Step back to see the bigger picture; let new beginnings unfold with courage and creativity.
From
33
Retreat
To
3
Difficulty
Healing shallow wounds
One thinks they can remove what is not too advanced. taoscopy.com
Retreat33
Step back and reassess. Retreat to gain strength and clarity. Focus on inner resources, conserve energy, and observe quietly. Let go gracefully, avoid confrontation, and prepare for future action.
↓ Line 1
At the beginning of retreat, it is important to recognize the danger and avoid taking action that could lead to entanglement.
↓ Line 3
Hesitation in retreat can cause anxiety, but maintaining supportive relationships is beneficial.
↓ Line 4
Choosing to retreat wisely leads to positive outcomes for those who are virtuous, while it may harm those who are not.
↓ Line 6
A joyful and willing retreat leads to progress and success in all endeavors.
↓ Difficulty3
Embrace challenges and uncertainty; growth is difficult but necessary. Encouragement and persistence lead to success.
Other titles: The Symbol of Retirement, Yielding, Withdrawal, Retiring, Wielding, Strategic Withdrawal, Inaccessibility, Disassociation from Inferior Forces, “When an opportunity for something better comes along, do not quarrel with an impossible situation.” -- D. F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Retreatmeans successful progress. Advantage comes from firm correctness and attention to details.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Retreat . Success. In what is small, perseverance furthers.
Blofeld: Yielding. Success! Persistence in small things wins advantage. [Much of the teaching of the Book of Change is concerned with the wisdom of restraint or withdrawal as the best way of achieving our goal under certain circumstances; so this hexagram is not necessarily unfavorable to the wise. This is not a time when we can hope to achieve much; but attention to small matters will stand us in good stead later.]
Liu: Retreat. Success. To persist in small matters is of benefit.
Ritsema/Karcher:Retiring, Growing. The small: Harvesting Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of conflict and consequent seclusion. It emphasizes that withdrawing from the affairs at hand to conceal yourself in obscurity is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: retire!]
Shaughnessy: Wielding: Receipt; little beneficial to determine.
Cleary (1): Withdrawal is developmental. The small is beneficial and correct.
Cleary (2): Withdrawal is successful. Small benefit is correct.
Wu: Retreat indicates pervasion. It will be advantageous for the little men to be persevering.
The Image
Legge: A mountain beneath the sky -- the image of Retreat. The superior man keeps inferior men at a distance by his dignified bearing rather than hostility.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Mountain under heaven: the image of Retreat. Thus the superior man keeps the inferior man at a distance, not angrily but with reserve. [He does not hate him, for hatred is a form of subjective involvement by which we are bound to the hated object.]
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes mountains beneath the sky. The Superior Man, by keeping his distance from men of inferior character, avoids having to display wrath and preserves his dignity. [The component trigrams, symbolizing mountain and sky, indicate withdrawal to a solitary place when circumstances are unfavorable.]
Liu: The mountain beneath the sky symbolizes Retreat. The superior man keeps his distance from the inferior, not with anger, but with dignity.
Ritsema/Karcher: Below heaven possessing mountain. Retiring. A chun tzu uses distancing Small People. A chun tzu uses not hating and-also intimidating.
Cleary (1): There are mountains under heaven, which is inaccessible. Thus do superior people keep petty people at a distance, being stern without ill will.
Cleary (2): … Being strict without ill will.[Petty people can be useful, so there is no ill-will, but their pettiness cannot wield authority, so be strict. In terms of learning to be a sage, the celestial ruler is the master, and the physical body takes orders from it, so that the desires of the various parts of the body cannot cause disturbance.]
Wu: There is a mountain under heaven; this is Retreat. Thus the jun zi distances himself from the little men, not because of despising them, but because of maintaining his own esteem. [The difference between the jun zi and the little men is one of education and not of birth. Confucius was a teacher first and a philosopher second, for he said: “Education is classless.” Every one of us has the potential of becoming a sage.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: There is progress in Retreat. The dynamic ruler in the fifth place receives a proper response from his correlate in line two. The action is in accordance with the requirements of the time because what is inferior is gradually increasing and advancing. The actions required during a Retreat are of great significance.
