TEMPLE OF FINGERS & TOES
MOON CYCLE : SEVEN MANIK
August 5, 1986 to September 4, 1986
SEVEN
Mystery; the sacred; a Greater Reality of Spirit; human need for meaning; need to understand the context of beliefs; meditation and prayer; retreat and repentance; sacrifices made in order to find the peace that resides at the very center of one' being; special places of worship; precedence of spiritual values over material values; deepest destiny; synthesis and coordination; hidden direction and power; Crown chakra: the "thousand-petaled lotus", seat of Divine awareness and bliss at the top of the head.
MANIK
Gifts, body, ritual, feasts, mudra, mating, charity, courtship, endurance, hospitality, completion, spontaneity, acting "as if", spiritual tools, ceremony of the dance.
Continued from 6 CIMI
In order to become pervaded with, and an incorporation of the spirit, one must begin to work with that in which spirit manifests. One must begin to think and feel in terms of relatedness and of individualized wholeness. One must deal, astrologically speaking, with cycles of relationship rather than with cycles of positions. And the most characteristic of the former, the one most deeply impressed upon the common experience of humanity is the lunation cycle, made apparent by the phases of the Moon.
Dane Rudhyar
Over the months preceding my encounter with the culminating seventh Moon of my first lunar year on The Lightning Path, I experienced a gradual build-up of psychic energy. During this 7th Moon, as occurred half a year earlier, I experienced a sudden and powerful insight into the depths of my metaphysical research. In that brief moment, I understood how two of the central symbolic systems at the core of my work, the Lunation Cycle and the I Ching, were completely congruent symbolic representations of the same spiritual essence!
I had worked studiously with both systems for more than a decade, never having consciously related the two. Now, in an intense moment of insight, the two became one.
The energy released into my being by this realization was compelling. During the weeks and months following, a flood of insights led me to formulate an integrated synthesis of the four major symbolic systems I had been working with over many years: astrology, I Ching, the Tzolkin and the chakra system.
The Lunation Cycle/ I Ching synthesis was my surprise entry point into the larger synthesis. Later, and because I had worked extensively with Rudhyar’s concept of the LUNATION BIRTHDAY (the exact phase of the Moon at one’s birth), it occurred to me that, according to the Lunation Cycle/ I Ching synthesis, there was a corresponding hexagram for every lunation birthday. For more than a year, I concentrated on exploring this factor alone and I developed a “reading” which I offered to family, friends, and eventually the public at large.
For the purpose of these readings, I gathered together an extensive collection of I Ching editions. Each edition presented its own unique commentary on the hexagrams I was deriving. Time after time, synchronicities showed up which kept me especially interested in continuing this line of research. Eventually, I extended the readings to include a technique known as the progressed lunation, a secondary progressions technique applied to the lunation cycle and beginning with the phase of the Moon at one’s birth.
Because it is based in the tiniest and, therefore, the most personal of all astrological cycles, the Lunation Birthday Hexagram is an essential, integrative component in the much larger synthesis which ultimately embraces a galactic frame-of-reference made apparent through the hieroglyphs and numbers of the Tzolkin, most sacred of Mayan intellectual artifacts.
Lunation Cycle/ I Ching Synthesis Within Context of Tzolkin
CALCULATING THE LUNATION BIRTHDAY HEXAGRAM
The procedure for calculating the lunation birthday hexagram requires that we first determine the phase angle (as decimal) between the Sun and the Moon in our birth chart. Using my own birth chart as an example (see illustration below), we note that the Moon is at Aries 18 deg. 24 min.(18.4 deg.) and the Sun is at Aquarius 314 deg.48 min.(314.8 deg.). This yields an angular separation between the two of 64.4 degrees.
(1) To translate this angular separation number into elapsed lines of successive hexagrams since New Moon, we simply apply the transposition factor 1 deg. = 1.067 lines.
(384 lines in complete series of hexagrams, divided by 360 degrees = 1.067 lines per degree.)
In my case, elapsed lines since New Moon = 63.6 deg. X 1.067 lines / deg. = 67.8
(2) To now translate elapsed lines into hexagrams, we simply divide 67.8 by 6, giving us the number 11.3. This implies that 11 hexagrams have completely elapsed, and the phase angle has entered a third of the way into the twelfth hexagram in the series. The figure below shows the 12th hexagram in the series to be hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden, also known simply as Subordinate.
