Find clarity in your passions and stay true to your strengths; the unexpected path will lead to growth.
From
30
Clarity
To
54
The Marrying Maiden
Expecting the worst
One is on borrowed time until the others make a decision. taoscopy.com
Clarity30
Clarity and adaptability. Embrace the light to illuminate your path. Recognize patterns in life, align with them, and nurture personal growth.
↓ Line 2
This line represents clarity and brightness in one's path. It signifies supreme good fortune and success.
↓ Line 3
This line warns of the dangers of complacency and the fear of decline. It suggests that one should not dwell on past glories or future fears.
↓ Line 6
This line indicates decisive action and leadership. It suggests that by addressing the root of a problem, one can achieve success without blame.
↓ The Marrying Maiden54
Proceed cautiously, recognizing limitations and external influences. Adapt to circumstances with humility and patience, but remain aware of your own path and intentions.
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."
Line 2
Legge: The second line, magnetic, shows its subject in her place in yellow. There will be great good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Yellow light. Supreme good fortune.
Blofeld: Yellow sunlight -- sublime good fortune.
Liu: The yellow light of the sun indicates great good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Yellow radiance. Spring significant.
Shaughnessy: Yellow net; prime auspiciousness.
Cleary(1): Yellow fire is very auspicious.
Wu: The yellow fire will bring great fortune.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Good fortune because she holds the course of the due mean. Wilhelm/Baynes: One has found the middle way. Blofeld: The good fortune of being able to keep to a middle path. [This is suggested by the position of the line, which is central to the lower trigram. The middle path, the golden mean, is praised by Taoists, Confucians and Buddhists alike. It has always been regarded by traditionally minded Chinese as the principle upon which conduct should be based. Extremes of any kind have no place in Chinese philosophy, which is thus more humanistic than many of the philosophies of India and the Middle East.]Ritsema/Karcher: Acquiring centering tao indeed. Cleary (2): Attaining the middle way. Wu: Because it is centrally situated.
Legge: Line two is magnetic and occupies the center. Yellow is one of the five correct colors, and here symbolizes the correct course to which she adheres.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man occupies the central position of reasonableness, which results in enduring good fortune.
Wing: A reasonable and moderate attitude will bring you the best possible luck. Remember, indulge in no excess, no extremes of thought or action.
Editor: Yellow is a nearly universal symbol of light and clarity. Both the sun and gold are yellow, and because it is in the middle of the trigram this line images the concept of the golden mean. Wilhelm's commentary places this line at midday when the sun is directly overhead, hence: full illumination. If this is the only changing line, the new hexagram becomes number fourteen, Wealth (Possession in Great Measure), suggesting the richness of clear insight.
I, wisdom, am mistress of discretion, the inventor of lucidity of thought. Good advice and sound judgment belong to me, Perception to me, strength to me. Proverbs 8: 12
A. The image suggests a position of balance and lucidity. Full comprehension is implied.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows its subject in a position like that of the declining sun. Instead of playing on his instrument of earthenware, and singing to it, he utters the groans of an old man of eighty. There will be evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: In the light of the setting sun, men either beat the pot and sing or loudly bewail the approach of old age. Misfortune.
Blofeld: In the light of the setting sun, young men do not beat upon their cooking pots or sing; the old sigh piteously -- misfortune!
Liu: Under the light of the setting sun, one sings without beating the pot, bemoaning one's old age. Misfortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Sun going-down's radiance. Not drumbeating a jar and-also singing. By-consequence great old-age's lamenting. Pitfall.
Shaughnessy: The net of the sun's decline; not drumming the earthenware jar and yet singing, then the sighing of the great mourning kerchief; inauspicious.
Cleary (1): The afternoon light; unless you drum on a jug and sing, there will be the lament of old age, which is unfortunate.
Cleary (2): In the fire of the afternoon sun, you either drum on a jug and sing, or lament as in old age. This bodes ill. [When you use insight too much without concentration to balance it, sometimes you will be extremely joyful, drumming and singing, and sometimes you will be extremely anxious, lamenting as in old age. Sadness and joy disturb the song of your heart; intellectual insight cannot sustain itself – backsliding and loss are inevitable.]
