Yijing Contemplation for __________ 

The questioner seeks guidance about their life direction: What is my purpose for the next 10 years—the highest good for me and all beings? 

Yijing responds with,

Hexagram 9.

Wilhelm translates this hexagram as The Taming Power of the Small. Karcher uses, Small Accumulates.

This has some immediate resonance for the questioner, for the questioner was born small, and also enters a time of needing to recover from a medical procedure. In this hexagram, five yang lines draw nourishment from a single yin line. The yin is archetypally feminine, and the questioner has medical issues that relate to the burden of the feminine in the present context. In this hexagram, we see a yin line that needs time to rejuvenate, accumulating energy and strength. Thus, “The Small Accumulates”.

The questioner therefore seems to appear symbolically in the very image of the hexagram. Now is a time for rejuvenation, so that a path forward can reveal itself. Symbolically, it may have some connection with the questioner’s needing time in the womb: “This time is like a shell or womb, a protective covering that will be broken through in spring.”

The Eranos edition characterizes the general image this way: “The situation described by this hexagram is characterized by the accumulation of a multiplicity of seemingly unrelated events and circumstances, which require a flexible adaptation.”

Hexagram 9, “Small Accumulates,” pairs with its mirror, hexagram 10, “Treading”. Karcher summarizes the paradigm of change this way: “Small Accumulates means at first they are few. Treading means not abiding where you are.”

This means that after rejuvenation comes treading. This may or may not indicate a literal move from where the questioner now abides. However, if it does indicate a literal move, this might not happen until the second half of the questioner’s 5th decade.

“At first they are few” suggests a gathering of people, a collaboration.

Karcher suggests that in “gathering and nurturing the small, what is ignored or ready to emerge, to prepare for a shift of place and fate. It creates a site of radical change at the thresholds of the human world . . .”

The outer aspect of this hexagram is known as the eldest daughter, which fits the questioner’s outer role. The inner aspect, however, is the yang energy of the father. Inwardly, the situation may reflect a drive or hunger for forward momentum, action, dynamism. But such activity can become depleting. The outer situation depends on water, on refreshment, on nourishing.

Wilhelm says the following:

This hexagram means the force of the small—the power of the shadowy—that restrains, tames, impedes. A weak line in the fourth place, that of the minister, holds the five strong lines in check. In the Image it is the wind blowing across the sky. The wind restrains the clouds, the rising breath of the Creative, and makes them grow dense, but as yet is not strong enough to turn them to rain. The hexagram presents a configuration of circumstances in which a strong element is temporarily held in leash by a weak element. It is only through gentleness that this can have a successful outcome.

By means of gentleness, the questioner can discover obstructions in themselves and in the world, and liberate the energy those obstructions hold back.

Wilhelm gives the historical/mythical image that relates to this hexagram:

This image refers to the state of affairs in China at the time when King Wên, who came originally from the west, was in the east at the court of the reigning tyrant Chou Hsin. The moment for action on a large scale had not yet arrived. King Wên could only keep the tyrant somewhat in check by friendly persuasion. Hence the image of many clouds, promising moisture and blessing to the land, although as yet no rain falls. The situation is not unfavorable; there is a prospect of ultimate success, but there are still obstacles in the way, and we can merely take preparatory measures. Only through the small means of friendly persuasion can we exert any influence. The time has not yet come for sweeping measures. However, we may be able, to a limited extent, to act as a restraining and subduing influence. To carry out our purpose we need firm determination within and gentleness and adaptability in external relations.

Gentleness, friendliness, and joyful perseverance. The small accumulates, and success arrives by itself.

Here is the rendering from Karcher, discussed during the initial consultation:

Accumulate small to do the great; nurture, raise, support; breed animals; dealings with the ghost world, autumn sacrifice, going to the River-Mountain festival . . . The new group must have a place to accumulate and gather the souls.

