Water Snake, 2013
11.1.3.5>29 A little tale of departures.
An interesting thing happened with this drawing. I worked on it, on and off, for a few days and finished it on Saturday night, Jan/05/13. Sometimes, like in this case, I draw something and then come up with a set of hexagrams. Since I overdid it with the “art” for a comic strip, I wasn’t sure what to apply and asked the Yi for a suggestion. The question–more a formulation than a question–was “Mountains, fog, trees, a home, morning…” Just that. The answer that came back was this pair and I added it to the drawing. As it happens, without fail, the Yi never gives empty answers. The next day, we learned that Julie’s aunt, Haydee (Titi) Mercado, passed away at the age of 87. A full and happy life she had, with enough seniority to have met and enjoyed the love of her great-great-grandchildren. A beautiful woman of a strong, no nonsense character, but loving and dearly loved by all, including all of her in-laws, like myself. What a privilege and an honor that was! Thank you Titi Haydee.
May she rest in peace. This strip is dedicated to Julie’s aunt, our aunt, Haydee (Titi) Mercado.
33, just because, but we are going nowhere.
Oh, don’t be too concerned. I started with the background and then came up with the hexagram. It was like stamping out some weird automatic writing.
䷠䷠
三塗五岳，
陽城太室。
神明所保，
獨無兵革。
There are Three Ways, and Five Revered Mountains,
City of Light, and Supreme House.
These are places protected by the bright spirits,
As they are alone without weapons or hide-armors.
– from the “Forest” (“Lin”, 林)
(Trans. Robert Matusan-Boyler)