Diary: Older Habits

[degringolade]

When I first came over to Dreamwidth, I cast my I Ching every day for a couple of years. It was part of my morning wakeup along with coffee. I would put the Hexagram Down in the "Tags" to keep track of this kind of thing.

I never figured that it was some kind of canned prophecy like some folks did, I always just looked at it as something to think about for that day. Never did a lick of harm and I think that it sorta served as my meditation for the day. But all the time before, when I was shaking the three coins (no way I was going to deal with the yarrow stock nonsense, I am not a fucking priest!!) I always chanted inside of my brain "heads two tails three". About a year after I retired I was reading a book that told me it was actually "heads three tails two".

Well, that for some reason set me off and I quit doing it. Now, upon mature reflection, I think that I was being a big baby. I now doubt if it mattered anyway. I began the process of restarting the habit (granted, I do use the "heads three" now) and I am finding the habit to be soothing in my old age.

During the years when I was doing this, I actually created a spreadsheet where I connected the hexagram with chapters in the Tao Te Ching. I am thinking that the two of them provide a great set of "lenses" to look at the day.

Comments

oracles

[chefxh]

Before our move we gave away a set of runes, a Cosmic Tribe Tarot deck, and a deck of medicine cards. Did I use them? Vanishingly rarely, and mostly in abbreviated form, e.g. pulling one rune or card for an archetypal Polaroid. Did I believe in them? Only insofar as humans can project themselves into just about anything. Did I learn from them? Eh, more than I ever did from Stewie the rooster's entrails.