4 8 15 16 23 42More Lost:
>: Hurley's Numbers Intepreted As i-Ching Hexagrams
>: More Lost, More 23 and More I-Ching
"The numbers" were all over "Lost" Wednesday night. (If you don't follow the show, none of this will make any sense, so feel free to move on.) (Even if you do follow the show, it may not make sense.)
During the opening sequence, an arrangement of i-Ching trigrams (three-line groupings) was shown on the medicine cabinet in the hatch, presented as a logo. As you might expect (see my previous articles), I have a few thoughts on this. Someone over at Lost TV kindly did a screen cap, and the result was pretty interesting:
A more enhanced version of the logo has been posted here. You can see the word "DHARMA" (or not) written across the central motif. It's not clear whether the yin-yang has been modified to resemble a swan's head (or something else). Could be a trick of the light. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
There are two standard arrangements of the trigrams, the Earlier Heaven Sequence and the King Wen sequence. The Lost diagram is neither of these. It is a variation on the King Wen sequence used in Feng Shui (see below), and it also appears on a historical version of the Korean flag (click here), leading some forumers to suggest a connection with Sun's father.
As you can see in the illustration (from The Numerology of the I Ching), there are numbers associated with the trigrams for each scheme.
The difference between the Lost/Feng Shui diagram, which is also used by Black Sect Tantric Buddhism (a very recent movement), is that the trigrams are depicted upside-down. Traditionally, the trigrams are "down" oriented as if they were standing on a globe represented by the center of the diagram. The Black Sect and others still designate the trigrams by name and number according to the Lo Shu, or King Wen layout. The King Wen numbering creates a "magic square" arrangement (with a "5" in the middle, perhaps Jack's tattoo will come back around for this purpose):
King Wen:
4 9 2
3 5 7
8 1 6
Each row and column in the magic square adds up to 15. Purists argue that "flipping" the trigrams is incorrect. If you view the "flipped" trigrams as having different values based on a "down" orientation toward the center, it produces different numbers for the square (which then loses the "magic" quality of producing the same result in every direction). If you assign the numbers to the "Lost" I-Ching diagram, you get the following squares (depending on whether you use the King Wen or Early Heaven number scheme):Lost diagram
via King Wen:
7 9 2
8 4
3 1 6 | Lost diagram
via Earlier Heaven
2 3 8
7 5
4 6 1 |
The Earlier Heaven version is the more interesting of the two in terms of the numbers -- 4 in the lower left, 8 in the upper right. From the lower right, extending up 1,5 and extending left, 1,6. From the upper left, extending right, 2,3. The only problem then becomes finding the 42 and the appearance of the 7 in the middle row left. Seven is notably missing from the digits of "the numbers."
The King Wen values applied to the Lost diagram numerology create problems if you take the purist approach to the magic square.King Wen:
4 9 2
3 5 7
8 1 6 | Lost Diagram
7 9 2
8 5 4
3 1 6 |
The "Lost" version of the diagram (with the trigrams flipped "upside down") is sometimes used for feng shui. Feng shui is not my area of expertise, but the King Wen diagram is used for a "feng shui compass," a tool for organizing your environment to encourage positive energy flow. (Ordinary compasses had a nice cameo in Season 1.)
There is controversy over how to apply the feng shui compass in the southern hemisphere (where our island presumably is located). Some traditions flip the trigrams "upside down" (relative to the center, as if they stand on a globe) in order to produce a compass that is essentially the same as the "Lost" diagram. There is a school called "Black Sect Tantric Buddhism" which also uses the inverted diagram (known as the ba gua, pa gua or bagua). The problem (and the source of the controversy) for purists is that flipping the trigrams wrecks the mathematical elegance of the magic square.
The original numbers themselves correspond to hexagrams, of course, as follows:
4. Childhood
8. Union
15. Humility
16. Delight
23. Fall Apart
42. Increase
I have some very specific thoughts about this hexagram sequence and the narrative structure of "Lost" which I will post after next week's episode. So come back and check that out, if you're interested in this topic.
Is all this illuminating? Well, probably not. This is "Lost" after all. It's going to take a while before any of this becomes clear, assuming it ever does. Maybe someone else can manipulate these numbers more effectively than I have. Please feel free to post your own thoughts in the comments section linked below.
