I Ching, Yijing or Zhou Yi
"Oracle of the moon": © 2000 LiSe
Yi Jing, Oracle of the Moon
XÍ KĂN, hexagram 29
The teachings of danger
The most important part of getting out of dangers or misery is controllong the fear. In the arts of fighting one learns to get used to danger, so it does not call up fear anymore, and defense can come entirely out of one's skill. No fear or panic interfering.
Then one can be like water, adapting, fitting into any form. Water in a cup acquires the form of the cup, in a lake the form of the lake. It is smooth and flowing - and can be terribly crushing.
Deep inside one has a stable, quiet and safe core, but in the course of life, most people forget about it. Just remember it and no danger can afflict you. Visit the dark secret depths of your heart and bring the wisdom of your soul back to life.
Water is the primeval chaos, the great mother of everything, without form or limit, eternal. It is a gift of the gods, and to go to its source is to return to holiness.
XI KAN: The name of the hexagram is not Kan - it is Xi Kan. Xi is repeating, skill, routine, learning something by training or exercise. The same character is used in hex.2 line 2. Xi is composed of 1: 'wings' or flying, and 2: nose ("me": MY wings).
Kan is a bank, ridge, pit or danger, crisis, a burial pit, physical deficiency, depression; the sound of percussion; a snare. Kan is composed of 3: earth, and 4: exhale, exhausted, lack (of breath or money), debts.
So Xi Kan means repeated pit, habitual danger, but it may also mean: the danger of routine. In the MaWangDui YiJing this hexagram has the name Gan: pay taxes. A distress that will come back again and again, and certainly in old times it could be life-threatening. Its other meaning is to pay for the music, maybe also like 'to pay the piper'.
The trigrams: Water repeated:
All living creatures are mostly water. We humans about 70 to 80 percent. The substance of memory. When water is shaken, it will 'remember' the situation of that moment. Not as facts, but as vibrations, patterns. It is why the moment of birth decides a lot about your mind: the water in your body is shaken by the birth itself. Every moment of high intensity will resonate for a long time - until a new shock brings new patterns.
Kan means danger, a crisis, but also a sudden loud sound.