Small Accumulates suggests the mating and pasturing of animals and the deep green pastures and wide plains bounded by mountains that set the scene for the autumn procession of the intermediaries to the Outskirts Altar to meet the incoming spirits. It is the ceremonies to bring the autumn rains that signal the end of labour and the harvest, held at the Moon Pit, Night Brightness (ye ming), on the western outskirts. This marks preparation for the River-Mountain Time, the dances of men and women and their marriages that affirm human community with the spirits and bring the souls into the world. It marks the coming in of a soul from the Ghost River and the time of the Moon Almost Full, when the Changes were consulted. This time is like a shell or womb, a protective covering that will be broken through in spring. Philosophically, this is the nurturing of the “smallest possible thing” (ji), the emergent point that heralds change. It is a quality of the Way that, though now barely visible, will lead on to illumination.

THE RESPONSE

Small Accumulates.

Make an offering and you will succeed.

Shrouding clouds bring no rain yet.

Meet them at the Western Outskirts Altar.

Small, Xiao: little, flexible, adaptable; humility, what is common to all; adapt to whatever happens; make things smaller, lessen; yin energy; the Ghost World; secondary ancestors, families of common people who till the soil. The old character shows a river dividing two banks; the undifferentiated flow of life between the worlds.

Accumulate, Chu: take care of, support, tolerate, encourage; help one another, overcome obstacles; tame, train; domesticate, raise, bring up; gather, collect, hoard, retain; seed, shell, carapace, protection of a germ broken through in spring, protection in the womb. The old character shows a field and two bundles of silk or grass, harvested and stored.

Small Accumulates describes your situation in terms of confronting a great variety of things that don’t seem to be related. The way to deal with it is to adapt to each thing that crosses your path in order to accumulate something great. Take the long view. Gather, herd together, retain and hoard all the little things that might seem unimportant. Think of yourself raising animals, growing crops or bringing up children. Flexible and adaptable. Tolerate and nourish things. Rain hasn’t come yet, but the dense clouds that bring It are rolling in from the western frontier. The successful completion of your efforts is not far away.

The hexagram figure shows an enduring force accumulated through gentle penetration. Wind moves above Heaven. Turn potential conflicts into creative tension. You need a place to accumulate things, because right now you only have a few. Focus on the inherent beauty of each thing in order to realise its potency. Persist in your efforts through gentle penetration and you will acquire a solid centre from which to move. The rain has not yet come. Praise and let go of what you have now, so the process can go on. ne clouds are still spreading. It is not yet time to act.

Wind moves above Heaven. Small Accumulates.

A time when Noble One brings out the pattern to nurture power and virtue.

Spirit works in those who lay out the offerings while it wars in Heaven above. Intermediaries are working with the Force. Wind and Wood above enter subtly, penetrating, pervading and coupling the fates, while Heaven below struggles on, persistent and unwearied. This is Wood over Metal: an enduring force accumulates within, penetrating and coupling with the small. The ideal Realising person reflects this by elucidating the innate pattern in each thing that reveals its power and destiny. Persist and work through inner inspiration. This couples you with a new fate.

As noted during the initial consultation, fewer people than ever have any connection to the image of, “Gather, herd together, retain and hoard all the little things that might seem unimportant. Think of yourself raising animals, growing crops or bringing up children. Flexible and adaptable. Tolerate and nourish things.”

This may or may not indicate that the questioner should specifically reflect on their relationship with the land, for we can certainly read, “The Small Accumulates” as a rather direct answer. In other words, when the questioner asks, “What is my purpose for the next 10 years—the highest good for me and all beings?” we may think Yijing says, “You will have your answer once you spend some time accumulating the small.”

But Yijing may alternatively, or additionally, mean: “The answer to your question is that your purpose is accumulating the small, which means nurturing sprouts, raising young animals, helping things to grow. Go help something small to grow.”

The questioner should also consider ancestral energies. Is there anything in the ancestral karma (family, nation, or even ancient indigenous history) that needs to come through in the present day?

Gathering can mean gathering seeds, gathering insights, gathering peace, gathering well-being, gathering the Mystery, gathering integrity/virtue/power.

Cleary provides a translation of Master Chih-hsu’s commentary on this hexagram that could prove illuminating:

At small obstruction, nurturing the small succeeds.

Dense clouds, not raining, come from one’s own western

region.

The word for obstruction can also be read to mean nurturance; when you encounter situations that obstruct you and bog you down, if you do not get resentful or bitter, but just nurture yourself to digest them, you will be successful.

However, one must not seek to obtain results too rapidly. In worldly terms, this is like an orderly and peaceful country with a noninvasive government, to which some people nevertheless will not come.

