3-16-01, Midaughter mailing list

Hello Chris and others interested in the mystery of King Wen's method.

   The fact of the matter is that I have a book in hand, THE INVISIBLE LANDSCAPE, MIND, Hallucinogens and the I CHING, by Terrence & Dennis McKenna, (published in 1975, update in 1993 at Harper-Collins, ISBN 0-06-250635-8) in which they present a very credible version of "what King Wen may have done" to formulate his Sequence.  Maybe someone has seen this, but evidently not since there has been no mention of it. I don't have time to go into it now but I will give you a brief run-down.

   After you see what the Mckenna's have put together I believe you will see some value in "figuring out" how Wen did it.  Briefly, they make a strong case for the Yi being originally constructed as a Lunar Calendar and Astronomical calculator.  The basis of this is the high significance of the number 384.  Showing the connection between the total 384 lines of the Yi and the astronomical value of the lunation cycle of 29.35 days X 13 ( lunar months ) = 383.89 days ( rounded to 384 )

    McKenna's, after they make their case that the Yi's basic structure, sequence, reveals the fundamental flow of time, metabolism, consciousness, etc. relate this thru graphs, etc. extrapolating it all into "The Eschaton" which is "a universal and fractal morphogenetic field which has hypothesized to model the unfolding predispositions of space and time..."  finally putting it altogether in their TIME WAVE ZERO chart which, using the basic simple wave form traced by the hexagram sequence, creates a grand graph of history showing the peaks and valleys of "maximum novel intensification"

   It is very interesting to note that they independently, using their I Ching calculations, arrived at the date December 21, 2012, as the Time Wave Zero point of history (that point in world time when intensification reaches its maximal level).  This is of course the date of the end of the Mayan Calendar. This date is also very significant from an astronomical point of view because half and hour before the Winter Solstice of December 21, 2012, the Sun will arise in a position that will eclipse (be aligned with) the Galactic center (near last degrees of Sagittarius).

   If you are interested in the Mayan Calendar  you should check out MAYA COSMOGENESIS 2012, by John Major Jenkins.

Steve wrote:
I note with regret that Terence McKenna died on 3 April 2000 at San Rafael, California, aged 53. McKenna's "Time Wave" theory, developed in his books The Invisible Landscape (1975) and The Archaic Revival (1991), was certainly among the more eccentric approaches to the Yijing, although to his great credit he withdrew the theory when its mathematical defects were pointed out to him. The theory was widely disseminated on the internet, though, and would have to be included in any history of 20th century Western interest in the Yi.