In the depths of uncertainty, find your courage to shed the old and reveal your true self.
From
29
Danger
To
23
Splitting Apart
Catching up
One makes more efforts so as not to lose one's abilities. taoscopy.com
Danger29
Face repeated challenges with courage and determination. Embrace setbacks as opportunities to build resilience. Stay true to your principles to navigate through difficulties.
↓ Line 2
This line advises focusing on small, manageable goals to navigate through difficult situations safely.
↓ Line 5
This line suggests maintaining balance and not overreaching in times of danger, which leads to stability and avoids blame.
↓ Line 6
This line warns of being trapped in a situation with no apparent escape, leading to prolonged misfortune. It advises seeking a new perspective or approach.
↓ Splitting Apart23
Unraveling structures; necessary endings. Prepare for new beginnings. Embrace the change, allowing the old to fall away.
Other titles: The Abysmal, The Symbol of Sinking, Water, The Abyss, Gorge, Repeating Gorge, Repeated Entrapment, Double Pitfall, Multiple Danger, Double Water, The Deep, Dark Forces, The Perilous Pit, "May not be as bad as it sounds, but whatever happens, remain true to yourself." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: The trigram of Danger, here repeated, shows the possession of sincerity, through which the mind is penetrating. Action in accordance with this will be of high value.
Wilhelm/Baynes:The Abysmal repeated. If you are sincere, you have success in your heart, and whatever you do succeeds.
Blofeld: Abyss upon abyss -- grave danger! All will be well if confidence is maintained and a sharp hold kept upon the mind; activities so conducted will win esteem.
Liu: Water doubled. Danger. Sincerity leads to success (peacefulness) in your heart and mind. You will succeed in your actions. [This hexagram means danger, misfortune, or entanglement in a difficult situation... You should be both careful and patient; do not struggle with all of the difficulties around you.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Repeating Gorge. Possessing conformity. Holding-fast the heart Growing. Movement possesses honor. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of a dangerous situation you cannot avoid. It emphasizes that taking the risk without reserve, the action of Gorge, is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: venture and fall!]
Shaughnessy: Repeated Entrapment: There is a return; the appended heart; receipt; in motion there will be elevation.
Cleary (1): In mastering pitfalls there is truthfulness; thus the mind develops. There is excellence in practice.
Cleary (2): In multiple danger, if there is sincerity, the mind gets through and action has value.
Wu:Entrapment indicates there is confidence. The heart of the matter is that it is pervasive. Actions taken in its accord will be commendable.
The Image
Legge: The image of water flowing on continuously forms the repeated trigram of Danger. The superior man, in accordance with this, maintains constantly the virtue of his heart and the sincerity of his conduct, and practices the business of instruction.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Water flows on uninterruptedly and reaches its goal. The image of the Abysmal repeated. Thus the superior man walks in lasting virtue and carries on the business of teaching.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes water flowing on and on and abyss upon abyss. [The trigram K'an is usually inauspicious; here it occurs in duplicate as the upper and the lower trigram; thus the implication is that we are beset by grave dangers from which, if we can escape them at all, the utmost skill and confidence will be required to extricate ourselves.] The Superior Man acts in accordance with the immutable virtues and spends much of his time instructing others in the conduct of affairs.
Liu: Water flows unceasingly into the depths symbolizing Water doubled. The superior man constantly preserves his virtue and practices his task of education.
Ritsema/Karcher: Streams reiterating culminating. Repeating Gorge. A chun tzu uses rules actualizing-tao to move. [A chun tzu uses] repeating to teach affairs. [Actualize-tao, TE: realize tao in action; power, virtue; 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): Water travels, double water. Thus do superior people consistently practice virtue and learn how to teach.
Cleary (2): Water comes repeatedly – multiple danger. Developed people practice teaching by constant virtuous action. [This is in perfect accord with the Tiantai Buddhist teaching of knowing how to get through an impasse, the method of making an impasse itself into a way through; this is also the method of skillfully using natural ills.]