In Buddhist terms, this is like when the mental center of delusion appears, as yet not under control.

In terms of contemplating mind, when the factual obstructions to enlightenment that have been there since beginningless time are overpowering even after the harmonizing of the elements of the path to enlightenment, they block perceptive insight, so that it cannot realize the truth.

However, when sages direct the age, they do not reject the ignorant masses. The educational and liberative activities of Buddhas do not reject the deluded. As the contemplating mind progresses, why fear earlier obstructions?

Indeed, events and situations that formerly obstructed you can become means of self-development; this is how you succeed.

But now, though you need not fear the situation, still you should not grab for easy success. You should be like “dense clouds, not raining, coming from your own western region.” That is, you should only go into action after harmonization of yin and yang. Usually clouds that rise from the east rain right away, whereas those that rise in the west hardly ever rain. This line indicates the value of not grabbing for easy success and the value of long-term results.

THE OVERALL JUDGMENT: Nurturing the small at small obstruction, flexibility finds its proper position, so above and below respond to it. This is called nurturing the small. Strong yet obedient, firmness balanced, determined in action, one then succeeds.

Dense clouds not raining are still moving. Coming from one’s own western region means that the actualization has not yet taken place.

Once one is at an impasse and needs development, this is “small” in the sense that it is a matter of being correctly flexible. There is also firm strength above and below responding to this, so no external difficulties are sufficient to disturb one’s stable, firm certainty. Then one uses this to develop oneself a little.

The quality of firmness, represented by the lower trigram, heaven, means there is no aberration caused by material desires; the quality of obedience, represented by the upper trigram, wind, means one makes no mistakes through impulsiveness.

When firmness is balanced, then insight accompanies concentration, so one’s will can be carried out successfully.

Though the clouds are dense, they are still moving—this means that cultivation of inner qualities could be more progressive. Coming from one’s own western region means that the actualization has not yet taken place—that is, one should not desire to obtain results quickly.

THE IMAGE: Wind moving up in the sky, nurturing the small.

Thus do leaders beautify cultured qualities.

Nothing has a more subtle influence on things than wind. Beautifying cultured qualities is like when they say that if people at a distance do not take to you, you cultivate cultured qualities to attract them, just as an ancient chieftain won over a hostile tribe by doing dances representative of war and peace.

In terms of contemplating mind, using generosity, self-discipline, patience, diligence, meditation, and insight to correct perceptive flaws, aid in psychological development, and open the mind, is called beautifying cultured qualities.

This commentary offers many helpful suggestions. First of all, it touches on the unity of obstruction and nurturance, the unity of the wound and the gift. The questioner must look within, to discover the small obstruction that needs nurturance. They may find the gift there.

Master Chih-hsu’s reflections on the hexagram structure seem to describe the questioner’s attitude: “The quality of firmness, represented by the lower trigram, heaven, means there is no aberration caused by material desires; the quality of obedience, represented by the upper trigram, wind, means one makes no mistakes through impulsiveness.” The questioner is neither deeply interested in material things, nor in any significant state of lack. Moreover, the questioner is not particularly impulsive, either in relation to the question at hand or in general.

The reflections toward the end may also have special relevance: “Beautifying cultured qualities is like when they say that if people at a distance do not take to you, you cultivate cultured qualities to attract them, just as an ancient chieftain won over a hostile tribe by doing dances representative of war and peace.”

The questioner recently spoke of the power of their artistic work. Somehow or other, it may prove helpful to use art to “win over a hostile tribe,” or in some way to attract people to the questioner’s purpose. Cultivating the arts may be part of the nurturance needed at this time, and the questioner can reflect on any obstructions present in relation to the arts.

Master Chih-hsu affirms that the questioner cannot rush for an answer here, and that it will take some time for nurturance to yield its benefits. And he makes clear that, whatever else needs nurturing, the questioner needs to keep up spiritual cultivation: “When firmness is balanced, then insight accompanies concentration, so one’s will can be carried out successfully. Though the clouds are dense, they are still moving—this means that cultivation of inner qualities could be more progressive.”

The insight as to what to do next depends on the cultivation of a well-put-together mind. Though we must always take care as we deepen our spiritual practice, Master Chih-hsu reads Yijing as indicating the questioner could think about how to keep progress unfolding. Meditations with a deliberate effort to achieve clarity and concentration (well-put-togetherness of mind) may help.

