The Elegant Universe

music of the strings - who’s ever heard of an orchestra with a spheres section?

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene

Part I - The Edge of Knowledge
Ch 1 - Tied Up with String

p15-6
“… particle properties in string theory are the manifestation of one and the same physical feature: the resonant pattern of vibration - the music, so to speak - of fundamental loops of string.”

p17
“The discovery of the [Theory of Everything aka T.O.E.] - … - would provide the firmest foundation on which to build our understanding of the world. It’s discovery would mark a beginning, not an end.”

Brian Greene
Edward Witten
Albert Einstein

Part II - The Dilemma of Space, Time, and the Quanta
Ch 2 - Space, Time, and the Eye of the Beholder

p25
“The most accurate measuring devices in the world confirm that space and time - as measured by distances and durations - are not experienced identically by everyone.”

“Special relativity is not in our bones - we do not feel it.”

p32
“Regardless of relative motion between the source of photons and the observer, the speed of light is always the same.”

p50
“Einstein proclaimed that all objects in the universe are always traveling through spacetime at one fixed speed - that of light.”

p51
“… light does not get old; a photon that emerged from the big bang is the same age today as it was then. There is no passage of time at light speed.”

p52
[re: muon particle accelerated to near light speed]
“Since the mass of the muon increases without limit as its speed approaches that of light, it would require a push with an infinite amount of energy to reach, or to cross the light-barrier.”

Ch 3 - of Warps and Ripples

p61
“… gravity is mysterious. It is a grand force permeating the life of the cosmos, but it is elusive and ethereal.”

p67
“Gravity, according to Einstein, is the warping of time and space.”

p69-70
“In Einstein’s view, the gravitational tether holding the earth in orbit… is the warping of the spacial fabric caused by the Sun’s presence. [mass]“

p70-1
“Moreover, each of us - like any massive object - also warps the spacial fabric in close proximity to our bodies, although the comparatively small mass of a human body makes this a miniscule indentation.”

p72
quoting John Wheeler
“mass grips space by telling it how to curve, space grips mass by telling it how to move.”

p73
“… the mathematics of general relativity shows that in the case of a relatively slow-moving body like the earth revolving around a typical star like the sun, the warping of time actually has a far more significant impact on the earth’s motion than does the warping of space.”

p73
“When no mass is present, space is flat… if a large mass comes on the scene, space will warp, … spread outward from the massive body [like ripples], ultimately settling down into a warped shape that communicates the pull of the new body.”

p74
“… Einstein was able to calculate how fast disturbances to the fabric of the universe travel… precisely the speed of light…”

p75
“… the closer [one] gets to the sun the slower [one's] clock will run. It is in this sense that gravity distorts time as well as space.”

“… feeling accelerated motion is the same as feeling gravitational force…”

p81
“…. mounting evidence indicates that there is a very massive black hole, some two and a half million times as massive as the sun, sitting in the center of our own Milky Way galaxy.”

quasars
“black holes of whose masses may well be billions of times that of the sun.”

p82
“… either the fabric of the universe is stretching or it is shrinking, but it is not simply staying put. The equations of general relativity show this explicitly.”

p83
“… there s simply no space outside the primordial pin point… Instead, the big bang is the eruption of compressed space whose unfurling, like a tidal wave, carries along matter and energy even to this day.”

Ch 4 - Microscopic Weirdness

p104
“… all matter has wave-like character.”

Ch 5 - The Need for a New Theory: General Relativity vs Quantum Mechanics

Part III - The Cosmic Symphony
Ch 6 - Nothing but Music: the Essentials of Superstring Theory

p141
“… the length of a typical string loop is about the Planck length…”

p143
“Just as the different vibrational patterns of a violin string give rise to different musical notes, the different vibrational patterns of a fundamental string give rise to different vibrational masses and force charges.”

p143-4
“According to string theory, the properties of an elementary ‘particle’ - its mass and its various force charges - are determined by the precise resonant pattern of vibration that its internal string executes.”

