#1 Ch’ien / The Creative & #2 K’un / The Receptive

#1  – Ch’ien (Heaven) over Ch’ien (Heaven)

THE CREATIVE

#2  – K’un (Earth) over K’un (Earth) 

 

THE RECEPTIVE

Theme: A time to Initiate a time to Respond

Aspect	#1 Creative Power / Initiating	#2 Natural Response / Responding
Situation
Symbolically	Double Heaven – the creative process.	Double Earth – unconditional support of all things.
Socially	This is the most auspicious time for the realization of creative impulses.	This is a time for loving devotion to and nurturing of all things good and evil.
Individually	One is poised to create change.	One is receptive to the world.
Response
Symbolically	Heavens move – time passes – change unfolds.	Earth doubles – space embraces all things.
Socially	It is time to create, lead, direct, force, inspire, act!	It is time to nurture, follow, respond, nurture, receive, observe!
Individually	This is the time to implement and achieve one’s vision through wise actions in tune with the needs of society.	This is a time to align oneself with others, remain true to oneself, and be receptive to what is occurring.
Outcome
Symbolically	Yang energy instigates the creation of things in time.	Yin energy nourishes, nurtures, and provides a home for things in space.
Socially	Peace and security through order and leadership.	Bountiful and fecund profusion of life.
Individually	One’s aims are achieved through skillfully timed initiative and leadership.	One finds guidance and success through receptiveness and openness.
The Lines
Top Line	Ambitions exceed ability – to proceed is to lose touch with reality.	If one attempts to seize control rather than serve, a violent clash will injure both parties.
5th	One’s actions are in accord with the cosmos:  thinking is clear and one’s influence will be great.	Be modest and discrete about one’s abilities – let one’s actions speak for themselves.
4th	One must exercise free will and choose to be either a hermit or a hero.	Whether in solitude or amongst others, avoid any prominence and maintain reserves during this dangerous time.
3rd	Others attach themselves hoping to share in one’s success – don’t be distracted by their aims.	Leave fame to others and focus on maturing one’s abilities naturally.
2nd	Align with one who is active in the field of your interest and whose conduct is above reproach.	Like Nature responding to Heaven, be submissive, straightforward, and upright to succeed.
Bottom Line	The time is not right to act openly – best to bide one’s time.	Heed the initial signs of decay and plan for coming change.
Recap
#1.  Ch’ien (Qian) / The Creative (Initiating) Ch’ien is the masculine principle – pure yang – pure Heaven – energy in motion – time. Six unbroken lines represent the light, penetrating, conceiving primal power of yang. Ch’ien is the dynamic process of Heaven that is beyond the ken of mortal man.  It is the cosmic spark that instigates change, creation, and time.  It is masculine vitality in contrast to feminine docility. This is a time when ideas spring forth, grow, mature and blossom with fruit, and endure through rejuvenation and continuity.  While the creative force exists within us all at all times, at this moment, one’s energies are aligned with the cosmos and great things are possible. Ideas become real through action.  Of course, the idea has to occur, which in itself is an act, albeit internal and one that creates something that is real only to the thinker until it is expressed.  Then it takes on a life of its own – to whither and die or flourish and seed further ideas.  Time is the means of making the potential, actual.  And, at certain times like this, the ability to actualize one’s ideas is never stronger. What action will you take?  Given the choices of hero or hermit, will you engage with society or disengage?  You freely choose one path or the other – either choice is correct if you are true to yourself.  You might choose to focus on the creation of one’s inner self through the pursuit of knowledge.  Perhaps you seek to explore the immutable laws and develop yourself so as to have an enduring influence through the sharing of that knowledge. Whether hermit or hero, strive to use the power of this time to do good for all of humanity.  Cast the seeds of your vision in fertile soil, nurture the growing ideas, harvest the ripe fruits, and sow the multiplying energies with wisdom. #2.  K’un / Earth.  (Responding) K’un is the feminine principle – pure yin – pure Nature – Earth – Space. Six broken lines represent the dark, yielding, receptive primal power of yin. K’un is the nurturing home – the mother of all living things that provides unconditional nourishment, security, and loving devotion.  It is feminine devotion in contrast to masculine leadership.  K’un is about exploring social phenomena in response and submission to heavenly will. Nature (yin) brings all things into space and form giving beauty to the creations of Heaven (yang).  K’un has the potential to create, but it must accept yang energy to produce – Heaven sows the seed and Earth brings forth the fruit. Doubling of Earth denotes the solidity and extension in space of that which supports and preserves all things.  Earth does so without judgment for all things good and evil are equal on the physical plane of existence.  This is a time to accept, submit to, and respond to the reality of the situation.  The individual acts in support not as the leader.  One conforms and follows.  When one willingly accepts the position of being led or guided by another, great freedom can result and great things can be accomplished. Reaction is still action.  Rather than confrontation, this is a time for strategic restraint and measured subtle use of receptive non-action.  Allow others to expend the energy, to lead, to take the risks, and to seize the glory while you hold on to your traditional values, familial interdependencies, and intuitive knowledge of what is good and important. Keep an open mind, be receptive to those close to you, and let yourself be guided by the dynamic process.

