True inspiration stirs within and guides your journey to authentic freedom.
From
31
Influence
To
25
Innocence
Lacking of objectivity
One criticizes those who think differently when one should listen to their arguments. taoscopy.com
Influence 31
Mutual attraction fosters influence and inspiration. Connect deeply to inspire change and strengthen bonds.
↓ Line 1
The initial stirrings of influence are minor and should not be acted upon impulsively.
↓ Line 3
Being overly influenced by desires can lead to humiliation; one should maintain independence.
↓ Line 6
Influence is expressed through communication; careful speech is necessary to maintain harmony.
↓ Innocence 25
Embrace spontaneity and authenticity, avoiding needless complexity or pretense. Honor simplicity and genuine intentions, allowing truth to guide your actions without ulterior motives.
Legge: Upon fulfillment of the conditions implied in Initiative, there will be free course and success. Advantage depends upon firm correctness, as in marrying a young lady. Good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Influence. Success. Perseverance furthers. To take a maiden to wife brings good fortune.
Blofeld: Attraction. Success! Righteous persistence brings reward. Taking a wife will result in good fortune.
Liu: Attraction. Success. To continue is of benefit. To marry a girl is good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Conjoining, Growing. Harvesting Trial. Grasping womanhood significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the influence that separated parts of an intrinsic whole have on each other. It emphasizes that bringing these parts into contact is the adequate way to handle the situation...]
Shaughnessy: Feelings : Receipt; beneficial to determine; to take to wife a woman is auspicious.
Cleary (1): Sensitivity is developmental. It is beneficial to be correct. Marriage brings good fortune.
Cleary (2):Sensing gets through, beneficial if correct. Marriage is auspicious.
Wu:Affection indicates pervasion and advantage to be persevering. There will be good fortune to marry a young woman.
The Image
Legge: The image of a marsh over a mountain forms Initiative. The superior man frees his mind of preoccupation so that he is open to the influence of others. [Lit: "Thus the superior man receives people by virtue of emptiness."]
Wilhelm/Baynes: A lake on the mountain: the image of Influence. Thus the superior man encourages people to approach him by his willingness to receive them.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a lake situated upon a mountain. In dealing with men, the Superior Man shows himself to be entirely void of selfishness.
Liu: The lake on top of the mountain symbolizes Attraction. With a humble manner the superior man receives people.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above mountain possessing marsh. Conjoining. A chun tzu uses emptiness to acquiesce people.
Cleary (1): There is a lake on a mountain. Thus does the superior person accept people with openness.
Cleary (2): There is a lake atop a mountain – Sensing. Developed people accept others with openness.
Wu: There is a marsh in the mountain; this is Affection. Thus the jun zi receives people with humility.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Initiative is here used in the sense of mutually influencing. The magnetic trigram is above and the dynamic trigram is below -- their two influences move, respond and unite with each other. The male is placed below the female -- his repression is her satisfaction and brings fulfillment. Advantage depends upon firm correctness, as in the marrying of a young lady. Heaven and earth stimulate each other and all things attain birth. The sages stimulate the minds of men and harmony is born. If we examine the pattern of these influences, the nature of heaven and earth is revealed.
Legge: The lines of the hexagram all deal with moving or influencing to movement, and the figure is an essay on the different ways of creating an influence, and the results engendered thereby. The lower trigram of the youngest son supports the upper trigram of the youngest daughter in happy union. This is correct because the lower trigram (here yang) should always take the initiative. No influence is so powerful and constant as that between husband and wife, and where they are both young, it is especially active. Therefore, mutual influence, correct in itself, and for correct ends is sure to be effective.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Initiative succeeds only when it originates from the Self.
The Superior Man clears his mind and remains receptive to the will of the Self.
Wilhelm's translation of the name of this hexagram is Influence, but I have chosen Initiative to emphasize the idea of the proper source of the influence implied in the symbolism. Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines initiative as follows:
Initiative 1 : an introductory step or movement: an act designed to originate or set on foot, as a process or train of events. Often used in the phrase: on one's own initiative, as in: "Don't blame me, he acted on his own initiative."
