Losing support
One is working with difficulty because of an unexpected incident. taoscopy.com
Increase42
Growth and progress: Favorable conditions and efforts lead to increase and success. Be generous, share your gains, and stay humble.
↓ Line 1
The beginning of Increase is a time of great potential. Taking initiative leads to success.
↓ Line 4
Being balanced and communicative leads to influence and the ability to enact change.
↓ Line 6
Lack of generosity and inconsistency lead to misfortune and conflict.
↓ Gathering Together45
Coming together for a shared purpose; unity and collective effort lead to strength. It's time to rally support and focus on communal goals.
Original Readings
42 Increase
Other titles: The Symbol of Addition, Gain, Augmenting, Help from Above, Benefit, Advantage, Profit, Expansion
Judgment
Legge: Increase denotes advantage in every movement which shall be undertaken -- it will be advantageous even to cross the great stream.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Increase. It furthers one to undertake something. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Blofeld: Gain. It is favorable to have in view some goal (or destination) and to cross the great water (or sea).
Liu:Increase. It is of benefit to set forth. It is of benefit to cross the great water.
Ritsema/Karcher: Augmenting , Harvesting: possessing directed going. Harvesting: wading the Great River. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of increase and advance. It emphasizes that expanding the quantity and quality of your involvement is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to augment!]
Shaughnessy:Increase:Beneficial herewith to have someplace to go; beneficial to find the great river.
Cleary (1): For Increase, it is beneficial to go somewhere; it is beneficial to cross great rivers.
Wu: Gain indicates an advantage in having undertakings and in crossing a big river.
The Image
Legge: Wind over thunder -- the image of Increase. When the superior man perceives good, he moves toward it; when he perceives his faults, he eliminates them.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Wind and thunder: the image of Increase. Thus the superior man: if he sees good, he imitates it; if he has faults, he rids himself of them.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind and thunder. The Superior Man, seeing what is good, imitates it; seeing what is bad, he corrects it.
Liu: Wind and thunder symbolize Increase. When the superior man discovers good, he follows it. When he has errors, he corrects them.
Ritsema/Karcher: Wind, thunder. Augmenting. A chun tzu uses visualizing improvement, by-consequence shifting. A chun tzu uses possessing excess, by-consequence amending.
Cleary (1): Wind and thunder increase. Thus do superior people take to good when they see it, and correct whatever faults they have.
Wu: Wind and thunder make Gain. Thus, when the jun zi sees a good deed, he improves his own at once; when he realizes he is making a mistake, he corrects it at once.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Increase shows the upper trigram brilliantly decreased to augment the lower. What descends from above reaches to all below, and the satisfaction of the people is without limit. Advantage in movement is shown in the blessings dispensed by the second and fifth lines from their correct positions. The action of Wood shows that it is advantageous to cross the great stream. Through the trigrams of Movement and Humility there is unlimited daily advancement -- heaven dispenses and earth produces, and all proceeds according to the requirements of the time.
Legge: Increase has the opposite meaning to hexagram number forty-one, Compensating Sacrifice [Decrease]. What king Wen had in mind was a ruler or a government operating to dispense benefits to the people and increase their resources. The two important lines in the figure are the correlates two and five. The general auspice of the hexagram is one of being successful in one's enterprises and of overcoming the greatest difficulties.
The formation of the trigrams here is the reverse of that in the preceding hexagram. The people are full of pleasure in the labors of the ruler for their good. "The action of Wood" in the Confucian commentary refers to the upper trigram, which is the symbol of Wind and Wood. From wood boats are made on which the great stream may be crossed. In three hexagrams, this, fifty-nine and sixty-one, in which this is the upper trigram, we find mention made of crossing the great stream. In the Image thunder and wind are seen to increase one another, and their combination gives the idea of Increase.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Take advantage of your opportunities.
The Superior Man recognizes his duty and rectifies his mistakes. Or: "Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative."