Wu: Water comes time and again; this is Entrapment. Thus the jun zi practices virtuous conduct and reviews didactics.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Danger repeated shows us one defile succeeding another. This is the nature of water -- it flows on, without accumulating its volume so as to overflow; it pursues its way through a dangerous defile, without losing its true nature. That the mind is penetrating is indicated by the dynamic line in the center. Advance in accordance with this will be followed by achievement. The dangerous height of heaven cannot be ascended; the difficult places of the earth are mountains, rivers, hills and mounds. Kings and princes arrange, by means of such strengths, to maintain their territories. Great indeed is the use of what is here taught about seasons of peril.
Legge: The trigram of Danger which is doubled to form this hexagram is the symbol of water, and means a pit, a perilous cavity or defile with water flowing through it. The trigrams consist of a dynamic central line between two magnetic lines. Together they symbolize danger -- how it should be encountered, its effects on the mind, and how to escape from it.
Liang Yin says: "Water stops at the proper time, and moves at the proper time. Is not this an emblem of the course of the superior man in dealing with danger?”
The K'ang-hsi editors say that to exercise one's self in meeting difficulty and peril is the way to establish and strengthen the character, and the use of such experience is seen in all measures for self-defense.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Commitment to the Work engenders a keen discernment of threatening situations and the factors which create them. With the ability to recognize the dangerous elements in a situation, success is assured.
The Superior Man maintains his connection with the Self and learns from the trials thus provided.
This is one of the first hexagrams that one learns to recognize by name and number, and it is usually received with trepidation. Like the Death card in Tarot, it is often interpreted as an evil omen, although a deeper understanding reveals opportunity rather than defeat in such images.
There is danger and suffering in the Work, but probably far less of it (in the long run) than in an ordinary unexamined life. Anguish in the service of purpose is ultimately tolerable -- it is the incredible suffering of ignorance that is truly tragic: all that pain and sorrow expended on worldly illusions!
The Confucian commentary provides some valuable insights concerning the defensive use of danger by kings and princes to protect their realms. To master a dangerous challenge before one can progress to a higher level of awareness is a classical theme of initiation: without it, the candidate would be destroyed by forces he wasn't ready to confront. (This is the purpose and meaning behind of the "Guardian of the Threshold" archetype.) Danger is evil or unfortunate only if one is intimidated by it -- correct behavior in accordance with the principles of the Work will always take you to your destination. The Self will seldom, if ever, give you a test that you cannot pass if you fully apply yourself. When it seems otherwise, bear in mind that failure often renders better lessons than success, or the illusion thereof.
A neurosis is by no means merely a negative thing, it is also something positive. Only a soulless rationalism reinforced by a narrow materialistic outlook could possibly have overlooked this fact. In reality the neurosis contains the patient's psyche, or at least an essential part of it; and if, as the rationalist pretends, the neurosis could be plucked from him like a bad tooth, he would have gained nothing but would have lost something very essential to him. That is to say, he would have lost as much as the thinker deprived of his doubt, or the moralist deprived of his temptation, or the brave man deprived of his fear. To lose a neurosis is to find oneself without an object; life loses its point and hence its meaning. This would not be a cure, it would be a regular amputation. Jung -- Civilization in Transition
Line 2
Legge: The second line, dynamic, shows its subject in all the peril of the defile. He will, however, get a little of the deliverance that he seeks.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The abyss is dangerous. One should strive to attain small things only.
Blofeld: Danger lurks within the abyss; only in small matters can he obtain what he desires.
Liu: There is danger in the abyss. One should work for small gains only.
Ritsema/Karcher: Gorge possessing venturing. Seeking, the small acquiring.
Shaughnessy: The trap has depth; in seeking there is a little gain.
Cleary (1): There is danger in a pitfall. One finds a small gain. [Dwelling in the middle of two yins, daily in the company of petty people and not knowing to approach people imbued with Tao, one will ultimately fall and become a fool, just as there is danger in a pitfall.]
Cleary (2): … One seeks a small gain.
Wu: There is danger in Entrapment. It is all right to seek small gains.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He will not yet escape from his environed position. Wilhelm/Baynes: "One should strive to attain small things only." For the middle has not yet been passed. Blofeld: Though he obtain these trifles, he remains within the abyss. [Whatever small successes we may win will not have any effect in lessening the danger that threatens.] Ritsema/ Karcher: Not-yet issuing-forth-from the center indeed. Cleary (2): Not yet gotten out of the middle. Wu: He has not stepped out of the center of danger.