The Judgment states that the situation can be furthered only by the firm correctness associated with the proper contracting of a marriage. We already know that the symbolism of marriage refers to a union of opposites within the psyche. To understand what is meant by the proper contracting of a marriage, we need only look at hexagram number fifty-four,Propriety (The Marrying Maiden), to see the improper way to do it -- that is, when the woman takes the initiative.
Far from being a sexist idea, the symbolism reveals a profound archetypal truth. The polarity of forces in the psyche shows the ego as magnetic to the dynamic Self. That is, the conscious ego-complex in any psyche, male or female, is feminine, or magnetic in relation to the Self, which is masculine, or dynamic. In the I Ching the Self is symbolized by heaven, and the ego is symbolized by earth. This primordial relationship between the two qualities is found in many symbol systems. Here's the Kabbalistic version:
This clearly indicates the function of polarity that prevails between the planes of form and the planes of force; the planes of form being the female aspect, polarized and made fertile by the influencesof the planes of force. D. Fortune -- The Mystical Qabalah
The Hermetic tradition describes it this way:
There is this dual aspect in the mind of every person. The "I" [Self] represents the Masculine Principle of Mental Gender -- the "Me" [ego] represents the Female Principle. The Kybalion
In the contracting of a marriage between heaven and earth (uniting the polarities within the divided psyche), the ego must learn, usually through great suffering, that its correct role is a magnetic one in relation to that of the Self. The Work cannot progress until this lesson has been learned and accepted completely. As long as the ego insists on taking dynamic initiative “as usual" in the illusory world of appearances, the results can only be the kind of objective world we inhabit -- one of chaos and strife. The lesson of this hexagram then, is the realization that the only correct source of power lies with the Self, and that the ego must yield to that source as a bride to her bridegroom. (Unfortunately, the contemporary relationship between the sexes has become so confused that this metaphor is seldom effective in conveying the profound truth it represents.)
The Self (the Causal Body of Theosophy) dwells beyond the restrictions of spacetime and is pre-eminently suited for directing the Work, since it can "see ahead” so to speak, and it knows the effects of all of the available choices. The ego, on the other hand, dwells in spacetime and is able to take action: by its choices it makes or breaks the Work. The ideal reciprocity between ego and Self is a simple and logical division of labor -- the Self can see ahead but cannot take direct action, and the ego can take direct action but cannot see ahead. For the ego to act without direction from the Self is to grope blindly in the dark -- and the Work clearly cannot progress under such circumstances. The superior man therefore, "clears his mind and remains receptive to the will of the Self.” Obviously, it takes time to learn how to do this properly; in its initial stages, that's what the Work is all about.
The majority of people are more or less the slaves of heredity, environment, etc., and manifest very little freedom. They are swayed by the opinions, customs and thoughts of the outside world, and also by their emotions, feelings, moods, etc. They manifest no Mastery, worthy of the name. The Kybalion
The second and third sentences in the Confucian commentary elicit the sexual symbolism in this hexagram quite clearly: "The [female] trigram is above and the [male] trigram is below -- their two influences move, respond and unite with each other. The male is placed below the female -- his repression is her satisfaction and brings fulfillment.” Blofeld comments on this in a footnote:
I doubt if this should be regarded as shedding light upon the ancient Chinese concept of the most acceptable position for intercourse; it is more likely to mean that the girl is able to depend upon the man as a plant depends upon the earth for its nourishment.
Symbolism works on many levels, and Blofeld's aborted insight does apply to some of them. It is an established fact that the sentences in question accurately describe tantric sexual techniques practiced in the Orient for millennia. To understand the principles of the Work we must be able to see the "obvious" as symbolic of an abstraction -- and vice- versa. Sexual polarity is a very tricky and volatile symbol because we are predisposed to confine it to its most literal meaning. The hardest part of symbolic interpretation is to know where in the continuum a specific symbol belongs in any given situation.
