'Lost' Numbers, Hexagrams, The i Ching And The PointPrevious Lost posts:
>: 4 8 15 16 23 42 aka The Ba Gua in Desmond's Hatch
>: More Lost, More 23 and More I-Ching
The emergence of i-Ching imagery on ABC's smash hit TV show Lost begs a question which I and others have been considering for some time: Are Hurley's numbers best interpreted as an i-Ching sequence?
I think you can make an argument that the i-Ching hexagrams associated with each number might have something to tell us about the nature of what's happening on the island -- possibly in terms of its season by season story structure. Let's take a look at each in turn. There are numerous versions and intepretations of the i-Ching. After looking through my library, I've chosen to go with Ritsema's hugely detailed I-Ching concordance and translation (out of print now, but the most current edition is found here ). In my own life, I usually prefer to work with the Taoist i-Ching, a later text translated by Thomas Cleary, but I think the Ritsema edition seems like a better match. The Taoist i-Ching is a much more sophisticated view of reality, but the Ritsema translation is extremely true to the oldest tradition. While it's not easy reading, it does provide exhaustive connections and content for advanced i-Ching readers.
4
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Enveloping: According to Ritsema, "This hexagram describes your situation in terms of concealment and clouded awareness. It emphasizes that actively accepting this concealment in order to nurture growth is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: envelop!
The text of the hexagram indicates that the reader must "find his or her allotted destiny," which is clearly the focus of Lost's Season One. (Just ask John Locke if you don't believe me.) The hexagram is also seen to refer to young people -- specifically, to people between the ages of 8 (!) and 15 (!).
The two trigrams making up the hexagram are Mountain (Bound) above, with Gorge (Water, Danger) below. One way to look at an Island is to see a mountain protruding from water. Constriction and limits representing the state of self (upper trigram), while danger and "dissolving forms" are represented by the other (lower trigram, world or environment).
Enveloping in this context is the process of absorbing, learning and understanding, literally wrapping your mind around the problem.
8
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Grouping: "This hexagram describes your situation in terms of how you categorize people and things and how you relate to these categories. It emphasizes that joining people and things through recognizing their essential qualities in the adequate way to handle it."
Ordering things and putting them into classes leaders to the experience of meaning. In other words, the process now becomes one of taking clues and information and assembling them coherently. The process of grouping includes making such distinctions as "Man of Science" and "Man of Faith." By ordering the elements of the group, we can begin to find their meaning as an aggregate whole.
This hexagram also involves tracing a process back to its beginning, to the first stage of a "time cycle." The flashbacks on Lost are clearly pertinent to this concept and we'll probably see (as in the first episode of the new season) that the flashbacks will become increasingly relevant to understanding the castaways' current situation. "Crowds" are also indicated. Certainly, there is every reason to think we will be meeting many new faces in the weeks to come.
But the hexagram also contains a warning -- at the end of the process, danger awaits, and the danger leads away from meaning.
The top trigram is Gorge (water) from the 4 hexagram, below is Field (earth). This suggests that the survivors will try to penentrate to a deeper level (literally underneath the island) in their search for meaning. "The relation to the outer world dissolves and changes," according to Ritsema. A significant trial is met.
15
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Humbling: "This hexagram describes your situation in terms od the necessity to cut through pride and complication. It emphasizes that keeping close to fundamental things through keeping your words unpretentious is the adequate way to handle it."
Obviously, the further we travel into the future, the more difficult to estimate the plotline implications of the hexagrams, so these intepretations will get shorter as we go. The thurst of this hexagram is twofold -- first, keeping words simple and therefore close to the truth, and second, success through a sacrifice and the beginning of a second stage in the time cycle.
The field (earth) trigram over Bound (mountain) signifies that the castaways, after delving deep in the previous phase, reach a limit -- the mountain, the island. There is no escape. "Articulating inner limits," as Ritsema writes, which in turn helps lead yin and yang into balance. The combination also suggests words that are actualized, i.e., words which become reality -- perhaps as an incantation, a verbalized wish or intention, or something more esoteric, like the concretized language of Terence McKenna or Grant Morrison -- two works that are deeply related to the i-Ching and identity.
The hexagram also indicates reducing the many to elevate the few -- could we see a substantial number of the castaways killed off?
16
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Provision: "This hexagram describes your situation in terms of what is needed to meet the future. It emphasizes that accumulating strength through foresight and prudence so things can be fully enjoyed is the adequate way to handle it."
Taking precautions in this context involves setting up formal lines of authority, such as a government or other structure. This could involve uncovering the outlines of a government plot -- a distinct possibility based on current storylines -- or the formalization of the community of survivors under clearly articulated leadership (as opposed to the ad hoc leadership of Jack, which is already under challenge by Locke).
The top trigram is Thunder, the lower is Field. This seems to suggest a step back from the exploration beneath (indicated in the previous trigrams) and an effort to rise above, to transcend or surpass the terms of the survivors' captivity on the island. New actions or strategies are initiated, literally things are "shaken" up. "Sprouting energies thrusting from below" and "a rousing summons to action that comes from outside." The world outside the island?
Alternatively, this could refer to the summoning of the island's strange power -- "thunder issuing forth from earth impetuously." Could one of our characters (perhaps Locke) intend to unleash the secret power of the island upon the outer world?
