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The Book of Changes, The chinese classic oracle book
The chinese classic oracle book, “The Book of Changes” as it is called,
is an arch of wisdom coming to us from a Taoist past of shamanic provenance. It was compiled systematically as a classic book of spells and magical proverbs about 3000 years ago, its origins lying far beyond in time.
It was first translated into a western language, into german, by a christian missionary who lived in China for 10 years in the 1930s, Richard Wilhelm.
It was later revised and a commentary finally was added by C.G. Jung the Swiss psychologist who explained to western readers what once was a vital part of older cultures and has since been marginalised/lost: the concept of synchronicity.
Synchronicity is a notion that quantum physics has also explained in a different descriptive metaphor, as subatomic behaviour. Subatomic behaviour can be both wave-like and particle-like, local and non-local. This is no different than the notion of synchronicity which lies at the root of the paradigm of oracle consultation, which is deciphering the waves of impersonal, collective, nature's patterns affecting and coinciding with the unfolding of our lives, what we experience psychologically personally.
Right after the second world war there was formed in Vienna the “School of knowledge” by Richard Wilhelm, C.G.Jung, the philosopher Herman Keyserling, his son Arnold Keyserling to name a few, with the aim of promoting knowledge that would translate the understanding of wisdom of old world cultures into the modern scientific world. The motto was: “Physics and Metaphysics”. In the late1980s professor Arnold Keyserling taught the understanding of this knowledge in Vienna to a small group of people. I myself was part of that group and cherished and kept the teachings studying the I Ching for the last 25 years.
Since the Richard Wilhelm translation many new translations from the chinese have appeared, some better than others, all thrilled with the magic the book can show to us.
Vicos Nahmias had started reluctantly at first giving classes a few years back and more confidently recently to small groups of people studying and using the
I Ching for its depth of wisdom coming from long past eras. Combined with the psychotherapeutic approach of group supported study he delved into the dimension of the spirit as it was handed down by the old tradition, slowly transforming it into a modern practical understanding.
Such encounters went on weekly in Athens and could be attended by anyone who is interested.
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