Legge: Retreat is the hexagram of the sixth month when the yin influence, represented by the two magnetic lines, has established a foothold. This suggests the growth of inferior and unprincipled men in the state, before whose advance superior men are obliged to retire. Yet the auspice of Retreat is not all bad. By firm correctness the threatened evil may be arrested to some extent. Ch'eng-tzu says: “Below the sky is the mountain. The mountain rises up below the sky, and its height is arrested, while the sky goes up higher and higher, till they come to be apart from each other. In this we have an emblem of retiring and avoiding.”
Anthony: The correct time for retreat comes when others are not receptive to us, when delicacy of feeling is lost, when we begin to be attacked by doubt, or when our actions no longer yield progress. The person who can hold his ego in check has many creative moments open to him.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: When carried out with shrewd discernment, Retreat is a strategy for success.
The Superior Man removes himself from disintegrating forces without calling attention to himself. He controls his weaknesses by maintaining his serious purpose.
With the possible exception of line two, there is very little ambiguity in the hexagram of Retreat. Without changing lines it is a clear injunction to remove yourself from an inferior situation, influence, emotion or way of thinking. The figure has certain affinities with hexagram number forty- four: Temptation which also depicts an inferior element encroaching from below.
To yield is to be preserved whole. Lao-tse
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare hexagrams number forty-four, Temptation; number thirty-three, Retreat; and number twelve, Divorcement; in that order. What are the next three logical hexagrams in the sequence, and what are the implications of the series as a whole?
Line 1
Legge: The first line, magnetic, shows a retiring tail. The position is perilous. No movement in any direction should be made.
Wilhelm/Baynes: At the tail in retreat. This is dangerous. One must not undertake anything. [Since the hexagram is the picture of something that is retreating, the lowest line represents the tail and the top line the head. In a retreat it is advantageous to be at the front.]
Blofeld: Withdrawal to the hindermost point -- trouble! It is useless to seek any goal or destination at such a time.
Liu: The tail in retreat. (Someone closely following.) Danger. No undertakings.
Ritsema/Karcher: Retiring tail, adversity. No availing-of possessing directed going.
Shaughnessy: Wield the tail; danger; do not herewith have any place to go.
Cleary (1): Withdrawing the tail is dangerous; don’t go anywhere with this.
Wu: To retreat in the rear is perilous. He should not undertake it.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: If no movement is made, what disaster can there be? Wilhelm/Baynes: If one undertakes nothing while exposed to the danger of the retreating tail, what misfortune could befall one? Blofeld: If you refrain from moving back so far what misfortune can overtake you? Ritsema/ Karcher: Not going wherefore calamity indeed. Cleary (2): If you do not go anywhere, what trouble will there be? Wu: How can retreat in the rear be perilous if he does not undertake it?
Legge: A retiring tail suggests the idea of the subject of the line hurrying away, which would only aggravate the evil and danger of the time.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man is in a perilous position at the end of the retreating column still in contact with the enemy. No action should be undertaken under such circumstances.
Wing: Your position in the situation is in close proximity to an adversary. It would have been to your advantage to Retreat earlier. Do not take any action now, as it will only invite danger.
Anthony: Our ego keeps engaged with the negative power through looking at and examining the issue. We may be considering a compromise with the evil element, or remain involved with desire, fear, anger, impatience or anxiety. We must disconnect, not looking at the situation with our mind’s eye.
Editor: In vulgar English: "Your ass is exposed!" This suggests the analogy of being threatened by a barking dog -- the surest way to be bitten is to show fear and run. The best strategy is to remain as calm as possible, and then slowly back off. Ritsema/Karcher's definition of "adversity" includes the idea of a malevolent spiritual force: "pacifying or exorcizing such a spirit can have a healing effect."
The discreet man sees danger and takes shelter, the ignorant go forward and pay for it. Proverbs 22:3
A. You are exposed and vulnerable. Stay calm -- do nothing rash when exposed to threatening forces and you'll survive.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows one retiring but bound -- to his distress and peril. If he were to deal with his binders as in nourishing a servant or concubine, it would be fortunate for him.
Wilhelm/Baynes: A halted retreat is nerve-wracking and dangerous. To retain people as men-and maidservants brings good fortune.
Blofeld: Yielding under constraint results in ills and trouble, but there is good fortune in store for those who are supporting servants and concubines.