If the ego's sacrifices for the good of the Work are described in the previous hexagram, here we see the inverse image of that figure in which it is the Self who bestows its blessings upon the psyche. The one implies the other -- in the words of an old Blues lyric: "If you don't put somethin' in, you can't get nothin' out..." The forty-first and forty-second hexagrams are intimately related, and in their interaction portray the active progress of the Work. To paraphrase the last sentence of the Confucian commentary: "The Self dispenses and the ego produces, and all proceeds according to the requirements of the time."
If a man continually weighs his actions and aims at the mean, he is in the highest of human ranks. In that way, he will come close to God and will attain what belongs to Him. This is the most perfect of the ways of worship. Maimonides -- Eight Chapters
Line 1
Legge: The first line, dynamic, shows that it will be advantageous for its subject in his position to make a great movement. If it be greatly fortunate, no blame will be imputed to him.
Wilhelm/Baynes: It furthers one to accomplish great deeds. Supreme good fortune. No blame.
Blofeld: The time is favorable for undertaking great works -- sublime good fortune and no error!
Liu: It is beneficial to undertake a great enterprise. Sublime good fortune. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Harvesting: availing-of activating the great, arousing. Spring significant, without fault.
Shaughnessy: Beneficial herewith to do the great creation; prime auspiciousness; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): It is beneficial to act so as to do great work: this is very auspicious and blameless.
Cleary (2): It is beneficial to undertake to do great work. If it turns out very well, there is no blame.
Wu: It is beneficial to do farming. There is great fortune, no error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Though it is not for one in so low a position to have to do with great affairs. Wilhelm/Baynes: Those below do not use it for their own convenience. Blofeld: What is said about sublime good fortune and freedom from error means that those below do not complain of having too much to do. [This suggests that others will now work for us gladly.]Ritsema/Karcher: The below, not munificent affairs indeed. Cleary (2): It is not for those in low positions to be deeply concerned with affairs. Wu: A person in this position is not suitable to do a delicate task.
Legge: Line one is dynamic, but his low position might seem to prevent him from any great enterprise. Favored as he is, however, by the general idea of the hexagram, and responding to his proper correlate in the fourth line, it is natural that he should make a movement. Great success will make his rashness irrelevant. The Confucian commentary says that "one in a low position should not move in great affairs" -- not a son, it is said, while his father is alive, nor a minister while his ruler governs, nor a member of an official department while its head directs its affairs. If such a one does initiate such an affair, only great success will excuse his rashness.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man receives help from on high. He should use it to accomplish something correspondingly worthwhile. Success will cause his rashness to be forgotten.
Wing: You are blessed with the energy to approach a large task, which at any other time you may have avoided or not even considered. Success is yours if your goal is worthwhile and can Benefit others. Consider this carefully. In this way your reputation will remain above reproach.
Editor: Despite the confusing Confucian commentary, this is one of the very few lines in the entire Book of Changes that counsels unconstrained movement. Psychologically interpreted, action taken in the matter at hand will be in accordance with the will of the Self.
One must seek out what one's True Will is, and do it -- irrespective of whether it is convenient or not. Once one’s true will is found, to implement it will require change, and change is always painful -- or always appears so. Gareth Knight -- Qabalistic Symbolism
A. Decisive action may be taken now.
B. Archetypal forces ("those below") cooperate with the ego to effect positive action.
C. "Go for it!"
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows its subject pursuing the due course. Her advice to her prince is followed. She can with advantage be relied on in such a movement as that of removing the capital.
Wilhelm/Baynes: If you walk in the middle and report to the prince, he will follow. It furthers one to be used in the removal of the capital.
Blofeld: He walked up the center of the hall and informed the Prince of his fealty. It is favorable to be entrusted with the task of removing the capital.
Liu: If you are moderate in your conduct, people will follow you. It is beneficial to be dependent or move to a new place.
