Making an evacuation plan
One is piloting a large-scale project to respond to an urgent request. taoscopy.com
Nourishment27
Focus on sustenance and nourishment, both physical and spiritual. Evaluate the sources from which you draw energy and wisdom. Guard against meaningless indulgence and seek genuine fulfillment.
↓ Line 1
Misfortune. You are neglecting your own resources and looking to others for sustenance.
↓ Line 2
Seeking nourishment from the wrong sources leads to trouble. Stay true to your path.
↓ Line 3
Avoiding nourishment and neglecting needs leads to long-term misfortune. Correct your course.
↓ Line 6
Understanding the source of nourishment and being aware of potential dangers leads to success. Take bold actions when necessary.
↓ Pushing Upward46
Steady growth and progress through perseverance and effort. Step-by-step advancement leads to success.
Original Readings
27 Nourishment
Other titles: The Corners of the Mouth, Providing Nourishment, The Symbol of the Cheek and of Nourishment, Jaws, Lower Jaw, Nurturing, Swallowing, Sagacious Counsel, Nourishing, To Feed, "Can mean money, usually as the result of effort." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Nourishmentindicates good fortune through firm correctness. Make sure you know what you are feeding, and determine your proper diet.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Corners of the Mouth . Perseverance brings good fortune. Pay heed to the providing of nourishment and to what a man seeks to fill his own mouth with.
Blofeld: Nourishing. (Nourishment -- literally Jaws) [The form of this hexagram readily brings to mind the concept of wide open jaws, but the word nourishment must not be taken only in a literal sense; for we are concerned here with all those things which men seek both for their own advantage and for giving succor or assistance to others.] Righteous persistence brings good fortune. Watch people nourishing others and observe with what manner of things they seek to nourish themselves. [For this will teach us a lot about their characters.]
Liu: Nourishment. Continuing leads to good fortune. Observe the providing of nourishment and the food someone seeks for himself.
Ritsema/Karcher: Jaws, Trial: significant. Viewing Jaws. Originating-from seeking mouth substance. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of nourishing and being nourished. It emphasizes that opening in order to take things in as well as providing to others is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Jaws: Determination is auspicious. View the jaw; oneself seeking the mouth's fullness.
Cleary (1): In nourishment, it is good to be correct. Observe nourishment, and seek fulfillment for the mouth by yourself.
Cleary (2): Nourishment is good if correct. Observe nourishment, and seek food by yourself.
Wu: Nurturing indicates that with perseverance there will be auspiciousness. People should observe the principle of nurturing and find proper foods for nourishment.
Hua-Ching Ni: In nourishment, one should seek the right nutrition and not be tempted by what others enjoy.
The Image
Legge: The image of thunder under a mountain forms Nourishment. The superior man, in accordance with this, controls his speech and regulates his eating and drinking.
Wilhelm/Baynes: At the foot of the mountain, thunder: the image of The Corners of the Mouth. Thus the superior man is careful in his words and temperate in eating and drinking.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder rumbling at the foot of a mountain. The Superior Man is thoughtful in speech and frugal in his eating and drinking. [The lower trigram, thunder, also represents the power of quickening growth; hence its place in a hexagram concerned with nourishment.]
Liu: Thunder rolling around the foot of the mountain is the symbol of Nourishment. The superior man is cautious in his speech; he restrains and regulates his eating and drinking.
Ritsema/Karcher: Below mountain possessing thunder. Jaws. A chun tzu uses considering words to inform. [A chun tzu uses] articulating to drink and take-in.
Cleary (1): There is thunder beneath the mountain. Superior people are careful about what they say, and moderate in eating and drinking.
Cleary (2): … Leaders are prudent in speech, moderate in consumption.
Wu: There is thunder below the mountain; this is Nurturing. Thus the jun zi speaks with caution and drinks and eats with moderation.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: When the nourishing is correct, there will be good fortune. We must examine those whom we wish to nourish, and we must also examine our own nourishing of ourselves. Heaven and earth nourish all things. The sages nourish men of talent and virtue in order to reach the masses. Great is the work intended in the time of nourishing.
