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Chien Tung

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In watching "Siren", there is a scene in the ship's compartment where "she" is sitting next to a young man shaking what looks to be a round bamboo container with numerous wooden sticks.

This denotes the ancient Chinese fortune telling method known as Chien Tung or Oracle of Kwan Yin(in Buddist tradition) and is based on the "Book of Changes"

Per Websters...

Book of Changes or I Ching (ē jĭng, ē chĭng) , ancient Chinese book of prophecy and wisdom. The oldest parts of its text are thought to have attained their present form in the century before Confucius. Its images and concepts were taken partly from oracles and partly from the mythology, history, and poetry of earlier ages. The I Ching consists of eight trigrams, corresponding to the powers of nature, which according to legend were copied by an emperor from the back of a river creature. The trigrams are used to interpret the future with the textual help of supplementary definitions, intuitions, and Confucian commentary

.

..It is one of the first known methods of fortune telling, and has been used in China for hundreds of years. The Chinese perform this very personal method not as a "fortune-telling game" for self amusement, but as a naturally based, historically practiced, and religious art in their temples.

There are 78 sticks, each written with a distinct number on them, which when referenced with a chart, will tell a person his luck, based on the numerical draw of the wooden stick..The sticks are called "cue chiam" which loosely translates to "asking for a sign". Once a question has been put forth, the cylinder with the 78 aforementioned sticks of wood, all equal in length, are held in a slanted position, and gently shaken until a single piece of wood falls out, each of which contains a unique message. That message is then cross-referenced with ancient texts and the fortune is told.

The numerical representation of the stick he draws is

l l l

+

l l

Now, that would seem to add up to a 5 since only a single number is represented on each stick. But i cannot find what its meaning is...

It would seem to be a harbinger of doom, since his fate is to wind up dead of exposure, but thats only guessing...

anyway, if someone knows or can find a definition of the 78 numbers, feel free to add...

There is a second scene that also caught my attention. Immediately after the "Siren's" attempt to seduce him in the hospital, Frank is next seen driving his jeep along a country road. Seemingly exhausted, he closes his eyes occasionally and rubs them with his hand. He then runs into a figure in the shape of the "Siren" and comes to a stop. He gets out, but the body is no where to be seen, yet in the background is a solitary white cross by the side of the road which usually denotes the place of a fatal accident. Yet, after checking the surrounding area, he finds no body, and gets back into his Jeep and drives off. Or so it seems, actually, he is being shown an alternative life without the group. As this parallel life draws to a close with Jordan in the arms of the Gehenna devil, we see emergency vehicles surrounding a hypothermic Frank , a voice in the background saying "he has been sitting out here way too long" nearly dying of exposure. I wonder if the white cross was meant not for the apparition that was the "siren" but to mark the place that Frank would have died of exposure had he not been rescued, similar to those men on the ship who eventually succumbed to repeated bouts of exposure. Frank saved in the nick of time, sent to the hospital where he checks himself out in a delusional state, and all Catherine can do is call Peter Watts? Next he is found walking outside along a desolate road very similar to the one he was just rescued from, and along come Laura, explaining that he was following the same path as those found dead on the ship, their death a direct result of repeated exposure to the elements...my question is where was Catherine? Did Peter send Laura out to find him?.....

Just a thought..

The Fourth Horseman

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"He died from exposure to the elements"

"KOU : intense, driven encounter, at once transitory and enduring, that is the reflection of primal yin and yang; meet, encounter, copulate; mating animals; magnetism, gravity; to be gripped by impersonal forces."