Wu: The sun is passing the meridian. Ifhe does not playhis earthen instrument and sing, but sighs like an old man of eighty years, there will be foreboding. [The passing of the meridian is like the passing of the prime time in life. If one does not make the best of his life now, it will be gone forever.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: A position like that of the setting sun -- how can it continue long? Wilhelm/Baynes: How can one wish to hold for long the light of the setting sun? Blofeld: Sunset beauty -- how can it endure for long? [This passage suggests that our present happiness or success is not destined to endure; we must prepare for a setback.] Ritsema/Karcher: Wherefore permitting lasting indeed? Cleary (2): Afternoon sun cannot last long. Wu: How long will the day last?
Legge: Line three is at the top of the lower trigram, whose light is now exhausted, suggesting a sunset. He should accept his position and resign himself to the ordinary amusements mentioned, but he groans and mourns instead. His restless activity interferes with the lowly contentment he should cherish. The K'ang-hsi editors say that the declining sun is an emblem of "obscuration coming over the virtue of the mind."
Anthony: Fear and worry over the length of time required to attain recognizable progress puts us in the wrong balance. If we can nobleheartedly accept that things will be fulfilled when they will, we secure our fate by making possible that it can be fulfilled. As long as the ego stands by expectantly, measuring and weighing our progress, the dark force of doubt operates and the power of good cannot manifest itself. Obtaining this line reminds us that adversity lasts only for a time; through it we mould our character.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man reaches his declining years and recalls the transitoriness of life. Instead of enjoying the ordinary pleasures while they last, he groans in melancholy.
Wing: The best attitude to cultivate at this time in your life is a general acceptance of fate. To totally lose yourself in the happiness of the moment is as bad as to bemoan the passing of time. Such folly of the mind and the emotions leads to a loss of inner freedom. Misfortune.
Editor: There is apparently more than one way to translate this line, best seen in the contrast between Cleary’s Taoist and Buddhist versions. One implies that frivolity is an antidote to depression, the other that both positions are extreme. Emphasized in all translations is the contrast between joy and sorrow, singing and groaning, youth and old age. The setting sun symbolizes the decline of awareness, the "darkening of the light," the advance of illusion. That is: to either mindlessly sing or to bewail one's fate is to be deluded -- one has forgotten one's Source. Frivolity and despair are polarized attitudes, and the line tells us that clarity wanes whenever one takes an extreme position. In another context, the setting sun suggests the inevitability of death. Those who believe that death is final usually respond in either of the two ways shown, and thus miss the mark. There is also a suggestion of the futility of trying to hold onto something that is by nature transitory. Note the similarity between this line and line three of Hexagram #61,Inner Truth: “He finds a comrade. Now he beats the drum, now he stops. Now he sobs, now he sings.” Wing’s paraphrase is probably the best.
No soul, not even our own, enters into the body completely. Soul always remains united by its higher part to the intelligible realm. But if the part that is in the realm of sense dominates, or rather becomes dominated and disturbed, it keeps us unaware of what the higher part of the soul contemplates. Plotinus -- The Enneads
A. An image of gross illusion. Clarity is lost when perception is polarized.
B. Nothing lasts here below, but that's only half the story -- the least interesting half.
C. “Gather your rosebuds while ye may.”
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows the king employing his subject in his punitive expeditions. Achieving admirable merit, he breaks only the chiefs of the rebels. Where his prisoners were not their associates, he does not punish. There will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The king uses him to march forth and chastise. Then it is best to kill the leaders and take captive the followers. No blame.
Blofeld: The King went forth to set things to rights and, blessed by heaven with victory, he destroyed the leader of the rebels; but he did not chastise the rebel followers -- no error!
Liu: The king goes to fight. Victory. He kills the leader and captures the followers. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Kinghood availing-of issuing-forth chastising. Possessing excellence. Severing the head. Catching in-no-way its demons. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: The king goes out on campaign; there is the joy of cutting off heads and bagging the non-masses; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): The king hereby goes on an expedition; there is good luck, and he crushes the leader. As the captive is not the common followers, there is no blame.
Cleary (2): The king goes on an expedition, has good luck, and overcomes the leader, taking captives, but not because they are repugnant. No fault.
Wu: The king leads his expedition, commends those who kill the defiant chieftains, and captures those who are against his people. There will be no blame.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The object is to bring the regions to a correct state. Wilhelm/Baynes: In order to bring the country under discipline. Blofeld: To rectify the affairs of the various states comprising his realm. [This passage implies that we may be compelled to resort to forceful measures but that we should avoid chastising those who have been led to do harm by others.] Ritsema/Karcher: Using correcting the fiefdoms indeed. Cleary (2): To bring correct order to the country. Wu: He does what is good for the country.