Legge: Line two is dynamic and in the center. Although unable to escape the danger completely, at least he doesn't involve himself more deeply in it like the first line does, and therefore he obtains a measure of relief.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: A person in danger should not try to escape at one stroke. He should first calmly hold his own, then be satisfied with small gains, which will come by creative adaptations.
Wing: The danger is great and cannot be surmounted with one single action. Small, consistent efforts to stay afloat in a sea of difficulties are all that are possible at this time.
Editor: The image portrays a tight spot -- calm awareness of the realities of the situation enables one to prevail without panic. Go with the flow until an exit presents itself. In psychological terms, it is possible that inner forces are being stressed for integration -- the ego can only destroy the Work by giving them an outlet.
Knowledge of good is sharpened by experience of evil in those incapable of any sure knowledge of evil unless they have experienced it. Plotinus -- The Enneads
A. Don't fight dark forces -- adapt to your situation until you can escape.
B. A dangerous though stable position -- remain calm and don't rock the boat.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows the water of the defile not yet full, so that it might flow away; but order will soon be brought about. There will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The abyss is not filled to overflowing. It is filled only to the rim. No blame.
Blofeld: The abyss is not filled to the brim; the flowing water maintains its level -- no error!
Liu: The water does not overflow its bounds. The waves are calm. No blame. [People will achieve their goals smoothly and without endangering themselves.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Gorge not overfilled. Merely already evened. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: The trap is not filled, but the sandbar has been flattened; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): The pit is not full, it has only reached level; there is no blame.
Cleary (2): The pit is not filled, only leveled. No blame.
Wu: Entrapment is not full. It is level and uneventful. There will be no blame.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The virtue indicated by the central situation is not yet sufficiently great. Wilhelm/Baynes: The central line is not yet great. Blofeld: This is because the line, being central to the upper trigram, indicates a level that is not too high. [The danger threatening whoever receives a moving line for the fifth place is relatively less serious than for many of the others whose enquiries are answered by this unfortunate hexagram.]Ritsema/Karcher: Centering, not-yet great indeed. Cleary (2): The center is not yet great. Wu: The center has not manifested its greatness.
Legge: Line five is dynamic in its proper place as ruler, and on the verge of deliverance from danger. The waters of the abyss will soon disappear and the ground be made level and smooth.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man is almost extricated, but remains in danger because of excessive ambition. He does not learn from the water's example of rising only to the lowest point of the rim to flow out of a ravine. He should not attempt great and apparently unattainable things but should only try to escape danger by following the path of least resistance.
Wing: Only struggle as much as necessary to extricate yourself from your problems. Overly ambitious persons who attempt more than they should may create further difficulties. It is indicated here that the danger will pass of its own accord.
Editor: This depicts the crest of the flood, or just before the crest. Psychologically, the water is contained, and the unconscious forces do not overwhelm the psyche. Legge's Confucian commentary ("The virtue indicated by the central situation is not yet sufficiently great") is not convincing in the context of what is imaged. Blofeld's rendition suggests a more credible interpretation: the rising waters are not great enough to overflow their banks. This gives an image of the strong fifth line ruler as centered and able to cope with the danger surrounding him. In other words, the cup is full, but not over-full. The situation is dangerous, but not overwhelming. The dark forces have reached their maximum power -- now they can only wane.
Who pent up the sea behind closed doors when it leaped tumultuous out of the womb... when I marked the bounds it was not to cross and made it fast with a bolted gate? Come thus far, I said, and no farther: here your proud waves shall break. Job 38: 8-11
A. Danger peaks and stabilizes. Though perilous, the situation is contained.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, magnetic, shows its subject bound with cords of three strands or two strands, and placed in the thicket of thorns. But in three years she does not learn the course for her to pursue. There will be evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Bound with cords and ropes, shut in between thorn-hedged prison walls: for three years one does not find the way. Misfortune.
Blofeld: Bound with black ropes and imprisoned amidst thorns, for three years he fails to obtain what he seeks. [This situation is far from cheerful, but not as hopeless as the situation of those who receive moving lines in the second and third places.]
