I CHING’s HOUSE OF KEEPING STILL: #52 MOUNTAIN
© 2015-2021 Lili White

By consulting the I Ching we can address our current issues of life.
The I Ching (1000–750 BC) or Chinese Book of Changes, is a classic text, an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy, which set the heart of traditional cultural beliefs.   As a “reflection of the universe in miniature”, it describes 64 specific states or processes of human energy, called “hexagrams”. Invisible, non-the-less alive, their potential appears in the empirical world; acting in it. What humankind perceives are the effects. “Mountain” is one of them.
Purple is the color to represent the type of energy for “mountain” as it seems very quiet and contained
Different words are used to evoke the meaning behind its hexagrams. Words that could be used to evoke it are something like: tending, bound, still, quiet, base, calm, stop. One of #52’s most basic associations, “tending,” can refer to one’s Triadic nature between body, soul and mind. It is about quieting one’s heart and mind, so the is no “self” and no “other” thing, or person. MOUNTAIN revolves around “stopping” when the situation calls for it; but also “moving” when the time is right.

As a primal symbol, “mountain” is connected to China’s Mt.Tai; one of 5 sacred mountains. It was seen as being a Gateway to the Underworld. Many cultures have some relationship with their deceased ancestors, but “the dead” are missing in American culture. Perhaps the only time we can see it mentioned is at public memorials, or in a super-natural or horror film.
James Hillman & Sonu Shamdasani, authors of THE LAMENT OF THE DEAD, acknowledge that the dead are still here, and are the accumulation of human history, “Humanity’s task is to live with the dead,” And there is an Irish proverb: “People live in each other’s shadows” meaning, we need each other, what happens to one person affects each member of the community.
In #52, a cluster of “ancestor figures” surrounding the main figure. They present another level of living engagement via the augury’s pathway.

I interpret I Ching hexagrams to make a record of my musings on the subject, versus finding a meaning for the stance taken.
         The gestural performance derived from “authentic movement technique.” This improvisational dance practice allows a type of free association of the body. Impressions from the interior, unknown surface, validating a non-rational knowledge birthed through the body, rather than the thinking, parsing mind. This exploration of liminal space residing next to “consciousness,” eliminates the “explanations” of logical thinking.

During the edit, the  figure, no longer human, becomes a “personage,” framing the actions that occur. It connects to intuition, imagination, I Ching references, and associated images found in mind and body; to recombine into cinematic imagery “painted” with computer techniques, to present a dream logic. This cinema describes a double-movement, where the inside is presented on the outside as the body’s movement.