Legge: The character ofNourishment is the symbol of the upper jaw, but the image of the hexagram suggests a whole mouth with undivided lines at top and bottom, and divided lines between them. The bottom line is in the trigram of Movement, and the top line is in the trigram of Keeping Still -- giving the image of a mobile lower jaw and a fixed upper jaw. The divided lines represent the mouth cavity. The hexagram denotes nourishing of body or mind, of one's self or others, and the proper nourishment in each case must necessarily vary according to circumstances. Thus, judgment must be exercised to determine which nourishment is in harmony with correctness and virtue.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment:Nourishment asks you to examine your motives in the allocation of your energy. Willpower creates a well- balanced apportionment.
The Superior Man controls his expression and monitors his appetites.
The lines in the lower trigram of Movement are all rendered unfavorably to one degree or another, while the lines of the upper trigram of Keeping Still are all generally correct. The implication is that non-action is almost always preferable to movement. This idea is fundamental to the philosophy of the I Ching, and in the hexagram of Nourishmentthe lesson is that non-action feeds and strengthens the psyche.
All actions are the expression of psychic energy through a physical body to create an effect in spacetime. Each effect creates consequences which usually demand further action. It is easy to see that action which is not initiated by the Self can only result in unexpected consequences, and that action which conforms to the will of the Self is motivated by and directed toward a transcendent goal. Although correct non-action generally creates no negative consequences in spacetime, it does have nourishing consequences in the psyche as autonomous forces are gathered, digested, assimilated and renewed in ascending configurations of growth.
As this Path represents the structure of the [ego], the attribution of the Mouth reminds us that the purpose of incarnation is the seeking of the food of experience in Form for the benefit of the [Self] and the Spirit. Gareth Knight -- Qabalistic Symbolism
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare the Image of Nourishment in this hexagram with those in hexagram number five, Waiting; number forty-eight, The Well; and number fifty, The Sacrificial Vessel.
Line 1
Legge: The first line, dynamic, seems to be thus addressed: "You leave your efficacious tortoise, and look at me till your lower jaw hangs down.” There will be evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: You let your magic tortoise go, and look at me with the corners of your mouth drooping. Misfortune.
Blofeld: You released your sacred tortoise and stared at me with mouth agape -- misfortune! [The shells of tortoises were used for divination. Here, the implication seems to be that someone abandons his sacred duty in his greed (symbolized by ‘mouth agape') to obtain what he wants from the person to whom “me” refers. It may be that contemporaries of the authors of the I Ching were familiar with a story to which this sentence pertains.]
Liu: If you leave your divine tortoise and look at me with mouth drooling, there will be misfortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Stowing-away simply the psyche tortoise. Viewing my pendant jaws. Pitfall.
Shaughnessy: Dispensing with your numinous turtle, and viewing our shortened jaw; inauspicious.
Cleary (1): Abandoning your spiritual tortoise, you watch my moving jaw – this is unfortunate.
Cleary(2): To give up your sacred tortoise and watch me greedily leads to misfortune.
Wu: “Abandon your spiritual tortoise and watch me with your mouth watering.” Foreboding.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He thus shows himself unfit to be thought noble. Wilhelm/ Baynes: This is really not to be respected. Blofeld: Looking at me like that is hardly to be regarded as admirable behavior. Ritsema/Karcher: Truly not the stand to value indeed. Cleary(2): To watch me greedily is not worthy of respect. Wu: He who watches with his mouth watering is also unworthy of respect.
Legge: The first line is dynamic and in his proper place. He might suffice for the nourishing of himself like a tortoise, which is said to live on air. But he is drawn out of himself by desire for the magnetic line four, his proper correlate, at whom he looks till his jaw hangs down, or, as we say, his mouth waters. Hence the auspice is bad. The symbolism takes the form of a reprimand addressed by the fourth line to the first. As Mencius said, "He who attends his smaller self becomes an inferior man, and he who attends to his greater self becomes a superior man."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man is envious of the prosperity of others.
Wing: You are so actively aware of the prosperity of others that you lose control of your own destiny. This is deplorable behavior and will result in misfortune.
