colors at edges rather than corners?

above) Two paintings with the same form

below) Two paintings as mirror images
(option c is for you to make up!)

(. . . I am starting to think that the same form shows the differences more clearly - but the mirror is philosopically appealing . . . )

My good and trusted friend James sent me the following link:

The author
http://www.biroco.com/yijing/richmond.htm
The interpretation
http://www.biroco.com/yijing/The_I_Ching_Oracle.pdf
 and I have been fascinated ever since!

 . . . so I was intrigued by the I Ching as a progressive map of simple binary choices:

3 choices leads to 8 possible states = the trigrams

4 choices leads to 16 possible states = quadragrams

5 choices leads to 32 possible states = pentagrams

6 choices leads to 64 possible states = the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching Oracle!

The trigrams seem key and Nigel Richmond provides what I find to be clear and profound images for each.

 

Each quadragram is seen as a movement from one trigram to another - a change of state (or completion of a change) - and so on.

Here was something to explore!

 Onto something -

. . . . . but it looks like bloody Tetris!

 

I wanted a form that could clearly show each stage as a binary choice branching from 1 - 2 - 4 - 8:

Here's the rules (as explained to James via e-mail):

Taking the hexagrams as a sequence of binary choices working out from the first choice:

Yang (which without change becomes Ch'ien) = darkness = purple
Yin (which without change becomes the trigram K'un) = bright = yellow

Once these are developed (through two additional choices) into the eight trigrams we have:

Chie'n flanked by Tui and Sun as darker colors (two yang lines)
K'un flanked by Chen and K'en as brighter colors (two yin lines)
Li and K'an as intermediate (indeterminate) "vacillating" etc. or turning points.

I have taken "adding yin" as brightening and the red side of the spectrum so Tui is Rose (dark red/violet) and Chen is orange.
I have taken "adding yang" as darkening and the blue side of the spectrum so K'en is citrus and Sun is blue/violet.
Li then becomes intermediate vermilion (between scarlet and coral) and K'an some sort of mid-green.

I checked out the BaGua - there's a whole 'nother set of rules that I'm glad I didn't have access to before I started or I wouldn't have been able to feel out my own! The difference/addition is that the forms I am now working on show the progression or journey through three binary choices from one trigram as starting point to any of the eight. At each point you can simply either add yin or yang. Thus from any of the eight central trigrams, two quadragrams are possible (16 total). From each of these two quadragrams two further choices are possible resulting in four possible pentagrams (32 total). From each of these four pentagrams two more choices are possible resulting in eight hexagrams (64 total) whose upper trigrams in each case form a complete BaGua circle.

Thus each is a map of how to get to any chosen destination from any given starting point in no more than three choices.

Interesting discoveries (for me anyway):

 

I am not interested in turning these into paintings as flat colors, which would simply be a diagram, so I am going to try layering each additional binary choice over the base trigram color so the central trigram will be one color, the quadragrams two, the pentagrams three and the hexagrams four colors with the outer rim always being the full BaGua.

Oopsie - I didn't have enough circles to get to the hexagrams but it was a good "dry run" and did give me the opening to try putting the line patterns over the colors - which should make things clearer for I Ching enthusiasts but it is really just the same thing twice and I hope that the color sequences makes sense by themselves.

However this does present very clearly how things work:

The starting point (the center) in this instance is K'un "activity" or in color terms "brightness" - which in my vocabulary is yellow.

In the first instance there is a simple choice:

add yin = "stay bright" = remain K'un / yellow

add yang = "find a new horizon" = move to Ken / green

If the yin option is chosen these choices repeat at each stage.

If the yang option is chosen the next choice is:

Add yin = turn back towards activity "unable to rest" = move to K'an / blue

Add yang = "calcification" (as the tree turns sunlight not just into sugar and starch - from which energy can be restored - but cellulose) = move to Sun / Indigo

and so on! The third choice will always make all eight possible trigrams (my non-Newtonian rainbow!) available.

Here's the latest results: http://www.pguestprojects.com/i-ching