Book of Changes Series of Workshops 2024 onwards
Book of Changes Series of Workshops
Monthly via Zoom
The Hexagram that corresponds to this coming Wood Snake Year of 2025 is Number 5 Song Heaven over Water, sometimes called Dispute . There is a Hexagram corresponding to each year just as there is one for each month.
In this year’s workshops we will look at each of the Hexagrams in the order in which they show up in the Wood Snake Year and aim to do three things:
- Suggest to anyone who might have cast the current Hexagram some ideas as to what it may signify – line by line – and what advice or caution it may contain.
- Attempt to identify the timeless wisdom each Hexagram holds
- Examine how it may relate to or impact upon today’s circumstances. We will touch on using the Hexagram as a forecasting device.
As for Song sometimes called Conflict or Dispute Hexagram 5, it stands for the entirety of 2025. Song speaks of all sorts of disagreement from warfare to debate, domestic, professional, commercial, international or local. All of these may be categorised as proxy fights: the dispute is not what it appears to be about. Above all it indicates a time of turbulence and darkness but also that light always follows dark.
You can see at a glance that this Hexagram is slightly more Yang than Yin, ie there are only two Yin (that is broken) lines and four Yang ones. The lower three lines form the Trigram Kan or Water which speaks of communication, emotionality and much more. Prevarication is likely. Expect generous servings of word salad from politicians. The upper three lines make up Qian or Heaven usually referred to as the Creative.
The 5th Line (second to top) traditionally represents the Ruler, hence King, President, CEO, powers-that be, boss. This is a rigid inflexible line and 2025’s leadership may embody this. We get the leaders we deserve of course and this year’s are likely to be wordy rather than effective. But inflexible for all that. That’s the thing about populists: it’s so much easier to give the crowd the opinions they want than truth. A hard line is one thing; effective execution another.
Because the 5th Line is Yang (i.e. unbroken) it is firm. The implication is that figureheads, presidents and monarchs will be pretty dogmatic in 2025. That fixity may be supported by the 4th Line, the location of the adviser or second-in-command as well as the one above. Right or wrong, rulers will tend to demand agreement this year. But you will notice that this firm, 5th Line is because of its central position, following the Middle Path of the jun zi or righteous man. Support from on high is offered by the 6th (Yin) Line to the uncompromising Ruler at the 5th. This implies the endorsement of higher spiritual or ideological forces. What can it all mean?
Which is the kind of question we try to address in these workshops.
We’re going to examine all sixty four Hexagrams over time and see what they tell us. This will take around seven years to complete.
Initially you can join us for a year, You may not have the stamina for a seven year commitment but you can join us for twelve sessions. Having committed to a year, you can join, leave and rejoin as suits you or stay with us throughout.
The Format: Sessions will be in two parts, the first will be Richard talking to camera with students present and recording if they wish, but muted and off camera so that we can publish the recording on the YouTube Channel, then after a short break we will have a Q & A in our usual format and of course we won’t publish this part.
Put simply: on the 1st Wednesday of each (Chinese solar) Month for approximately one hour we will examine thoroughly the Hexagram of that particular month. Join us.
Please note that numbers will be strictly limited.
Cost for 12 sessions is £400.00
There’s a PayPal link here:
Please note that there will be breaks between terms.
Richard Ashworth is one of the most respected Western Feng Shui Masters. A good taster of his approach may be found on Audible .You can also see him at work on tv’s Housebusters . Most Thursdays and Fridays he is to be found teaching both feng shui and ba zi one-to-one online (times by mutual arrangement) with students from Seattle to Belgium.
Richard has worked from Lebanon to Bermuda, in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and with stars such as Naomie Harris, Kelly Hoppen and Gillian Anderson. Unusually for a Western Master, he has addressed the Grand Masters at the International Feng Shui Conference in Singapore.
Every month we send (at a modest fee) retainer clients a more comprehensive monthly bulletin than this one, covering in detail right places to be (and when) as well as the most helpful days Animal by Animal and much more from the Chinese calendar.
Subscriptions (and further info): Sheilaashworthfengshui@gmail.com
Richard Ashworth©
www.imperialfengshui.info
Richard Ashworth is a superb teacher, he has developed a number of courses which, with some hard work, can lead to mastery of the foundations of classical Chinese metaphysics, and an in depth understanding and proficiency in these astonishing and complex arts.
In person I find Richard to be warm, generous, engaging and entertaining, with a wonderful wit – sessions are always enjoyable, inspirational and enriching. His practice is idiosyncratic and imaginative, very much rooted in de rigour metaphysics and weaving in a host of life experience, poetic thinking, the art of divination and various other spiritual practices and methods.
Unlike some teachers I have encountered in these arts he is uninterested in display of knowledge and prowess, but entirely devoted to equipping and enabling those who study with him to flourish in their own right.
Ryan: Qi Gong and Tai Chi Master July 2023