Ritsema/Karcher: Center moving. Notifying the prince, adhering. Harvesting: availing-of activating depending-on shifting the city.
Shaughnessy: In the middle of the ranks reporting to the duke to follow; beneficial herewith to make a family and to transfer the state.
Cleary (1): When balanced action is openly expressed, the public follows. It is beneficial to use a support to move the nation.
Cleary (2): Balanced action openly expressed is followed impartially. It is beneficial to use this as a basis to move the center of operations.
Wu: When his approach is central, the prince will value his counsel. It will be beneficial to counsel the prince on relocating the capital.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Her only object is the increase of the general good. Wilhelm/Baynes: "If you report to the prince, he will follow," because his purposes are thereby increased. Blofeld: He reported his fealty so as to be of use in carrying out the Prince's will. Ritsema/Karcher: Using Augmenting purpose indeed. Cleary (2): Open expression of impartial following is because of the beneficial aim. Wu: his goal is to benefit the state.
Legge: Line four is the place of the minister -- next to the ruler. She is magnetic, but her position is appropriate, and since she follows the due course, her ruler listens to her and even supports the most critical movements. Changing the capital from place to place was frequent in feudal China. That of Shang, which preceded Chou, was changed five times.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: As the mediator between the prince and his followers, the man renders proper advice on the distribution of benefits. If he does not retain portions for selfish purposes and follows a moderate course, he will retain the confidence of all for executing critical projects.
Wing: You have the opportunity to act as a mediator between someone in a higher position than yourself and those below you, whom you represent. If you express yourself in a reasonable manner and make Benefit to all concerned the first priority of your interests, your advice will be followed. This influential position can have far-reaching effects.
Editor: This is an image of trustworthiness. All the translators except Legge emphasize the idea of moderation, or "walking in the middle." Wilhelm and Liu also make it a conditional statement: “If” you follow the middle way, etc.
The ego has both to exert and to restrain its power drive, not only in respect to inner and outer entities but in respect also to its own position and needs as conscious center. This means that the function of the ego is not only one of controlling but of balancing and directing...It has the task of emotional integration of experience, that is, of adaptation to the inner world by realizing itself in relation to the Self, to the total functioning authority. E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
A. Balanced devotion to the Work will ensure the reciprocity of inner forces. A new seat of power may thus be created within the psyche.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows us one to whose increase none will contribute, while many will seek to assail him. He observes no regular rule in the ordering of his heart. There will be evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: He brings increase to no one. Indeed, someone even strikes him. He does not keep his heart constantly steady. Misfortune.
Blofeld: He did not attempt to benefit them and someone struck him for his inconstancy of heart -- misfortune!
Liu: He benefits no one. Someone will attack him. His mind is not consistent. Misfortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Absolutely-no Augmenting it. Maybe smiting it. Establishing the heart, no persevering. Pitfall.
Shaughnessy: No one increases it, someone hits it; establishing the heart but not making it constant; inauspicious.
Cleary (1): Don’t increase here, or you may be attacked. If determination is inconsistent, that brings misfortune.
Cleary (2): None benefit one here; they may attack one. Do not persist in this attitude, for that would lead to misfortune.
Wu: People do not add to his coffer. They may even assail him. He sets no consistent course of action. Foreboding.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: To his increase none will contribute -- this expresses but half the result. They will come from beyond his immediate circle to assail him. Wilhelm/Baynes: This is a saying that pictures one-sidedness. This comes from without. Blofeld: He not benefiting them indicates prejudice: his being struck presages that we incur the wrath of people outside our own circle. Ritsema/Karcher: One-sided evidence indeed. Originating-from outside, coming indeed. Cleary (2):“None benefit one here” expresses partiality; “They may attack one” refers to what comes from without. Wu:“People do not add to his coffer.” This is a one-sided statement. “They may even assail him,” because he alienates them.
