Pause in stagnation; ignite your inner light and illuminate the path forward.
From
12
Divorcement
To
30
Clarity
Complying with the rules
One make amends by being more flexible towards those who think differently. taoscopy.com
Divorcement12
Progress stalls as negative influences prevail. Patience and self-reflection are key to overcoming obstacles.
↓ Line 1
The beginning of stagnation. It is important to remain true to oneself and maintain integrity.
↓ Line 3
One may feel shame due to the stagnation, but it is important to remain patient and not act impulsively.
↓ Line 5
The stagnation begins to lift. The wise remain cautious and ensure stability as progress resumes.
↓ Clarity30
Clarity and adaptability. Embrace the light to illuminate your path. Recognize patterns in life, align with them, and nurture personal growth.
Other titles: Standstill, The Symbol of Closing, Stagnation, Obstruction, The Wife, Obstructed, Decadence, Disjunction, Impasse, "Yin supporting yang which is wrong, they part company. Bad prospects for marriage or partnership. " -- D.F. Hook
Judgment:
Legge: Divorcement means there is a lack of communication between the different classes of men. This is unfavorable to the superior man. The great has departed and the inferior has arrived.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Standstill . Evil people do not further the perseverance of the superior man. The great departs; the small approaches.
Blofeld: Stagnation (obstruction) caused by evil doers. Although the omen portends ill for the Superior Man, he must not slacken his righteous persistence. The great and the good decline; the mean approach. [When heaven and earth cease to co-operate, no growth is possible and stagnation results. The trigram (earth), when in intercourse with heaven, has the auspicious meaning of glad acceptance; but, when separated from heaven, it represents weakness and darkness, etc.]
Liu: Stagnation. Stagnation is of no benefit, although not of man's doing. The superior man carries on (according to his principles). The great is departing. The small is arriving.
Ritsema/Karcher: Obstructing it , in-no-way people. Not Harvesting: chun tzu, Trial. the great going, the small coming. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of being blocked or interfered with. It emphasizes that accepting the hindrances that temporarily interrupt the flow of life and thwart communication is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: accept obstruction!]
Shaughnessy: The wife's non-persons; not beneficial for the gentleman to determine; the great go, the little come.
Cleary (1): Obstruction’s denial of humanity does not make the superior person’s rectitude beneficial. The great goes and the small comes.
Cleary (2): … Does not make the leader’s correctness beneficial, etc.
Wu:Stagnation is destined to cause obstruction of normal course of action. It is not beneficial to the jun zi who takes a persevering stand. The great goes out and the small comes in.
The Image:
Legge: Heaven and earth are estranged -- the image of Divorcement. The superior man preserves his virtue by withdrawing from evil, and refuses both honor and wealth.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Heaven and earth do not unite: the image of Standstill. Thus the superior man falls back upon his inner worth in order to escape the difficulties. He does not permit himself to be honored with revenue.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes heaven and earth cut off from each other. To conserve his stock of virtue, the Superior Man withdraws into himself and thus escapes from the evil influences around him. He declines all temptations of honor and riches. [To understand why the trigrams for heaven and earth arranged in what seems to be their natural positions have this inauspicious significance, see notes on the preceding hexagram, (Harmony).]
Liu: Heaven and earth are not united, symbolizing stagnation. The superior man restrains himself to avoid danger. He seeks neither honor nor wealth.
Ritsema/Karcher: Heaven, earth, not mingling. Obstruction. A chun tzu uses parsimonious actualizing-tao to cast-out heaviness. A chun tzu uses not permitting splendor to use benefits. [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): When heaven and earth do not commune, there is obstruction. The superior person therefore is parsimonious with power and avoids trouble, not susceptible to elevation by emolument.
Cleary (2): … Leaders … should not prosper on wages.
Wu: … The jun zi practices the virtue of frugality to alleviate difficulties, but does not allow himself to be honored with official salary.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The unfavorable auspice of Divorcement is because heaven and earth are not in communication, and all things consequently fail to unite. High and low, superior and inferior, do not meet in union, and there are no well- regulated states in the kingdom. The lower trigram consists of magnetic lines, and the upper of dynamic lines: darkness is within, clarity without; weakness within, strength without. The lower trigram represents the advancing inferior men, the upper trigram represents the retreating superior men.