Planck Tension
Planck Energy
Planck Mass
Planck Scale

p149
“… the Planck mass; it’s about equal to the mass of a grain of dust or a collection of a million average bacteria. And so, the typical mass-equivalent of a vibrating loop in strin gtheory is generally some whole number times the Planck mass. Physicists often express this by saying that the ‘natural’ or ‘typical’ energy scale (and hence mass scale) of string theory is the Planck scale.”

p165
“… even though they are spatially extended they can be described consistently in the framework of quantum mechanics… [A]mong the resonant vibrational patterns there s one that has the exact properties of the graviton, thus ensuring that the gravitation force is an intrinsic part of its structure.”

Ch 7 - The “Super” in Superstrings

p171
“… every electron in the universe, always and forever, spins at one fixed and never changing rate.”

Ch 8 - More Dimension than Meets the Eye

9 or 10 dimensions of Space, 1 dimension of Time
3 sensory dimensions, 6 or 7 infrasensory dimensions

p206
“… extradimensional geometry determines fundamental physical attributes like particle masses and charges that we observe in the usual three large space dimensions of common experience.”

“According to string theory, the universe is made up of tiny strings whose resonant patterns of vibration are the microscopic origin of particle masses and force charges. String theory also requires extra space dimensions that must be curled up to a very small size to be consistent with our never having seen them.”

“… the fundamental properties of the universe are determined, in large measure, by the geometrical size and shape of the extra dimensions.”

Calabi-Yau Manifold

Ch 9 - The Smoking Gun: Experimental Signatures

p222
“… a fundamental property of string theory is that it is highly symmetric, incorporating not only intuitive symmetry principles but respecting as well, the maximal mathematical extension of these principles, supersymmetry.”

Part IV - String Theory and the Fabric of Spacetime
Ch 10 - Quantum Geometry

p232
“On scales as small as a Planck length, a new kind of geometry must emerge, one that aligns with the new physics of string theory. This new geometrical framework is called quantum geometry.”

p239
[re: Garden-hose shaped 2-d universe with superstrings wound around it]
“The new possibility of wound-string configurations implies that the energy of a string in a Garden-hose universe comes from two sources: vibrational motion and winding energy.”

p240
“… it proves convenient to separate the vibrational motion of strings into two categories: uniform and ordinary vibrations. Ordinary vibrations refer to the usual oscillations…; uniform vibrations refer to even simpler motion: the overall motion of string as it slides from one position to another without changing its shape.”

“All string motion is a combination of sliding and oscillating - of uniform and ordinary vibrations.”

“First, uniform vibrational excitations of a string have energies that are inversely proportional to the radius of the circular dimension.”

“Second…, the winding mode energies are directly - not inversely - proportional to the radius.”

“These two observation establish that large valves of the radius imply large winding energies and small vibration energies, whereas small values of the radius imply small winding energies and large vibration energies.”

p240-1
“… For any large circular radius of a Garden-hose universe, there is a corresponding small circular radius for which the winding energies of strings in the former universe equal the vibration energies of strings in the latter, and vibration energies of strings in the former equal winding energies of strings in the latter. As physical properties are sensitive to the total energy of a string configuration - … - there is no physical distinction between these geometrically distinct forms for the Garden-hose universe.”

p241
“… string theory claims that there is no difference whatsoever between a ‘fat’ Garden-hose universe and a ‘thin’ one.”

p249
“… if the spatial shape of a dimension is circular, there are two different yet related operational definitions of distance in string theory.”

p249-50
“The first definition uses strings that are not wound around circular dimension, whereas the second definition uses strings that are wound.”

p251
“According to the light string modes, the universe is large and expanding; according to the heavy modes it is tiny and contracting.”

p255
“… it might be possible for two different Calabi-Yau shapes, chosen for the extra curled-up dimensions in string theory, to give rise to identical physics.”

orbifolding

p259
“… mirror symmetry proclaims that particular pairs of Calabi-Yau spaces, pairs that were previously thought to be completely unrelated, are now intimately connected by string theory.”