This emphasis would hold for any work on nurturance in relation to obstruction. Thus, if the questioner begins to engage in the arts again, the best case is to actively cultivate a meditative mind, and to engage art as a vehicle for the liberation of all beings, as well as a way to magnetize beings for the benefit of all (that is, magnetize beings for an appropriate “cause” or wise and compassionate aim).

In relation to the cultivation of mind, we can recall Karcher’s rendering: “Philosophically, this is the nurturing of the ‘smallest possible thing’ (ji), the emergent point that heralds change. It is a quality of the Way that, though now barely visible, will lead on to illumination.” To perceive what is barely visible, we must cultivate ourselves to become such a perceiver.

In relation to Master Chih-hsu’s commentary, we may also consider the Eranos rendering of the image: “Wind moves above heaven. The small accumulating. A junzi uses highlighting the pattern to actualizedao.”

A junzi is a noble person. What does a noble—skillful, wise, compassionate, graceful—person do in the questioner’s situation? They highlight pattern to actualize the Way.

The terms here are subtle. “Pattern” comes from the character wen ( 文 ), which is both the name of the ancient king who ordered the hexagrams of Yijing, and also a word that indicates a wide range of “pattern” denotations and connotations: mark, pattern design, tattoo, essay, literary, script (as in writing), written language, culture, liberal arts, natural or social phenomena (that exhibit patterning), being a cultured person.

As for “actualizedao,” it is not a typos, but seems to be a potentially awkward rendering of the character de ( 德 ). This character indicates the unity of virtue and power, which means that we become fully empowered once we actualize our virtue—our virtue is Dao actualized. It again points to spiritual cultivation, and it has to do with our holistic integrity, the well-put-togetherness of our whole being in this particular manifestation. This integrity is like our coherence with Dao, our attunement with Dao.

So, a wise, skillful, compassionate, graceful person in the questioner’s same situation would try to highlight patterning in some sense, and as an intimate aspect of expressing their unique virtue/power/integrity/coherence/gift in this life.

We have only one moving line in this response from Yijing—the “initial nine”. That can indicate relative stability, and/or it may indicate relative stuckness. To the extent that the questioner feels stuck, we should take extra care with this single moving line, for it may offer a helpful hint.

Karcher renders the moving line as follows:

TRANSFORMING LINES: INITIAL NINE

Small Accumulates. The procession to the altar.

Returning to the birth of the Way.

How could this be a mistake?

Wise Words! The Way opens.

Your heart will open the Way. The procession to the altar to meet the spirit. You have been lost in a cloud of details, but now you see the Way once more. Don’t hesitate to return. How could this be a mistake? The Way is open.

Direction: Subtly penetrate to the core. Turn conflict into creative tension. The situation is already changing.

It’s always nice to hear Yijing’s affirmation of impermanence when we feel stuck: “This situation is already changing.”

We have here a repeat of the image of the altar. We have already received the injunction to “meet them at the outskirts altar,” which is perhaps in the west. The questioner may reflect on whether a procession to an altar would help in this situation.

Master Liu’s commentary may shed some additional light:

First yang: Returning by the path—how could that be blameworthy? It bodes well.

EXPLANATION

Being strong yet remaining humble, concealing one’s light and nurturing it in obscurity, embracing the Tao and keeping settled, not injuring inner reality by outward artificiality, is to be able to return by way of the path. Being able to return by the path, though the nurturance is small, one can gain its nourishment, and strong energy grows day by day; not only is it blameless, it brings good fortune. This is the nurturance of being great yet being humble and appearing small.

When we encounter stuckness, we may transcend it in a variety of ways. The spirit of these may come to: Breaking through or cutting through the obstruction, leaping over the obstruction, going around the obstruction, or returning. Spiritually, we can see any of these as essentially becoming one with the supposed obstruction.

Returning means we go back to the origin of our path. This can mean we go back to a path that feels unobstructed.

Perhaps we spent many years becoming a lawyer. Now, working at a law firm, we find ourselves feeling stuck. We are so close to becoming a partner in the firm, but something seems to obstruct us. Then we meet a friend from early childhood who asks about whether we still play music. We suddenly remember how important music was to us as a child. We start to listen again, and play again. Eventually, we return to the path of music, thus getting beyond the obstruction in our other path.