Without changing lines this hexagram suggests that you examine your impulses and motivations to act and see if they are truly in accordance with the goals of the Work. The figure can sometimes take on the meaning of importuning: "to press or urge with frequent or unreasonable requests or troublesome persistence.” In other words, you might be importuning the oracle for answers which it is of no mind to give you. It is also significant to note that every line has a more or less negative connotation. These are all very strong warnings to the ego to control its compulsive need to take the Initiative, to influence the situation. Calm down -- reality is not what it appears to be. Please allow the Self to direct the Work.
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare the concepts in this hexagram with hexagram number fifty-four,Propriety; number fifty-three, Gradual Progress; and number eleven, Harmony. How do they all deal with the symbol of marriage as an aspect of the Work? Compare the first three lines with hexagram number 52,Keeping Still.
Initiativeis the first hexagram of Part II of the I Ching. Why do you suppose the book was divided into two unequal sections? Why did the division appear between the thirtieth and thirty-first hexagrams? (An even division would be between the thirty-second and thirty-third.)
The (I Ching) was originally divided into two books. (Appendix VI) considers the first of these as dealing with the world of nature, and the second as dealing with that of man. Fung Yu-Lan -- A Short History of Chinese Philosophy
What insights does the alchemical concept of the Unus Mundus bring to bear on these questions?
Line 1
Legge: The first line, magnetic, shows one moving her great toes.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The influence shows itself in the big toe.
Blofeld: Sensation in the toe.
Liu: Stimulation in the big toe. [If you get this line you will plan an undertaking, but if it is planned hastily, it will be difficult to carry out.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Conjoining one's big toes.
Shaughnessy: Feeling his big toe.
Cleary (1): Sensing in the big toe is inauspicious. [The big toe can move but not walk; to feel something one can not carry out is not right sensing. This is sensitivity that stirs the human mentality.]
Cleary (2): Sensing in the big toe.
Wu: He moves his big toes.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Her mind is set on what is beyond herself. Wilhelm/ Baynes: The will is directed outward. Blofeld: This implies that the will is fastened upon external matters. Ritsema/Karcher: Purpose located outside indeed. Cleary (2): The aspiration is outside. Wu: His affection is outward.
Legge: The first line is magnetic at the commencement of the figure. Although the fourth line is a proper correlate, his influence will be ineffective. However much she moves her toes, that won't enable her to walk. What is "beyond herself" is represented by the fourth line. There is the desire to influence but no strength and/or ability to do so.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, something is beginning to happen which is not yet apparent to everyone.
Wing: There is something in the air. Perhaps it's the beginning of a compelling attraction or an idea just coming to light. Whatever it is, it is of little significance, since a great deal more must be done to make it a reality.
Editor: Although the image is simple, the concept behind it is not. Wilhelm's commentary suggests the idea of a hidden influence, a latent force within the situation, which has not yet become apparent. This energy is focused on what is beyond itself -- i.e., it wants to become manifest, but as yet is not powerful enough to do so. (There is a suggestion of impatience to take action.) At its most neutral, the line can image a concern with something distant in time or space -- even an abstract idea. Legge's Confucian commentary is a good paraphrase.
In times of stress, physical or mental, he might astonish his friends and even himself by the undisciplined and primitive reactions that suddenly usurp the attitudes of the well-drilled persona. Such reactions do not come from the conscious part of the psyche; they arise from the nonpersonal part and reveal not the conscious characterbut the stage of development that the nonpersonal psyche has reached. M.E. Harding -- Psychic Energy
A. Unseen forces work toward change. An image of a subliminal influence or latent energy.
B. An image of a restless ego -- a mind seething with "great plans," schemes or intentions.
C. "Don't cross your bridges until you come to them."
Line 3
Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows one moving his thighs, and keeping close hold of those whom he follows. Going forward in this way will cause regret.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The influence shows itself in the thighs. Holds to that which follows it. To continue is humiliating.
Blofeld: Sensation in the thighs. He cleaves so closely to his wife (handmaiden, etc.) that for him to continue in this manner would be shameful.
