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Accessing the Map of Reality through Divination

2 Comments | November 8, 2008 at 4:49 pm by mahud
Filed under Divination, Daoism, Tarot, Chinese Mythology

There is a myth that that Chinese Flood Hero Yu the Great, had such a cosmic map made, after traversing the the whole of the nine provinces of China or indeed the whole world/cosmos. (9, as in the Norse/Germanic tradition, symbolizes cosmic totality.)

“…the paces of the Yubu, revolve endlessly in a space-time dance of death and life.”

Such a map Yu himself had commissioned: “Pictures were made of all things indigenous to distant places [in the world], and the leaders of the nine provinces sent tributary offerings of metal. Cauldrons/Tripods (ding) were cast [by Yu] representing all things. In this way, the people were given instruction, so they could distinguish between good and evil beings. And so, when the people travelled through the rivers, mashes, mountains and forests, they were able to avoid evil things/spirits.” (Zuo zhuan (My own rendering based on a number of different translations).

Yu was also credited with the discovery of the Luoshu: a cosmic diagram (or board) comprised of 9 squares, upon which, Daoist masters would perform Yu’s limping cyclic cosmic dance. These cosmic diagrams may also contain the trigrams foundational to the I Ching/Yijing.

To quote from my unfinished book The Cosmic Double-Death (And Cyclic re-creation through the Dying God):

These trigrams, are representative of dynamic elemental forces (which in Daoist cosmology function much like the Five Phases/Agents/Elements (Wuxing) of water, fire, wood, metal and earth). According to Jo Riley, the trigrams may also be placed upon the squares of the Luoshu diagram. In the diagram provided by Riley, the central square, functioning as an axis-mundi, is marked with a zero, while each of the surrounding squares contain eight opposing trigrams (Heaven-Earth, Fire-Water, etc.), that, we are told, represent all things in the cosmos. Each trigram on each square corresponding with the paces of the Yubu, revolve endlessly in a space-time dance of death and life. Together the Eight Trigrams represent the fluidic cosmic interplay and transformation that exists between yin and yang: the cyclic patterns of decay and renewal, that Jo Riley describes as “the pattern of all life.”

The Cosmic Double-Death: Diarmaid and the Boar of Beann Gulbain: Cosmic Footsteps

Yubu:The Pace of Yu

The Yubu (the cyclic Pace of Yu the Great superimposed on the Luoshu Cosmic Diagram)

This idea of yin and yang in a constant cyclic state, is the means by which divination is achieved, freezing in time (I could say) a little piece the fluidic map of the universe into one point in space and time, that may provide another piece of the cosmic map, at least a guiding path through the dangers of the unknown .

I posted much more about this a couple of months back in Learning How to Navigate Reality:

Dangers surround and permeates us, but (and this is my desire and prayer for myself and everyone): “Let us seek the guidance of the divine, however you may perceive it.” The divine alone holds a map (and we but fragments) and is ever-willing to unfold it for us, so we may also ourselves learn how to navigate reality (understand the order and chaos both within us and around us and accept the necessity of it) and become what we are truly meant to be: beings who live in a state of complete awareness that is known as “the Living Freedom.”

Between Old and New Moons: Learning How to Navigate Reality

I also alluded to the cosmic dance in my latest myth:

Nunas smiled, “But Uncle, I have learned the dance of nine coils right here inside the serpent’s belly! See those strange carvings upon the serpent’s ribs. They represent the magic steps of the serpent. I thought I had mastered them, but to no avail. We need your skill uncle. Despite your wounds, you are our only hope.”

Between Old and New Moons: Ker and Sidur (A Myth of the Nehar-Shanar)

This post was originally a comment over at Jeff Lily’s Druid Journal.

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2 Comments (Have your say)

  1. Jeff Lilly | Druid Journal

    Comment on November 12, 2008 at 10:29 pm

    The cosmic squares! Isn’t there a legend that the original magic square was spotted on the back of a tortoise?…

    The constant references to NINE always put me in mind, not of the Major Arcana, but the four suits. Traditionally the meanings of the suit cards are associated with the ten elements in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, but you could also imagine a correspondence with the nine elements here (and 10 is identical to 1, but at a higher level or vibration) or the nine Norse worlds & virtues. Another possible mapping goes through astrology: the twelve signs of the zodiac are divided into four elements with THREE signs in each element, and each sign is divided into THREE sub-sections (Decanantes) of ten degrees each, making nine Decanantes in each of the four elements. The first Decanante relates to the body; the second to the mind; and the third to the spirit.

    I’d love to have a business card made for myself: Jeff Lilly, Spiritual Cartographer.

    “…the question of our return will soon have to be faced. I absolutely refuse to leave, however, until we have made at least a superficial examination of this country, and are able to take back with us something in the nature of a chart.”– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World

  2. mahud

    Comment on November 17, 2008 at 9:40 pm

    The cosmic squares! Isn’t there a legend that the original magic square was spotted on the back of a tortoise?…

    Jeff Lily

    Yeah, that’s right. There are two similar myths concerning the origin of both the Luoshu and the Hetu (River Diagram).

    Emperor FuXi obtained the Hetu from a aquatic dragon horse, from the Yellow river, whereas, Yu the Great obtained the Luoshu (Luo River Chart), from a tortoise who emerged from the Luoshui River, with the magic square patterned on its shell.

    In a book on mathematics published in 1593 A.D., the author regarded both diagrams as the origins of mathematics:

    How did mathematics start? Mathematics originated from “the diagram and the explaination” (tushuo), which were obtained by FuXi, who used them to draw the (eight) trigrams. Yu the Great [in turn obtained] those and brought in order the various parts of China (chou). [After that] the saintly sages obtained them to explore the natural world (kai wu) and to establish civil service (cheng wu). All the Celestial Officers and Earthly Servants, Pitchpipes and the Calendar, Military matters and Tax collection, down to the minutest trivial daily affairs, all have numbers (need mathematics). Thus, all are based on the model of the Yi (jing). Therefore, as I now [intend] to explain and give instructions for the methods of mathematics, I place the Hetu and Luoshu at the head [of this work] to make visible the origin (yuanben) of mathematics

    Cheng Dawei: Suanfa tongzong

    Something else that’s interesting is that in later (and current) ritual and magical Daoism, the Dance of Yu was performed in relation to the seven stars of the Big Dipper (Beidou) (plus 2 invisible stars = 9). The technique has various names: Walking the Net, Pacing the Void, Flying Across the Palaces, etc.,. The way I understand it is that the Dipper was a celestial mirror of the earth, and those who could walk the stars gained the ability to travel (I guess astrally) to inaccessible magical regions to obtain various fruits and elixirs of longevity.

    Isn’t there something similar in Kabbalistic practices, of practitioners travelling the paths of the Tree (Pathworking?) connecting the 10 “elements”?

    I’m intrigued by the quote from The Lost World :D

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