Legge: The form of Divorcementis the exact opposite of Harmony, and much of what has been said on the interpretation of that will apply to this. Divorcement is the hexagram of the seventh month when the process of growth has ended and increasing decay may be expected. The trigram of Earth is below and that of Heaven is above, and since it is always proper for the lower trigram to take the initiative, how can Earth take the place of Heaven? As in nature, it is Heaven that originates, not Earth, and in a state the upper classes must take the initiative, and not the lower.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: The time is out of joint -- decadence waxes and virtue is mocked.
The Superior Man refuses to participate in the prevailing disorder.
If the preceding hexagram images the fruitful union of heaven and earth in a holy marriage, this figure shows their Divorcement.
Divorcement: The act, process, or an instance of separating things closely joined -- the state of being separated.
To receive this figure without changing lines suggests that you are separated from truth or virtue, or that for the moment at least, the situation at hand affords no possibility of reconciliation. During such conditions it would be the height of folly to "wed oneself" to the prevailing disorder.
Note however that every line but the third shows some kind of effort to reunite that which has been separated. The first shows an alliance of closely related elements bent on serving the Work; line two depicts a kind of holding action which is necessary to allow a superior element to prevail. The third line identifies recalcitrant forces which prevent union, and four depicts another alliance -- a higher octave of its first line correlate. Line five images nearly complete re-unification and six shows the end of Divorcement. These images suggest that although disunion prevails, the energy in the situation is promoting connection.
As regards the Judgment:
Plato seems to have expressed Confucius' idea perfectly. In The Republic he makes Socrates say that the true philosopher, finding himself in an evil environment, "will not join in the wickedness of his fellows, but neither is he able singly to resist all their fierce natures, and therefore seeing that he would be of no use to the State or to his friends, and reflecting that he would have to throw away his life without doing any good either to himself or others, he holds his peace, and goes his own way ... he is content, if only he can live his own life and be pure from evil or unrighteousness, and depart in peace and good-will, with bright hopes." H.G. Creel -- Confucius and the Chinese Way
Line 1
Legge: The first line, magnetic, suggests the idea of grass pulled up, and bringing with it other stalks with whose roots it is connected. With firm correctness on the part of its subject, there will be good fortune and progress.
Wilhelm/Baynes: When ribbon grass is pulled up, the sod comes with it. Each according to his kind. Perseverance brings good fortune and success.
Blofeld: When grass is uprooted, what is attached to it is pulled up as well. Righteous persistence brings good fortune and success. [Although this hexagram is ominous, the first line is auspicious. This sort of contradiction is common with bottom and top lines, which are often held to precede or follow after the main situation.]
Liu: When ribbon grass is pulled out, its roots come with it. They are of the same kind. Continuing leads to success and good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Eradicating thatch-grass intertwined. Using one's classification. Trial: significant. Growing.
Shaughnessy: Plucking the cogon-grass stem with its roots; determination is auspicious; receipt.
Cleary (1): Pulling out roots of a reed takes others with it. It is good and developmental to be correct.
Cleary (2): … Correctness is auspicious and successful.
Wu: Like pulling reeds with all their connecting roots, it will be persevering, auspicious and pervasive.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The will of the parties intended is bent on serving the ruler. Wilhelm/Baynes: The will is directed to the ruler. Blofeld: The omen is favorable owing to continued loyalty to the rule. [The ruler is now surrounded by evil men or men of mean attainments, but the Superior Man continues to help him.] Ritsema/Karcher: Purpose located-in a chief indeed. Cleary (2): The will is in the leader. Wu: Because the aspiration is to serve the king.
Legge: Naturally we should expect the advance of the first of the three magnetic lines to lead to evil. But if she sets herself to be firm and correct, she will bring about a different issue. She is one of the cluster of inferior forces who are able to change their mind, and set their hearts to love their ruler.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the inferior people are advancing. The man retires from public office in order to preserve his integrity. He brings along his associates, who are like the sod clinging to the uprooted grass.
Wing: If it is not possible to change or influence the current environment while preserving the principles that have formed your character, then withdraw completely. Success will come to you in a more profound sense than could be realized from a compromising situation. Important associates may leave with you. Good fortune.