Editor: This line is a reprimand for an unworthy attitude. Since in China the tortoise was associated with divination, it refers to a higher realm of perception. The other translations render Legge's "efficacious" as "magic,""sacred," "divine," "psyche," and "numinous." The line tells you that you are out of touch with what is best in you and suggests a “victim,” a self-made loser, who has repudiated his source of power or nourishment and then begs for sympathy because he “has nothing.” Often the line can suggest that you have misread a previous oracle: i.e., "I already told you, but you paid no attention.”
So it will be seen that spiritual growth is best attained by getting fully to grips with life in the world. It is a common pathology with esoterically inclined students that they want to find the easiest way out of it. This accounts for many of the "muzzy mystical" societies which give such a bad name to occultism. In a genuine occult school the student should be rammed good and hard into the maelstrom of life; and until he can cope efficiently with the physical plane the higher planes of experience should be barred to him -- for his own sake as well as others. Gareth Knight -- Qabalistic Symbolism
A. You've lost touch with your spiritual Self.
B. Image of a "needy” victim. Grow up!
Line 2
Legge: The second line, magnetic, shows one looking downwards for nourishment, which is contrary to what is proper; or seeking it from the height above, advance towards which will lead to evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Turning to the summit for nourishment, deviating from the path to seek nourishment from the hill. Continuing to do this brings misfortune.
Blofeld: Nourishment on the mountain peak; he abandons normal ways to seek nourishment in the hills -- misfortune! [From ancient times, there has been a large body of opinion in China that Taoists and other mystics leading the life of a recluse are odd people who have abandoned their duties to family, state and mankind. However, the Book of Change, revered by both Taoists and Confucians, is not likely to be guilty of bias; indeed, in the fourth place, “nourishment on the mountain” brings good fortune. Perhaps the implication is that those who withdraw from ordinary life more on account of their oddity than because of any genuine desire for spiritual guidance waste their talents and their time.]
Liu: Seeking nourishment from the top, one strays from the path to the hill. To set forth leads to misfortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Toppling jaws. Rejecting the canons, tending-toward the hill-top. Jaws chastising: pitfall.
Shaughnessy: Say upside-down jaw; threshing the warp at the northern jaw; to be upright is inauspicious.
Cleary (1): Perverting nourishment goes against the constant. Feeding on high ground – to go brings misfortune.
Cleary(2): Perverting nourishment brushes aside the constant. Feeding on high ground, an expedition bodes ill. [For those above to nourish those below is the rational constant. Here one in a higher position is recessive and weak, and relies on strength from below for nourishment; so this “brushes aside the constant.]
Wu: There is reversed nurturing. It violates the normal order of offering nurture to the one above. The action is foreboding. [The second (line) has the responsibility of offering nurture to its correlate, the fifth (line). On the contrary, it nurtures the one below, i.e., the first (line). Hence the judgment calls the action a misplaced reversed nurturing.]
Hua-Ching Ni: One neglects the constancy and stability which can benefit life and seeks nourishment from the wrong source. Misfortune.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The evil of her advance is because her movements abandon her proper associates. Wilhelm/Baynes: In going it loses its place among its kind. Blofeld: The misfortune is due to his having separated himself from his own kind. Ritsema/Karcher: Movement letting-go sorting indeed. Cleary(2): The action loses companionship. Wu: It is out of order.
Legge: The magnetic second line, insufficient for herself, seeks nourishment first from the dynamic first line below, which is improper, and then from the dynamic sixth line above, which is too far removed and also not her proper correlate. In either case the thing is evil because neither of the dynamic lines is her proper associate.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man does not provide for his own support. He improperly takes what he needs from below and also cravenly begs for it from above. Such unworthiness leads to misfortune.
Wing: Although you are able to properly nourish yourself in this situation, you rely upon inappropriate methods or persons to fulfill your needs. If this continues, it will rob you of your independence and create an unhealthy state of mind. Difficulties will follow.
Editor: Thereseems to be disagreement among the translators about which “order of nourishment” (above or below), is appropriate. Legge’s commentary and Siu’s paraphrase offer the most coherent interpretations. The line usually symbolizes one who doesn't know her proper place, who tries to exceed her authority or go beyond herself. Issues pertaining to self-righteousness, spiritual materialism and “wannabe gurus” are sometimes addressed here. The line can also refer to shirking one's responsibility. For example, begging the oracle for information one can easily decide for oneself.
