One of the big news stories in the US this week is the nomination, by President Bush, of Harriet Miers to serve a life-time appointment on the Supreme Court.  Bush’s conservative allies have been up in arms because they believe she is woefully inexperienced (she has never served as a judge and never presented a case in higher level federal courts) and her ideological commitments are not clear.  Liberal opponents of the President are nervously biding their time: happy to see conservatives attack Bush, but wary that Miers may turn out to be very harmful to social justice in her decisions.  Senate confirmation hearings promise to be tense and combative.

    But no one knows very much about her, a situation that seems perfect for the I Ching.  The question I posed was: what should we know about Harriet Miers?  And the oracle returned a dark and foreboding message.

     The divinitory details: the question elicited Hexagram 36, "Darkening of the Light," with no moving lines.  Pretty straightforward.

    The general image is negative: "Here the sun has sunk under the earth and is therefore darkened."  It portends a time when "a man of dark nature is in a position of authority and brings harm to the wise and able man."  The interpretation of this message, however, depends upon who we understand to be the "man of dark nature."

     The I Ching might be telling us that Miers herself is the dark person.  On this reading, her appointment is clearly a bad thing.  The oracle could be saying that we (by which I mean Americans of a more liberal bent) need to be very careful in the adverse political environment; we must maintain our "inner light" as court decisions are taken that darken our prospects.  We should not try to resist outwardly what might be a conservative turn in the Supreme Court; rather, we must be "cautious and reserved," biding our time, perhaps until other opportunities come to appoint more qualified and sagacious justices to the court.

     There is another reading, however.  If we read the "dark man" as the conservative critics of Miers, the perspective of the message changes to her point of view.  She is the one who is facing difficult circumstances, as her confirmation hearings are likely to be.  The oracle could be giving her advice on how to handle the assault:

One should not needlessly awaken overwhelming enmity by inconsiderate behavior.  In such times, one ought not to fall in with the practices of others; neither should one drag them censoriously into the light.  In social intercourse one should not try to be all-knowing.  One should let many things pass, without being duped.

     Is the I Ching suggesting that she should not answer back to her critics, just let them attack her and wait for all of it to pass?  If she perseveres she might be able to "overcome even the greatest adversities."  This is pretty much what her White House supporters will also tell her: don’t give specific legal answers, be polite, do not be drawn into unnecessary controversy, just keep your head down and your mouth shut and you will come out with a seat on the most powerful court in the country.

     It is also possible that the oracle is sending us both messages: for liberals Miers represents a "darkening of the light" in terms of important social policy and the law; for herself, the "darkening of the light" is the shorter-term discomfort of the confirmation process.  She will not have to persevere too long; the country may have to persevere for years.