Liu: Retreat with entanglements is dangerous and leads to illness. Take care of women and subordinates. Good fortune.
Shaughnessy: Do the wielding; there is sickness; danger; keeping servants and consorts is auspicious.
Cleary (1): Entangled withdrawal has affliction, but it is lucky in terms of feeding servants and concubines.
Cleary (2): Entangled in withdrawal, there is affliction and danger, but feeding servants and concubines leads to good results.
Wu: The retreat is tied to a string. It will be ominous to have illness, but auspicious to have maids and servants.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The peril is due to distress and exhaustion. A great affair cannot be dealt with in this way. Wilhelm/Baynes: The danger of a halted retreat is nerve- wracking; this brings fatigue. "To retain people as men-and maidservants brings good fortune." True enough, but one cannot use them in great things. Blofeld: The evils referred to here are those attendant on extreme fatigue. Though supporting servants and concubines brings good fortune, it does not lead to achieving anything of consequence. [Seemingly, Confucius, always inclined to be austere, does not altogether approve of this type of good fortune.]Ritsema/Karcher: Possessing afflicting weariness indeed. Not permitting Great Affairs indeed. Cleary (2): Affliction and exhaustion. Not suitable for great works. Wu: Illness can be wasting. No big business is achievable.
Legge: Line three has no proper correlate in line six, and he allows himself to be entangled and impeded by the first and second lines. Because he is too familiar with them they are presumptuous and fetter his movements. He should keep them at a distance.
Wu: The subject of this yang position feels that he is attached to the occupant of the second (line), a yin position. This sentimental attachment, symbolized here as the string attachment, hinders his freedom to retreat. Under these circumstances it is all right for him to handle small matters, such as hiring domestic help, but no big business.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man loses his freedom of action during retreat. The hangers-on impede and fetter his movements. The expedient course of action is to employ them in such a way as to retain the initiative. But he must maintain an appropriate distance from them and not rely on expedient actions of this kind in dealing with important matters.
Wing: You've been held back from Retreat and consequently are in the center of a difficult situation. Inferior persons or ideals may surround you. They can be used to insulate you from further difficulties, but you can accomplish nothing significant while fettered by inferior elements.
Editor: The image suggests being held back by inferior or subordinate forces within the situation. Ritsema/Karcher explain that "Possessing afflicting adversity" can connote "a spirit that seeks revenge by inflicting suffering on the living. Pacifying or exorcizing such a spirit can have a healing effect." (I have received this line when exactly that meaning was implied in the query.) Psychologically, sublimation is indicated. This is the art of making negative energy "sublime," i.e.: positive. "Servants and concubines" sometimes symbolize subconscious complexes: their libido can be either positive or negative, depending upon how it is treated. Remember that the proper nourishment of libido is not the same as indulging it.
For the body is a source of endless trouble to us by reason of the mere requirement of food; and is liable also to diseases which overtake and impede us in the search after true being; it fills us full of loves, and lusts, and fears, and fancies of all kinds, and endless foolery, and in fact, as men say, takes away from us the power of thinking at all. Whence come wars, and fightings, and factions? Whence but from the body and the lusts of the body? Plato -- Phaedo
A. Encumbered and exhausted -- make the most of whatever advantages you have to harmonize the situation.
B. Sublimate, placate or otherwise transform inferior forces to serve your higher purposes.
C. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, dynamic, shows its subject retiring notwithstanding his likings. In a superior man this will lead to good fortune. An inferior man cannot attain to this.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Voluntary retreat brings good fortune to the superior man and downfall to the inferior man.
Blofeld: Withdrawal for good reasons -- for the Superior Man, good fortune; for people of mean attainments, misfortune!
Liu: Voluntary retreat is good fortune for the superior man, but not for the inferior man.
Ritsema/Karcher: Loving Retiring. A chun tzu significant. Small People obstructing.
Shaughnessy: Good wielding; for the gentleman auspicious, for the little man negative.
Cleary (1): A superior person who withdraws well is fortunate, an inferior person is not.
Cleary (2): Developed people who withdraw in the right way are fortunate; petty people are not.