If a man sleeps in a damp place, his back aches and he ends up half paralyzed, but is this true of a loach? If he lives in a tree, he is terrified and shakes with fright, but is this true of a monkey? Of these three creatures, then, which one knows the proper place to live? Chuang Tzu
A. You are seeking nourishment from inappropriate sources -- get back where you belong.
B. Seeking that which is beneath you is base; seeking that which is beyond your grasp is futile. Don’t strive above your proper station.
C. Take responsibility for yourself.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, magnetic, shows one acting contrary to the method of nourishing. However firm she may be, there will be evil. For ten years let her not take any action, for it will not be advantageous in any way.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Turning away from nourishment. Perseverance brings misfortune. Do not act thus for ten years. Nothing serves to further.
Blofeld: He is determined to relinquish nourishment -- misfortune! For ten years he performs no useful function and there is nowhere favorable for him to go. [Such extreme eccentricity can only end in barrenness. Those familiar with Buddhism will recollect that the Lord Buddha abandoned nourishment on the advice of his teachers and then came to regret this fruitless method of self-discipline.]
Liu: One turns away from nourishment. Continuing in this way brings misfortune: no action for ten years, no benefit or advantage. [Owing to misconduct there is a danger of encountering disaster, misfortune, or poor health.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Rejecting Jaws. Trial: pitfall. Ten years-revolved, no availing-of. Without direction: Harvesting.
Shaughnessy: Threshing the jaw; determination is inauspicious; for ten years do not use it; there is no place beneficial.
Cleary (1): Going against nourishment, even with rectitude this is inauspicious. Don’t act on this for ten years; there is no benefit.
Cleary (2): Going against nourishment is inauspicious even if there is rectitude. Do not act on this for ten years; there is nothing to be gained. [The weak cannot nourish themselves; if they are also not balanced correctly and dwell on the climax of action in this state, this is going against nourishment. Even though there is a correct correspondence with the top yang, this cannot save them, and they wind up useless . In Buddhism, it is like the senses deranging people so that they lose their standards.]
Wu: It violates the principle of nurturing. Even if correct it is foreboding. It loses its usefulness for ten years. There is nothing to be gained.
Hua-Ching Ni: The wrong kind of nourishment. This kind of nourishment may look good for ten years, but in the end has no real benefit. Misfortune.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Her course is greatly opposed to what is right. Wilhelm/
Baynes: It is all too contrary to the right way. Blofeld: Ten years because his ways are utterly perverse. Ritsema/Karcher: Ten years-revolved, no availing-of. Tao, the great rebelling indeed. Cleary(2): For the way is greatly confused. Wu: Because it has violated the principle.
Legge: Line three is magnetic in a dynamic place, and because she is the last line in the trigram of Movement, that quality culminates in her. She considers herself self-sufficient, needing no help. The issue is bad.
Anthony: Only by firmly mastering our inferiors [i.e. our attitudes, complexes, limiting beliefs] do we nourish ourself correctly.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Instead of solid accomplishments, the man pursues pleasures and self-gratification. He will never achieve anything so long as he is surrounded by dissipating temptations.
Wing: You cannot be fully nourished because you are too busy looking for nourishment in the wrong places. In doing this, you turn away from others who might help you, and therefore you achieve nothing. This is eccentric and dangerous behavior.
Editor: The idea here is one of ignoring or repudiating what is necessary for growth. Compare this line with the sixth line of hexagram 24: Return, which Wilhelm translates as: “Missing the return. Misfortune. Misfortune from within and without. If armies are set marching in this way, one will in the end suffer a great defeat, disastrous for the ruler of the country. For ten years it will not be possible to attack again.” Carefully examine the situation at hand to determine where the source of error lies. This line can sometimes refer to “attitude” problems – depression or pessimism that you cannot throw off despite knowing that the Work transcends such illusions.
