GUA 10 · LU

Out of the mirror-like depths the stars smile up at the people. That infinite dome above looks so humble and friendly, pretends to be captured. The sage draws lines between the stars and tells his people encouraging stories, trying to give them just the right measures of courage and hope to advance at the perfect pace, helping them to face the night unafraid, upgrading each comprehension one small step at a time, steadying the human will. “As above, so below,” he might say. But the worth of this will be tested. If they think too much of themselves, and tread too far too fast on little more than presumptions, they will merit no safety and the game falls apart.

Just who we really are can be some of who we think we are. The heavens give us some room to play around with this. Sometimes we are what we get away with, but the hope for a clean getaway sets some rules. Strength being a cousin to tolerance, the good-natured tiger permits man some pride in his dreamwork. More humored than threatened, it might need truly offensive behavior to make him turn and bite. But what offensive may mean will be his idea, not ours. We want to give ourselves courage to step up and into our destiny, we want to tread as far as we can and test the bounds of the possible and we try to define the right rules of conduct to enable our highest functions. But we don’t always want to know when and where to stop. To tell us this is not what the tiger’s teeth smile for: this is our idea. The gods that tell us when and where to go are also our idea. Sometimes we, or our gene pools, are wise enough to learn from death and extinction. And yet we have not yet, for instance, learned about war, or what civilized behaviors can be sustained for ages. In time our failures to die might define us, and what survives we might call correct.

Treading carefully, circumspect behavior, action’s meetness, conscientiousness Audacious steps, challenge, hazarding, strategy, performance; tests, trials, rites To carry out, honor; living up to standards; walking the walk, finding right track Procedure, protocol; divine guardianship on terms not your own; reality check Perform as ‘move through form’; function properly; testing faith, tempting fate