Wu: To retreat from what he is fond of is easy for a Jun zi, but not so for a little man.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: A superior man retires notwithstanding his likings; an inferior man cannot attain to this. Wilhelm/Baynes: The superior man retreats voluntarily; this brings downfall for the inferior man. Blofeld: For when, quite rightly, the Superior Man withdraws, lesser men are bound to suffer. Ritsema/ Karcher: A chun tzu lovingly Retiring. Small People obstructing indeed. Cleary (2): Developed people withdraw well; petty people do not. Wu: The Jun zi uses retreat to his advantage, but the little man doesn’t.
Legge: Line four has a proper correlate in the magnetic first line, but as four is the first line in the upper trigram of Strength, he is free to exercise his choice.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man withdraws, despite his desire to do otherwise. The superior man can retreat in a friendly way, adjusting to the situation, and retaining his convictions. The inferior man is unable to do this.
Wing: If you recognize the moment for Retreat, be certain that you do so with the proper attitude -- that is, willingly. In this way you will adjust easily and progress in your new environment. Those who are filled with emotional turmoil during withdrawal will suffer greatly.
Editor: Psychologically interpreted, to "retire notwithstanding one's likings" is to exercise willpower over an inferior impulse for the good of the Work. The image suggests that you have the requisite strength to do this. It is a truism that when positive libido is withdrawn from something, unsupported inferior forces must wane.
The good is one thing, the pleasant another; these two, having different objects, chain a man. It is well with him who clings to the good; he who chooses the pleasant, misses the end. Katha Upanishad
A. Despite your desires, abandon your proposed plan of action. To ignore temptation strengthens the will and robs weakness of its power.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows its subject retiring in a noble way. It will be advantageous in every respect.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Cheerful retreat. Everything serves to further.
Blofeld: A "sleek" withdrawal -- everything is favorable! [The Chinese commentators suggest that this means going to live in retirement. They add that the phrase also implies excellent health.]
Liu: Retreat after success. Everything is favorable.
Ritsema/Karcher: Rich Retiring, without not Harvesting.
Shaughnessy: Fattened wielding; there is nothing not beneficial.
Cleary (1): Rich withdrawal is wholly beneficial.
Cleary (2): Withdrawal of the rich is beneficial to all.
Wu: Retreat at his leisure is never disadvantageous.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He who does so has no doubts about his course. Wilhelm/ Baynes: Because there is no longer any possibility of doubt. Blofeld: In this case, there cannot be the smallest doubt. [I.e. not the smallest doubt as to the wisdom of withdrawal.] Ritsema/Karcher: Without a place to doubt indeed. Cleary (2): Wu: His mind is free from doubt.
Legge: Line six is dynamic, with no correlate in line three to detain him. He vigorously and happily carries out the idea of the hexagram.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: No doubt exists as to the need for retirement. The man resigns in a gracious manner.
Wing: You are sufficiently removed from the situation and able to Retreat without guilt or doubt. Here you are blessed with great good fortune. You will find rewarding success in your endeavors.
Editor: The image suggests that you already know what to do in the situation at hand -- remove yourself without further ado.
It is because [the Sage] does not contend that no one in the world can contend against him. Lao-Tse
A. You can remove yourself from the situation at hand with a clear conscience.
B. Do not hesitate to abandon an inferior idea immediately.
C. Image of a high-minded or spiritually motivated withdrawal.
Other titles: Difficulty at the Beginning, The Symbol of Bursting, Sprouting, Hoarding, Distress, Organizational Growth Pains, Difficult Beginnings, Growing Pains, Initial Obstacles, Initial Hardship
Judgment
Legge: Difficulty indicates progress and success through firm correctness. Action should not be undertaken lightly, and it is wise to seek help.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Difficulty at the Beginning works supreme success, furthering through perseverance. Nothing should be undertaken. It furthers one to appoint helpers.
Blofeld: Difficulty followed by sublime success! Persistence in a righteous course brings reward; but do not seek some new goal (or destination); it is highly advantageous to consolidate the present position. [The fundamental idea of this hexagram is that of birth and growth amidst difficulty, as with a sprouting seed becoming a young plant and forcing its way through the earth. Our affairs, being still in their early stages, are vulnerable; we must not wander forth, but attend to them until they ripen; then, with proper care, the seed will bring forth a splendid tree. The upper trigram, a pit, suggests a need for caution; but, if we heed these omens, our success is assured.]