Liu: Stimulation in the thighs. If he insists on following, he will be humiliated.
Shaughnessy: Feeling his calf: thigh: holding to his follower; distress.
Cleary (1): Sensing in the thighs; when persistence turns to indulgence, to go on is shameful.
Cleary (2): Sensing in the thighs, when clinging is following, to go on brings shame.
Wu: He moves his thighs and stays close to those he follows. He will regret if he keeps going forward.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: "He moves his thighs" -- he still doesn't want to rest in his place. His will is set on following others -- what he holds in his grasp is low. Wilhelm/Baynes: For he cannot keep still. When the will is directed to things that one's followers hold to, this is very base. Blofeld: Sensation in the thighs also denotes restlessness; while being guided by the will of a wife (or subordinate) involves clinging to what is inferior. Ritsema/Karcher: Truly not abiding indeed. Purpose located-in following people. A place to hold-on-to the below indeed. Cleary (2): Is also not staying put; the aim is in following others; what is clung to is low. Wu: Like his predecessors, he does not want to stay put either. His desire to follow people shows whatever he holds is low.
Legge: The attempt to move the thighs is inauspicious. The dynamic third line, in a dynamic place, wants to run after line four, which is said here to be the seat of the mind. He exercises his influence with an inferior purpose. "What he holds in his grasp is low" is understood to refer to the magnetic first and second lines. "Following" leads the mind to the lines above. "Low" is understood in the sense of "mean."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: A person should refrain from running after those he would like to influence, yielding to the whims of his master, and acquiescing to the moods of his own heart. Personal inhibition should constitute the basis for the enjoyment of granted freedom.
Wing: You must gain control of yourself. Don't run this way and that on impulse in an attempt to influence others or indulge in your many whims. You will ultimately be humiliated by such unconsidered actions. Set up a few inhibitions for yourself and operate within these limitations while you develop some self-control.
Editor: Mr. Legge, a proper Victorian, did not bring out the earthy imagery of this line to its fullest. If we were to receive this image in a dream it might take the blatantly sexual form of the pelvic thrusting associated with male dogs. When seen in this way the idea behind this line becomes clear.
Hence it is that in men the privy member is disobedient and self-willed, like a creature that will not listen to reason, and because of frenzied appetite bent upon carrying all before it. In women again, for the same reason, what is called the matrix or womb, a living creature within them with a desire for childbearing, if it be left unfruitful beyond the due season, is vexed and aggrieved, and wandering throughout the body and blocking the channels of the breath, by forbidding respiration brings the sufferer to extreme distress and causes all manner of disorders; until at last the Eros of the one and the Desire of the other bring the pair together, pluck as it were the fruit from the tree and sow the plowland of the womb with living creatures still unformed and too small to be seen. Plato -- The Timaeus
A. The image suggests a mindless and compulsive urge to influence the situation.
B. You allow yourself to be influenced by base emotions.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, magnetic, shows one moving her jaws and tongue.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The influence shows itself in the jaws, cheeks, and tongue.
Shaughnessy: Feeling his cheeks, jowls, and tongue.
Cleary (1): Sensing in the jaws and tongue. [When the mouth moves, the mind moves. This is sensitivity using the human mentality, utterly lacking the mind of Tao.]
Wu: He moves his tongue and cheeks.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She only talks with loquacious mouth. Wilhelm/Baynes: He opens his mouth and chatters. Blofeld: This is a way of saying that we open wide our mouths and talk too much. Ritsema/Karcher: The spouting mouth stimulating indeed. Cleary (2): Sensing in the jaws and tongue is speaking a lot. Wu: He likes chattering.
Legge: Line six is magnetic in a magnetic place at the top of the trigram of Frivolity. Her influence by means of speech will only be that of garrulous flattery.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man resorts to superficial ways of influencing others through nothing but talk. The results are negligible.
Wing: Words are only words. Ideas mean little unexecuted. What are you doing?
