Fire in the Lake

FIRE IN THE LAKE

The Image:    [I Ching, Wilhelm/Baynes translation, 49]

Fire in the lake: the image of REVOLUTION.
Thus the superior man
Sets the calendar in order
And makes the seasons clear.

                   

June 21, 2011...the longest day, we say, in the Northern hemisphere of our off-tilt spinning globe.

In Canada we experience the most insolation we will receive all year in a single spin of our planet (while the Southern hemisphere receives its least).

And then, the darkness will increase.The lack of energy, and the certainty of its further diminishment from this one long-sunned beautiful day will have its effect on the organic world – all the beautiful plants that began their growth in the Spring are probably at their most luxuriant (lux = light) today. But perhaps you'll notice a few days after the summer solstice the first yellow leaves appearing in trees. Today we begin the long gradual descent of daily light energy.

Plants go through the cycle of preparing seeds, while their main life-form gradually fades and dies back or hibernates. Most plant and animal and bird and fish rhythms are seasonal, depending on the energy received...photons into blades of grass, or leaves, or plankton...and the feeding of life-forms on these. Life is always after energy, running on light.

The relevant parts in the Wilhelm/Baynes translation of the I Ching are:

“Times change, and with them their demands. Thus the seasons change in the course of the year. In the world cycle also there are spring and autumn in the life of peoples and nations, and these call for social transformations.

 “Fire below and the lake above combat and destroy each other. [Think of sunlight shining on the water planet.] So too in the course of the year a combat takes place between the forces of light and the forces of darkness, eventuating in the revolution of the seasons. Man masters these changes in nature by noting their regularity and marking off the passage of time accordingly. In this way order and clarity appear in the apparently chaotic changes of the seasons, and man is able to adjust himself in advance to the demands of the different times.” (page 190).

While I would question "apparently chaotic", it is apparent that all of life on our planet is dependent on photons, their density and intensity. With rising light, rising life. With diminishing energy, cyclical survival strategies.