As is my wont in times of crisis, I asked the opinion of the Ching on Y2K. This was its answer, make of it what you will  (Richard Wilhelm translation)

STANDSTILL (STAGNATION)

Above  The creative, heaven

Below  The receptive, earth

Heaven is above, drawing farther and farther away, while the earth below sinks farther into the depths. The creative powers are not in relation. It is a time of standstill and decline  decay is setting in.

THE JUDGEMENT

STANDSTILL. Evil people do not further

The perseverance of the great man.

The great departs; the small approaches.

Heaven and earth are out of communion and all things are benumbed. What is above has no relation to what is below, and on earth confusion and disorder prevail. The dark power is within, the light power is without. Weakjness is within, harshness without. Within are the inferior, and without are the superior. The way of inferior people is in ascent; the way of superior people is on the decline. But the superior people do not allow themselves to be turned from their principles. If the possibility of exerting influence is closed to them, they nevertheless remain faithful to their principles and withdraw into seclusion.

THE IMAGE

Heaven and earth do not unite;

The image of STANDSTILL.

Thus the superior man falls back upon his inner worth

In order to escape the difficulties.

He does not permit himself to be honoured with revenue.

When, owing to the influence of inferior men, mutual mistrust prevails in public life, fruitful activity is rendered impossible, because the fundaments are wrong. Therefore the superior man knows what he must do under such circumstances; he does not allow himself to be tempted by dazzling offers to take part in public activities. This would only expose him to danger, sice he cannot assent to the meanness of others. He therefore hides his worth and withdraws into seclusion.

THE LINES

SIX IN THE SECOND PLACE means:

They bear and endure;

This means good fortune for inferior people.

The standstill serves to help the great man to achieve success.

Inferior people are ready to flatter their superiors in a servile way. They would also endure the superior man if he would put an end to their confusion. This is fortunate for them. But the great man calmly bears the consequences of the standstill. He does not mingle with the crowd of the inferior; that is not his place. By willingness to suffer personally he insures the success of his fundamental principles.

(Due to this line, the development of the hexagram leads to the hexagram of CONFLICT).

-- Risteard MacThomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), November 24, 1999

Answers

Good post. "Seclusion, withdrawal" sounds like Mike Adams of Y2KNEWSWIRE. Me too. No more public speaking on Y2K (not since April) but the curious seclusion/withdrawal of the internet and others of like mind about what we face.

"...all things are benumbed." And just waiting for the wake up call.

You might enjoy reading Egyptians on my website, under the "Y2K QUARTET" title.

Unscrew the locks from the doors, Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs.

-- johno (jobriy2k@yahoo.com), November 24, 1999.

Humm.

"Interesting."

One intriguing I-Ching program, that I particularly think is well- done, is available on a CD-ROM. Online sample...

The Oracle Of Changes

http://www.iching.com/

Follow the links. (Animated version is best).

;-D

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 24, 1999.

Gawd, this brings back memories of those awful "philosophy" segments in all those old Kung Fu episodes, where young Grasshopper always got a lesson on this stuff in a flashback to his monastary days. The only thing good about them was they always preceded the scenes where David Carridine kicked ass!

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 24, 1999.

Egyptions? Huh? Went over my head thank God.

Squirrel Hunter >"<

-- SH (squirrel@huntr.com), November 24, 1999.

Yin and Yang, baby. Go for it!

-- (Iching@macro.biotic), November 24, 1999.

Speaking of I ching and yin yang---

I surmise that our entire way of life, to put it mildly is YANGED out with very little Yin involved. Yang energy is the aggressor materialistic,competitive,ego,fear,anger,manifesting,acidic,poor diet,loud music,too much sex,pollution,God-less,greed,debt.

Yin--quiet,peace,spiritual,enviromentally friendly,community,sharing etc.

Y2K is nothing more than the return of Yin as yang ultimately rolls into it---cycles ya know???

C'mon Yin!! get here quick---

-- d----- (dciinc@aol.com), November 24, 1999.

Was this in reference to Charlie Haughey?

-- Joe Dolan (I'vegot@big.mickey), November 24, 1999.

Yes you're right, Joe (and as UACHTARAN I ought to know)

Q:What is the difference between Charlie Haughey and Y2K?

A:Charlie Haughey can be fixed! :-)

(apologies to the forum for including an Irish joke)

-- Risteard MacThomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), November 25, 1999.

As a former [pre-1980] devotee of the I Ching, I really hate to have to throw cold water on the subject.

To begin with, there are definitely forces at work here beyond mere probability - at least I am 99% sure of this based on my own mathematical analyses at the time.

Unfortunately, I was forced to conclude that these forces are extremely clever in the area of deception. I can't say with certainty that the forces are demonic, but I can say that we all have an enemy of the soul named Satan. To regard Satan as mythological or merely symbolic would be to regard Jesus as a fool or a liar as Jesus very definitely believed that Satan is a living being. Satan physically appeared to Jesus at the temptation in the wilderness and Jesus physically saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

How did I conclude that the I Ching is deceptive? I asked a series of questions along the lines of "Why would an oracle be necessary when one can simply be led by the Holy Spirit as taught in the Bible?"

The suspicious answers were along the lines of "Stop! Danger! Cease from pursuing spiritual direction in this manner!"

The Holy Spirit spoken of by Jesus can't be trusted?? That was just a little to difficult for me to swallow....

-- ---- (anon@anonvvvvv.com), November 25, 1999.