Editor: The divided line at the top of the upper trigram is said to symbolize an open mouth. To talk is to use words, and words are a product of the mental realm. The image is of empty rhetoric -- perhaps a too-intellectual approach to the situation at hand. This blather can be inner as well as outer, and the line sometimes refers to the excesses of reason and logic which can blind us to the truths of an expanded awareness. Often in the course of the Work we are severely tested by choices which demand the abandonment of common sense in favor of faith in the Self to carry us to a realm transcending reason. Such tests are excruciating, and often we fail them because we cannot let go of our faith in logic, words and "common sense." Compare with line five of Hexagram 52.
I gradually form the habit of listening inwardly, whenever I want to say something, to be sure I have authority to say it. Gradually I learn to keep my mouth shut except when I really have something to say. And I come to recognize two beings in my self: a personal ego which is often inclined to chatter, without control, purely for the sake of communicating and attracting attention to my person -- and in the background of my consciousness a higher self which restrains my personal ego, telling it when and what it is to speak or do, and when it is to remain silent or passive. The important thing is to pay attention and obey the orders of this higher self. Merely to hear its commands is not enough; everybody does that! Elisabeth Haich -- Initiation
A. An image of rationalization or intellectual drivel. Your idea is without merit.
Other titles: The Unexpected, The Unintentional, The Symbol of Freedom from Error, Integrity, Without Embroiling, Pestilence, Fidelity, No Error, Freedom from Vainness, Instinctive Goodness, The Simple, Correctness, Subconscious, "Whatever happens, keep calm and do what is right." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Innocenceindicates progress and success through firm correctness. If the action of its subject is incorrect, he will fall into error. In such a case it will not be advantageous to move in any direction.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Innocence. Supreme success. Perseverance furthers. If someone is not as he should be, he has misfortune, and it does not further him to undertake anything.
Blofeld: Integrity. (The Unexpected). [this hexagram has two widely different meanings, both of which occur in what follows.] Sublime success! Righteous persistence brings reward. Those opposed to righteousness meet with injury. It is not favorable to have in view any goal (or destination). [Usually this sentence may be taken to have a wide application; but, in this case, (the Confucian commentary) suggests that it applies only to the enemies of righteousness, though it does have a general application for those who receive a moving line for the sixth place.]
Liu: The Unexpected: sublime success. Benefit. Perseverance. Someone acts incorrectly: misfortune. No benefit for undertakings.
Ritsema/Karcher: Without embroiling. Spring Growing Harvesting Trial. One in-no-way correcting: possessing blunder. Not Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation as being without confusion or fault. It emphasizes that acting while remaining free from entangling, vanity or recklessness is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told: act without becoming embroiled!]
Shaughnessy: Pestilence: Prime receipt; beneficial to determine. If it is not upright there will be an inspection; not beneficial to have somewhere to go.
Cleary (1):Fidelity is creative and developmental. It is beneficial to be correct; if it is not correct, there will be disaster, and it will not be beneficial to go anywhere.
Cleary (2):Freedom from error is very successful, beneficial for the upright. Denial of what is correct is mistaken, etc.
Wu:Freedom from Vainness is primordial, pervasive, prosperous and persevering. If it does not stay in the correct course, there will be calamities and there will be no advantage to have any undertaking.
The Image
Legge: Thunder rolls under heaven, and everything manifests its original nature, free from all insincerity. The ancient kings, in accordance with this, made their regulations in complete accordance with the seasons, thereby nourishing all things.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Under heaven thunder rolls: all things attain the natural state of innocence. Thus the kings of old, rich in virtue, and in harmony with the time, fostered and nourished all beings.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder rolling across the whole earth; from it, all things receive their integrity. [The lower trigram is pictured as thunder, but it acts through its power to quicken growth.] The ancient rulers gave abundant and timely nourishment to all.
Liu: Thunder rolls under heaven; everything is innocent. The ancient kings cultivated virtue and used the appropriate time to nourish all beings.
Without embroiling. The Earlier Kings used luxuriance suiting the season to nurture the myriad beings.
Cleary (2): Thunder travels under the sky; things accompany with no error. Ancient kings promoted flourishing appropriate to the time and nurtured myriad beings.
