Harmony leads to growth, but to rise above challenges, focus and clarity must guide your strength.
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Peace
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Breakthrough
Calling for help
One makes arrangements to tell one's friends what to do in case of difficulty. taoscopy.com
Peace11
Harmony and prosperity arise when opposites attract and balance is maintained. Positive energies are in alignment, and collaborative efforts lead to growth and advancement. Embrace peace and cooperation for continued success.
↓ Line 4
Humility and sincerity in relationships bring harmony and trust.
↓ Line 5
Generosity and alliances through relationships bring great blessings and success.
↓ Breakthrough 43
Break through obstacles with determination and clarity. Confront negativity openly while maintaining integrity and wisdom. The truth must be revealed, yet patience is required.
Other titles: Peace, The Symbol of Successfulness, Prospering, Pervading, Greatness, Tranquility, Prosperity, Conjunction, Major Synthesis, Hieros Gamos, Holy Marriage, "Yang supporting yin and going to meet each other. Good prospects for a marriage or partnership." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Harmony shows the inferior departed and the great arrived. There will be good fortune with progress and success.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Peace. The small departs, the great approaches. Good fortune. Success.
Blofeld: Peace. The mean decline; the great and good approach -- good fortune and success! [In the following hexagram (Divorcement), where the trigrams symbolize heaven and earth in what would appear to be their normal positions, that arrangement is held to be disastrous; whereas here, where they seem to be upside down, everything is propitious. This may be because heaven above earth is held to imply that the two are existing separately without the intercourse which is the root of all growth; whereas here their intercourse is so absolute that heaven is actually supporting earth.]
Liu: Peace. The small is departing, the great is arriving. Good fortune. Success.
Ritsema/Karcher: Pervading . The small going, the great coming. significance Growing. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of prospering and expanding. It emphasizes that continually spreading this prosperity through communicating is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Greatness: the little go and the great come; auspicious; receipt.
Cleary (1): The small goes, the great comes. This is auspicious and developmental.
Cleary (2):Tranquility … Getting through auspiciously.
Wu:Prosperity shows that the small stays outside and the great stays inside. It will be auspicious and pervasive.
The Image
Legge: The intercourse of heaven and earth -- the image of Harmony.The wise ruler models his laws upon the principles of heaven and earth, and enforces them for the people's benefit.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Heaven and earth unite: the image of Peace. Thus the ruler divides and completes the course of heaven and earth; he furthers and regulates the gifts of heaven and earth, and so aids the people.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes heaven and earth in communion. [The component trigrams illustrate the kind of close intercourse just alluded to. This is surely the only way of depicting it under the circumstances, for any mingling of their component lines would produce quite different trigrams having no reference to heaven and earth.] It is as though a mighty ruler, by careful regulation of affairs, has brought to fruition the way of heaven and earth. In harmony with the sequence of their motions, he gives help to people on every hand.
Liu: Heaven and earth are unified, symbolizing Peace. The ruler reforms and completes the way of heaven and earth; He observes the appropriate methods of heaven and earth to direct the people.
Ritsema/Karcher: Heaven and Earth mingling. Pervading. The crown-prince uses property to accomplish Heaven and Earth's tao. The crown-prince uses bracing to mutualize Heaven and Earth's propriety. The crown-prince uses the left to right the commoners.
Cleary (1): When heaven and earth commune, there is tranquility. Thus does the ruler administer the way of heaven and earth and assist the proper balance of heaven and earth, thereby helping the people.
Cleary (2): … So as to influence the people.
Wu:Prosperity results from the interaction of heaven and earth. The king uses the wealth of the nation to achieve the ways of heaven and earth and to support their designs, so as to bring the sentiments of the people to the center.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Harmony shows the union of heaven and earth, and all things consequently united -- high and low, superior and inferior are all in accord. The lower trigram is made up of dynamic lines, and the upper of magnetic lines: strength is within, devotion is without; the superior man is inside and increasing, the inferior man is outside and decreasing.
Legge: The Judgment refers to the structure of the hexagram, with the three dynamic lines below, and the three magnetic lines above. The former are "the great," active and vigorous; the latter are "the inferior," passive and yielding. In many editions of theI Chingbeneath the hexagram of Harmonythere appears hexagram number fifty-four,Propriety, which becomes Harmonyif the third and fourth lines exchange places. A situation in which the motive forces are represented by three dynamic, and the opposing by three magnetic lines, must be progressive and successful.Harmonyis called the hexagram of the first month of the natural spring, when for six months the forces of growth are in ascendance.