Ch 11 - Tearing the Fabric of Space

p264
“A wormhole… is a bridge or tunnel that provides a shortcut from one region of the universe to another.”

wormhole

p265
“Black holes provide another compelling example in which the fabric of space is stretched to its limit.

Ch 12 - Beyond Strings: In Search of M-Theory

p287
“First, M-theory has eleven dimensions (ten space and one time).”

“The second feature… is that it contains vibrating strings, but it also includes other objects: vibrating two-dimensional membranes, undulating three-dimensional blobs (called “three-branes”)…”

Ch 13 - Black Holes: A String / M-Theory Perspective

p321
“… distinguishing features? One… is the black hole’s mass… Research has revealed that [others] are the electric and certain other force charges a black hole can carry, as well as the rate at which it spins.”

“… mass, force charges, and spin- … distinguish one elementary particle from another.”

“The similarity of the defining traits has led a number of physicists over the years to the strange speculation that black holes might actually be giant elementary particles.”

p331
“… the new massless pattern of string vibration arising from the space-tearing conifold transition is the microscopic description of a massless particle into which the black hole was transmuted.”

“… as a Calabi-yau shape goes through a space-tearing conifold transition, an initially massive black hole becomes every lighter until it is massless and then it transmutes into a massless particle - such as a massless photon - which in string theory is nothing but a single string executing a particular vibrational pattern.”

p332
“… [studied] kinds of black holes… and elementary particles are actually two phases of the same underlying stringy material.”

Ch 14 - Reflections on Cosmology

Part V - Unification in the Twenty-First Century
Ch 15 - Prospects

= = = =

Superstring Links

Universal Cycles and the Lives & Times of great Cultures

considering Spengler’s the Decline of the West in theAbysmal terms.

see The Decline of the West
vol 1
vol 2

Oswald Spengler proposes that when people assemble to a certain point, when they develop Cities based upon a fundamental Idea, they embark upon expressing a particular Destiny through the lifetime of the Civilisation in question, through to its inevitable death.

The pattern of the Cultural lifetime is described in terms of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. (see Spengler’s Civilization Model)

So the lifetime of a Culture and Civilzation follow the pattern of human lifetimes, as well as the celestial patterns in the play of light across the celestial canvas.

The 13 Months labeled with the signs of the 13 Constellations of the Zodiac

[n.b. At the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox every person in the world, regardless of whether they live at the Equator, in the Tropics, in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere or the far reaches of the Boreal and Austral Poles, lives through a Day and Night of equal length.]

As a civilization develops, grows, differentiates, expands, codifies, rigidifies, and decomposes into the chaos from which its sprouting successor will emerge, so do the patterns of time cycle.

As with the Daily round of the Sun, from Midnight to Dawn, Midday, Dusk, and the return to Midnight.

As with the New Moon, which waxes to Full and wanes back to New.

As with our own growth, development, maturation, and final dissolution.

For articles regarding light, biological cycles, the body, & health, see also:
Chronobiology
The Light Book
Human Development and Fertility Cycles
Time and Health

5 Months, 4 Cherubim and 1 non-living Symbol

Consider the following symbols, signs and elements from the image above:

Taurus ~ Earth
Leo ~ Fire
Libra ~ Aether
the Eagle ~ Water
Aquarius ~ Air

Spengler describes the development of the Culture as emerging from the chaos of the dissolution of its predecessor.

As the elements necessary coalesce, the Culture’s development accelerates, (as with the change in Sunlight as we pass the Vernal Equinox), it establishes itself aggressively against its equal-others, falls into codification of its ideology, intellectualises its function, and eventually declines into senility.

Earth is the foundational element, from which the plants grow, and stake their claim of the ground with their roots. The establishment of the foundational elements.