Editor: Compare this with the first line of the preceding hexagram. In some circumstances the meaning can be similar to the proverb: "Birds of a feather flock together." In another sense, if "grass roots" are the foundation, source, bare essence of something, then the first line can represent the roots of the lower trigram, which is seen as a clump of grass or "cluster of inferior forces." The image suggests the separation of oneself from an entrenched position and moving upward. Confucius sees this movement as being in accord with the will of "the ruler" -- in psychological terms: the will of the Self.
Endeavor to ascend into thyself, gathering in from the body all thy members which have been dispersed and scattered into multiplicity from that unity which once abounded in the greatness of its power. Bring together and unify the inborn ideas and try to articulate those that are confused and to draw into light those that are obscured. Porphyry
A. A fundamental change for the better, or the first step toward unity: grass-roots support.
B. An ascent from a fixed position. A confederation of lower elements combines to serve a greater whole.
C. Form follows function. Stay connected with your origins/basic values in context of hexagram’s meaning in Judgment and Image.
D. Action follows perception.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, magnetic, shows its subject ashamed of the purpose folded in her breast.
Wilhelm/Baynes: They bear shame.
Blofeld: He conceals his shame.
Liu: They bear with humiliation.
Ritsema/Karcher: Enwrapping embarrassing.
Shaughnessy: Wrapping: Enfolding sadness.
Cleary (1): Hiding shame.
Cleary (2): Embracing disgrace.
Wu: It indicates a cover-up of shame. [The little man wishes to undermine progress. Since he is able to keep shame under wrap, there is no apparent foreboding or regret.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: This is due to the inappropriateness of the position. Wilhelm/Baynes: They bear shame because the place is not the right one. Blofeld: This is indicated by the unsuitable position of the line. Ritsema/ Karcher: Situation not appropriate indeed. Cleary (2): The position is not appropriate. Wu: The position is improper.
Legge: The third line is magnetic in a dynamic place. She would vent her evil purpose, but hasn't the strength to do so. Therefore she is left to the shame which she ought to feel without a word of warning.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man feels inwardly ashamed for having acquired his position illegitimately. But he does not have the strength to carry out his evil purpose.
Wing: Because of questionable methods and motives used to attain your position, your plans will not come to fruition. There is some shame in this, but therefore improvement.
Editor: Wilhelm and Liu both use the plural here: "They bear shame," and "They bear with humiliation." I have received this line when it referred to autonomous elements (inner complexes or other people) influencing the situation; I have also received it directed at a consciously held attitude, as well as describing another person’s hidden agenda. Part of the idea here is that for one to mend one's ways one must first recognize one's errors and "feel shame" about them. The prognosis is then favorable -- i.e.: "Go thy way and sin no more." Sometimes this line can be a reprimand for asking the oracle a question you can figure out for yourself.
We are still as possessed by our autonomous psychic contents as if they were gods. Today they are called phobias, compulsions, and so forth, or in a word, neurotic symptoms. The gods have become diseases; Zeus no longer rules Olympus but the solar plexus, and creates specimens for the physician's consulting room, or disturbs the brains of the politicians and journalists who then unwittingly unleash mental epidemics. Jung --The Secret of the Golden Flower
A. Shame on you.
B. Shame on him, her, them or it.
C. Shame is “concealed” within brazen, unapologetic behavior.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows him who brings the distress and obstruction to a close -- the great man and fortunate. But let him say: "We may perish! We may perish!" So shall the state of things become firm, as if bound to a clump of bushy mulberry trees.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Standstill is giving way. Good fortune for the great man.
"What if it should fail? What if it should fail?" In this way he ties it to a cluster of mulberry shoots.
Blofeld: Stagnation (obstruction) is now coming to an end and fortune favors the Superior Man, but he must not forget the situation is so dangerous that collapse may yet occur. Accordingly, he must strengthen himself as mulberry trees are strengthened by tight bindings.
Liu: Stagnation is coming to an end. The great man has good fortune. "Will it fail, will it fail?" He ties it to the mulberry shoots.
Ritsema/Karcher: Relinquishing Obstruction. Great People significant. Its extinction, its extinction. Attaching tending-towards bushy mulberry trees.
Shaughnessy: Beneficent wife; for the great man auspicious; it is lost, it is lost, tied to a bushy mulberry.
Cleary (1): Ending obstruction, great people are fortunate, but tie themselves to a tree trunk lest they go to ruin.