One interesting element to consider, given the medical nature of the compound, is that the 64 i-Ching hexagrams correspond directly to human genetic sequencing, a extremely large topic which you can easily Google for more information. Since I hear the word "clones" bandied about a lot in reference to this show, it's worth keeping this in mind as we move forward.
Update: I've seen some postings around the Web speculating that this symbol is the eight-spoked Buddhist "dharma wheel." While the producers of Lost may well have intended to conflate the dharma wheel with the ba gua, they are two distinctly different symbols with completely different meanings.
The dharma wheel represents the Buddhist eight-fold path -- the principles of living on which Buddhism is based right views, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right intentions, right mindfulness and right concentration.
The King Wen trigram arrangement (ba gua) is a Taoist concept. It represents the way that processes unfold over time. Each trigram represents a physical or behavioral law or principle based on the interaction of yin and yang. The ba gua is amoral.
Buddhism and Hinduism -- both of which have conceptions of dharma -- have integrated the i-Ching into their own spiritual paths, but the i-Ching is not a Buddhist or Hindu system. Although it derives from Taoism -- which is significantly different from Buddhism and includes nothing resembling dharma -- the i-Ching is considered essentially nondenominational. Buddhist readings of the i-Ching can include dharma as a component, but dharma is not part of the original i-Ching concept.
Thanks to ChrisBliss18 at the Lost-TV forum for pointing out the trigram flips.
Posted by J.M. Berger || Permalink
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12 Comments:
well thats some cool stuf u got there, good reading 2 :D
Saw your post at the LOST-tv board and came over to check it out -- all I can say is, wow. Amazing how all these little elements in the show have so much more meaning to them, (or supposedly could have more meaning to them). Thank you for posting this, us Lost fans need all the info we can to unravel the complicated mysteries of LOST.
You are very welcome... Thanks for the kind words. I was thrilled when I saw the design, since this is a longstanding interest of mine. I had previously speculated to myself that the numbers might have to do with the i-Ching. We shall see...
At first I thought the symbol in the middle might be a Yin / Yang, but it didn't look quite right. Being a comp. sci major from way back, I thought the solid / split bars were meant to be binary digits, and binary digits in groups of three - as in this diagram - can represent octal (base *8*) numbers - so after waisting a few hours trying to find some meaning in the diagram that way, I saw someone's post on aint-it-cool-news.com saying that the symbols reminded them of the Korean flag. So I looked up the Korean flag, found out that the symbols are called "trigrams", Googled for them and found a good explanation (though not nearly as thorough as yours, thanks!) here: http://fengshui.about.com/od/basics/a/fsnumberslucky.htm Was going to share my revalation with the Lost-tv.com group, but saw that you beat me to it! Anyway, thanks very much for your very thorough explanation of it. I can now, once again, get a good night sleep with the mystery solved - at least until next Wensday!
There are also directions associated with the trigram symbols.
|:| = south
::: = southwest
||: = west
||| = northwest
:|: = north
::| = northeast
|:: = east
:|| = southeast
Putting them into the Lost diagram produces a compass, with South at the top and North at the bottom.
this could explaine the difference from the King Wen diagram.
23 is a very charged number and with Jim Carey making a movie called The Number 23, plus the notes in The Davinci Code and Poker Without Cards about 23, well, I wonder if this is a political statement
Watch it 4+8+15+16+23+42=108
I think it can be interesting...
Great site! As someone with a passing familiarity with I Ching, AND the work of Robert Anton Wilson, as well as Discordianism and the Law of Fives therein, I'm amazed to see a mainstream, hit TV series touch upon this stuff. Imagine the surprise of my friends when I turn them on to this site and they see all this stuff -- it's like opening a door to a completely different world.
They thought they were just watching an interesting TV show...
4/8/15/16/23/42
8 and 15 = flight 815
23 = survivors in the tail portion
42 = survivors in Jacks group
4,15,16=???
It doesn’t sole anything, but it could be something.
there are a 108 movements in the Tai Chi Yang Long Form, the old classical style
Hey, you probably already know this but here goes, the sequence of numbers appear very sublte at times and others they stand out, 1 time I did notice was when Jack was talking to the girl at the airport, Jacks seat number is 23B and the girls is 42F. I really don't get these numbers but they sure do come across as important. Cool info by the way
8 and 15 = flight 815
23 = survivors in the tail portion
42 = survivors in Jacks group
15=??
16=years of danielle on the island
4=??
saludos desde Chile!!!!
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