Canon McClatchie translates: "The Image means that heaven and earth have now conjugal intercourse with each other, and the upper and lower classes unite together."
Ch'eng-tzu says on the Image that a ruler should frame his laws to operate like the seasons, so that the people exist within the structure of a natural rather than an arbitrary order.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Harmony depicts the waning of egotistical illusions and the waxing of true potential.
The Superior Man allows his inner virtue to rule the psyche.
Without changing lines, Harmony suggests a fruitful union of opposites and consequent state of balance in the matter at hand.
Wilhelm translates the opening phrase of the Confucian commentary as: "Heaven and earth unite." Blofeld renders it: "The celestial and terrestrial forces have intercourse and all things are in communion with one another." Legge has already called attention to McClatchie's version of: "Heaven and earth have now conjugal intercourse with each other."
This image is one of the most universal symbols produced by the human psyche: the sexual union of Spirit and Matter (heaven and earth). This is the hieros gamos or holy marriage of alchemy, the union of Shiva and Shakti in Hinduism, the conjoined male and female deities in tantric Buddhism, the syzygies of Gnosticism and the union of heaven and earth in the Kabbalah.
The notions of the couple and the sacred marriage held a very important place in ancient Chinese religious thinking. Every sacred power was twofold, male and female; but since only one half of the sacred couple was generally enclosed in any one sanctuary, the ritual was directed at reconstituting the whole... The complete being is male and female; since most men neglect or repress their feminine nature, they are out of balance; their male aggressiveness comes to the fore, and their whole vitality suffers. There can be no true Holiness without a prior revitalization of femininity. M. Kaltenmark --Lao Tzu and Taoism
Psychologically, the condition pictured by this hexagram is a metaphor for a high state of integration within the psyche. Here it is described in alchemical and Jungian terminology:
The hermetic vessel is oneself. In it the many pieces of psychic stuff scattered throughout one's world must be collected and fused into one, so making a new creation. In it must occur the union of the opposites called by the alchemists the coniunctio or marriage... (This union), in psychological terms corresponds to man with his feminine soul, the anima, or to a woman with her masculine counterpart, the animus -- the union in each case constituting the inner marriage, the hieros gamos by which the individual must become whole. M.E. Harding --Psychic Energy
To receive this hexagram does not necessarily mean that one has attained such a high integration, but it might indicate a step in that direction. The ultimate hieros gamos only occurs after all of the scattered and mismatched forces within the psyche have been brought together in correct alignment -- in I Ching terms, when all of the lines are in their proper places with proper correlates as imaged in hexagram number 63, Completion. Until this final union there are innumerable "lesser" conjunctions which must first take place -- a fact recognized in tantric yoga:
The final goal of the tantricist is to reunite the two contrary principles -- Shiva and Shakti -- in his own body. When Shakti, who sleeps, in the shape of a serpent, at the base of his body, is awoken by certain yogic techniques, she moves through a medial channel by way of the chakras up to the top of the skull, where Shiva dwells, and unites with him. The union of the divine pair within his own body transforms the yogin into a kind of "androgyne." But it must be stressed that "androgynization" is only one aspect of a total process, that of the reunion of the opposites. Actually, Tantric literature speaks of a great number of "opposing pairs" that have to be reunited. Mircea Eliade -- Myths, Rites, Symbols
The establishment of the " Kingdom of Heaven on Earth" is yet another metaphor for this process of psychic unification. Here is the Kabbalistic version:
It is by the establishment of the celestial on the terrestrial, or of heaven upon earth, that the house of the King (humanity) will become united and the King will rejoice thereat, for then the two kingdoms will become one and then the new and living way will become opened to those who make themselves susceptible and receptive of the Higher and Diviner life... When these two worlds become united and blended together they are symbolized by the union of the male and female, the one being the complement of the other. The Zohar
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Legge points out that many editions of the I Chingassociate hexagram number fifty-four,Propriety, with this figure. What do the changing third and fourth lines ofPropriety imply about the role of the ego in the Work? The traditional name forPropriety is "The Marrying Maiden" -- how does that relate to the concept of the holy marriage in Harmony? Compare the Judgments and Images of the two hexagrams and the role of the superior man in each. Note also the lesson implied when lines two and five in Harmony unite to make hexagram number sixty-three, Completion.
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows its subject fluttering down -- not relying on her own rich resources, but calling in her neighbors. They all come not as having received warning, but in the sincerity of their hearts.