The Master said:"The superior man in a high place composes himself before he tries to move others; makes his mind restful and easy before he speaks; settles the principles of his intercourse with others before he seeks anything from them. The superior man cultivates these three things, and so is complete. If he tries to move others while he is himself in a state of apprehension, the people will not respond to him; if without certain principles of intercommunication, he issues his requests, the people will not grant them. When there are none to accord with him, those who work to injure him will make their appearance. As is said in the I Ching, `We see one to whose advantage none will contribute, while some will seek to assail him. He observes no regular rule in the ordering of his heart: there will be evil.'"
Legge: Line six is dynamic, but it should be magnetic. At the top of the figure he will only concentrate his powers for his own advantage, and not think of benefiting those below him. The repulsive power of selfishness is exhibited, and the consequences will be as described. Contrast this with line two where the attractive power of benevolence is shown: in both cases forces come from "beyond" to do either benefit or harm.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man in a high position fails to bring benefits to those below. They, in turn, assail his reputation and do not support him. He does not think before speaking and does not decide the principles that govern his relationships before he sets forth.
Wing: While you seem to have the means to Benefit others, you actually do not. This is not in accord with the demands of the time. You will lose your position of influence and become open to attack. This is unfortunate indeed.
Editor: Wilhelm renders Legge's "half the result" in the first sentence of the Confucian commentary as "one-sidedness" -- an image more expressive of the idea of selfishness. To "observe no regular rule in the ordering of the heart” suggests inconstancy and vacillation. Perhaps selfish motives have overwhelmed the ego's devotion to the Work. Selfishness is an imbalanced state where energy is appropriated by a part at the expense of the whole. Negative results are inevitable because the forces involved must seek equilibrium, and the stress of the imbalance is released in a violent reaction.
Emotion is not an activity of the ego but, when uncontrolled, is something that happens to it. Affects occur usually where adaptation is weakest, and at the same time they reveal the reason for its weakness, namely a certain degree of inferiority and the existence of a lower level of personality. On this lower level with its uncontrolled or scarcely controlled emotions one behaves more or less like a primitive, who is not only the passive victim of his affects but also singularly incapable of moral judgment. Jung -- Aion
A. Vacillation of will invites rebellion of unconscious forces.
B. A warped sense of priorities leaves the Work vulnerable to a setback.
C. Self-centeredness invites defensive or hostile responses.
45 Gathering Together
Other titles: Gathering Together, Massing, The Symbol of Gathering into One, Assembling, Congregation, Gathering, Unity, Accord, Making Whole, Focusing, Marshalling One's Forces, Clustering, Finished
Judgment
Legge: When forces are gathering, the King goes to his ancestral temple. For successful progress, maintain firm correctness and see the great man. A large sacrifice brings good fortune -- proceed toward your destination.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Gathering Together . Success. The king approaches his temple. It furthers one to see the great man. This brings success. Perseverance furthers. To bring great offerings creates good fortune. It furthers one to undertake something.
Blofeld: Gathering Together -- success! The King approaches the temple. It is advisable to see a great man, which will ensure success. Persistence in a righteous course brings reward. Great sacrifices are offered -- good fortune! [These were religious sacrifices, but they may be taken to mean that the time has come for us to make important sacrifices of another sort.] It is favorable to have in view a goal (or destination).
Liu:Gathering. Success. The king attends the temple. It is of benefit to see the great man; this leads to success. Continuance benefits. Offering a great sacrifice leads to good fortune. It benefits one to go somewhere.
Ritsema/Karcher:Clustering, Growing. The king imagines possessing a temple. Harvesting: visualizing Great People. Growing. Harvesting Trial. Availing-of the great: sacrificial-victims significant. Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of collecting and assembling. It emphasizes that bringing people and things together through a common feeling or goal is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Finished: The king enters into the temple; beneficial to see the great man; receipt; beneficial to determine. Using the great animal offering is auspicious; beneficial to have someplace to go.