Liu: Tied with thick ropes, one is put in prison among thorn bushes. One cannot find the way for three years. Misfortune. [If you receive this line, avoid all entanglements, both physical and mental. Be cautious, or you will be detained.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Tying availing-of stranded ropes. Dismissing tending-towards dense jujube-trees. Three year's-time, not acquiring. Pitfall.
Shaughnessy: The attachment uses braids and cords: place him in the clumped thorn bushes, for three years not getting him; inauspicious.
Cleary (1): Bound with rope, put in a briar patch, for three years one cannot find the way out; misfortune.
Cleary (2): … Helpless for three years – misfortune.
Wu: He is tied with black ropes and surrounded by thorny vines. He cannot set himself free for three years. Foreboding.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She misses her proper course -- there will be evil for three years. Wilhelm/Baynes: This misfortune continues for three years. Blofeld: The line indicates that we lose our way and suffer misfortune for three years. Ritsema/Karcher: Pitfall: three year's-time indeed. Cleary (2): The top yin loses the way, unfortunate for three years. Wu: The sixth yin violates the proper way of doing things and the violation results in the misfortune for three years.
Legge: The case of line six is hopeless. When danger has reached its peak, there she is -- yielding, without a proper correlate. The thicket of thorns is a metaphor for a prison.
Anthony: Misfortune comes because we press on, taking matters into our hands. This line warns of the failure we may expect in maintaining this attitude and notes the obstinacy that has brought us to this impasse. The remedy is to return to the path of perseverance.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man is hopelessly enmeshed in his own faults after missing the proper course. No chances of escape are apparent.
Wing: None of your solutions or efforts have been appropriate. The way out of danger is blocked. There will come a long time of disorder. All you may do is wait.
Editor: On the face of it, there is little ambiguity in this line -- it depicts one who is severely confined because of not knowing the proper course to pursue. If we closely examine the psychological symbols of this restriction however, we see deeper into the possible reasons for it. Chetwynd, in his Dictionary of Symbols identifies cords or ropes with links to the inner psyche -- the umbilical cord being the connection to the Mother, or source of our physical-emotional being. He also points out that thorns are a common symbol of the dark side of the Mother principle. To be bound with cords and imprisoned by thorns then, is to be trapped in a "womb" of primitive emotional darkness, or suffocated by some entity which does not want to evolve into conscious awareness.
The rest of the souls are also longing after the upper world and they all follow, but not being strong enough they are carried round below the surface, plunging, treading on one another, each striving to be first; and there is confusion and perspiration and the extremity of effort; and many of them are lamed or have their wings broken through the ill-driving of the charioteers; and all of them after a fruitless toil, not having attained to the mysteries of true being, go away, and feed upon opinion. Plato -- Phaedrus
A. You have lost your way and are imprisoned by illusions.
B. Your limiting beliefs prevent you from furthering the Work.
Other titles: Splitting Apart, The symbol of Falling or Flaying, Peeling Off, Decay, Flaying, Stripping Away, Intrigue, Deterioration, Collapse, Fracturing, Tearing, Disintegration, Ruin, Unraveling, "Can refer to a physical parting. Making a secure foundation." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Disintegration means that it is not advantageous to make a movement in any direction whatever.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Splitting Apart. It does not further one to go anywhere.
Blofeld: Peeling off. At present, there is no goal (or destination) which can be sought with advantage. [Peeling off in the sense of getting rid of hindrances (or hinderers) one after another. The first four lines of this hexagram symbolize a process of ridding ourselves progressively of all those upon whom we are accustomed to rely, for the powers of darkness are in the ascendant and no one can be trusted. However, in the long run, virtue triumphs, as indicated by line five, and ultimately we are all the more esteemed for our steadfastness, as can be seen from line six.]
Liu: Decay. It is unfavorable to undertake anything.
Ritsema/Karcher:Stripping not Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of something outmoded or worn out. It emphasizes that eliminating what has become unusable is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Flaying: Not beneficial to have someplace to go.
Cleary (1):Stripping away does not make it beneficial to go anywhere.
Cleary (2): … It is not beneficial, etc.