Fire is the energetic application and expression of will.

Aether, the numenous ephemera representing Libra, the only sign of the zodiac (from Greek for circle of animals, as with the Chinese system) that is not a living being, floats over the Summer Solstice, and the longest Day. It represents the ideal representation and expression of a Culture, in the form of the architecture of its greatest Cities.

Water, the condensation of the ideals represented by the Aetherial into a code by which those who fall under the influence of the culture may quickly adapt to its customs. This stage represents the beginning of the increase in abstraction into intellectual models over those connected to direct individual experience and observable phenomena. A distillation of the ideal, coagulating it away from its nebulous perfection.

Air, the element of the sword, the rational mind, the intellect, or in Spengler’s terms, the waking-consciousness. The over-intellectualisation of the civilisation’s operation, abstract and detached from the facts of living, signifies the descend of the culture into senility and stagnation.

This bears further research, however, upon initial consideration, a compelling pattern reveals itself, regardless of geography, ethnicity, or time period. It bears both cyclical and linear characteristics, suggesting a spiral or helical structure.

compare Spengler’s pattern of the life of Culture to Arguelles’ reanalysis of History according to the Mayan Great Cycle.

the image in Large

from Time Is Art dot Net

Abysmal Days, Weeks and Months

reform calendar symmetry and abysmal holiday reckoning

theAbymal Calendar reform thingy

13 month year - months 6, (1, 4, 8, 11)
365 day year - new year’s day
4 quarter year - week 6 (1, 4, 8, 11)

4 +1 Abysmal Days

theAbysmal Calendar’s 365 Calendar Days mark 4+1 Days as particularly Abysmal, as denoted here

4+1 Abysmal Days
full-sized image
The Winter Solstice marks the bottom Day of the 4+1

month 8 day 3 Wednesday
month 11 day 10 Wednesday
new year’s day
month 1 day 17 Wednesday
month 4 day 24 Wednesday

These four Wednesdays divide the Calendar year into four quarters of 90 Weekdays, provided the count does not include these 4 Wednesdays. They also mark the 4 Seasons of the Year, according to Daylight, and may further subdivide the 4 Quarters of the Year into Eighths.

month 11 day 10 falls on november 5th on the Gregorian Calendar.
month 1 day 17 falls on february 5th.
These denote the boundaries of the darkest part of the Year, in terms of daylight hours, at its darkest at the Winter Solstice.

month 1 day 17 and month 4 day 24 (may 7th) denote the period when the amount of daylight increases at an accelerating pace, at its highest rate of change at the Vernal Equinox.

month 4 day 24 and month 8 day 3 (aug 6th) bound the brightest days of the Year, at its brightest at the Summer Solstice.

month 8 day 3 to month 11 day 10 mark the period when the amount of daylight decreases at an accelerated pace, at its highest rate of change at the Autumnal Equinox.

4 Quarters of 13 Weeks

The 364 Weekdays of theAbysmal Calendar divide easily into 4 Quarters of 91 Days each, as denoted by the Calendar’s observaces for the 4 Cardinal Points of the Year.

also:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 … +13 = 91

4 Quarters of theAbysmal Calendar Year
full-scale image

Each Quarter of 13 Weeks reflects the number of months in theAbysmal Year. How could one resist comparing?

The 4 Quarters, divided into 13 Weeks, as per daylight (at 49 degrees Lat), appear like so:

1st Quarter
Winter Solstice to Vernal Equinox

2nd Quarter
Vernal Equinox to Summer Solstice

3rd Quarter
Summer Solstice to Autumnal Equinox

4th Quarter
Autumnal Equinox to Winter Solstice

the 1st and 4th Quarters reflect each other as do the 2nd and 3rd Quarters, albeit the daylight hours diminish through the 3rd and 4th Quarters and develop through the 1st and 2nd Quarters.

