3 Hard Ground > 42 Increasing > 51 Shock > 43 Breakthrough < 23 Deconstructing
The ideograph of Yi is simple and clear. The lower part is the image of a household container. Above the container is an ancient ideograph for water, shui. It looks exactly like the symbol of the original gua Kan, Water ☵. Water above a container symbolizes that water is pouring into the container, an act of increasing. The structure of the gua is Wind ☴ above, Thunder ☳ below. When Wind and Thunder support each other, their energy is doubled. It is also an image of increase. The inner gua, Thunder, indicates that there is firm resolution within. The outer gua, Wind, indicates that there is penetrating outward action. Confucius’s Commentary on the Symbol says, “The superior person follows the good when he sees it, and corrects his fault when he finds it.” This tells us that a superior person follows the good as quickly as the wind and corrects his faults as firmly as thunder.
The theme of the previous gua is to decrease what is lower in order to increase what is higher. This gua discusses how to decrease what is above in order to increase what is below.
When Heaven ☰ loses a yang element, it becomes Wind. And when earth ☷ gains a yang element, it becomes Thunder. This is precisely an image of diminishing the lower to increase the upper. Increasing comes from Pi, Hindrance (12) ䷋. In Hindrance, there are three solid lines in the upper gua and three yielding lines in the lower gua. When the topmost solid line of Hindrance moves to the bottom, Hindrance alternates to Increasing. The Commentary on the Decision says, “To decrease what is above is to increase what is lower.” The upper gua is Wood as well as Wind. Here it symbolizes that a wooden boat is moving forward, driven by the wind. The lower gua is Thunder, symbolizing action. Thus King Wen’s Decision says, “Favorable to have somewhere to go. Favorable to cross great rivers.” [Huang Complete I Ching]
This is a Take Two on a Cast published a few days ago. We have had a wicked heat wave in Central Mexico (though not as bad as in Texas apparently) during which I’ve found it hard to read as much as usual. Fried brain syndrome or some such. But now it is tapering off – though some forecasts are predicting a return in early July unfortunately – and I am reading again, including William Horden’s materials, specifically his Volume II Image and Number which provides basics on how to approach the Yi, including hexagram, trigram and line interpretation. Wherein at one point he suggests that when there is no changing line then the Derived Hexagram is simply the next in the sequence, in this case #43. This addition means that one can then calculate the past and future influence which am very much enjoying since it creates instant narrative arc to any Reading (though that sometimes makes one miss other possibilities). In any case, here is Take Two.
The narrative arc begins with Difficult Beginnings, which can be regarded here perhaps as the configuration of the Ukrainian state being problematic from the get-go. Ukraine means ‘borderlands’ in Russian, I believe. It’s an in-between zone separating Western Europe from Russia which is also Europe but also partly Asia. It has a complex history – like all old zones in Europe – including the Rus invasion displacing the Khazars, whose descendants are most Eastern European Jews. Then it was a huge battleground during WW II and of course is one again now. So Difficult Beginnings: problematic background and foundations.
Then we move to the Divinatory/Primary #42 Increasing. But one idea within it is that the 4th line from #12 Stagnation – indicating a bad society wherein the wrong people are above and suppressing the people below (Heaven above, Earth below moving in separate directions) – moves down to the bottom line creating a different dynamic now with Thunder below, indicating change and forward momentum, and gentle influence-spreading above. So there is a sense of positive movement out of prior stagnation, hence the notion of Increase. So morally it is interpreted as generosity from above to below (the 4th line being donated to the lowest line) increasing virtue on the part of those below thanks to the self-sacrifice of those above. (Interestingly, Toltec #6 following #5 Restoring Wholeness is called ‘Fostering Self-Sacrifice.’) In this regard one could interpret Russia’s contribution to Donbass as a form of protective sacrifice.
The Future Influence is interesting (and #1 in Toltec Sequence). #51 Shock and Change, or maybe also Shock and Awe (awe-reverence is specifically mentioned in the classic King Wen version texts). Of course the current SMO conflict is a form of #51, with missiles, bombs, artillery rounds exploding and zooming around etc. Such quaking leaves a situation different from before, i.e. involves Change. So change through shaking things up significantly.
Which leads to the Derived #43 Breakthrough, which involves making things known. #43 has Heaven below/within and Lake above/without. Lake involves the pleasure principle but also speech, communication, the soft yin line at the top being likened to speech issuing forth into the world, or being an opening like a mouth. Lake is one way in which Heaven communicates with the world and in an upbeat, pleasurable, rising fashion. Lakes are beautiful, settled, peaceful, delightful – and also reflecting the Sky of Heaven on their surface. In this case the Lake in #43 can be regarded as balanced as opposed to the unbalanced Wind in #42 with two changing lines to segue into Lake. So this Joy principle is quite different from bloody military conflict. In a way, the story here is suggesting that with sufficient shaking up things can break through to some sort of joyful, easy connection with Heaven and thus strong leadership with all pointing in the same direction (five rising yang lines below).
In any case, the addition of the Derived with Past and Future Influence provides for a much more dynamic, interesting Reading and I am grateful to William Holden for creating this method. If you go to the Liturgies page on this blog you can download the Image and Number book for free. He doesn’t make money on his books and is happy to see them shared. It is great material. Remember he was trained at a young age by a Daoist Master of the Sudden Enlightenment School, told not to teach for thirty years, a commitment he kept, and since then has been putting out highly original and very wise materials including his flagship Toltec I Ching with beautiful illustrations by Martha Ramirez-Oropezza, his sister-in-law and someone involved in preserving and promoting traditional native Mexican culture including the Nawat language.
baronbrasdor.art 