Cleary (1): Gathering is developmental. The king comes to have a shrine. It is beneficial to see a great person; this is developmental. It is beneficial to be correct. It is good to make a great sacrifice. It is beneficial to go somewhere.
Cleary (2):Gathering is successful. The king goes to his shrine. It is beneficial to see a great person; this leads to success, etc.
Wu: Congregation indicates that the king comes to his ancestral temple. It will be advantageous to see the great man. There will be pervasion, if persevering. It will be auspicious to use big sacrificial animals in the offerings. It will be good to have undertakings.
The Image
Legge: A marsh above the earth -- the image of Contraction. The superior man, in accordance with this, assembles his weapons in readiness for unseen contingencies.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Over the earth, the lake: the image of Gathering Together. Thus the superior man renews his weapons in order to meet the unforeseen.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a marshy lake rising above the earth. The Superior Man gathers together his weapons in order to provide against the unforeseen. [This is a time when foresight is required of us, too.]
Liu: The lake on the earth symbolizes Gathering. The superior man keeps his weapons prepared to meet the unexpected.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh with-respect-to earth. Clustering. A chun tzu uses eliminating arms to implement. A chun tzu uses warning, not precautions.
Cleary (1): Moisture rises onto the earth, gathering. Thus do superior people prepare weapons to guard against the unexpected. [When practitioners of the Tao get to where the five elements are assembled and have been returned to the source, when everything acquired is obedient to their will, if they do not know how to prevent danger and take perils into consideration, eventually what has been gathered will again disperse, and they will not be able to avoid the trouble of losing what has been gained… “Weapons” means the tools of wisdom, the work of silent operation of spiritual awareness. When the primordial has been congealed, it is not subject to injury by acquired conditioning, but it is still necessary to dissolve the influence of personal history before nature and life can be stabilized. If there is any remaining contamination, eventually conditioning will reassert itself and the primordial will again become fragmented. Therefore the work of guarding is indispensable.]
Wu: The marsh is above the earth; this is Congregation . Thus the jun zi causes the nation to be armed in preparation for contingencies.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Contraction shows massing for union through Cheerfulness and Obedience. The dynamic line is responded to in his ruling central place, hence the idea of union. With the utmost piety the king presents his offerings to the spirits in his ancestral temple. Union with the great man is effected through correctness. The law of heaven demands a sacrifice. Contemplation of the way forces are gathered shows us the way of heaven, earth and all of nature.
Legge:Contractionmeans collecting together, or things so collected. The hexagram deals with the union between the ruler and his ministers -- between high and low in the kingdom. This state is to be preserved through the influence of religion and the great man, who is a kind of philosopher king who meets the spirits of his ancestors in the temple. Whatever he does will succeed because he is correct and right, and his great sacrifices are in harmony with the times.
The two trigrams represent Docility and Cheerfulness. The dynamic fifth line has his proper magnetic correlate in line two -- which gives the idea of union. Ch'eng-tzu says that the ordinances of heaven are simply the natural and practical outcome of heavenly principle.
A marsh above the earth must be kept in by dykes -- so the Contraction must be preserved by precautionary measures, the chief of which is to be prepared to resist attack from without, and to quell internal rebellion.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Forces are assembling for integration -- focus inward, sacrifice your autonomy and allow the Self to guide the Work.
The Superior Man pulls himself together to face the unknown and preserve the Work. “Forewarned is forearmed.”
Psychologically, Contraction depicts a time when inner components of the psyche assemble for recombination into a new pattern. It is significant that this is the time when “the king goes to his ancestral temple.” That is, the governing intelligence turns toward the template or ideal image of the Work as it exists in its consummate state. (See commentary on hexagram number fifty-nine, Expansion, for further discussion of the symbolism of the ancestral temple.) If the gathering forces integrate in conformity with this archetype, the Work is thereby advanced.