Wu: Thunder moves under heaven. All things participate in the spirit of Freedom from Vainness. The ancient kings acted in time to cause all people and things to flourish.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Innocence shows the dynamic first line descending from the upper trigram to become the lord of the hexagram in the lower trigram. We see the attributes of Motive Power and Strength. The dynamic fifth line is central and responded to by the magnetic second line. It is the will of heaven that true progress can only proceed from correctness. If the action of the subject is incorrect he will fall into error, and it will be unfortunate for him to move in any direction. Where can one with the illusion of innocence proceed? Can anything be accomplished by someone without the assistance of heaven's will?
Legge: Of the two Chinese characters which symbolize Innocence, one is the symbol of being reckless, and often of being insincere; these two characters in combination describe a state of entire freedom from such a condition. The subject of the hexagram therefore, is one who is simple and sincere. This quality is characteristic of heaven, and of the highest style of humanity. The figure is an essay on this noble attribute. But an absolute rectitude is essential to it. The nearer one comes to the ideal of the quality, the more powerful will be his influence and the greater his success. But let him see to it that he never swerve from being correct.
Anthony: Innocence means to let go of the present, thereby letting the future become what it will and being at peace with it… When we have learned to do a thing for its own sake, we know the meaning of innocence… In keeping our minds open and free, we are able to meet unexpected events with the help of the Creative, which always points out the correct and most appropriate response.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Success is possible only if you are impeccably correct. If such is not the case, take no action at all. ("Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.")
The Superior Man acts in harmony with the times.
The ancient kings in the Image are mentioned by name in seven hexagrams. (See the commentary on hexagram number 20, Contemplation, for a fuller discussion of their symbolism.) Here, the Image shows them synchronizing their laws with the "laws of nature" -- an archetypal concept which is found in many mystical traditions. Here is the alchemical version:
The individual terrestrial life should correspond to the laws governing the universe; man's spiritual aspirations should be directed to harmonize with the wisdom of God. If we accomplish this, the inner consciousness will awaken to an understanding of the influences of the stars, and the mysteries of Nature will be revealed to his spiritual perception. Paracelsus
In terms of the hexagram of Innocence, the idea is that if you are truly synchronized with your inner cosmos, if you are truly "innocent" (i.e., perfect), you may succeed under the prevailing conditions, but if you are not in complete inner accord you would be well advised to sit tight and take no action. To paraphrase the last sentence of the Confucian commentary: "Can the ego do anything advantageously without the concurrence of the Self?"
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5: 48
To use the Christian injunction in illustration: the upper trigram of Heaven is perfect, and the lower trigram of Movement is asked to reflect on how far he conforms to this ideal. In psychological terms, how do the goals of the ego compare with those of the Self, the entity to whom the Work is dedicated?
Wilhelm has some interesting commentary on this hexagram, stating that it can indicate unexpected misfortune. In his book,Lectures on the I Ching, he comments:
Wu Wang is very peculiar, and its name is not easy to translate. I have used "Innocence," or the “Unintentional." Having meanwhile thought about the matter more, I would today render Wu Wang with the term “Subconscious," even though this expression seems somewhat too modern ... That which as [Divorcement] severs life enters here into unconscious realms ... Because the shock is within and is unconscious, it cannot take its course, and therefore causes the unexpected to happen. An unexpected disaster is afoot; something may be robbed or stolen.
See line three and its commentaries for further insights into Wilhelm's ideas here.
To receive this hexagram without changing lines is tantamount to being asked if you are perfect enough to take action without harm. Sometimes, depending on circumstances, it can also suggest that your position is correct and blameless. As always, the context of your query will leave no doubt when this latter interpretation is intended. If there is doubt, rephrase the question and ask until you understand. The oracle uses ambiguity to develop your intuition -- especially so on those occasions when all you want is a quick answer.
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare what is said here about the Ancient Kings with what is said about them in hexagrams 8, 16, 20, 21, 24, and 59. What common theme unites them, and how does it relate to the concept of the Work?