The difficulty in realizing this permanence of the essential self is, of course, due to the fact that a person becomes so attached to the physical vehicle and so connected with its activities, that the divine self is seldom contacted. G. Barborka -- The Pearl of the Orient
A. You have just made an egregious blunder.
B. Consider yourself reprimanded for getting off the path.
C. Your assumptions in the matter at hand are totally incorrect.
D. You have an attitude problem.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows him from whom comes the nourishing. His position is perilous, but there will be good fortune. It will be advantageous to cross the great stream.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The source of nourishment. Awareness of danger brings good fortune. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Blofeld: Nourishment gives rise both to trouble and good fortune. It is favorable to cross the great river (or sea). [Our quest for the necessities of mind and body brings mixed results.]
Liu: Seeking the source of nourishment. Danger, good fortune. It is of benefit to cross the great water.
Ritsema/Karcher: Antecedent Jaws. Adversity significant. Harvesting: wading the Great River.
Shaughnessy: From the jaw; danger; auspicious; beneficial to ford the great river.
Cleary (1): The source of nourishment; dangerous, but auspicious. It is beneficial to cross great rivers.
Cleary (2): At the source of nourishment, it is good to be diligent, etc.
Wu: He nurtures all below him. With fortitude comes auspiciousness, etc.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: His good fortune, notwithstanding the peril of his position, affords great cause for congratulation. Wilhelm/Baynes: It has great blessing. Blofeld: We shall enjoy great blessings. [`Blessings' means good fortune apparently unconnected with our merits or endeavors.] Ritsema/Karcher: The great possessing reward indeed. Cleary (2): There will be great celebration. Wu: There will be great joy.
Legge: The topmost line is dynamic, and line five relies on him. Being penetrated with the idea of the hexagram, he feels himself in the position of master or tutor to all under heaven. The task is hard and the responsibility great, but realizing these things, he will prove equal to them.
Anthony: The source of nourishment comes from the Sage to ourself and from ourself to others. Only by nourishing ourself correctly can we fulfill our responsibility to nourish others. We “cross the great water” when we tend to this inner nourishment, sorting out and resolutely discarding all the thoughts fantasies, false comforts and self-deceptions that are unworthy of our inner dignity. In this way we get past the dangers they create.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The sage educates others. Heavy responsibilities accompany such a position. Awareness of the situation enables the man to accept great challenges with success to the benefit of the people.
Wing: The person in this position has a highly developed awareness of what
is required in order to properly educate, influence, and nourish others. Should he undertake this task, conscious of all the implications of his responsibilities, he will bring happiness to many.
Editor: The internal, eternal Self is the evolving entity of the psyche. The rewards of its cosmic adventure are worth all the perils involved. When action originates from the Self, one flows toward one's destiny.
The desire for this kind of inner experience and self- development arises from a psychic urge, a spiritual hunger -- akin to the need of satisfying the hunger of the body -- that is present in very different degrees in different persons. It is an expression of the instinctive drive to self-preservation on a psychic, not a biological level. Those in whom it has been aroused are compelled to strive for the satisfaction of its demands or endure the pangs of spiritual hunger and eventual starvation. M.E. Harding -- Psychic Energy
A. The Self is the source of all sustenance within the psyche. Action in accordance with such a connection is always appropriate, regardless of difficulties.
B. Follow your best intuition in the matter at hand.
46 Pushing Upward
Other titles: The Symbol of Rising and Advancing, Ascending, Ascension, Rising, Promotion, Advancement, Sprouting from the Earth, Organic Growth
Judgment
Legge:Pushing Upward means successful progress. Have no anxiety about meeting with the great man. An advance to the south is fortunate.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Pushing Upward has supreme success. One must see the great man. Fear not. Departure toward the south brings good fortune.
Blofeld: Ascending. Supreme success! It is essential to see a great man, so as to banish anxiety. Progressing towards the south brings good fortune.
Liu: Ascending. Great Success. One should see a great man. Without fear. An expedition to the south leads to good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher:Ascending, Spring Growing. Availing-of visualizing Great People. No cares. The South, chastising significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of rising to a higher level. It emphasizes that setting a higher goal and working toward it step by step is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: ascend!]