Cleary (2): Putting a stop to obstruction, great people are fortunate. But they still keep destruction in mind.
Wu: Stagnation will soon be brought to a close. This is auspicious for the great man. Would the nation perish? Would the nation perish? It is like having tied it to the trunk of a mulberry tree.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The good fortune of the great man arises from the correctness of his position. Wilhelm/Baynes: The place is correct and appropriate. Blofeld: That fortune now favors the Superior Man is indicated by the suitable position of this line. [A firm line with other firm lines on either side.]Ritsema/Karcher: Situation correcting appropriate indeed.
Cleary (2): The fortune of great people is when their position is truly appropriate. Wu: Because his position is proper.
The master said:"He who keeps danger in mind is he who will rest safe in his seat; he who keeps ruin in mind is he who will preserve his interests secure; he who sets the danger of disorder before him is he who will maintain the state of order. Therefore the superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget the possibility of ruin; and when all is in a state of order, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is kept safe, and his states and all their clans can be preserved. This is according to what the I Ching says: `Let him say, "Shall I perish? Shall I perish?" So shall this state be firm, as if bound to a clump of bushy mulberry trees.'"
Legge: The dynamic fifth line in his correct central place brings the distress and obstruction to a close. Yet he, as ruler, is warned to maintain his caution in two lines of rhyme: "And let him say, `I die! I die!' -- So to a bushy clump his fortune he shall tie."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man brings order and progress to the situation. He exhibits cool-headedness and caution during the transition and maintains contingency plans in readiness.
Wing: A sweeping change for the better is indicated. Things can improve and progress. Yet this is the very time to feel cautious and reserved. With such an attitude your success is doubly insured and a strong foundation is established for the new times.
Editor: The image in the first line is of the entangled roots of grass plants. The differences between line one and line five are the differences between roots and stalks -- one is a cause, the other is an effect. The roots are entangled naturally, the stalks must be bound together by a conscious act of will: one is a hidden natural association, the other is an overt willed association.
Other titles: The Clinging, The Symbol of Brightness and of Separateness, Flaming Beauty, Radiance, Fire, The Net, Allegiance, The Cosmic Mean, Synergy, Sunlight, Perception, Pertaining to Comprehension, The Light, Consciousness, Lucidity
Judgment
Legge: The free course and success of Clarity comes from firm correctness. The nourishment of bovine docility creates good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Clinging. Perseverance furthers. It brings success. Care of the cow brings good fortune.
Blofeld:Flaming beauty. Righteous persistence brings reward. Success! Rearing cows -- good fortune! [Cows are gentle creatures which require looking after; hence this sentence means that good fortune can be gained by looking after those in need of help.]
Liu: Fire. It is of benefit to continue. Success. To take care of the cow leads to good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Radiance, Harvesting Trial. Growing. Accumulating female cattle. Significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of expanding light, warmth and awareness. It emphasizes that joining with and depending on what spreads this light, the action of Radiance, is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:The Net: Beneficial to determine; receipt; raising a cow is auspicious.
Cleary(1):Fire is beneficial for correctness and development. Raising a cow brings good fortune.
Cleary (2): Fire is beneficial if correct; then there is success, etc. [In Buddhism, when demons cause disturbance, it is necessary to cleave to true teaching to get rid of aberrations.]
Wu: Allegiance indicates that it will be advantageous to be persevering and pervasion will follow. It will be auspicious to raise the cow.
The Image
Legge: The image of brightness repeated forms Clarity. The great man, in accordance with this, cultivates more and more his brilliant virtue, and diffuses its brightness over the four quarters of the land.
Wilhelm/Baynes: That which is bright rises twice: the image of Fire. Thus the great man, by perpetuating this brightness, illuminates the four quarters of the world.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes fire rising in two tongues of brilliant flame. The Superior Man, by perpetuating the brilliance of the ancients, illuminates every quarter of the earth. [In other words, we should make ourselves as completely dependent on the principle of righteousness as natural objects are dependent upon nature; in this way, we are sure to be successful.]
Liu: Doubled brightness symbolizes Fire. A great man perpetuates the light and illuminates the four corners of the universe.
Ritsema/Karcher: Brightness doubled arousing Radiance. Great People use consecutive brightening to illuminate tending- towards the four sides.