Liu: Difficulty in the Beginning : great success. It is of benefit to continue without planning to go someplace. One should find helpers.
Ritsema/Karcher: Sprouting . Spring Growing Harvesting Trial. No availing-of possessing directed going. Harvesting: installing feudatories. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of beginning growth. It emphasizes that collecting potential in preparation for arduous labor is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Hoarding : Prime receipt; beneficial to determine. Do not herewith have someplace to go; beneficial to establish a lord.
Cleary(1): In difficulty, creativity and development are effective if correct. Do not use. There is a place to go. It is beneficial to set up a ruler.
Cleary(2):Creativity is successful. It is beneficial to be correct. Do not make use of going somewhere. It is beneficial to set up lords.
Wu:Distress is primordial, pervasive, prosperous, and persevering. The subject should proceed with caution. It will be advantageous to establish marquisates.
The Image
Legge: The image of clouds and thunder formsDifficulty. The superior man, in accordance with this, adjusts his measures of government as in sorting the threads of the warp and woof.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Clouds and thunder: the image of Difficulty at the Beginning. Thus the superior man brings order out of confusion.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes lightning spewed forth by the clouds -- difficulty prevails! The Superior Man busies himself setting things in order.
Liu: Clouds and thunder symbolize Difficulty at the Beginning. The superior man makes order out of disorder.
Ritsema/Karcher: Clouds, Thunder, Sprouting. A chun tzu uses the canons to coordinate. [Canons: standards, laws; regular, regulate; the Five Classics. The ideogram: warp-threads in a loom.]
Cleary(1): Thunder in the clouds is held back; the superior person orders and arranges.
Cleary(2): Clouds and thunder – Difficulty. Thereby leaders organize.
Wu: Clouds and thunder form hexagram Distress. Thus the jun zi plans and organizes.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Difficultyis experienced as Heaven and Earth begin their intercourse, but correct action succeeds in the face of danger. By the action of thunder and rain, which are the attributes of the lower and upper trigrams, all between Heaven and Earth is filled up. But the conditions of the time are irregular and obscure. Authority should be delegated, but the feeling that rest and peace have been secured should not be indulged in even then.
Legge: The written character for Difficultyis pictorial, and shows a plant struggling with difficulty as it rises above the surface of the earth. This initial difficulty is a metaphor for how struggle is the condition of a state which is emerging from disorder after a revolution. The author saw his social and political world in great disorder and difficult to reform, yet he had faith in himself and the destiny of his House. Let there be prudence and caution, with unswerving adherence to the right. Let the government of the different states be entrusted to good and able men -- then all will be well.
According to the arrangement of the eight trigrams, Heaven and Earth are the parents of the other six, who are their children. The first-born son is the lower trigram of Movement, and the second-born son is the upper trigram of Peril. McClatchie renders here: "The figure of Difficulty represents the hard and the soft beginning to have sexual intercourse, and bringing forth with suffering."
The power to move in the lower trigram is likely to produce great effects; to do this in perilous and difficult circumstances (symbolized by the upper trigram) requires firmness and correctness. Good princes throughout the realm will help to remedy the political and social disorder of the times, but the supreme ruler should not trust his subordinates to the point of relaxing his vigilance.
The lower trigram represents thunder, the upper represents rain clouds. The hexagram therefore places us in the atmosphere of a thunderstorm -- a metaphor for the situation of a political state in difficulty. When the thunder has pealed, and the clouds have discharged their burden of rain, the atmosphere is cleared and there is a feeling of relief.
Anthony: This hexagram means that we have not yet found the correct path.
It also means confusion: too many possibilities. Nothing is clear. This lack of clarity is the “hindrance” referred to in the first line of the hexagram. In the second line, the remedies that come forth are inappropriate. In the first stages of dealing with a problem, we are tempted to grasp at solutions, whereas we should wait until the proper actions become clear.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Under the conditions of Difficulty it is best to mark time while seeking assistance.
The superior man uses careful analysis to separate order from confusion.
Wilhelm’s title for this hexagram is Difficulty at the Beginning. I prefer Difficulty, because it is a situation encountered at any phase of the Work, not just the beginning.