4+1 of 13 Months

see the following for the full tour, below, a sketch of the background.
taurus-leo-eagle-aquarius
13 months, constellations…
months constellations and the zodiac

In the book of Ezekiel and Revelations in the Bible, the authors describe 4 cherubim, each with four faces, those of a Bull, a Lion, an Eagle and a Man, which bore two Wheels, one which remained fixed, the other which rose up and down.

the symbols resonate with the four signs of the western zodiac: Taurus, Leo, the 13th zodiacal constellation of Ophiuchus represented by the Eagle, and Aquarius. The remaining Month gains distinctions as Libra, the only symbol of the Zodiac (meaning circle of animals) that does not represent an a living being. The Summer Solstice occurs during Month 6, represented by Libra, thus stands opposite theAbysmal Day at the Winter Solstice, giving it symmetry across the Year, and by an order of magnitude.

the 13 zodiacal symbols mapped over the 13 Months of theAbymal Calendar, beginning with Aries and Month 0 at the Winter Solstice.

Interestingliest, the months of the Bull, Lion, Eagle and the Man all contain one of the 4 Abysmal Wednesdays.

full size image

Such symmetry of form and imagery may be imposed upon the 13 Weeks of each Quarter, as divided above.

= = = =
This does not represent a recommendation of using these symbols and this imagery to name the Weeks and Months of the Year. Such remains always up to the individual Calendar user. This exercise remains in finding resonance with existing time systems in unravelling the conundrum of time left to us from our pre-historic predecessors.

Aztec Architecture

Images of urban design that considers celestial phenomena.

see also
theAbysmal Calendar
Timing Gestation
= = = =
from
Aztec Architecture

aztec shrine of the gods

= = = =
from
Aztec Empire

Founding of Tenochtitlan from codex Mendoza, c. 1541 - 42 CE
= = = =
from
The Aztec

Avenue of the Dead
Teotihuacan
Pre-Aztec city designed based on celestial events.

Moon Pyramid
Teotihuacan

from this site on Tenochtitlan

a map of the city

see also:
Guide to the Aztec Sun Stone and Calendar
Aztec Calendar and Aztec Sun Stone Links
Ancient Calendars, Astronomy and Numerology

Guide to the Aztec Sun Stone and Calendar

A nice synopsis of this time mandala

Aztec Calendar 

Ancient Calendars, Astronomy, and Numerology

Pi, Calendar Numerology, and the Aztec Sun Stone

Earth/matriX - Science in Ancient Artworks
Essays:
Reciprocal of Seven and Pi in the Ancient Reckoning System
The Reciprocal of Seven and Pi in the Ancient Reckoning System
by Charles William Johnson

The Earth Matrix Site explores the notion that ancient cultures shared a common calendar system with several components, among other subjects. There’s a lot of considered information to peruse.

The Aztec Sun Stone, often called the Aztec Calendar Stone, encodes much numerological information in its symbols. This essay examines how Pi has been calculated using intergers instead of decimals. Pi is a representation of the relationship of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

Read on.

Seven Days of the Week

Why Sunday to Saturday anyway?

Conclusive answers have yet to be discovered. It appears that weekdays, symbolising the Sun, Moon, and 5 visible Planets, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. This has been adopted globally, with the names of the weekdays particular to the language of the user in question.

The Chinese system equivocates each of the 5 visible Planets with one of the 5 Elements of their holistic system of time, medicine, cooking, health and so on, based in the elegant simplicity of tao. Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, Earth.

from ancient Greece:
Gaia, the Earth gave birth to Ouranos, an elder Sky deity, who then married her. They parented the 12 Titans, including Cronos (Saturn a cthonic or Earth deity), the 3 Cyclops, the 3 Hecantonchires and the 3 Erinyes. Gaia persuaded Cronos to emasculate Ouranos while he was in Gaia (Tartarus - the bowels of the Earth). Ouranos severed generative organs fell into the sea, with a great foamy wash, and from it rose Aphrodite.