The situation seems to carry the connotation of returning to the origin in the deepest sense as well—i.e., returning to the Origin of everything. That means moving forward on the basis of the Great Mystery Itself.

The mention of humility has to do with the fact that the single moving line yields the following relating figure:

Hexagram 57, Subtle Penetration, Proceeding in Humility

The hexagram presents the energy of wind, which can blow gently and yet reach everywhere. Perhaps an even clearer image is of the wood element. When it remains flexible and soft, while proceeding with humility but persistence, it can break through even very hard obstacles.

This quality matters. The questioner seems to need to “enter” or in some way presence this energy of roots penetrating, humble sprouts moving through even hard soil, or the wind moving gently but entering everywhere. The wind, of course, also has no fixed abode. The wind also carries seeds, which then work their way into the soil.

The Eranos rendering focuses on the woody element, interpreting the hexagram as “root”:

The root.

The small, Growing.

Harvesting: possessing directed going.

Harvesting: viewing the great in the person.

This rendering connects the hexagram quite obviously with the central figure, which is “The Small Accumulates”.

Karcher summarizes the feeling of the hexagram as follows: “Gently penetrate to the heart; supple, flexible, subtle, determined; enter from below; support, nourish, the base or ground; an Intermediary, the Lady of Fates who lays out the offerings; a seed figure.”

Here is Karcher’s fuller rendering for hexagram 57:

Subtle Penetration, the Elegant Dancer who also manifests as the Royal Bride, lays out the offerings on the low altar and carries the fates to the beings. She presents things in offering, crosses thresholds and transmits orders from Heaven. Her wrapped food offerings are an image of the Myriad Creatures toiling and labouring on the field of Earth, for life is brought and carried by her winds. She is connected to the Central Palace where fates are consigned and represents a profound penetration of the above into the below which can lead to the awakening of wisdom. She prepares the food and drink for the great meal shared by humans and spirits and nourishes the people on ancient virtue. She is a spirit-caller and healer, offering the virtue or de that actualizes an individual being. Subtle Penetration works through hidden influences. She is the silent power of wind and wood in the Earth. She regulates power and virtue, controls the omens, works and plans from hiding and knows the right moment.

As a spirit guide, Subtle Penetration is the Lady of Fates, the one who lays out the offerings and penetrates to hidden influences. She penetrates to the core, elegant and powerful, moving like wind and wood in the earth. She is a healer, a matchmaker, brings each thing to its fate. She is a bright strutting cock, strong-scented. In the body, Subtle Penetration operates through the liver, governing the free flow of energy and emotion. It stimulates everything that moves in the body, purifies the blood, links eyes and sexual organs desire and anger, vision and motivation, giving the capacity to act decisively.

THE RESPONSE

Subtle Penetration through the Small

Make an offering and you will succeed.

Advantageous to have a direction to go,

Advantageous to see the Great Person. Harvesting.

Subtle Penetration, SUN: enter into, put into, permeate, infiltrate; mild, subtle, docile; submit freely, be shaped by; penetrate to the core; dispose, arrange; food, lay out food offerings; confer an honour; choose or be chosen support, the ground from which things grow; approach the Earth Altar; foundation, base, nourish from below; wind, weather; wood, trees; the Lady of Fates who lays out the offerings and penetrates to hidden influences. The old character shows wrapped offerings laid out on an altar.

Subtle Penetration describes your situation in terms of the penetrating influence of the one who carries out the fates. The way to deal with it is to penetrate to the core of the problem by being supple and adaptable. Enter from below. Let the situation shape you. Be humble and compliant; adapt to whatever crosses your path. Take the pervasive action of the wind, or growing plants extending their roots and branches as your model. This is pleasing to the spirits. Through it they will give you success, effective power and the capacity to bring the situation to maturity. Hold on to your purpose. Have a place to go. Impose a direction on things. See great people. Seek out those who can help and advise.

Think about the great in yourself and how you organize your thoughts. All these things bring profit and insight.