Greetings my friend,

The Hexagram depicted in the episode is hexagram 44 (Hexagrams read as two separate trigrams then traced, like two co-ordinates, on a chart to reveal the completed hexagram, I do hope that makes sense I couldn't quite word it effectively.) It symbolises the way from the light to the passive and seductive dark. A point of potential and non-innocence far from the actual and innocent. It is the path from the firm to the yielding, emphasized in the image by the using of the concept of fate as a tool to control the people (i.e. "It is supposed to be this way, it is fated."). My belief is that it 'reads' the Millennium Group not Frank, being an almost 'too perfect' description of the Group's descent into the abyss throughout Season's Two and Three. As Frank seems unsure of the consequences of bringing the group into his family's life it seems that Tamara is giving him a last chance to effect change, as Scully put so divinely in 'All Souls' "...but what if we could stop, pause to take stock of each precious moment before it passes? Might we then see the endless forks in the road that have shaped a life? And, seeing those choices, choose another path?."

I wonder if any of you reached the same conclusion I did with regards to Tamara, namely that beneath the wiles and obscurities is essentially a benign and positive creature who is simply what she is and is not acting with 'malice aforethought'. Much of what we see in Tamara reminds me of the occult 'elementals' otherwise known as Undines, Nymphs, Naiads and Merfolk. Undines are akin to the fluids in man - they are changeable and treacherous, apparently, because they follow their own laws, but these are incomprehensible to the human mind, and their working is often incalculable. Almost all the Water Elementals are beautiful, graceful and attractive but if a human being yields to their advances they will first entice and then destroy him. Water is the great agent for purification and fertilisation. All forms of life depend upon its presence, and without it the richest land becomes barren, but uncontrolled it becomes a terrible and destructive force. Water is a negative, passive Element, therefore it tends to attract any positive, active object to it. Water has the property of reflecting whatever is near or above it, and in the same way the Elementals reflect and intensify the mental processes of those who have dealings with them. Thus their friendship or obedience is of great practical value in the practice of meditation, memory, and certain forms of clairvoyance, but in whatever dealings a human being has with the water sprites, the greatest care must always be exercised otherwise you may end up frozen to death at the road side I guess.

Throughout the episode Tamara appears to be an agent of reflection, a mirror of the psyche capable of adapting her image and language in order to effect the most effective introspection in the viewer. I love the idea that she may be speaking in tongues mirroring the biblical phenomena which is the 'hearing' not the 'speaking' as experienced by Frank. The Bible notes that there were over fourteen foreigners representing many nations, speaking different languages during the apostolic preaching yet each person heard the disciples praising God in their own language. The miracle was in the hearing of the people which is conveyed to Frank when he replays the tape of Tamara and hears her native tongue as she, in my mind, is nothing but a reflection and meaningless without the reflective process in occurrence.

As for Lara (funky hat). I reached the conclusion that Peter had despatched her in response to Catherine's call seeing how Lara became Peter's muse in the latter episodes. I can't imagine Catherine would request Lara's help considering the decidedly awkward air when she interrupts Lara and Frank's homework (just watch how Lara stares at Catherine, it is absolute magic! A fine moment indeed.)

Hope this helps rather than hinders.

Till then...

eth.snafu

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  • 3 months later...
There are 78 sticks, each written with a distinct number on them, which when referenced with a chart, will tell a person his luck, based on the numerical draw of the wooden stick..The sticks are called "cue chiam" which loosely translates to "asking for a sign". Once a question has been put forth, the cylinder with the 78 aforementioned sticks of wood, all equal in length, are held in a slanted position, and gently shaken until a single piece of wood falls out, each of which contains a unique message. That message is then cross-referenced with ancient texts and the fortune is told.

The numerical representation of the stick he draws is

l l l

+

l l

i have done the 'asking for a sign' in a Buddhist temple in China, and as it was explained to me, the lower the number on the stick the better. (granted, it may have been simplified for visitors and the 78 sticks in the cylinder may not have actually represented the numbers 1 - 78 (i got a very low number).) they had pre-printed fortunes, in Chinese of course, which they scanned for me and said was very good.

so as far as i know it's simply low numbers are more fortunate; 5 would be very good. (although, maybe it wasn't....)

- nothing

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