Wu: Tearing indicates that it is not advantageous to have any undertaking.
The Image
Legge: The image of a mountain adhering to the earth forms Disintegration. Superiors therefore strengthen their inferiors to secure the peace and stability of their own position.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The mountain rests on the earth: the image of Splitting Apart. Thus those above can ensure their position only by giving generously to those below.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a mountain resting upon the earth. The truly great shower generosity upon those under them to enable them to live in peace and comfort. [The upper and lower trigrams, mountain and Earth, symbolize the Superior Man and the people in his care.]
Liu: The mountain stands on the earth, symbolizing Decay. Those above should act with benevolence toward those below. Then there will be peace and security.
Ritsema/Karcher: Mountain adjoining with-respect-to earth. Stripping. Using munificence above to quiet the position below.
Cleary (1): Mountains are joined to the earth. Those above secure their homes by kindness to those below.
Wu: The mountain is subordinated to the earth; this is Tearing .Thus those above treat those below with liberal rewards to secure their own positions.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Disintegration means overthrowing or being overthrown: the magnetic lines attack the dynamic line at the top in order to change it into one of themselves. It is unwise to move in any direction because inferior elements are now increasing in power. The superior man, observing this, stops all forward movement. He defers to the exigency of the time, realizing that increase and decrease, ripeness and decay are cyclic rhythms.
Legge:Disintegrationis the symbol of falling or causing to fall, and refers to the process of decay or overthrow in both the natural and political worlds. The figure consists of five yin lines below and one yang line on top. Decay has begun at the bottom and crept upward. The hexagram symbolizes the ninth month when summer has passed and the year is about to fall into the sterile arms of winter. In the political world, inferior men have gradually displaced good men until only one remains. The lesson for him is to wait because the power operating against him is too strong. Eventually a change for the better will appear. The specific image is that of a bed and its occupant, and the symbolism describes the attempts made to overthrow him. The lower trigram of Docility and the upper trigram of Keeping Still suggest to the superior man of line six how he can best deal with the prevailing circumstances. The situation is not hopeless -- winter is followed by spring, night by day, and the waning moon soon grows full again. So will it be in the course of human affairs.
The idea behind the Image is that a mountain has the earth for its foundation. If the earth is thick, the mountain preserves its height. So it is with the sovereign and people.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment:Disintegration means do not act.
The Superior Man stabilizes his responses and seeks tranquility.
The twenty-third hexagram is the inverse ofReturn, the hexagram immediately following it. Each figure depicts an opposite pole in a cyclic progression. Here the old cycle has disintegrated to the point of dissolution. The following hexagram depicts theReturnto the beginning of a new cycle.
The first four lines of Disintegration show the gradual erosion of a position or frame of reference, symbolized by a bed or couch. The inferior forces creep up from below like termites to undermine a solid foundation. The fifth line shows a gathering of forces for a potentially positive transformation, and the top line suggests the first stages of this transformation. The implication is that times of disintegration needn't always be regarded as negative, or a foregone conclusion. We still have the choice to alter conditions in our favor.
That the superior man "strengthens his inferiors" to insure the stability of his position, means that one stabilizes one's psychological situation by defusing the causes of rebellion -- safeguard the foundation where it is weak. Hexagram number forty-three, Resoluteness, is a negative picture of this figure, and the message in the Image is very similar: "The superior man does not hoard his wealth, but shares it with his subordinates." The idea is subtle -- it doesn't mean to indulge your weaknesses, but to monitor them encouragingly so that they may become transformed into positive forces.
Whenever we go deep enough toward the core of a sub- personality, we find that the core -- which is some basic urge, or need -- is good. For practical purposes, this can be considered an absolute. No matter how many layers of distortion may surround it, the basic need, the basic motivation, is a good one -- and if it becomes twisted, it was because of not being able to express itself directly. The real core -- not what the sub- personality wants, but what it needs -- is good. A basic purpose of the coordination phase is to discover this central urge or need, to make it conscious, and to find acceptable ways in which it can be satisfied and fulfilled. And, provided we have sufficient understanding and skill, it can be satisfied -- if not fully, at least enough to maintain the process of growth. James Vargiu -- Subpersonalities