Semanticus F. Alpaerts suggests in De Denkbeeldige Ruimte (1980) that the I Ching or Book of Changes, originating from mythical antiquity, is the first semantic lexicon of mankind. In this Chinese classic, unquestionably one of the most influential books in the world’s literature, 64 chapters are coded with a double triplet line code called hexagrams.

Alpaerts used the Wilhelm (1971) translation to show a possible connection between the code lines from the I Ching and the codon encoding in the Semantic Colour Space. The open (- -) and closed (—) lines from the I Ching correspond with respectively the 0’s and 1’s from his semantic coding system. This way he could associate the concepts described in the 64 chapters of the I Ching, with the eight primary colours and their combinations (8×8) from his classification. Later, his hypothesis was confirmed by a comparative research he conducted on the similarities between his keyword-colour classifications, in which the concepts from the I Ching form an important part, and the empirical data from sociologist Eva Heller’s word-to-colour association study (Alpaerts, 1993).

The following list includes I Ching chapter titles with links to pages in the DSD (between brackets: if the title is not in the DSD, a synonym), chapter numbers, digital coding (hexagram), and colour combinations.

chapter title	chapters	hexagram	colour combination
creative heaven	1	111:111	YL:YL
the receptive	2	000:000	BL:BL
difficulty at the beginning	3	010:001	GR:BK
youthful folly (inexperienced, foolish)	4	100:010	BR:GR
waiting	5	010:111	GR:YL
the fight	6	111:010	YL:GR
the army	7	000:010	BL:GR
the all-encompassing	8	010:000	GR:BL
the taming power of the small (newborn)	9	110:111	WH:YL
performing	10	111:011	YL:PL
peace	11	000:111	BL:YL
standstill (stagnation, blocking)	12	111:000	YL:BL
fellowship with men (together, community)	13	111:101	YL:RD
great possessing (imperium)	14	101:111	RD:YL
humbling	15	000:100	BL:BR
rage (rancor, attack)	16	001:000	BK:BL
pursue	17	011:001	PS:BK
correcting (addressing)	18	100:110	BR:WH
nearing, rapprochement	19	000:011	BL:PL
viewing (perception)	20	110:000	WH:BL
biting through (stick-it-out)	21	101:001	RD:BK
adorning (embellish)	22	100:101	BR:RD
splitting apart (slivering)	23	100:000	BR:BL
the turning point	24	000:001	BL:BK
innocence	25	111:001	YL:BK
the taming power of the great (steering)	26	100:111	BR:YL
the corners of the mouth, providing nourishment (feeding, grooming, open mouth)	27	100:001	BR:BK
great exceeding (overloaded)	28	011:110	PL:WH
the abyss	29	010:010	GR:GR
the clinging, fire (flame, attach)	30	101:101	RD:RD
influence, wooing (courtship)	31	011:100	PL:BR
duration, constancy	32	001:110	BK:WH
retreat	33	111:100	YL:BR
the power of the great (powerful)	34	001:111	BK:YL
progress	35	101:000	RD:BL
darkening of the Light (hiding)	36	000:101	BL:RD
family	37	110:101	WH:RD
polarising (contrasts)	38	101:011	RD:PL
obstruction	39	010:100	GR:BR
liberation	40	001:010	BK:GR
reduction	41	100:011	BR:PL
increase, beneficial, useful (growth, functional)	42	110:001	WH:BK
resoluteness, determination	43	011:111	PL:YL
meeting	44	111:110	YL:WH
gathering together, massing (assemble)	45	011:000	PL:BL
pushing upward	46	000:110	BL:WH
oppression, exhaustion (depletion, sucked out)	47	011:010	PL:GR
the well	48	010:110	GR:WH
revolution, moulting	49	011:101	PL:RD
the cauldron (terrine)	50	101:110	RD:WH
the arousing, shock, thunder	51	001:001	BK:BK
keeping still, mountain (still, not moving)	52	100:100	BR:BR
development, gradual progress	53	110:100	WH:BR
the marrying maiden (concubine)	54	001:011	BK:PL
abundance, fullness	55	001:101	BK:RD
the wanderer, travelling (wanderlust)	56	101:100	RD:BR
the penetrating, wind	57	110:110	WH:WH
the joyous, lake (gay)	58	011:011	PL:PL
dispersion, dissolution, (scattering)	59	110:010	WH:GR
limitation, moderation (delimitation, restriction)	60	010:011	GR:PL
inner truth	61	110:011	WH:PL
preponderance of the small (unremarkable, incompetent)	62	001:100	BK:BR
after completion	63	010:101	GR:RD
before completion	64	101:010	RD:GR

The striking cubic shape of the temple at Arkona is also found among the Celts. According to C. Schuchardt, the Slavs would have adopted this type of building from the Celts, while its radiation centre could be found in Byzantium and Armenia. The Temples of Garz were of the same square type. The outer walls of the temple of Arkona were made of carved and polychrome wood, on which rested a red roof.

Inside, curtains were stretched around four pillars, creating an enclosed space for the statue of Svetovit, the Slavic supreme god. (Vynke, 1969). He had four heads, facing the four corners of the globe, thus representing his all-encompassing and central power. This cubic temple had an oracle that predicted the future using a white horse and a dice. In the temple was the treasury of the tribe. Helmold situates this supreme god in heaven, but there is no evidence for this. On the contrary, the clear line that we can draw from nature worship to the temple cult proves that East Slavic religion has always remained bound to the earthly, material things (Vyncke, 1969).

I. Michiels, red.