Skip to content

50 The Father

hexagram-50-father‘UNCONSCIOUS FATHERS, A diaspora of wanderers at large on the sea of souls,
share a bond known only to the pantheon’s patriarch.’

Those who have never witnessed birth are an antique tribe with a second
chance if the daughter is willing, as she might be if she truly understands.
Generations fold into themselves, an asymmetric wave, endlessly
returning – yet farther each time from where you stand on the shore with
your trident and net, and no spare hand to hold another’s hand.

1st – The Enterprising Father
Equities fluctuate but his brow never crumples. High windows look away,
playground grazes toughen. A tangled nerve ball bounces into adulthood.
He is elsewhere, scourge of pirates, tirelessly working the sea lanes –
returning home without any stories. His love is a virtuous calculus.

2nd – The Father of the Great Outdoors
The yellow ribbon of woodsmanship is for escaping camping, a skill
extrapolated from guiles taught by fathers. Unwittingly they turn into
predators, tamed by excuses, one of which strikes home. The campfire is
short of a son, out there like a wolf, ruthless as the saga’s heroes.

3rd – The Seasonal Father
The penultimate torture is the mirror in the lift between two floors – the
man-eating beard. Surrogate sons and daughters are the angel’s scorpion
army. The grotto gives up its wounded. Later, the Iscariot family reunion:
a speech is clamoured for, with rhythmic thumping on a big trestle table.

4th – The Father of the Tribes
Canada was a safe, sane house for a heliotropic family. An Ontario
department store floorwalker was told one day of his royal native lineage:
his father was grand vizier of a headhunter rainforest principality, playing
the imperial system. Imagine finding a shrivelled head in your freezer!

5th – The Proud Father
Hercules threw javelins at targets from horseback, as well as for distance
at the end of a run. This Zeus’s habitat is a garden of beer and bindweed.
On the brightest days the telly goes back indoors. He turns it on an hour
before time: athletes have been crawling in traffic to get to the stadium.

6th – The Single Father
He makes up the quarrel with his sister and takes a market job, flexible
for childcare. A booklet, How to be a hands-on, heart-on father, tells him:
‘Dad sets the bar for future dates.’ He feeds her, burps her; swings her.
While she plays in a sandpit, he battles the FT on a windswept bench.

All six – The Incomparable Father
The four-bird roast is marvellous, its value imparting flavour. People drop
by, unannounced! He collects sugar from cafés, pens from banks, yet his
generosity flows like northern floodwater, swamping embarrassments.
Even with heartbreak a wall away, you are always grateful beyond words.


Introduction to Six-Way Mirror | The Index of Hexagrams and Cantos

 

 

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x