NAME AND STRUCTURE
Heng means persistence, perseverance, long lasting.
Sequence of the Gua: The union of husband and wife should not be short-lived. Thus, after Mutual Influence (#31), Long Lasting follows.
Heng is translated by Wilhelm as Duration; by Blofeld as The Long Enduring. In this book, it is translated as Long Lasting. The structure of the gua is Thunder above, Wind below. It is the inverse of the preceding gua, Xian , or Mutual Influence. The preceding gua symbolizes a new marriage. In the I Ching, Thunder represents an eldest son, and Wind an eldest daughter. Thus, this gua symbolizes the long-term union of an old married couple.
In the preceding gua the youngest son, Mountain, constitutes the lower gua, which is a subordinate position. In courtship, usually the young man tends to subordinate himself to the young woman. Here the lower gua is replaced by Wind, which symbolizes an older woman at a subordinate place. The attribute of Wind is gentleness. The lower gua also represents an inner situation. It suggests that the woman takes more responsibility at home. The attribute of the man, Thunder, is strength and activity. The upper gua is also known as the outer gua, which represents an outer situation. Here it indicates that the man takes more responsibility in the outside world.
There are two horizontal lines in the ideograph of this gua, one at the top and the other at the bottom. These two lines represent the two shores of a river. Between the shores there are two images—a boat on the right, and a heart on the left. Three people are sailing across the river in the boat. In ancient China, crossing a river was not an easy task. An old Chinese saying describes the situation: “People in the same boat share weal and woe.” Sharing weal and woe means working together in full cooperation with a united purpose—with one heart. For this reason, the ancient sage placed a heart beside the boat. Originally, the boat between two shores indicated the distance from this shore to that shore. Later on, the meaning was extended to suggest simply from here to there and, finally, from beginning to end. When the ancient sage drew a heart beside the boat, the meaning was further extended to include everlasting.
The main theme of Zhou I is twofold: Follow the Tao of Heaven to establish the Tao of Humanity. To follow the Tao of Heaven, the ancient sage employed Qian and Kun, characterizing the function of Heaven and earth, to open the Upper Canon. To establish the Tao of Humanity, the ancient sage selected Xian and Heng, the prerequisite of a husband and wife, to commence the Lower Canon. The relationship of Heaven and earth is interactive and everlasting. In the same way, the relationship of a husband and wife should have the quality of long-lasting mutual influence.
The union of a man and woman, to the Chinese, is a sacred event. In the ancient ceremony of a wedding, the man and woman made a sacred vow before Heaven and Earth and to the person in chargeof the marriage. Qian represented the bridegroom’s side, and Kun stood for the bride’s side. In this way, the union of a man and woman was akin to the union of Heaven and Earth.
The message of this gua is that sincerity, purity, and unselfishness are the essential elements of a long-lasting relationship. [Huang: Complete I Ching]
Another in a series of New Year Yi’s, this one again based on the time of the new moon in Moscow. This one seems to give a very clear picture. First, what it shares in common with her ally China (see the previous Beijing Reading) is that both the Primary and Derived hexagrams have the same upper trigram Thunder (also Lightning): ☳. One association with this trigram is that it denotes upward movement from below to above similar to an earthquake. But it is also associated with Lightning which flashes in the dark. There is a sense of change, suddenness, shock, forward momentum, initiative. It is associated with the Liver, with yang rising and therefore with Wood-Wind element which spreads and grows.
Hexagram #32 features Wood-Wind below and Lightning-Thunder (also Wood-Wind) above. 2024 is a Wood Dragon Year. Lightning flashes in the sky above where dwell Dragons. So there are Dragons of Change happening this year both in China and Russia.
The Derived #40 depicts Water below and Thunder (Wood-Wind) above so there is a slight sense of sailing over waters, albeit this would be stronger if it was the actual trigram Wood-Wind above Water rather than lightning-thunder above water. Here there is more sense of change, movement, possibly storms. One traditional storyline of #40 Liberation/Relief is that after a storm comes calm and a sense of having been cleansed.
This reading suggests a very clear storyline as laid out in the brief Judgment:
After suffering many setbacks and depredations
Russia’s spirit has endured and will continue to sacrifice and hold fast
Peace develops from steadily devolving authority to municipal leadership
Releasing a flood of freedom ‘neath lightning flashes of joy ascendant
All involving the fearless proclamation of truth aligned with God in Heaven.
In a way, any particular quirk in this configuration has to do with Changing Line in the third place. If we are looking at a Hexagram as a map of society, traditionally it goes like this: Line 1 = the individual; Line 2 = Family / village; Line 3 = local community leadership; Line 4 = Ministerial level of national governance; Line 5 = National Ruler; Line 6 = Sage, who is above politics and management. Of course this is not cast in stone (like all such associative guidelines). If the dynamic being studied is a particular family, then Line 5 might be the husband, Line 4 the wife and Line 6 the grandparents, Line 3 the eldest child and Line 1 the youngest. But here we are looking at the outlook for Russia for the Year 2024 so a country-level interpretation seems apropos wherein Line 3 is local community leadership, or also regional leadership, such as the Mayor of a large city or Governor of an Oblast.
This 3rd line is emphasized greatly in the Reading because of both the Primary’s Changing Line in the third place and also how the Past Hexagram #41 exchanges its top line of the upper trigram with the top line of the lower trigram (Line 3) to create Future’s #11, which evidences a nice synchronicity. That said, it’s message is cautionary: officials must maintain integrity lest they incur disgrace. This could go for the entire nation including Putin given this is a national reading.
Further synchronicity is how, similarly, #32’s 4th line switches with #11’s first line. Lines 3 & 4 are the Level of Man, which in this Reading is embodied by the Nuclear Hexagram #43 which involves fearlessly proclaiming the truth. Why? Because the top line has a Binary value of 1 with Heaven (all six yang lines in The Creative’s #1) being the primordial coemergent origination. So this first broken line on top initiates manifest reality and in a way is the first thought, or first cry and this cry comes directly out of Heaven, so is pure, honest, impactful. And since the upper trigram is Thunder in both Primary and Derived, this could be VERY impactful.
Russia’s spreading influence (Wood-Wind involves spreading, both of roots in the earth and wind in the air respectively) comes from her long-suffering nature, a core part of her history and cultural character, giving her speech weight. This is why the recent interview between Tucker Carlson and Putin was instantly viewed by approximately a billion people world wide. No other world leader at this time would attract anywhere near such interest.
Many elements of this Reading fit nicely together. For example the textual description of #40 beautifully fits into the SMO dynamic. They should wrap it up ASAP rather than dragging it out, albeit it seems that for geopolitical reasons Russia is quite happy to do the latter. In any case, this ancient text’s language is very easily to relate to the current SMO dynamic.
Also, Russia chairs the BRICS+ alliance this year; it seems this will be a momentous year for Russia to take a leading role in world affairs propelling change, a thunderous Wood Dragon indeed.
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