The hexagram figure shows Subtle Penetration over time. Following winds. Turn potential conflict into creative tension. If you are travelling and don’t have a place of your own, this means subtly Penetrating from outside. It means being humble and hiding your virtues. Subtle Penetration pares away in order to realise the Way. Evaluate things in private. Balance and equalize opposing forces. Carry out what you have been told to do. What is solid and strong has reached the centre It is correcting things and its purpose is moving. Be supple and adaptable in order to yield and work with the strong. That is why adapting to what crosses your path is pleasing to the spirits. Plan things by thinking of what is truly great. That is what will help you.

Following Winds. Subtle Penetration.

This is a time when Noble One spreads the mandates to move us to service.

Spirit works through those who lay out the offerings. This is the Lady of Fates. Wind and Wood enter subtly, penetrating, pervading and cow pling. This is the Woody Moment: Subtle Penetration spreads the fates and awakens the inner seed of a new generation. The ideal Realising Person reflects this by involving the directives of Heaven in all that she does. Work through rousing and inspiring. A cycle is beginning.

Master Chih-hsu brings out the relation between this hexagram and the central figure:

The small comes through successfully. It is beneficial to have a place to go. It is beneficial to see great people.

Those who manage travel well are at home wherever they enter; without adaptability, there is no way to fit oneself in. Wind has one yin entering in under two yangs. The yin has ability and follows the yangs to effect its function; therefore “the small comes through successfully” and benefits from having a place to go, benefits from seeing great people.

In terms of contemplating mind, when learning concentration, it is best to

follow true insight to see essential truth.

 . . . . Only when the wind comes continuously can it sway things; only when leaders articulate their directions clearly and carry out their tasks earnestly can they move the people. Therefore the virtue of true leaders is likened to wind.

“The small comes through successfully” resonates with our consideration above that the questioner is small, and that the questioner’s endeavor may involve growing something small. However we read “The Small Accumulates,” this relating figure tells us that the small will come out well—with adaptability (creativity) and by means of practicing a well-put-together mind, heart, body, World, and Cosmos. By means of the well-put-togetherness of heart, mind, body, World, and Cosmos, the questioner can involve “the directives of Heaven in all that she does.”

Creativity goes together with joyful perseverance: “Only when the wind comes continuously can it sway things.” The questioner will need joyful perseverance in order to fulfill her purpose.

The heart of the situation is expressed in figure 38, Diverging/The Shadow Lands:

As an expression of the heart of the matter, this figure touches on some aspect of the situation that has to do with, in Karcher’s rendering, “Opposition, discord, conflicting purposes; outside the norm cast out; strange meetings with hidden spirits, the Ghost World; change conflict to creative tension through awareness.”

Part of the background of the question relates to the coming of age of the questioner’s child. At play is an end to a certain mode of life. This resonates precisely with Yijing’s view of the situation: “When the Way of the dwelling comes to an end you must turn away. Accept this and use the energy of Diverging. This means turning away.”

“When the way of the dwelling comes to an end” could indicate here the way the home will change as the questioner’s only child comes of age. Many parents have trouble with this transition, and some may cling to the way things were. Yijing says, “you must turn away.”

Clearly this doesn’t mean abandoning one’s family or doing anything rash. Rather, it means recognizing things have changed, and not trying to cling to what no longer exists.

In some sense, this divergence means diversity. When children are young, a kind of centripetal energy holds the family together. As children grow up, a centrifugal energy diversifies the family, so that the children can become individuated adults, and the adults can become realized elders.

Diversity here also indicates potential diversity of views, people, concerns, and so on brought into a unity of opposites or creative tension. The heart of the matter may involve reflecting on both diversity and divergence—for in any case, given the present context, realizing our purpose will tend to demand walking a path that diverges from the norm. The unfamiliar or strange may become important.

Karcher renders the hexagram as follows:

Outside the dwelling, exposed to the night, Diverging points at a Bright Presence in the night sky, the star mansions of the Ghost Cart (Yugui) that presides over punishments, executions and dire fates. It includes others: the Heavenly Horse, the Heavenly Swine, the Man leading the Ox, the Bow and Arrow, the Orphan or Fox. It suggests autumn, for the rains are here and the gates of winter are closing. This is the sun and moon in opposition and, metaphorically, the mintster cut off and exiled from the royal presence. It suggests the Li sao, the Nine Songs, an intense and shamanic lament of the virtuous minister betrayed by schemers and cast out by his prince. It is all things outside, wai: isolation, danger, foreigners, wilderness, punishments, the Demon Country. It suggests strange visions, alternate realities and chance meetings with important spirit beings: the Primal Father, Yi the Archer and the Dark Lord or Hidden Master. It combines the themes of discord, punishment and exile with the difficult voyage, travelling in altemate realities.

