In the last episode, we looked at what America is hiding in this election year presided over by the Water Dragon, what that Water Dragon would bring to light in unpredictable and explosive ways.

What Is Mitt Romney

What came out was the Calvinist ethic that has shaped American culture since its beginnings, the ethic of the Elect, those whom God gives wealth and power and who are guaranteed eternal salvation, and the Preterite or Damned from birth, who are locked into poverty and have no hope of redemption. This social and theological structure is guaranteed by the literal reading of Christian scriptures.

Anything not contained explicitly and literally in these scriptures is to be rejected; anything that is contained explicitly and literally in these scriptures must be followed unwaveringly. These ideas were described by Change as the Ghosts that Haunt Old Tombs, ghosts from which America must disentangle itself if it is to have a hope of reconnecting to its great mandate for transformation. The theme for it all might be this “koan” from Daodejing (Book I, 18), which I’ve recently translated:

When the Great Way is forgotten

humanity and morality appear.

When intellect and erudition appear

the Great Fraud begins.

When the families of men can no longer live in harmony

duty, devotion and parental love appear.

When the nation is completely benighted

loyalty and patriotism appear.

Thus we hear of those

who “serve with devotion.”

 

So, quite a while ago I asked two other questions that might give us a bit of insight into the whole circus of Election Year.

The first question was: What is Romney hiding?

The Response showed him as someone trapped and imprisoned by the beliefs, duties and privileges of the Elect, completely cut off from the life-water or Well of common humanity.

47: Confining

I Ching Hexagram 47 and Glyph

47 Confining/Oppression KUN

The old character shows the tree of life inside an enclosure, a big mouth or ramshackle house that threatens to engulf it.

This is an ongoing process (63 Core Theme) coming from his past that will continue unchanged into the future, something that he will not deviate from. It reflects his upbringing and beliefs, his social position and his agenda. Concealing this past and, in fact, trying to turn his “crimes” into virtues colors all his attempts to communicate, to express the spirit in the human community (58 Relating Figure). But Change says the words he uses “are not to be trusted.”

Though this question was posed a while ago, the statements that he made (then tried to deny) about the “47%” are a perfect example of the ethic of the Elect:

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what … 47% who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.” Romney’s role, he said, “is not to worry about those people” for, as we have seen in the Calvinist ethic, they are damned from birth and cannot be helped or saved. And it is God who has made this judgment.

The single Transforming Line (first line/Beginnings) brings up a striking image of where he is imprisoned and just what he is hiding. It shows someone who has been punished for serious crimes – “buttocks flayed with bamboo rods” – retreating into the shadows to hide what has occurred. I can’t help but think of all the rumors circulating about his very shady financial dealings and “out-sourcing” on the one hand, and his complete collusion with the very rich, greedy and fundamentalist Christians who embody the spirit of Calvin in our times on the other. But whatever these hidden shadows are, they stand little chance of being kept secret when the Water Dragon is moving in the Ghost River.