In times of imbalance, cultivate patience and integrity, and discover strength within community and heart.
From
12
Divorcement
To
37
The Family
Justifying oneself
One explains oneself to avoid being scolded. 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 4
Following the guidance of wise leadership can lead to success even in times of stagnation.
↓ The Family37
Focus on nurturing harmony in your community or family. Cultivate stability and mutual support by fostering open communication and shared values.
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 4
Legge: The fourth line, dynamic, shows its subject acting in accordance with the ordination of Heaven, and committing no error. His companions will come and share in his happiness.
Wilhelm/Baynes: He who acts at the command of the highest remains without blame. Those of like mind partake of the blessing.
Blofeld: Whatever is done in response to a command from on high cannot be a wrong. His companions are also made illustrious and blessed. [Yet, according to Confucius, if a ruler is wholly evil, he may be regarded as a bandit and removed. Short of that, however, obedience to authority had to be unquestioning.]
Liu: He whose actions are in accord with the orders of the highest receives no blame. His fellows share in his blessing.
Ritsema/Karcher: Possessing fate, without fault. Cultivating radiant satisfaction.
Shaughnessy: There is a command; there is no trouble; blessings fastened to the split-log.
Cleary (1): If there is an order, there is no fault. The companions attain felicity.
Cleary (2): If there is order, there is no blame. The companions cleave to blessings.
Wu: Having received the command from the above is without blame. Those of a like kind will share the blessing.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The purpose of his mind can be carried into effect. Wilhelm/Baynes: What is willed is done. Blofeld: Those carrying out commands are obeying the ruler's will. Ritsema/Karcher: Purpose moving indeed. Cleary (2): Because the will is carried out. Wu: His aspirations will prevail.
Legge: The action of the subject of the line, whose activity is tempered by his magnetic position, will be good and correct, and issue in success and happiness. The fourth line is just below the ruler's place, and yielding to the will of Heaven, or the ruler, he gets his purpose carried out.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: A turn for the better occurs. To succeed in creating order and making progress, however, the man must be given the requisite authority to do the task. He will fail if he proceeds on his own initiative and judgment.
Wing: It is possible to change the entire situation to one of progress and order. If you sincerely hear a calling to the task and are in harmony with the cosmos, you and your associates will benefit. If you simply appoint yourself to the position of leader, confusion could result.
Editor: Psychologically, the idea here is that when the ego follows the principles of the Work, or the will of the Self (which amounts to the same thing), other elements within the psyche ("his companions") are thereby induced to fall into line.
[Once unity has been achieved] the work of destiny can be commenced, which is the functioning as a part of God’s evolving Universe which [the individual], as a spirit, undertook to carry out in the first place... And how does he work out his destiny? By being himself -- literally. By acting from within the center of his being, his essential self. Not by acting according to the dictates of his mind, his emotions or his instincts, but by using them according to his and their needs. G. Knight -- The Work of a Modern Occult Fraternity
A. Obey the principles of the Work, and disparate elements will follow your lead.
B. You are in harmony with your duty/destiny/Work.
Other titles: Family Life, Clan, Home, Linkage, Dwelling People, The Psyche, "May indicate a situation where the family can and should help." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: For the regulation of The Family, what is most advantageous is that the wife be firm and correct.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Family . The perseverance of the woman furthers.
Ritsema/Karcher: Dwelling People. Harvesting: woman Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of living and working with others in a common space. It emphasizes that caring for your relation with those who share this space and for the space itself is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: dwell with people!]
Shaughnessy: Family members: Beneficial for the maiden to determine.
Cleary (1): For people in the home it is beneficial that the woman be chaste. [In the human body, the vitality, spirit, soul, psyche, and intent all belong to yin and all take orders from the human mentality … When you refine away the human mind, the mind of tao spontaneously becomes manifest.]
Wu:The Family indicates that it is advantageous for a woman to be persevering. [This is a hexagram with its emphasis on women. Both constituent trigrams are feminine … Hence those who endeavor to be firm and correct will have advantages.]
The Image
Legge: Wind rising out of fire -- the image of The Family. The superior man speaks the truth and is consistent in his behavior.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Wind comes forth from fire: The image of The Family. Thus the superior man has substance in his words and duration in his way of life.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind rising from fire. The Superior Man's speech is full of substance and he behaves with constancy.
Liu: The wind coming out of the fire symbolizes The Family. The speech of the superior man should have substance, and his conduct be enduring.
Ritsema/Karcher: Wind originating-from fire issuing-forth. Dwelling People. A chun tzu uses words to possess beings and-also movement to possess perseverance.
Cleary (1): Wind emerges from fire, members of a family. Thus is there factuality in the speech of superior people, consistency in their deeds.
Cleary (2): … Developed people are factual in speech, consistent in action.