#1 - Ch'ien - The Creative / Heaven

#2 - K'un - The Receptive / Earth

Cracked Concrete and Blue Crayons

Our House

A vision without a task is but a dream,
a task without a vision is drudgery,
a vision and a task is the hope of the world.

My dad borrowed this anonymous inscription on an 18^th century English church as the motto for his grassroots organization, the Alternative Living Technologies and Energy Research (ALTER) Project.  His vision was of university-based living laboratory teeming with eager students, earnest faculty, and engaged community members all seeking a more harmonious relationship with Nature.  His task was the transformation of a forgotten farmhouse on the campus of Slippery Rock University into what would become in 1990 the nation’s first Master of Science degree program in Sustainable Systems.  After its renovation, we called the farm Harmony House in part because of the adjoining Harmony Road but mostly to inspire a relationship with Nature we hoped would spring from the seeds that would be nurtured there.  Twenty-seven years after his abrupt passing in the spring of 1990, just weeks after having dedicated Harmony House to its mission (in true ministerial tradition, just like his pastor father before him), the Robert A. Macoskey Center for Sustainable Systems continues to fulfill three missions:

·       Education about sustainability through events, workshops and programs;

·       Physical demonstration of sustainable technologies and systems; and

·       Supporting sustainability-focused academic initiatives and research.

I am an environmental scientist today in large part because of the hope he had for the world.  In my high school years, I had no particular career aspirations and was content to pursue the passions of youth.  The mainframe computer with its decks of Fortran cards was interesting but I didn’t ride the wave of computing that captured the attention of many.  I did have a knack for drawing though that was encouraged by artistic parents.  So, when senior year rolled around and I was unable settle on a path, Dad took me to Slippery Rock so I could show his art professor buddy my portfolio.  Whether the professor saw a glimmer of talent or was doing a favor for a pal I don’t know, but I was welcomed the next fall to the art department.

That was 1977.  Just four years earlier, the U.S. had experienced its first energy crisis.  Three years before that, the first Earth Day had been celebrated and then the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was formed.  In response to those and other events my dad had developed one of the more popular courses on campus called Philosophy and Alternative Futures.  Through expert guest lecturers and student research, he and his students explored the nexus of environmental ethics and innovative technology that was permeating popular culture in works like Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (Fuller, 1969); Small is Beautiful (Schumacher, 1973); Soft Energy Paths (Lovins, 1977); and Progress As If Survival Mattered (Friends of the Earth, 1977).  Maybe it was attending his class that changed my mind about my career path as an artist.  Maybe it was the awareness that I didn’t really understand the environmental science behind what I was attempting to convey in my art.  Or, maybe it was my pragmatic acknowledgement to my future father-in-law (a salt-of-the earth Western PA steel worker) that my earning potential as an artist was not as great as practically any other choice.  Whatever the reasons, my junior year found me newly married and enrolled in the department of environmental sciences.  For the next two years, I’d often commute the 30 minutes to and from our home town to campus with Dad and talk about his vision and plans while trying to formulate my own.

Still at a bit of a loss in those days about what to with a degree in environmental science, 1981 found me accepted to one of the few such graduate degree programs in the country.  Although by mutual agreement, the marriage of high school sweethearts didn’t survive beyond two years at Mr. Jefferson’s University of Virginia, one thing that did was my passion for a systems integration of the environmental sciences.  At UVA I discovered not only lifelong friends including my wife of 32 years, but the interdisciplinary nature of environmental issues and the importance of considering the multiple scientific and social dimensions of our global problems and solutions.  A few years later with that M.S. and a little luck, I was able to validate my career path for a skeptical grandfather and patron by landing a job as an air quality scientist with the consulting firm, Environmental Science Associates, Inc. in San Francisco, California.

My naïve vision at that time was of an environmental protection corps that would clean up all of society’s pollution, establish an era of environmental stewardship and sustainability, and eventually eliminate the need for environmental cleanup altogether.  Thirty-one years later, while some of our biggest environmental legacies like many Superfund sites, the ozone hole, and atmospheric lead exposures have been mitigated; many old problems continue and new ones constantly emerge.  Sadly, environmental issues aren’t going away and we need more people, not fewer, working on these problems.