This is the world of the wugui, the shamans or Intermediaries who deal with angry ghosts and spirit presence outside the normal and of the border regions, beyond the frontiers. Phonetically and thematically, this links with the cyclic character marking the last day of the ten-day week, a day on which divinations were performed for ghost signs and demons coming from the Four Hidden Lands, angry ancestors and ghosts who could bring misfortune upon the living. A related character portrays waters running from the Four Directions or Hidden Lands into the centre, the Earth Pit and its underworld or Ghost River. It represents the yin aspect of water, linked with the ghost world and the appearance of a certain set of star clusters or mansions. 

The lines centre on the terms ‘see’ (jian) and ‘meet’ (yu), carrying through the sense of perceiving the strange suggested by the Name. The figure as a whole is an extended pun on gui, ghost, which describes spirits of the newly dead. ‘When a spirit returns (gui) he first becomes a ghost (gui), a human with a demon head; the breath of the gui is insidious and harmful.’ Daoists call these souls who are continuing rebirth as slaves of passion. The word is a curse, directly linked to the Hidden Lands and to all who are outside and foreign. Dealing with these spirits, transforming the negative power of the ghost world into a creative tension with the living is essential to the continuation of human life and culture. This is the job of the wandering sage, the one who voyages outside the norms, the wugui. 

THE RESPONSE

Diverging. The Shadow Lands.

Wise Words! Small’s affairs open the Way. 

Diverge, Gui: opposition, discord; change conflict into creative tension; separate, oppose, move in opposite directions; distant, remote from each other; animosity, anger; astronomical opposition; ghosts and the ghost world; exile, cast out. The old character shows a sacrificial mat and the eyes of the Ancestor. 

Diverging describes your situation in terms of opposition and discord, being outcast. The way to deal with it is to change potential conflict into dynamic tension. Separate and clarify what is in conflict while acknowledging the essential connection. Small things are important now. Be flexible and adaptable in all your affairs. That generates meaning and good fortune by releasing transformative energy. Be open to strange occurrences, sudden visions and non-normal ways of seeing things. 

The hexagram figure shows expression and awareness in conflict with each other. Fire rises, the mists descend. The solution to this conflict is inherent in the situation. When the way of dwelling together is exhausted, you must necessarily turn away. Diverging implies turning away. It is what is outside, what is unfamiliar, foreign and strange. You must be able both to join things together and to separate them. Fire stirs things up and rises. The mists stir things up and descend. They are like two women who agree to live together while their purposes move apart. These two things, individual expression and holding together, can be connected through brightness and awareness. Use what is flexible and adaptable to move to the position above. You can acquire the centre and connect with what is strong and solid. That is why being concerned with small things generates meaning and good fortune by releasing transformative energy. Heaven and Earth are polarized, but in their work they come together. Man and woman are polarized, but their purposes interpenetrate. The Myriad Beings are polarized, but they all are busy with the same things. Examine what separates and what connects people. Diverging is a time when you connect with what is truly great. 

Fire above, Mists below. Diverging.

A time when Noble One uses both concording and dividing. 

Spirit speaks through the Intermediaries, revealing itself in the Bright Omens. The Joyous Dancer is working with the Bright Omens. Fire above seeks to rise, while Mists hold joyous words within. This is Fire over Metal: the conflict between inner form and outer radiance that creates a polarizing tension. The ideal Realizing Person reflects this by mobilizing their ability both to accept and to reject. Hold the fast and take the risk. Change the Mandate of Heaven. 

It may prove important for the questioner to look into this aspect of the situation. Where can the questioner sense conflict, tension, or diversity? Where does the questioner sense a diverging road calling? Such questions can present challenges, especially if the ego wants to avoid taking such a diverging road, or facing conflicts, tensions, and diversity that seem threatening. 

The questioner should also keep the central image in mind, along with the relating figure.