23
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Stripping: "...Eliminating what has become unusable." This hexagram is one of the best known i-Ching images, and both the number 23 and the hexagram have extensive significance (see previous post). Generally, this hexagram, the penultimate hex in the number sequence, represents a cataclysmic and radical change, the stripping away of all illusion -- in Hindu and Buddhist belief that includes most of what we consider "reality" on a daily basis -- dharma is what remains.
Before the final chapter of our story, in other words, all artifice is stripped away. We will see the final conflict as it truly is. (Or nearly so.) The trigrams Bound (mountain) over Field (earth) indicate that the effort to transcend has again run into a boundary or a final limitation that must be "bitten through" (another intepretation of the 23 hex) in order to be defeated. "Outer accomplishing strips away the previous cycle, while inner bringing-forth prepares the new."
The hexagram also involves "viewing symbols" -- revealing the invisble pattern or sequence that drives the process of reality. To blow your mind even further, click here for a visual representation.
42
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Increase: "This hexagram describes your situation in terms of increase and advance. It emphasizes that expanding the quantity and quality of your involvement is the adequate way to handle it." The final hexagram in the number sequence does not speak of completion. This may be significant, either heralding an inconclusive ending to Lost or suggesting that we may not have been given all the numbers yet -- there may be more numbers that have yet to be revealed.
This hexagram carries a connotation of crossing a body of water -- escape from the island is the obvious suggestion here. Ground -- penetrating and bringing together -- is met by the "shaking" of thunder to drive action forward.
The hexagram also -- significantly, I think -- carries a connotation of imposing a direction on the flow of time "from present to past." Given that the survivors are continually poised between past and present via the device of the flashbacks, I think there must be a meaningful conception of time embedded within the show. The relationship between past and present is not clearly established in the show prior to this. The concept of establishing that the "present flows into the past" suggests that the castaways are not currently entrained within the normal flow of time.
Ultimately, the i-Ching is entirely concerned with how events unfold in time. Although its parallels to the human genetic code are extremely interesting and may prove to be a major plot point in the weeks and seasons to come, I think the show is ultimately concerned with the way events unfold in time, and that its nonlinear (or semi-linear) storytelling is meant to evoke that concept.
There is one more way to extract a hexagram from "the numbers." I performed this calculation, almost as an afterthought. You can calculate each of the six numbers as a line in a single hexagram -- even is yin, odd is yang. The question is whether to build it from bottom to top, the traditional method, or from top to bottom -- on the theory that the numbers are meant to be read in a Western order, since they are (after all) presented in Western script and not Chinese pictograms.
From bottom to top, we produce hexagram 39, which can mean limping, halting or defeat. Since we wouldn't wish this fate on our beloved castaways, I prefer to build the hexagram from top to bottom -- in keeping with the Westernized presentation. The result of that calculation yields the following reading:
40
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Taking Apart: "The hexagram describes your situation in terms of reflection and release from tension. It emphasizes that analyzing and understanding things in order to be delivered from compulsion is the adequate way to handle it."
If, God help you, you have read through this entire analysis, I can only assume that you do not need an explanation of the process of "analyzing things in order to be delivered from compulsion." If you've made it this far, you perfectly embody this hexagram. Congratulations for figuring out the real point of the Lost numbers without even knowing it! You may be relieved to know that the alternate translations for this hexagram's title include "Solution" and "Liberation." So take this solution, and be liberated from the numbers. I think I will... at least until Wednesday.
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9 Comments:
You are blowing my mind...
Thanks!
I saw the logo on Desmond's uniform last night and immediately knew that the numbers were connected to the i-Ching. Thanks for explaining their significance to the plot. I also heard that the same logo was on the tale of the Shark that was circling Michael and Sawyer. Did anyone notice that? I'll have to replay the tape tonight. I also noticed a word written over the Yin-Yang but I thought it said "Dynastar." I guess Dharma would make more sense. Are you sure it says Dharma?
You've done some amazing stuff with this analysis. My mind has been duly blown. Congrats.
Maybe this is obvious, but I'll bet you that each hexagram is intended to represent a different season of the show. Based on your analysis, "Enveloping" was a pretty good summation of Season 1, and I'll bet that "Grouping" will turn out to be the central focus of Season 2. If that turns out to be so, then we might reasonably expect the entire show to conclude in the sixth season--assuming the program doesn't jump the (Dharma-logo-tattoed) shark between now and then and tank in the ratings.
I am inclined to agree that the hexagrams seem like a natural fit with a season. You could, in theory, break the whole thing down further into each of the six lines spread (or cycling) over 24 episodes.
I am also concerned about jumping that tattooed shark... But they've earned enough faith from me to stick with and see where it's going. ("WHY IS IT SO EASY FOR ME TO BELIEVE?!?!?")
^^ That's me, by the way. Just fixed my profile display. gv
as said in another blog, if you were to take all of the numbers and post them as latitudes and longitudes, then it shows a small group of islands northeast of Austrailia. If you take that into consideration with the "orientation video" and the computer, when the group types the numbers and pushes execute, it could be sending a signal to whomever saying that there still are people pusing the button, furthering the research and observation.
My book defines trigram 40 as "Deliverance"
I don't know if that is good or bad.
I hope you are well!
A little over 4 years later... Apparently you nailed it. Nice.
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