Wu: Wind comes forth from fire; this is The Family. Thus the jun zi speaks with facts and acts with perseverance.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Family the wife is in her correct place in the lower trigram, and the husband in his correct place in the upper. That spouses occupy their correct positions shows the correct relationship between heaven and earth. The parents rule the family: let the father indeed be father, and the son son; let the elder brother be indeed elder brother, and the younger brother younger; let the husband indeed be husband, and the wife wife -- then the family will be in its correct state. Bring the family to that state, and all under heaven will be established.
Legge: The written Chinese character for Family simply means "a household," or "the members of a family." The lesson of the hexagram is the regulation of the family, effected by the cooperation of the husband and wife in their several spheres, and only needing it to become universal to secure the good order of the kingdom. The important place accorded to the wife is seen in the short sentence in the Judgment -- that she be firm and correct, and do her part well is essential for the family's proper regulation.
The wife is represented by line two and the husband is her proper correlate in line five. The relationship between heaven and earth is analogous to the relationship between husband and wife.
The second sentence of the Confucian commentary, more closely rendered, would be: "That in the family there is an authoritative ruler is a way of naming father and mother." This means that the assertion of authority in a family should be a correct balance of force and gentleness.
Anthony: The Family symbolizes correct relationships between people – the family unit, the spiritual family (the Sage and the student), and human groups generally. When these most basic relationships are correct, the world is made correct through the force of inner truth, through cultivation of the feminine component of our nature, and through persevering in a virtually menial position (from our ego’s viewpoint) so that our work can come to fruition. All this means to forgo striving and self-assertion, and to allow ourself to be led, while persevering in gentleness and devotion to our path.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: For the correct regulation of the psyche, what is most important is that the ego must be firm and correct.
The Superior Man lives his allegiance to the ideals of the Work.
Applying the Hermetic Axiom: "as above, so below," the relationships within a family are analogous to the relationships within a city-state, or a kingdom, and vice- versa:
Society centuries before the time of Confucius had been organized on the basis of family. In the early days of the Chou dynasty fiefs had been allotted to the feudal lords in a system of planned colonization. These feudal lords, linked to one another and to the royal house by marriage ties, took their families, retainers, peasants, artisans and soldiers to form self-sufficient colonies based on an agricultural economy and governed from well-fortified walled cities. These large family groupings of the nobility were preserved only so long as the relationships of parents to children, brothers to brothers, and masters to servants were effectively controlled. D.H. Smith -- Confucius
If the ideal city is like a family, then the analogy also holds for an individual -- here the comparison goes directly from city to psyche:
Have we any greater evil for a city than what splits it and makes it many instead of one? Or a greater good than what binds it together and makes it one? ... Then is that city best governed which is most like a single human being? Plato -- The Republic
Psychologically interpreted, the hexagram of The Family symbolizes the psyche, and the Confucian commentary tells us that when its inner components all assume their proper roles and functions, then the Work will come into fruition. ("All under heaven will be established.") The identical idea has been stated in Gnostic thought:
Jesus said to them: "When you make eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot, and an image in the place of an image, then shall you enter the Kingdom. The Gnostic Gospel According to Thomas
The husband is the analogue of heaven or the Self, and the wife is the analogue of earth or the ego. When the ego assumes its correct role as the magnetic servant of the Work, then inner transformations can take place. I have paraphrased the Judgment in terms of the necessity of the ego to follow the dictates of the Work, but one could alternately phrase it in terms of keeping emotional responses under control. For the wife to be "firm and correct" is to ensure that emotions, drives and appetites are not allowed to make decisions -- they are servants, not masters. This is the essence of the Work, and arguably the most reiterated idea in theI Ching.
The patient should be encouraged to use his mind, through observation and discrimination, to bring clearly into his awareness the irrational aspect of his drives and emotions, and also the possible drawbacks and harmfulness to himself and others of their uncontrolled manifestation … To act on the spur of an impulse, a drive or an intense emotion can very often produce undesirable effects which one afterwards regrets … Therefore, he should learn – by repeated experiment and effort – to “insert” between impulse and action a stage of reflection, of mental consideration of a situation, and of critical analysis of his impulse, trying to realize its origin, its source. R. Assagioli – Psychosynthesis
The thirty-seventh hexagram teaches us that the way to manage the emotions is no different than the proper management of aFamily. No wise parent can teach a child self-discipline by adopting the child's point of view: permissiveness, either with our children or our own primitive drives and passions, is a sure formula for disintegration. The Work demands that the ego hold the line on this issue -- indeed, it is the ego's only legitimate function.
We are dominated by everything with which our [ego] becomes identified. We can dominate and control everything from which we disidentify ourselves. R. Assagioli -- Psychosynthesis