Sorry Justknecht, our posts were simultaneous.
The Glass Bead Game is a wonderful book, possibly the wisest book ever. Having now read it again, I have re-read the introductory chapter again a second time, and continually find things to learn. I think I mentioned earlier that Hesse was key to the introduction of Buddhism to Europe. The Glass Bead Game is an analytical examination of the psychological problems of Europe, of the collective madness that caused the wars of the twentieth century. There is no doubt that Europe was extremely mad to consign generations to war on such extreme scale. Hesse is looking with a vision to the future, to ask how out of the ruin and ashes of war, can we rekindle a culture of peace. He puts ideas at the center, suggesting that if people are willing to talk about ideas at an elite level, this will filter through to the rest of society. My impression is that people are still unwilling to talk about ideas, but prefer to retreat into a technological cocoon, or an acceptance of dogma.
I'm now going to do something that I was inspired to learn by Hermann Hesse when I first read The Glass Bead Game in the 1980s, and throw some coins to seek random advice from the ancient Chinese oracle the I Ching. Hesse talks about the I Ching in the Glass Bead Game, with the implied view that Carl Jung's theory of synchronicity, explained in Jung's introduction to the I Ching, actually has something to offer. These days I am much less sympathetic to horary magic than I used to be, but whatever, let's see what the I Ching has to say, as a random marker of this moment of the river of time. My father was a good friend of the Australian novelist David Malouf, and I remember introducing David to the I Ching. So here goes, all in real time. I never worked out the yarrow stalk method used by Elder Brother, but I have three beautiful old Chinese coins, which I will throw now to get a reading...
7, 8, 9, 7, 9, 8
This gives hexagram 49 - Revolution, leather, skin
http://deoxy.org/iching/49
The I Ching wrote:The Chinese character for this hexagram means in its original sense an animal's pelt, which is changed in the course of the year by molting. From
this word is carried over to apply to the "moltings" in political life, the great revolutions connected with changes of governments.
The two trigrams making up the hexagram are the same two that appear in K'uei, OPPOSITION (38), that is, the two younger daughters, Li and Tui. But while there the elder of the two daughters is above, and what results is essentially only an opposition of tendencies, here the younger daughter is above. The influences are in actual conflict, and the forces combat each other like fire and water (lake), each trying to destroy the other. Hence the idea of revolution.
THE JUDGMENT
REVOLUTION. On your own day
You are believed.
Supreme success,
Furthering through perseverance.
Remorse disappears.
Political revolutions are extremely grave matters. They should be undertaken only under stress of direst necessity, when there is no other way out. Not everyone is called to this task, but only the man who has the confidence of the people, and even he only when the time is ripe. He must then proceed in the right way, so that he gladdens the people and, by enlightening them, prevents excesses. Furthermore, he must be quite free of selfish aims and must really relieve the need of the people. Only then does he have nothing to regret.
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.
THE IMAGE
Fire in the lake: the image of REVOLUTION.
Thus the superior man
Sets the calendar in order
And makes the seasons clear.
Fire below and the lake above combat and destroy each other. 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, and man is able to adjust himself in advance to the demands of the different times.
THE LINES
Nine in the third place means:
Starting brings misfortune.
Perseverance brings danger.
When talk of revolution has gone the rounds three times,
One may commit himself,
And men will believe him.
When change is necessary, there are two mistakes to be avoided. One lies in excessive haste and ruthlessness, which bring disaster. The other lies in excessive hesitation and conservatism, which are also dangerous. Not every demand for change in the existing order should be heeded. On the other hand, repeated and well-founded complaints should not fail of a hearing. When talk of change has come to one's ears three times, and has been pondered well, he may believe and acquiesce in it. Then he will meet with belief and will accomplish something.
Nine in the fifth place means:
The great man changes like a tiger.
Even before he questions the oracle
He is believed.
A tigerskin, with its highly visible black stripes on a yellow ground, shows its distinct pattern from afar. It is the same with a revolution brought about by a great man: large, clear guiding lines become visible, understandable to everyone. Therefore he need not first consult the oracle, for he wins the spontaneous support of the people.
I love the I Ching! This is a beautiful reading. I will leave it to others to comment further for now, except to say it is very mysterious how this oracle seems to produce readings that are relevant to the situation at hand, as I am entirely revolutionary in my thinking.
My Chinese coins are old and rusty, hard to read. I left them in my mother's drawer for years, and got them back a year or so ago.
Returning to the Introduction to The Glass Bead Game, it is amazing how astutely Hesse analyses the problems of modern culture. His comment on the Roman Church is one that I particularly like: "(p21) Since the end of the Middle Ages, intellectual life in Europe seems to have evolved along two major lines. The first of these was the liberation of thought and belief from the sway of all authority. In practice this meant the struggle of Reason, which at last felt it had come of age, and won its independence, against the domination of the Roman Church. The second trend, on the other hand, was the covert but passionate search for a means to confer legitimacy on this freedom, for a new and sufficient authority arising out of Reason itself. We can probably generalize and say that Mind has by and large won this often strangely contradictory battle for two aims basically at odds with each other".
This antinomy of reason and authority is a major theme throughout the book. The problem is that without authority there is no power, but authority has a tendency to become calcified, rigid and brittle, holding to tradition and rejecting innovation. Reason is by nature innovative, but carries the risk of bad innovation. The Glass Bead Game is about unifying reason and authority, to provide a source of power for innovation.