Ideograms of Biting

This week I put out my translation and commentary of hexagram 21 of the I Ching. Let’s take a look at some of the vital ideograms in the text.

噬

Biting is a fascinating character, I discussed it briefly in the article, but let’s dig deeper in

The image is a mouth beside divination. See the hands (bottom right) throwing yarrow stalks (top right). Between is a hall in which two people are talking. In many ways this is the image of the whole hexagram, the relationship between the mouth and knowledge, chewing on ideas, biting into mysteries. Getting to the truth.

肉

Meat is directly an image of meat or ribs.

遇

Finding or “finding out” is walking+monkey. The curious monkey finds things as he walks. Consider the knowledge gathering character of Thoth in his Baboon form. This is the Virgoan side of Mercury, while Gemini is the Ibis bird.