Wilhelm/Baynes: He flutters down, not boasting of his wealth, together with his neighbor, guileless and sincere.
Blofeld: Running to and fro, kept from riches by those around him, he does not cease to put his trust in them. [He runs to and fro in his anxiety to be of service, whether people reward his kindness or not.]
Liu: One strives with a cheerful manner, not boasting of riches to a neighbor. One has full confidence without fear.
Ritsema/Karcher: Fluttering, fluttering. Not affluence: using one's neighbor. Not warning: using conforming.
Shaughnessy: So fluttering, not wealthy together with his neighbors; not warned about his return.
Cleary (1): Unsettled, one is not rich, along with the neighbors, being loyal without admonition.
Cleary (2): Unsettled, not prosperous, one works with the neighbor. Sincerity is exercised, without caution.
Wu: Carefree like a flying bird, he is not in a position to accumulate wealth, but rather to share his affection with his neighbors. He is free from anxiety, for he has the confidence of others.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Both she and her neighbors are out of their real place where they are. This is what they have desired in the core of their hearts. Wilhelm/ Baynes: All of them have lost what is real. He desires it in the depths of his heart. Blofeld: His running to and fro and his lack of riches are due to his idealism. He preserves his faith in others because in his heart of hearts he WANTS to trust them. Ritsema/Karcher: Altogether letting-go substance indeed. Centering the heart desiring indeed. Cleary (2): Being unsettled and not prospering are both due to loss of the real. Exercise of sincerity without caution is the heart’s true desire. Wu: He is destined to remain empty … Because his willingness to share comes from his heart.
Legge: The subjects of the fourth and other yin lines of the upper trigram are not to be seen as opponents of the yang lines in the lower trigram, but as their correlates. They are of one heart and mind to maintain the state of Harmony, and humbly and readily yield their power to the yang lines below. Chu Hsi says that the upper lines "have lost their substantiality." As magnetic lines, their proper place is below.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man of high rank joins with the lowly in an atmosphere of spontaneity and mutual confidence.
Wing: The important thing now is that you are sincerely united and communicating with people who are your superiors. Pay no thought to ultimate rewards but maintain a steady course toward your aim. Use the help of others, if offered.
Editor: None of the translations of this line say quite the same thing, yet the meaning is clear enough when interpreted in relation to the symbolism of the figure as a whole. This is the first magnetic line of the hexagram, and the message is stated in terms of a female sexual response. She doesn't rely upon her "rich resources" -- she doesn't use her magnetic power aggressively, but willingly surrenders to dynamic initiative. Psychologically this means that Eros defers to Logos, emotion to reason, ego to Self, or whatever the situation at hand suggests is a proper subordination of one principle to another.
In every exposition of the Perennial Philosophy the human soul is regarded as feminine in relation to the Godhead, the personal God and even the Order of Nature. Hubris, which is the original sin, consists in regarding the personal ego as self-sufficiently masculine in relation to the Spirit within and to Nature without, and in behaving accordingly. Aldous Huxley
A. The image suggests the voluntary surrender of power and position to create a higher alliance of forces.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, magnetic, reminds us of king Ti-yi's rule about the marriage of his younger sister. By such a course there is happiness and there will be great good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The sovereign I gives his daughter in marriage. This brings blessing and supreme good fortune.
Blofeld: By giving his daughter in marriage, the Emperor attained felicity and extreme good fortune.
Liu: The Emperor I gives his daughter in marriage. This will bring blessings and great good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: The supreme burgeoning, converting maidenhood. Using satisfaction, Spring significant.
Shaughnessy: Di Yi marries off the maiden by age; prime auspiciousness.
Cleary (1): The emperor marries off his younger sister, whereby there is good fortune; this is very auspicious.
Wu: Di Yi married off his younger sister. The marriage was blessed with great happiness.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She employs the virtues proper to her central position to carry her wishes into effect. Wilhelm/Baynes: Because he is central in carrying out what he desires. Blofeld: This was because of his impartiality in carrying out what he felt to be desirable. [This suggests a need for impartiality in conducting our affairs.] Ritsema/Karcher: Center uses moving desire indeed. Cleary (2): The balanced carrying out of deliberate, purposeful undertakings. Wu: It was done with a wish from a central position.
