Wind Over Heaven, Thunder Over Earth

For the penultimate episode of season 3, Tomek and I were joined once again by our friend Steve, host of The Idiot’s I Ching. The last time our distinguished guest visited with us, our topic was Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet, which the self-styled Idiot dubbed “The Emo I Ching.” This time, we discuss the ancient Chinese Book of Changes—that is to say, the O.G. I Ching itself. But we don’t just talk the talk. We actually put the deviant text to use, consulting the oracle in real time twice—once with cards and once with coins. Press play above to hear how we interpreted the hexagrams which were manifested and let us know if there is anything amiss in our reading of the signs.

Show Notes

• The I Ching as “text” (ching = 經 = warp):

• Ifá = the I Ching of the Yoruba:

• “I don’t believe in Eye Ching”:

• “I don’t believe in Zimmerman” (but Lennon never heard Dylan channel Whitman):

• “work without doing” (Tao Te Ching 43):

• I think it was Alan Watts who first introduced me to the concept of wu-wei:

• “Thunder only happens when it’s raining / Players only love you when they’re playing”:

• One of the “thunderwords” in Finnegans Wake:

• Roth at his most “thunderous”:

• Enneagram 8 = The Bringer of Thunder = The Shit-Stirrer:

• “Oh, the wonder / I felt the lightning, yeah / And I waited on the thunder” (speaking of nature, man, and woman):

• After all that thunder, might one hope for “a drink of cool, cool rain”?