Shaughnessy:Ascending: Prime receipt; beneficial to see the great man. Do not pity. For the southern campaign, auspicious.
Cleary(1): Rising is greatly developmental; it calls for seeing a great person, so there will be no grief. An expedition south brings good fortune.
Cleary (2):Rising is very successful, etc.
Wu:Ascension indicates great pervasion. It will be useful to see the great man. No anxiety. It will be auspicious to go south.
The Image
Legge: Wood growing in the earth -- the image of Pushing Upward. The superior man accumulates small increments of virtue until it becomes high and great.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Within the earth, wood grows: the image of Pushing Upward. Thus the superior man of devoted character heaps up small things in order to achieve something high and great.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes tress growing upwards from the earth. The Superior Man most willingly accords with virtuous ways; starting from small things, he accumulates a great heap of merit.
Liu: The wood grows in the earth, symbolizing Ascending. The superior man devotes his virtue to building things up from the small to the high and great.
Ritsema/Karcher: Earth center giving-birth-to wood. Ascending. A chun tzu uses yielding to actualize-tao. A chun tzu uses amassing the small to use the high great.
[Actualize-tao: ...ability to follow the course traced by the ongoing process of the cosmos... Linked with acquire, TE: acquiring that which makes a being become what it is meant to be.]
Cleary (1): Trees grow on the earth, rising. Thus do superior people follow virtue, accumulating the small to lofty greatness.
Wu: Trees grow from earth; this is Ascension. Thus the Jun zi diligently cultivates his virtues little by little to become tall and large like trees growing.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The magnetic line ascends as opportunity permits. We have Flexibility, Obedience and a dynamic line below with his magnetic correlate above: this means successful progress. See the great man -- his will is accomplished in the south.
Legge: The character for this hexagram means advancing in an upward direction, or ascending. The figure symbolizes the promotion of an able officer to the highest pinnacle of distinction. The action of the dynamic second line is tempered by being in the magnetic central position of the lower trigram. As the representative of Pushing Upward he is forceful, yet modest and the magnetic fifth line ruler welcomes his advance. The officer therefore has the qualities that fit him to ascend as well as a favorable opportunity to do so.
After he has met with the "great man" in line five, advance to the south will be fortunate. Chu Hsi says that this is equivalent to "advancing forwards.” Since the south is the region of brightness and warmth, the progress will be easy and agreeable.
The lower trigram symbolizes Wood, and its weak first line is the root of a tree buried in the earth of the upper trigram. The gradual growth of this root pushes the trunk upward as the circumstances of time permit.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Ascend in accordance with the will of the Self. Turn toward clarity.
The Superior Man grows a little every day.
The image of the 46th hexagram is of a plant growing in the earth, gradually pushing upward toward the sun. That "an advance to the south is fortunate" means that as all plants turn southward toward the sun, their source of nourishment, so should we turn toward the light and clarity of the "great man" or Self within us.
The upward advancement of the Work is an organic process. There is no such thing as "instant enlightenment." The many stories and parables of instant Satori which are common in the Zen Buddhist tradition are actually just dramatic accounts of the final few moments' resolution that come after a lifetime of slow and patient devotion. The Work progresses at the pace of a tree -- what started out as an acorn eventually becomes a forest giant, but it doesn't happen overnight.
Remember ever that Mind in its entirety is ever the Builder. For it is step by step, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, that the attaining is accomplished in the mental, the spiritual, the material applications of an entity in this material world. Edgar Cayce – Book of Changes
This slow growth is an accumulation of countless "gathering togethers" as depicted in the preceding hexagram, of whichPushing Upward is the upside-down image. It is estimated that an adult human being grows from a single cell to about one-hundred billion cells through a process of fifty-billion mitotic divisions. It is interesting to observe that "one-hundred-billion" is the scientific estimate of the number of stars in any given galaxy. If we apply the Hermetic Axiom: "As above, so below" to this relationship of macrocosm to microcosm we get the image of our solar system as a single atom in the "body" of a galactic entity.
That should put the Work into perspective!
Understand that thou art a second little world and that the sun and the moon are within thee, and also the stars. Origen --Homiliae in Leviticum