This week starts with the Spring Equinox, also known as Ostara, and as Chen fen.
Basics on the hexagrams:
5 – Xu/ Needing/ Nourishment
Water above, Heaven below (Water element)
Month: 2nd month of the lunar year- March
Opposite: 35- Jing: Proceeding Forward
Inverse: 6- Song: Conflict/ Contention
Mutual: 38- Kui: Diversity
Changing line: 1: “Initial Nine: …One in need waits in the outskirts. Do not take risks and enhance trouble. Maintaining perseverance is beneficial. No fault. Doing nothing abnormal, as usual.” (Huang, 76)
Advice: Do nothing out of the ordinary to cause conflict or more trouble. Pay attention when conditions are conducive to waiting instead of forging ahead.
Notes: the hexagram represents a small or initial achievement, coming as it does after the conditions/themes of beginnings and childhood. The condition is still fragile and needing caution plus patience. One needs to make sure he/she is nourished well enough to be strong before taking any kind of action. This doesn’t mean to give up, just that the development is not yet strong enough to take bold steps. “The gua suggest that under a tyrannical administration people need a change, but the situation does not allow action.” (Huang, 48). Trying to establish a proper place to make the capital, several places are discussed in the lines in terms of their suitability- 1 in the outskirts/ 2 on the beach/ 3 stuck in the mud/ 4 in a ditch/ 5 in a safe place with food and drink/ 6 waiting in a difficult place where there seems nowhere to go.
48- Jing/ Replenishing/ The Well
This hexagram represents replenishing the people; further, the change from an old social order to a new one that that functions better (leading to good fortune)
Water above, Wood below (Water element)
Month: fifth month of the lunar year- June
Opposite 21- Shi he: Eradicating/ Biting Through
Inverse: 47- Kun: Exhausting
Mutual: 38- Kui: Diversity
Line 1: “Mud in the well, no drinking. The position is too low. Old well, no birds. As time passes, it has been deserted. “ (Huang, 384).
Notes: the lines in for this gua seem, or could be seen to be about different kinds of leaders or sages- one who is: 1- stuck in old habits; 2- out of touch, water leaks out; 3- one who is wise and has virtue, but no one utilizes it or even notices his/her value; 4- one who has virtue and training, but is still not strong enough due to inexperience; 5- firm and steadfast character, is able to provide for the people; 6- this character is out of the ordinary- it’s like the ideal leader of the perfectly harmonized society/ culture where people “work in full cooperation and with unity of purpose.” (387)
Advice: this would seem to be apparent- the well being tapped is no longer viable and will benefit no one. There is no use in trying to prop up the old way of doing things or to promote it. Huang states, “The situation is bad. If one in this place is not able to live in accord with the time and make adjustments, one will be deserted.” (386) sayings, “stick in the mud” and “stuck in the mud”. Also one who cannot tolerate progress; being left behind for not being able to keep up with the changes of time.
Both hexagrams have 38- Diversity as a mutual gua. Diversity brings both what is needed in terms of strength and depth of a healthy society and at the same time, can be a source of conflict that can be exhausting and weakening; (biting through is often thought of as removing the obstacles of backbiting and gossip that causes the inability of people to come together, proceeding forward, and contention) all of the inverse and opposite guas.
Internal guas- these are derived by recording lines 2,3,4 as bottom trigram; and lines 3,4,5 as the top trigram to produce a new hexagram for each hexagram.
5-38- Kui-Opposition (in Diversity)
48- Kui- 38 also
I’ve never noticed if the original hexagram and the transformed hexagram normally have the same internal hexagram, though it seems unlikely that is the case. In the way I am looking at this reading, it’s interesting- maybe however the energies unfold and work out, no matter how we mold them, there is an internal push and pull due to the problems and potentials of diverse ways of looking at things (that’s pretty accurate for these times). Since the outcome is 48- The Well, maybe it’s the case that if we wait with patience for the structure of a society to have the qualities of care for all people in it, there will be success; but, if we do not cut away from our attachments to the old ways that have not allowed all to thrive and flourish, we will not.
(Huang, 313): “When the proper way of a household comes to an end, there is surely diversity. Thus, after Household, Diversity follows.” Other interpretations suggest the ideas of estrangement (Blofeld) and Opposition (Wilhelm). Huang explains the original meaning of the word kui was “eyes do not look at each other” (not seeing eye to eye, or, people not having the same line of sight making their visions different. Also, though, the pictograph shows to marksmen with bows and arrows, back-to-back- not looking at each other, they are observing in different directions, so though their vision is not the same, they are able to observe and provide protection of a much larger field. Centripetal force holds the family together- the inner world; centrifugal force then is how diversity of persons in the family is expressed in the outer world. Fire above Lake, the middle daughter and the younger daughter, respectively, come from the same family but will marry into different families- advice about seeking harmony despite diversity of interests, viewpoints, and social position.
“Fire above, Lake below. An image of Diversity. In correspondence with this, the superior person seeks common ground Ion major issues while reserving differences on minor ones.” (315)
Reference: Taoist Master Alfred Huang's, "The Complete I Ching: 10th Anniversary Edition"