Legge: According to Ch'eng-tzu, Ti-yi was the first to enact a law that daughters of the royal house, in marrying princes of the states, should be in subjection to them, as if they were not superior to them in rank. Here line five, while occupying the place of dignity and authority in the hexagram, is yet a magnetic line in the place of a dynamic one. She accordingly humbly condescends to her dynamic and proper correlate in line two.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The example of King I's decree that his younger sister must obey her outranked husband is presented. The modest union of the high and the low brings real satisfaction.
Wing: You can achieve your aim and realize great good fortune by remaining impartial in your behavior. Humility and modesty will allow you to communicate with the sentiments of your followers in mind. You will then be supported in your endeavors.
Editor: The rulership of the hexagram is shared jointly by the second and fifth lines. In the situation symbolized here, the magnetic fifth line yields her authority to the dynamic second line -- each is out of its "correct" place, and so they swap positions, so to speak. The meaning is that yin willingly defers to yang, female yields to male, emotions to intellect, feelings to principle, etc. It is significant to note that in a hexagram depicting a holy marriage, the perfect union of Heaven and Earth, that the only line mentioning marriage is this one. The marriage is between lines two and five, and when they both change the hexagram created is number 63, After Completion, the "perfect" or reference hexagram determining all correct relationships. Lines two and five are the only lines in the figure that are "out of place," and each takes its meaning from the other, which implies that they exchange places to create a perfect configuration. Implicit in all this is the idea of yin (emotion) being correct when it is alchemically conjoined with yang (reason). Emotion and intellect must blend into intuition. The ego can't "make" this happen, but it can help create the conditions which make it possible.
When the understanding of truth which is with the man makes one with the affection of good which is with the woman, there is a conjunction of the two minds into one. This conjunction is the spiritual marriage from which conjugal love descends; for when the two minds are so conjoined that they become one mind, there is love between them. Swedenborg -- Arcana Coelestia
A. Defer feelings to reason or principle.
B. Ego defers to the will of the Self.
C. A fundamental rule of the Work is to concede one's initiative to a higher principle.
Other titles: Break-through, The Symbol of Decision, Resolution, Determination, Parting, Removing Corruption, Eradication
Judgment
Legge: Recognizing the risks involved in criminal prosecution, justice demands a resolute proof of the culprit's guilt in the royal court. One informs one's own city that armed force is not necessary. In this way progress is assured.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Break-through. One must resolutely make the matter known at the court of the king. It must be announced truthfully. Danger. It is necessary to notify one's own city. It does not further to resort to arms. It furthers one to undertake something.
Blofeld: Resolution. When a proclamation is made at the court of the King, frankness in revealing the true state of affairs is dangerous. [In vital matters, frankness may prove dangerous.] In making announcements to the people of his own city, it is not fitting for the ruler to carry arms. [It is better to repose trust in our own people.] It is favorable to have some goal (or destination).
Liu: Determination. Someone is proud in the king's court, and the king trusts him. If one exposes the truth, danger. It must be told to one's own people. Using force does not benefit. It does benefit to do something else. [You must decide how to deal with a situation before it reaches a dangerous point, or things will take their own course and overwhelm you.]
Ritsema/Karcher:Parting, displaying tending-towards kingly chambers. Conforming, crying-out, possessing adversity. Notifying originates from the capital. Not Harvesting: approaching arms. Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of separation and diverging directions. It emphasizes that resolutely dividing your energies is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Resolution: Raised up at the royal court, returning crying out; there is danger. Announcing from the sky; not beneficial to regulate the belligerents; beneficial to have someplace to go.
Cleary (1): Parting is lauded in the royal court. The call of truth involves danger. Addressing one’s own domain, it is not beneficial to go right to war, but it is beneficial to go somewhere. [The royal court is the abode of the mind-ruler, where true and false are distinguished.]
Cleary (2): Decision is brought up in the royal court. A sincere statement involves danger, etc.
Wu:Eradication indicates a conceited pronouncement in the royal court on the one hand, and a concerted call for vigilance on the other. It is essential to make the danger known to the people, but not to resort to force now. It is advantageous to have undertakings.
The Image
Legge: The image of the waters of a marsh mounting over heaven forms Resoluteness. The superior man, in accordance with this, does not hoard his wealth, but shares it with his subordinates.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The lake has risen up to heaven: the image of Break-through. Thus the superior man dispenses riches downward and refrains from resting on his virtue.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a marshy lake being drawn (sucked) towards the sky. The Superior Man distributes his emoluments to those below; dwelling in virtue, he renounces them.