Legge: Line six. dynamic and at the top of the figure, has the intelligence denoted by its trigrams in the highest degree, as well as his own proper vigor. Because of this his achievements are great, and since his generous consideration is equally conspicuous he falls into no error.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man is employed by the ruler to conduct punitive expeditions. He kills the ringleaders of the enemy but spares the followers. He roots out the bad but tolerates the relatively harmless. He avoids excessive punishments.
Wing: It is up to you to penetrate to the source of trouble in the situation and eradicate it. Act with moderation however, in dealing with others who may have been duped into wrong thinking. Once the major problem is out of the way, order will reign. (Note: This line may refer to a bad habit or character weakness.)
Editor: The image here is one of analysis -- Clarity as a function of logic. The idea is to sort out all the elements of the situation, remove the source of error but retain the good elements. The peak of Clarity is reached when one takes action based upon lucid differentiation between the defective (or dangerous) and the useful.
If, as administrators of His kingdom, you have not governed justly nor observed the law, nor behaved as God would have you behave, He will fall on you swiftly and terribly. Ruthless judgment is reserved for the high and mighty; the lowly will be compassionately pardoned. Wisdom 6: 4-7
A. One differentiates between harmful and benign elements within the situation.
B. “Don't throw out the baby with the bath water."
Other titles: The Marrying Maiden, The Symbol of the Marriage of the Younger Sister, Marriageable Maiden, The Marrying Girl, Subordinate, The Second Wife, Converting Maidenhood, Returning maiden, Making a young girl marry, Marrying a young girl, Marrying a Maiden, Unilateral Action, Impropriety, Improper Advances, "Deals with life and death, sex and birth. It contains a warning about a person or situation. It deals essentially with discrimination. The first step on the Path without which we are useless." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Propriety indicates that action will be evil, and in no wise advantageous.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Marrying Maiden. Undertakings bring misfortune. Nothing that would further.
Blofeld:The Marriageable Maiden. Advance brings misfortune. No goal (or destination) is now favorable.
Liu: The Marrying Girl. Undertaking leads to misfortune. Nothing benefits.
Ritsema/Karcher: Converting Maidenhood, chastising: pitfall. Without direction: Harvesting. [Without direction: Harvesting: ... In order to take advantage of the situation, do not impose a direction on events.] [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the changing status of someone who cannot control their circumstances. It emphasizes that finding a real field of activity through accepting this imposition is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Returning maiden: To be upright is inauspicious; there is no place beneficial.
Cleary (1): Making a young girl marry: To go on will lead to misfortune; no profit is gained.
Cleary (2):Marrying a young girl. To go on an expedition leads to misfortune, with nothing gained.
Wu: Marrying a Maiden indicates that it will be foreboding to make moves. There is nothing to be gained.
The Image
Legge: The waters of a Marsh with Thunder over it form the hexagram of Propriety. The superior man, in accordance with this, having regard to the far-distant end, knows the mischief that may be done at the beginning.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder over the lake: the image of The Marrying Maiden. Thus the superior man understands the transitory in the light of the eternity of the end.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder over a pool. The Superior Man knows that, to achieve an enduring end, he must be aware of his mistakes at the beginning.
Liu: Thunder over the lake symbolizes the Marrying Girl. The superior man knows the cause of error, and persists in his virtue to the end.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh possessing thunder. Converting Maidenhood. A chun tzu uses perpetually completing to know the cracked.
Cleary (1): There is thunder above a lake, making a young girl marry. Thus superior people persist to the end and know what is wrong.
Cleary (2): Thunder over a lake – Marrying a young girl. Developed people consider lasting results and know what is wrong. [The way developed people handle things is that before they take the time to ask how to start something, they first consider lasting results. If they think of lasting results, they know what is wrong with acting prematurely, like marrying an immature girl. If you understand the meaning of this, you can apply it to government and to contemplating mind as well.]
Wu: There is thunder above the marsh; this is Marrying a Maiden. Thus, the jun zi in the pursuit of lasting excellence realizes the flaws and corrects them.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In the marriage of a young bride the proper relationship between heaven and earth is seen. Nothing could grow or flourish if heaven and earth did not unite. The marriage of a young bride is therefore both the commencement and goal of humanity. But here the desire of pleasure employs movement to attain union. This action will be evil because the lines are in inappropriate places, and the magnetic three and five are mounted on dynamic lines.