Difficulty is experienced because confusion and multiplicity prevail during the initial phase of any creative activity -- thoughts and feelings proliferate and threaten to overwhelm the mind with infinite complexity. The only way to proceed under such circumstances is to carefully sort out the components of the situation and arrange them in categories and in order of importance. To "sort the threads of the warp and woof" is to weave a tangled mess into a tapestry.
The Orderly Sequence of the Hexagrams gives us an image of what takes place under the hexagram of Difficulty:
When there were Heaven and Earth, then afterwards all things were produced. What fills up the space between Heaven and Earth are those individual things. Hence the Dynamic and Magnetic are followed by Difficulty. Difficulty means filling up.
"Filling up," is rendered as "fullness" in some translations. This is the exact meaning of the gnostic term: "Pleroma," or "Fullness" which Jung correlates with the Collective Unconscious or Objective Psyche. These are interior dimensions from which emanate the archetypal energies which we experience as instinctual drives and emotional complexes. This is the "hyperspace" from which the Self, via the oracle, responds to our queries and directs the Work.
Thus we see that the third hexagram, following the creation of the cosmic pair of opposites in the first two figures, represents a dialectical progression. Lao Tse, who wrote the Tao Te Ching some six-hundred years after the I Ching was committed to writing, describes this unfolding process:
Out of Tao, One is born;
Out of One, Two;
Out of Two, Three;
Out of Three, the created universe.
The created universe carries the yin at its back
and the yang in front;
Through the union of their pervading principles
it reaches harmony.
The identical idea is found in many traditions, giving it the status of an archetype within human consciousness. It is not necessary to be familiar with the technical terminology of Kabbalah to recognize that the same idea is being discussed in the following passage:
In Chokmah and Binah we have the archetypal Positive and Negative; the primordial Maleness and Femaleness, established while "countenance beheld not countenance" and manifestation was incipient ... It is between these two polarizing aspects of manifestation -- the Supernal Father and the Supernal Mother -- that the web of life is woven; souls going back and forth between them like a weaver's shuttle. In our individual lives, in our physiological rhythms, and in the history of the rise and fall of nations, we observe the same rhythmic periodicity. D. Fortune --The Mystical Qabalah
This idea has been stated very simply:
All things are a single form which has divided and multiplied in time and space. W.B. Yeats -- A Vision
Is not the sky a father and the earth a mother, and are not all living things with feet or wings or roots their children? -- Black Elk
And also with poetic complexity:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the water ... God said, "Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth within the vault of heaven." And so it was ... God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas; and let the birds multiply upon the earth. Genesis
There are some profound ideas in these images about the structure of human consciousness and the contents of the unconscious psyche. The basic idea is that of Emanation -- the creation of physical reality from a supreme principle in ordered hierarchies of increasing complexity. This concept is essential for a full understanding of the Work.
The involution of man was his descent from the sphere of the spirit, developing bodies of a mental, emotional and then physical nature until he manifested upon this planet. His evolution is to civilize this planet and to develop mastery of the physical, emotional and mental planes and relink himself in unity with God once more, thus completing the cycle. He came from God as an inexperienced Spark of Divine Fire and returns to Him, with all the experience of manifestation, as a Lord of Humanity. Gareth Knight -- The Work of a Modern Occult Fraternity
In many systems of thought, the proliferation of forces is seen in sexual terms -- the cosmic parents produce entities in male and female pairs (gnostic syzygies), which in turn produce offspring. Hence, Confucius says: "Difficulty is experienced as Heaven and Earth begin their intercourse." That this has an explicit sexual connotation is confirmed by McClatchie: "The figure of Difficulty represents the hard and the soft beginning to have sexual intercourse, and bringing forth with suffering." Thus we see that the correct and incorrect correlation ("intercourse") of dynamic (male) and magnetic (female) lines in anyI Ching hexagram symbolizes the favorable (life-enhancing) or unfavorable (life-negating) combinations of thought and feeling within the psyche.
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
The sexual intercourse of Heaven and Earth is also described in hexagram number eleven,Harmony. In terms of these sexual metaphors, what does the term "adultery" imply in regard to the Work? See hexagram number forty-four, Temptation, for further insight on this theme.