He, therefore, who perceives himself to associate with God, will have himself the similitude of Him. And if he passes from himself as an image to the archetype, he will then have the end of his progression. Plotinus
In addition to being a gestalt of future perfection, the temple is the home of the ancestors: a karmic repository of all that has gone into the Work via the will and intent of former historical ego-personalities. This archetype of "the ancestors" is described by the Lakota shaman, Black Elk, in his Great Vision. Note that the "grandfathers and grandmothers" are present when the people are "walking in a sacred manner" -- i.e., conforming to the ideal archetypal pattern of the Work:
But I was not the last; for when I looked behind me there were ghosts of people like a trailing fog as far as I could see -- grandfathers of grandfathers and grandmothers of grandmothers without number. And over these a great Voice -- the Voice that was the South -- lived, and I could feel it silent. And as we went the Voice behind me said: "Behold a good nation walking in a sacred manner in a good land!"
The Ancestral Temple then, symbolizes the Work in progress as it exists outside of temporal awareness. At death the karmic complexes of the psyche, released from their spacetime ego-body, assume new configurations in hyperspace in accordance with the accomplishments of the just completed lifetime. Ideally, the ancestors and their heirs (choices and their consequences) within the Ancestral Temple undergo purification: this is what Individuation (the Work) is all about.
At the end of the dying process consciousness divides into the consciousness of one's parents and one’s children, and then it moves through these modalities, and then divides again. It's moving forward into the future through the people who come after you, and backward into the past through your ancestors. Terence McKenna --The Archaic Revival
In the multidimensional realms "beyond" our material world, time does not exist. In some way unimaginable to us, past, present and future are consolidated into an eternal Here and Now. Thus our choices in spacetime can have consequences in hyperspace which are inconceivable to us in the current situation. So if the Self (as manifested in the oracle) often seems to be tyrannically unreasonable, it is arguably because of the ego's dimensional myopia.
The Spirit ... may know the most violent love and hatred possible, for it can see the remote consequences of the most trivial acts of the living, provided those consequences are part of its future life. In trying to prevent them it may become one of those frustrators dreaded by certain spirit mediums. It cannot, however, without ... assistance ... affect life in any way except to delay its own rebirth. With that assistance it can so shape circumstances as to make possible the rebirth of a unique nature. W. B. Yeats --A Vision
Such conceptions of cause and effect seem irrational to ordinary awareness, yet quantum physicists hypothesize future events which affect the present as well as the past. The idea is not a new one:
Indeed, the hero of Hebrew myth is not only profoundly influenced by the deeds, words and thoughts of his forebears, and aware of his own profound influence on the fate of his descendants; he is equally influenced by the behavior of his descendants and influences that of his ancestors. Thus King Jeroboam set up a golden calf in Dan, and this sinful act sapped the strength of Abraham when he pursued his enemies into the same district a thousand years previously. Graves and Patai --Hebrew Myths
Should the ego's choices and their consequences not conform to the Self's intent, a rather cancerous growth is implied in which dynamic and magnetic forces are improperly consolidated -- in I Chingterms, dynamic and magnetic are mismatched. Through this "infidelity" of correlates the Work is thus adulterated and falls short of the archetypal ideal.
That the greatest effects come from the smallest causes has become patently clear not only in physics but in the field of psychological research as well. How often in the critical moments of life everything hangs on what appears to be a mere nothing! Jung -- The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales
Contraction is a compression inward toward a center. Psychologically, this can be regarded as an integration of complexes. Once the implosion completes itself, it is implied that the growth cycle reverses itself to expand away from the center. (Cf., hexagram number fifty-nine, Expansion, in which the ancestral temple is also mentioned.) The following hexagram, Pushing Upward,is the inverse of this one, and depicts a similar upward expansion of energy.
The archetypal themes displayed here are those of Solve et coagula, Implosion-Explosion, Contraction-Expansion, Black Hole-White Hole, Day and Night of Brahma, etc.