Quite a story. The separation of Heaven and Earth.

In the Islands of the Pacific, the Trickster Hero Maui severs the arms of the Octopus holding the Sky to the Earth, which fall to the Ocean below, creating the Islands.

Or the Angels of Heaven are cast through the Earth and into an Abyss. Or a fall from Heaven to Earth for man, the great Lapse of Adam and Eve.

And in the I-Ching, the radial symmetry of the 8 trigrams and 64 hexagrams depicts a circular path from Earth to Heaven to Earth again.

All of which is to say, why are our Weekdays in the order they are?

Heaven to Earth

As we stand on the ground, there is a limit to what we can see. In symbolic terms, beneath our feet is the underworld, the Abyss of the unknown, unseen and unknowable. Above the clouds, the brilliance of the sun, the depths of the sky, and the blackness of space.

The Sun is our source of light, heat, energy, of the matter of the Earth from which we’ve sprung, whether through divine intervention or fortune or d’oh, begins every Week. The following Days represent bodies that reflect the light.

the order of the Planets (Saturn is last where the sequence is cyclical).

from the nearest the Sun to the furthest:
Mercury, Venus, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn

from the least to most massive:
Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter

from the shortest synodic period to the longest:
Moon, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Mars
from their brightness when at their brightest (apparent magnitude):
Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn

according to the order of the 5 Chinese elements:

the cycle of creation:
Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn

the cycle of control:
Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn

In considering Heaven and Earth as compliments, that is, they define all that lies between them, it enrichens the otherwise opaque meaning in the symbolism of our weekdays. How does the energy and light of the Sun filter its way to us in the course of the changes of the Day and Year?

Much of it is reflected at us via the Moon, and some via the planets.
The Sun is the source of the Moon and all of the Planets, and as such, the cycle of creation may hold a key to a better understanding of their relationship.

If so, then the cycle of control could be used to denote the 5-Day Periods of the 360-Day Reform Calendar, from Earth upwards, thus:
Saturn, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter.

Daily Divisions and Divine Demarcation

Applying existing Calendar Imagery to the International Reform Calendar.

Time & Relativity & Scheduling
360 degrees of Space and Time
Dividing the Day

The Chinese Calendar:

Rat - North - Winter - Black Warrior
Ox
Tiger
Hare - East - Spring - Green Dragon
Dragon
Snake
Horse - South - Summer - Red Bird
Sheep
Monkey
Cock - West - Autumn - White Tiger
Dog
Pig

The cyclical observation reflects the Abysmal symbolism used in the Synaptic Reform Calendar. The first Two-Hour period spans Midnight - the equivalent to the Winter Solstice, the New Moon, the deepest depths of the Ocean from which we sprang, and from the vast darkness of wherever our planet, Sun and Moon have come.

The Rat, the Hare, the Horse and the Cock representing the four corners as it were.

Each of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac represents a 2-hour period, as well as a Lunar Month, a Year, a Zodiacal age, and other measures besides. As the Zodiac itself, as with Aries to Pisces, has 12 animals. If Libra were inserted between the Snake and the Horse, it would allow a symbolic pairing that might make the Reform Calendar more familiar to those who observe the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese Calendars, and doubtlessly others.

Gregorian Calendar

As the global standard for daykeeping, adopting a similar equivalence may prove inviting. Inserting a 13th Month between June and July would allow the continued use of the Gregorian progression of January to December.

National Example

Canada, an Abysmal Northern nation if ever there was one, has divided its national area into 10 provinces and 3 territories. Each could represent a Month of the Year.
The provincial and territorial flowers, animals, birds, and so on, could be used in the attachment of symbolism to the Canadian version of the Synaptic Reform Calendar.

The United States of America have retained the number 13 in much of their symbolism, reflecting the original 13 colonies. These, too, could easily be transposed onto the Months of the United States of American Calendar.

