May, I Ching and Grace
Sarah throws the hexagram of grace in an I-Ching divination and reflects on the role of beauty in our lives and how grace might still be found in the frenetic energy of spring.
Transcribed below.
I wanted to share footage from my days at the farm with you.
And I wanted to talk over the footage, but I didn't really know what to say, how to start. So I thought maybe I would read an old text. And then I thought, why don't I ask the Oracle what I should share with you?
And so I consulted the Oracle two nights ago and I threw the hexagram pi, which is interpreted as grace. This hexagram, the bottom is called Lee, and it is fire, the clinging fire. The top is the mountain, keeping still the mountain. I'm gonna read a little bit about this hexagram.
It shows a fire that breaks out of the secret depths of the earth and blazing up, illuminates and beautifies the mountain, the heavenly heights. Grace, the beauty of form is necessary in any union if it is to be well ordered and pleasing rather than disordered and chaotic.
The judgment is grace has success in small matters. It is favorable to undertake something.
The oracle continues. Grace brings success. However, it is not the essential or fundamental thing is only the ornament and must therefore be used sparingly and only in little things.
In the lower trigram of fire, a yielding line comes between two strong lines and makes them beautiful. But the strong lines are the essential content. And the weak line is the beautifying form worm in the upper trigram of the mountain. The strong line takes the lead so that here again, the strong element must be regarded as the decisive factor in nature.
We see in the sky the strong light of the sun. The life of the world depends on it, but this strong essential thing is changed and given pleasing variety by the moon and the stars. In human affairs, aesthetic form comes into being when traditions exist, that strong and abiding like mountains are made pleasing by a lucid beauty. By contemplating the forms existing in the heavens, we come to understand time, and its changing demands. Through contemplation of the forms existing in human society, it becomes possible to shape the world.
This hexagram shows tranquil beauty. Clarity within quiet without. This is the tranquility of pure contemplation. When desire is silenced and the will comes to rest the world as idea becomes manifest. In this aspect, the world is beautiful and removed from the struggle for existence. This is the world of art. However, contemplation alone will not put the will to rest absolutely, it will awaken again. And then all the beauty of form will appear to have been only a brief moment of exaltation. Hence, this is still not the true way of redemption. For this reason, Confucius felt very uncomfortable when once on consulting the oracle, he obtained the hexagram of grace.
The oracle continues with an image, fire at the foot of the mountain, the image of grace. Thus does the superior man proceed when clearing up current affairs. But he dare not decide controversial issues in this way. The fire whose light illuminates the mountain and makes it pleasing does not shine far. In the same way, beautiful form suffices to brighten and throw light upon matters of lesser moment. But important questions cannot be decided in this way. They require greater earnestness.
So when I threw the coins to obtain this hexagram, I threw specifically a nine at the top, which has this further meaning, simple grace, no blame. Here at the highest stage of development, all ornament is discarded. Form, no longer conceals content, but brings out its value to the full. Perfect grace consists not in exterior ornamentation of the substance, but in the simple fitness of its form.
At the beginning of this hexagram, the line says, beauty of form is necessary in any union if it is to be well ordered and pleasing rather than disordered and chaotic. And this line is really speaking to me because I've recently had this strong intuition that I need to really focus on making beautiful things. Which is hard to do at the farm because there's always something that needs to be saved or a payroll to be made or plants to go on the ground or things to clean or laundry to do, or conversations with staff. And I get pulled away from a lot of the art practice that was really sort of the genesis of World's End.
When I got back from Sicily, I was there for a month, really resting so deeply, getting really bored, cooking for myself, just living in this small town called Modica. When I was getting ready to leave, I had this pang of intuition that I was just to come back and make beautiful pictures.
And I think I don't always give enough credit to the importance of beauty and grace. And so I like this line where it says that beauty of form and grace is necessary in any union if it is to be well ordered and pleasing rather than disordered and chaotic. I think there's so much disorder and chaos sometimes here at the farm. And there is such a fine line between when that chaos is exciting and beautiful and has an energy of thriving. And then the other side of that line is when that chaos has a fearful disordered, dragging sort of feeling to it. And I like the idea of re-centering on the aesthetic in order to maybe create a little bit of space. I think especially this time of year, the farm is just a cacophony of activity and needs and desires and work and labor. Joy and bliss. Springtime is just an explosion of all the things. Maybe the ability to create some space, a little bit of room in between activities, ideas, needs.
I think we get pulled into chaos quickly at World's End, just by its nature.
And this line is also so interesting in nature. We see in the sky the strong light of the sun. The life of the world depends on it, but this strong essential thing is changed and given pleasing variety by the moon and the stars.
I love this middle section of the hexagram, where it talks about studying the heavenly bodies. So it talks about watching the sun and the moon and their cycles and using these existing forms in the heavens. We come to understand time and its changing demands and that through contemplation of the forms existing in human society, it becomes possible to shape the world.
And of course, this for me, ricochets off what I'm constantly talking about here at the farm, which is world building. And this hexagram is speaking to the potential for us to shape the world through beauty and grace. And if I were to say quickly, what that looks like is when I am experiencing through my own hands something beautiful, something that feels full of grace or connected to something bigger than me, it creates a little bit of space around me, my thoughts, my troubles, my struggles, my work. It almost creates an amniotic sac around all the things that I'm thinking about. And it feels lighter and more spacious, is how I can describe it.
And I think that, you know, I've said for years, but not always embodied or practiced what I preach, that there is such an importance to daily beauty, to some rituals around creating nice moments for ourselves, beautiful things for ourselves. And maybe haven't spent enough time on that recently. Maybe this hexagram is asking me to bring that forward more to you.
So, and also this hexagram warns of not taking beauty and aesthetic too seriously. It says, Thus does the superior man proceed when clearing up current affairs. But he dare not decide controversial issues in this way. So I think this hexagram is also warning not to become too infatuated with the power of grace or aesthetic form or beauty, or that's maybe how I'm interpreting this. The fire whose light illuminates the mountain and makes it pleasing does not shine far. In the same way, beautiful form suffices to brighten and to throw light upon matters of lesser moment. But important questions cannot be decided in this way. They require greater earnestness. I think this tells us that beauty and grace, aesthetic forms are tools to shape the world. They're not the be all end all of our existence.
So when I asked the Oracle, what do you want me to bring forward? This is it. It's very easy in a lot of ways for me to create something beautiful. All I need to do is take a little bit of time. And really it's just about prioritizing it.
And I think for myself, I have to remember that it has a soothing balm for one on me. And I think the people who are around me, when they also take time to make their small corners of this farm beautiful, when we do things for each other, light candles at the dinner table, clean up really nicely, or make flowers and bring flowers into the soap factory for Susan, that these, these small aesthetic movements have a rippling effect in our organization for sure and in our lives.
So that is my lesson in this today, is to take the time, to make the arrangement, to smell the flowers, to throw the Frisbee.