Liu: The lake ascends to heaven, symbolizing Determination. The superior man distributes wealth below him, without displaying his favors.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh with-respect-to heaven. Parting. A chun tzu uses spreading-out benefits to extend to the below. A chun tzu uses residing-in actualizing tao, by- consequence keeping-aloof. [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 what it is meant to be.]
Cleary (1): Moisture ascends to heaven, which parts with it. Thus do superior people distribute blessings to reach those below, while avoiding presumption of virtue. [After people get mixed up in temporal conditioning, the discriminatory consciousness takes charge of affairs; wine and sex distract them from reality, the lure of wealth deranges their nature, emotions and desires well forth at once, thoughts and ruminations arise in a tangle, and the mind-ruler is lost in confusion. Because habituation becomes second nature over a long period of time, it cannot be abruptly removed. It is necessary to work on the matter in a serene and equanimous way, according to the time: Eventually discrimination will cease, and the original spirit will return; the human mind will sublimate and the mind of Tao will be complete – again you will see the original self.]
Cleary (2): … If they presumed on their virtue, they would be resented.
Wu: The marsh rises to heaven; this is Eradication. Thus the jun zi distributes his emolument to those below and is loath to monopolize virtues.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Resoluteness is the symbol of displacing or removing. We see the dynamic lines displacing the magnetic line. The figure displays the attributes of Strength and Cheerfulness. There is displacement, but harmony continues. The exhibition of the criminal's guilt in the royal court is shown by the magnetic line mounted on five dynamic lines. The awareness of danger and appeal for justice makes the matter clear. If he has recourse to arms, what he prefers will soon be exhausted. When the advance of the dynamic lines is complete, there will be an end to displacement.
Legge:Resoluteness represents the third month when the last vestige of winter, represented by the sixth line, is about to disappear before the advance of summer. The single yin line at the top symbolizes an inferior man, a feudal prince or high minister who is corrupting the government. The five yang lines below are the representatives of good order. The lesson of the hexagram is how to remove corruption from the kingdom. He who would do this must do so by the force of his character more than the force of arms. Never forgetting the dangerous nature of his undertaking, he must openly denounce the criminal in the court and awaken general sympathy to his cause. Among his own adherents ("In his own city") he must prevent any tendency to resort to armed conflict. As a worthy statesman he is not motivated by private feelings.
Hu Ping-wen says: "If but a single inferior man is left, he is sufficient to make the superior man anxious; if but a single inordinate desire be left in the mind, that is sufficient to disturb the harmony of the heavenly principles. The eradication in both cases must be complete, before the labor is ended."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment:Resoluteness involves astute discernment of what is wrong and a discreet re-establishment of order without polarizing the situation. Be clear in your own strategy, but let common sense be your guide about how much you need to disclose to others. Avoid aggression at all costs.
The Superior Man maintains equilibrium by distributing his energy equitably -- he smoothes things out.
The forty-third hexagram is an image of the eradication of an inferior force from the situation at hand: five yang lines resolutely advance on the single yin line, which is about to be pushed out of the hexagram at the top. This is a negative image of the twenty-third hexagram, Disintegration, which shows the opposite situation of five lower yin lines undermining one upper yang line. It is instructive to compare the nearly identical message for the superior man in the Images of each of these figures. The idea is one of fostering an equitable distribution of energy within the situation -- Disintegration and the Resoluteness required to rectify it are extreme situations requiring extreme measures. Such extremes must always be neutralized through a justly distributed balance of forces.
It's not the concern of law that any one class in the city fare exceptionally well, but it contrives to bring this about for the whole city, harmonizing the citizens by persuasion and compulsion, making them share with one another the benefit that each class is able to bring to the commonwealth. And it produces such men in the city not in order to let them turn whichever way each wants, but in order that it may use them in binding the city together. Plato --The Republic
Compare the nuances of meaning in each translation of the Judgment. Wilhelm's is most radical, advising a direct (albeit dangerous), expose of what is wrong. Most of the others imply room for discretion about what needs to be revealed. Diplomacy is the art of knowing when full- disclosure only prevents resolution of the problem. Ritsema/Karcher allude to the proper mind-set required to manage such situations: "[A chun tzu uses] residing-in actualizing tao, by-consequence keeping-aloof." To "reside in actualizing tao," is to live directly from one's essence, and when this is associated with "keeping-aloof" we get an image of quietly rectifying a situation without revealing our purpose or strategy.
Psychologically interpreted,Resoluteness, like Disintegration, depicts an extreme situation which must first be rectified, then prevented from re-occurring through the maintenance of a just balance of power which is administered by the ego under the will of the Self.