Several years ago I created this blog and named it Unshutter the Lantern as a reference to the hermit who emerges from his seclusion to share his thoughts with whomever is willing to listen.  As may be discerned from its address, hermitorhero, I struggle with the dichotomy between a desire for hermit-like seclusion and the need for hero-like leadership.  One of the first things I posted was a series entitled The Philosophy of Sustainability.  It had taken me years to articulate and express that vision and I felt good about the result but a practical task to implement that vision eluded me.

One day as I sat in an unstimulating office meeting this past August, I was excited to learn from the local non-profit, Sustainable Pittsburgh, that Al Gore would be coming to town in October to present training through his Climate Reality Corps.  After a quick review of the organization and their mission, I completed the application and submitted it for consideration.  My family and friends can attest to my excitement on being accepted to what would become the 36^th and largest training event in the eleven years since An Inconvenient Truth started a movement.

Like most kids, mine drew pictures of our house when they were children.  One my son drew from memory while in third grade gnawed at my psyche for years.  While the front porch and awnings are a bit crooked and the overall image is a bit abstract, he accurately depicted the disintegrating concrete driveway with its cracks and weeds.  That he had recalled those details as being integral to his image of our home has stuck with me ever since.  Not that as a child he would consider the cracks to be good or bad but that he had internalized that decay as part of his world.  I lived with the recognition that the disintegration of our driveway was normal to him and that bothered me.  He was away at college by the time we were able to finally have a new concrete driveway installed and sending him a picture of that freshly-poured surface helped to exorcise those old feelings.

Then all of those old memories came flooding back during one of the three days of Climate Reality training sessions in October.  We heard a story about a woman in China whose child drew pictures of her home with skies colored gray.  The mother asked why they were gray and reminded the child that the sky is blue.  When she pointed to the sky and saw the hazy smog, she understood why her child had internalized that as part of her reality.

Of course gray skies are just one of the many consequences of our unsustainable lifestyles.  The long list of large-scale consequences includes ecosystem destruction, species extinction, sea level rise, increased drought and fire, disappearing glaciers, and political instability.  Closer to home, the annual western PA waist-high snowfalls of my youth are long gone while tropical diseases like the zika virus have already reached the Mason-Dixon line.  Tick season lasts longer than ever, poison ivy grows more persistently, and as I write we’re having a thunderstorm in November, in Pittsburgh.

Nevertheless, as a scientist, consultant, and systems thinker, I’ve had faith in the ingenuity and fortitude of people to solve our global problems if we could recognize that the cracks in our driveway and the leaden skies overheard were actually bad things – not permanent parts of our reality that our children and theirs had to accept.  Then came Trump and his systematic efforts to dismantle environmental protections, global cooperation, and any sort of meaningful leadership of Americans as global citizens.  That was the last straw for me and one that I believe broke the back of many sturdy folks who have held out hope that national leaders would achieve positive change toward sustainable environmental policies.  

I want to look back 30 years from now in my golden years with praise and admiration for the achievements we all have yet to realize as we work to counter the reality we’ve all grown to accept as normal.  Complacency and faith must be replaced with urgency and action.  Climate change is not a belief system so don’t ask if people believe in it or not.  It’s a reality and it’s just science.  Sure, there are myriad complicated interrelationships, but fundamentally it’s very simple.  Does the energy equivalent of 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs sound significant?  What if you knew that globally we are releasing that amount of energy into the atmosphere EVERY SINGLE DAY!  That’s not complicated – it’s just wrong.

So, when someone asks you, “must we change?” tell them emphatically, “YES!”

When they ask, “but can we change?”  The answer is “YES!”

Then ask them the question we all need to internalize, “will you change?”

The reality of our climate crisis is that, “YES, we will change.”  Change is inevitable, but at this time we still have the choice to change in a manner that we can control and manage.    It is already late and the path to a sustainable future will be challenging, painful, and sad regardless of how diligently and earnestly we work together to mitigate, adapt, and reduce suffering.  But, the longer we wait, the less viable that path will be as Nature will dictate the terms and the timeframe.  There is still hope if we band together with the many others around the globe who have been leading our leaders to a sustainable future.  If you share the vision of a sustainable human future on Earth, the time is now to find a related task worthy of your hero nature and get to work.  If we all do that, there will always be a need for blue crayons.

For more information, I urge you to explore these resources:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:  http://www.ipcc.ch/

Skeptical Science:  https://www.skepticalscience.com/

Real Climate:  http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/start-here/

Climate Reality Project:  http://www.climaterealityproject.org

National Climate Assessment:  http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/

Union of Concerned Scientists:  http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming#.WfC9S-SWzB0

Climate Communication:  https://www.climatecommunication.org/

Yale Center of Environmental Communication: https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/