Legge: The Chinese phrase for this hexagram might be equivalent to the English "giving in marriage,” but there are some special meanings in this case which must be understood. The Judgment gives a bad auspice because the trigram of the Youngest Daughter is beneath the trigram of the Eldest Son. Since the action of the hexagram begins with the lowest trigram, we have two violations of propriety. First, the marriage is initiated by the woman and her friends. She goes unilaterally to her future home instead of the bridegroom coming to fetch her. Second, the parties are unequally matched -- there is too great a disparity in their ages. In addition, all the lines in the hexagram except the top and the bottom are in places inappropriate for them. Some commentators insist that the symbol of the contracting of a marriage in this hexagram sets forth some principles which should obtain in the relation between a ruler and his ministers.
The growth of things in nature from the interaction of heaven and earth is analogous to the increase of mankind through the interaction between male and female in marriage. The K'ang-hsi editors reconcile this good auspice with the unfavorable Judgment by saying: "The interaction of the yin and yang cannot be dispensed with, but we ought to be careful about it in the beginning in order to prevent mischief in the end.” The error here is that the desire for the marriage originated with the lady, and that she is heedless of the disparity in their ages.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Propriety means that unilateral action is inappropriate.
The Superior Man understands that the Work is guided from within, and that choices which ignore this truth can only retard its progress. (Present actions originate future consequences: pay heed to your choices.)
The traditional name for this hexagram is The Marrying Maiden -- a title which does not convey to modern western readers the subtlety of its symbolism. Blofeld says: "This hexagram is, on the whole, a most unfortunate omen ... We must not suppose that it deals only with marriage. What is said about the maiden symbolizes in some way or other what we may expect for ourselves within the context of our enquiry." The figure is certainly difficult, but "unfortunate" only if its import is resisted or denied: any portrayal of our situation which eliminates illusion (however painful the realization), must be regarded as a positive lesson.
Although the Confucian commentary describes this hexagram in terms of self-seeking aspiration, the wretched protagonist of the figure is not invariably culpable, and neither Judgment nor Image imply this. In addition to being at the very bottom of the social pecking order, the maiden is portrayed as half-blind, crippled and a "slave." Although condemned by the commentators for importuning a marriage that would raise her status, a close reading of the lines reveals that only the sixth place suggests possible impropriety -- the others all contain advice about how one of extremely low status should cope with restricted circumstances. The hexagram therefore can deal with either of two possible conditions: those involving Proprietyand those involving Making-do as an adaptation to adversity.
In the first instance, it is useful to compare the symbolism here with that of the preceding hexagram of Gradual Progress. There we see the organic progression of the Work allegorized as the proper marriage of a young woman. In this case, Gradual Progress has been turned upside down and the symbolism reversed: this young woman improperly pursues a marriage on her own initiative. Psychologically interpreted, it can be regarded as an image of the ego pushing its own agenda or desire for union.
The ego may move in directions and toward actions that are at variance with the intentions and standards of the Self ... The mature adult needs to recognize eventually his or her relative limitedness vis-à-vis the "Self- field" and the cosmic organism of which s/he is but a cell. We are subject to the ordering and growth intents of the entelechy of the whole. E. C. Whitmont -- The Alchemy of Healing
To recognize our `relative limitedness “vis-à-vis the Self-field” is to renounce our claim to unilateral action. Though the ego ardently desires a marriage with the Self, only the Self can initiate such a union. Chou Tun I, an early Neo-Confucian, makes an observation which illuminates Legge's Image:
"The superior man, in accordance with this, having regard to the far-distant end, knows the mischief that may be done at the beginning. The most important things in the world are tendencies. Tendencies may be strong or weak. If a tendency is extremely strong, it cannot be controlled. But it is possible to control it quickly if one realizes that it is strong. To control it requires effort. If one does not realize early enough, it will not be easy to apply effort.”
To receive this hexagram without changing lines can be an admonition to examine your motives and actions in the matter at hand. Where are you out of line? If no obvious impropriety is involved, it could also portray an essentially impotent predicament. At such times Ritsema/Karcher's synopsis bears repetition: "This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the changing status of someone who cannot control their circumstances. It emphasizes that finding a real field of activity through accepting this imposition is the adequate way to handle it.”
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare Propriety with hexagram number fifty-three, Gradual Progress, then compare them both with hexagram number thirty-one,Initiative. What are the similarities in their ideas? Now look at hexagrams number eleven, seventeen and twenty-two and observe the over-all philosophy which begins to emerge.