France could have Wine Months, Swiss Cheese Months, Indian Tree Months, Japanese Blossom Months, Polynesian Fish Months and so on.

Provided the International use of the Synaptic Reform Calendar remained strictly Numerical, in a universal format. Half the fun would be in comparing them, no?

The Power of the Myth of the Planets and the Week

Calendar Reform and the 7 Weekdays.

Comparing symbol systems, as if their inherent form and position were intentional, perhaps to survive in dormancy through a period of widespread lethargic oblivion.

Regardless, the current Weekdays observed in English & the Reformed order of Weekdays (which switches Tuesday and Friday)

Notice how the Chinese System, when arranged vertically, moves from the Sun to the Earth, from the divine ideal conception to the material intentional manifestation, which reflects the structure of the I Ching.

Babylonian Symbols for the Planets & Zodiac & the 13-Month Calendar

In the Reformed Weekday Sequence, the Week begins with the Sun, then the Moon and Venus, both feminine symbols, then Hermaphroditic Mercury, then Jupiter and Mars, both males symbols, and finally Saturn.

More importantly, the Reformed Weekday Sequence progresses in the order of the relative brightness of the object as visible from Earth. Also the Reform places the 2 inner planets, Venus & Mercury, together with the Sun & Moon.

Chinese Symbols for Planets & Elements & Cycle of Creation

From the Sun, the Heavens, the Moon, then descends through the five elements, Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth. The progression from the ideal via the Creative arrangements of the elements, ending with Earth, the physical world.

Symbolically speaking, this relatively minor change would better suit the more widespread belief systems associated with these particular symbols.

However, this remains but a suggestion.

tao, i-ching, squares and pairs

Terence & Dennis McKenna

Part 3: the I-Ching, and the King Wen Sequence

Quoting from The Invisible Landscape, by the McKenna brothers.

Chapter 8: The I-Ching as Lunar Calculator and Astronomical Calculator
Chapter 9: Time, Change and Becoming

the King Wen Sequence
(read from left to right, top to bottom)

“The earliest arrangement of the hexagrams of the I Ching is the King Wen sequence. It was this sequence that was chosen to be studied as a possible basis for a new model of the relationship of time to the ingression and conservation of novelty. In studying the kinds of order in the King Wen sequence of the I Ching a number of remarkable discoveries were made. It is well known that hexagrams in the King Wen sequence occur in pairs. The second member of each pair is obtained by inverting the first. In any sequence of the sixty-four hexagrams their are eight hexagrams that remain unchanged when inverted. In the King Wen sequence, these eight hexagrams are paired with hexagrams in which each line of the first hexagram has become its opposite (yang (—) changed to yin (- -) and vice versa)”

“No known basis exists for determining why pairs are arranged as they are or why one member of a pair precedes another.

First Order Transitions in the King Wen Sequence
“First order of difference refers to how many lines change as one moves through the King Wen sequence from one hexagram to the next. the first order of difference will always be an integer between one and six.”

“1. Order among the thirty-two pairs was determined by a wish to absolutely exclude transition situations with a value of five.
2. order among the thirty-two pairs was secondarily determined by a similar wish to absolutely exclude transition situations with a value of one. (53-54 & 61-62)
3. A three to one ratio of even to odd transitions was maintained.”

Franklin’s Magic Square
the sum of each column and row is 260 - equivalent to the number of days in human gestation, and the 260-Day Calendar.

Franklin’s Magic Square

16	50	9	55	11	53	14	52	= 260
1	63	8	58	6	60	3	61	= 260
64	2	57	7	59	5	62	4	= 260
59	15	56	10	54	12	51	13	= 260
48	18	41	23	43	21	46	20	= 260
33	31	40	26	38	28	35	29	= 260
32	34	25	29	27	37	30	36	= 260
17	47	24	42	22	44	19	45	= 260
= 260	= 260	= 260	= 260	= 260	= 260	= 260	= 260