The arousing (thunder) is over the open (lake) forming the condition for Subordinate. An enlightened person, therefore, sees the current difficulty in light of the far distant future.
(3) A ruling line exists for each hexagram generated in this way. It is derived from any remaining decimal. In our example, the decimal remainder is .3 so we multiply this number by 6 (number of lines in a complete hexagram) to arrive at 1.8, or line 2 of the hexagram (always round up to the next whole number).
Commentary on line 2 of Hexagram 54: Though outer conditions appear unpromising, a success is possible if you look faithfully for good in others, yourself, and the situation.
CALCULATION SUMMARY (NATAL)
(1) Natal Phase Angle (as decimal)________ deg.. X 1.067 lines/ degree = _________ lines.
(2) ________ lines divided by 6 = Number of completed hexagrams since New Moon = __________
(3) Remaining decimal indicates Ruling Line within the next hexagram in series. This is the target hexagram and is determined by multiplying that decimal by 6 and rounding up to the next whole number:
________ X 6 = ________. or line ________
(4) Final hexagram & ruling line = ________
The Progressed Lunation Hexagram is based on the exact angle between the progressed Sun and the progressed Moon. The calculation procedure is basically the same but the scale is different. In this case, the period of time that a hexagram is considered active corresponds to a period of about six months. In other words, one tracks one’s passage through the hexagram field at the rate of about one hexagram line per month. This tracking allows us to draw upon the wisdom tradition of the I Ching in order to deal internally with issues that naturally arise as a result of our maturation process. Such synchronistic matching between the essence portrayed by a progressed hexagram, and the outer events of a person’s life brings the wisdom of the I Ching directly to bear on whatever befalls us as our fate. No matter what that fate ultimately is, the message of the I Ching is that there is a way to deal with it in a skillful and harmonious way.
CALCULATION SUMMARY (PROGRESSED)
(1) Progressed Soli-Lunar Phase Angle (angle between the progressed Sun and the progressed Moon as decimal)________ deg.. X 1.067 lines/ degree = _________ lines.
(2) ________ lines divided by 6 = Number of completed hexagrams since New Moon = __________
(3) Remaining decimal indicates Ruling Line within the next hexagram in series. This is the target hexagram and is determined by multiplying that decimal by 6 and rounding up to the next whole number:
________ X 6 = ________. or line ________
(4) Final hexagram & ruling line = ________
I CHING INTERPRETATIONS
Countless editions of the I Ching are now existent in many languages. A few of my favourites are listed below and are hyperlinked to purchase venues.
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LIGHT BODY ACTIVATION
Empowered by my encounter with 7 MANIK, I plunged into my research further and over the duration of the Moon cycles extending from SEVEN MANIK to THIRTEEN BEN, final Moon in my passage through the The Temple of Fingers and Toes, I formulated most of the graphics, systems and practices that form the basis of a process I eventually came to call "light body activation." Evocative of that process are the images below and at right which consolidate many of the symbolic systems mentioned above:
LIGHT BODY ACTIVATION TEMPLATE
Synthesis of Astrology, I Ching, Tzolkin and Chakra System
Working with a personalized version of this template to apply its coded wisdom directly to one’s life constitutes a form of yoga and, like all yogic practices, East or West, its purpose is to facilitate communion of the individual self with the Greater Self or Godhead -- never an easy task. Success only comes through the attainment of deep states of compassion and understanding of the human condition. This implies mastery of what the Maya call "the seven powers of light". Such mastery is implies that the serpent power which initially lies hid at the base of the spine has been given wings, hence, the image of Feathered Serpent.
FEATHERED SERPENT - BRIGHT GUIDE OF INTERIOR REFLECTION
Feathered Serpent - Bright Guide of Interior Reflection
IN LAK’ECH
So powerful was my experience of synthesis during this 7th Moon that I have continued to ponder the nature of the number and glyph aligned with it on The Lightning Path. One of the conclusions I have come to is that 7 MANIK refers to none other than the immortal archetypal ancestor of all humanity and is the same presence invoked in the common Mayan greeting, “In Lak’ech”, which means “ I am another yourself.”
