Name of a bird, Oriole. Leave, depart from, to be dispersed, distribute, arrange, vis à vis, meet with, fall into, fasten.
Attach, pass through, droop, hang down, light, brilliance, to be separated, differ from, to defy, to go against, paired, hedge.
At right a bird; at left a bird-net: to catch a bird. Nowadays the net-part means: a bogey, bright, elegant, to oppose.
Li -> discerning
Fire is intelligence that enlightens everything, leaving nothing in shadow.
Many cultures have held the belief that fire destroys sorcery or black magic.
Seeing also means discerning and separating. Seeing differences, distance.
Both feeling kindred and alone have to do with fire.
Water and fire do not combat each other (Lynn: do not fail to complement each other/ drive each other on).
"God (Di) causes creatures to perceive one another in the sign of Li".
Water is the 'shaper-giver', fire is its manifestation.
Without light, even the faintest shimmer of it, feelings cannot be realised, dreams remembered, ideals turned into reality.
Li -> dependence
Fire needs fuel. Transformation can only happen from one form or element into another, and manifestation needs light, the result of transformation.
Agni, the god of fire in Hindu mythology, represents the essential energy of life in the universe. He consumes things, but only so that other things can live.
Fire is the energy and beauty of life but just as well the contrast with darkness, the night where light is lost – or regains new energy and purity.
Li -> the pheasant
Fire can be a symbol of immortality and eternal rebirth, as in the case of the Phoenix, the mythical Egyptian bird that is periodically destroyed by flames to reborn from its own ashes.
In Chinese and Japanese mythology the 'fire-bird' also appears as a sacred figure.
"Li manifests itself in the eye".
It means coats of mail and helmets; it means lances and weapons. Fire appears both as a creative force and as a destructive one.
Flames can bring punishment and suffering, as in the Christian image of hell as a place of fiery torment.
Some myths of apocalypse predict that the world will end in fire - but it may be a purifying, cleansing fire that will allow the birth of a fresh new world.
In cremation, fire represents purification, a clean and wholesome end to earthly life.
Our energy depends on our food. Its origin is the sun itself, plants convert the light and warmth into energy.
Myths explain how people first acquired fire, either through their own daring or as a gift from an animal, god, or hero.
They portray ownership of fire as a human quality.
Even partial control over such a powerful force of nature is one of the things that give human society its identity.
In ancient Rome, a sacred flame associated with the goddess Vesta represented national well-being.
Fire is the beginning of civilization.
Fire is linked with the idea of the hearth, the center of a household, in Greece the mother-goddess Hestia.
The Aztecs believed that the fire god Huehueteotl, god of the hearth and the fire of life, kept earth and heaven in place.
It can make that beautiful connection with the spirit, spirits, gods, by bringing their fire down to earth, but it can also be treacherous, it can cheat and scheme, and even deceive itself.
It lives between spirit and matter and can move freely in both directions.
Its energy can bring about huge feats of motivation, but it is also the seat of light-footed humor, the sparks of the fire.
Li -> attaching changes
Trigram 3 is Fire (li), the consuming energy, which is also one of the five Chinese elements.
The trigram represents the clinging and radiance. It also stands for breaking free and departing.
The lines show the earthly (Yin) surrounded by the heavenly (Yang). That brings a boost of potency to the earthly, enough to make it burst into flames.
Earth is consumed by the forces surrounding it, so the trigram stands for breaking free, leaving to a new state of being.
The Chinese character of this trigram uses the symbol of birds flying away, for its meaning of departure and separation.
Desde Yijing or Zhou Yi, "Oracle of the moon".