Cleary (1):Light has dual function. Thus do great people illumine the four quarters with continuing light. [The sun goes in at night and comes out in the daytime; this pattern represents inner illumination and outer illumination, one light having dual function…Outer illumination has to be based on inner illumination… Illumination must reach inside and outside, so that both are illumined and both are correct.]
Cleary (2): Illumination doubled makes fire. Great people illumine the four quarters with continuing illumination.
Wu: Brightness doubled makes Allegiance. Thus the great man carries on the brightness to shine the four corners of the earth.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Clarity means clinging attachment. The sun and moon have their roots in heaven, and all the growing things have their roots in the earth. The double brightness of the two trigrams is rooted in correctness, and all under heaven are thereby transformed. The magnetic second line is central and correct, indicating a free and successful course. Nourishing a passive docility will lead to good fortune.
Legge:Clarity is the trigram of fire and light, and the sun is the source of both of these. Its attribute is brightness, and by a natural metaphor: intelligence. But this trigram also means inhering or in adhering to -- being attached to. In the hexagram we have a double brightness -- a phrase which denotes the ruler. If we take the two central lines as emblematic of the situation, we have the magnetic dwelling with the dynamic above and below -- a condition requiring a docile humility and strict adherence to what is correct. Ch'eng-tzu says: "The nature of the ox is docile, and that of the cow is much more so. The subject of the hexagram adhering closely to what is correct must be able to act in obedience to it, as docile as a cow, and then there will be good fortune."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Willed persistence gets results. Be receptive to your inner light, and reflect it in your life.
The Superior Man cultivates his capacity to manifest his comprehension of the Work in his everyday choices.
Light is a symbol of both normal consciousness and super- consciousness. Probably every religion in the world uses it in the latter sense -- from the "Let there be light" in the first chapter of Genesis, to The Lord of Light (Ahura Mazda), the supreme being of Zoroastrianism. The TibetanBook of the Dead speaks of the "clear white light" which is the first thing encountered after bodily death -- a phenomenon reported as the experiential perception of those who have had near-death experiences. Light means Truth, it means Reality, and the "double brightness" of this hexagram tells us that Clarity is manifested both above and below.
Meditation on light is one of the most important exercises in the various schools of Tibetan Yoga. The more these psychic and spiritual powers can be achieved during life, the stronger is the ability to penetrate and overcome the bardo. D. I. Lauf, Secret Doctrines Of The Tibetan Book Of The Dead
The Confucian commentary gives the examples of the sun and moon in the heavens, and of growing things on the earth as emblems of Clarity. Sun and moon are certainly luminous, but growing things are not, and when we meditate on the reason for this strange juxtaposition we are led to the idea of the Self and the ego. The Self is the sun, the source of illumination which causes the ego to grow. Sun is to growing things as Self is to ego. This idea is repeated in the relationship between the sun and the moon -- the moon is not self-luminous, it can only reflect the light of the sun. Therefore, sun is to moon as Self is to ego.
The idea is that despite our illusions to the contrary, all of our power originates somewhere else. When we allow the power to work through us without interference, we become "docile" like the cow in the judgment. Clarity, therefore, is attained through docility -- the ability to subdue and restrain the autonomous components of the psyche, which left to their own devices would prefer to go around pontificating their brilliant illusions rather than quietly reflecting the truth. It is not easy to reflect the truth, and the superior man is counseled to constantly perfect his capacity to do so. It is only when Self and ego come together in a fusion reaction that the energy released attains the true "double brightness" imaged in the hexagram. The identical idea is found in the Kabbalah:
Said Rabbi Simeon: "When the Holy One arrays himself, it is in the ornaments from both the celestial and terrestrial worlds; from the former with that heavenly light on high that no human being can approach unto; from the latter with the souls of the righteous who the more they approximate themselves to this divine light the more receptive and filled with it do they become, so that through them it expands in all directions and the world like a cistern or ocean is filled with it." The Zohar
Wilhelm mentions that the hexagram "divided within and closed without, is an image of the meshes of a net in which animals remain snared." This gives us the image of Clarity as Comprehension -- a net which captures and encloses insights. To receive the figure without changing lines is often a confirmation of an idea or action -- it is saying: "You have comprehended," or "Your proposed action is lucid, intelligent, etc."