In the dance of differences, find unity and venture forward with a curious heart.
From
38
Opposition
To
56
The Wanderer
Being frozen
One's teeth chatter because of the cold. taoscopy.com
Opposition38
Conflict arises from differences. Seek common ground and understanding to overcome separations and oppositions. Mutual respect paves the way for harmony.
↓ Line 1
Initial opposition can be overcome by patience and self-restraint. Avoid hasty actions.
↓ Line 2
Unexpected encounters can lead to beneficial outcomes. Stay open to possibilities.
↓ Line 3
Initial setbacks may occur, but perseverance leads to eventual success.
↓ The Wanderer56
Embrace the journey. Stay adaptable and attentive. Balance independence with humility. Success comes from accepting change and being resourceful.
Other titles: Opposition, The Symbol of Strangeness and Disunion, The Estranged, Opposites, Polarizing, Alienation, Distant From, Perversion, Disharmony, Separated, Contradiction, Estrangement, Incongruity
Judgment
Legge: Despite Mutual Alienation there will be success in small matters.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Opposition. in small matters, good fortune.
Blofeld: The Estranged -- good fortune in small matters.
Liu: Opposition. In small things, good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher:Polarizing, Small Affairs significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of things that are connected but should not join. It emphasizes that putting things in opposition while acknowledging their essential link is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Perversion: Little affairs are auspicious.
Cleary (1): Disharmony. A small matter will turn out all right.
Cleary (2): Opposition, Etc.
Wu: Incongruity indicates auspiciousness for doing small things.
The Image
Legge: The image of fire over a marsh forms Mutual Alienation. The superior man, in accordance with this, accepts the diversities which make up the whole.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Above fire; below the lake: the image of Opposition. Thus amid all fellowship the superior man retains his individuality.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes fire above and a marshy lake below. The Superior Man achieves difference through unity.
Liu: Fire above the lake symbolizes Opposition. Living with the people, the superior man distinguishes among them.
Ritsema/Karcher: Fire above, marsh below. Polarizing. A chun tzu uses concording and-also dividing. [Cf. Solve et Coagula—Ed.]
Cleary (1): Above is fire, below is a lake, disparate. Thus are superior people the same yet different.
Cleary (2): Above is fire, below is a lake – opposite. Developed people, etc.
Wu: Fire above and marsh below form Incongruity. Thus the Jun zi take separate paths, but arrive at the same goal.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Mutual Alienation we see fire ascending and water descending. We see two sisters living together whose wills move in opposite directions. However, the lower trigram of Cheerfulness is attached to the upper trigram of Clarity, and the magnetic fifth line is responded to by the dynamic second line; these are signs that there can still be good fortune in small matters. Heaven and earth are separate and apart, but the work which they do is the same. Male and female are separate and apart, but with a common will they seek the same object. There is a diversity between the myriad classes of beings, but there is an analogy between their several operations. Great indeed are the phenomena and the results of this condition of disunion and separation.
Legge: Mutual Alienationshows a condition in which disunion and mistrust prevail. The hexagram teaches how this state of affairs may be overcome in small matters and the way prepared for the cure of the whole system. The commentators suggest that the condition symbolized here is a necessary sequel to the regulation of the family in the preceding hexagram.
The K'ang-hsi editors observe that in many hexagrams we have two daughters dwelling together, but that only in this and number forty-nine is attention called to it. The reason is that in these two diagrams the sisters are the second and third daughters, while in the others one of them is the eldest, whose place and superiority are fixed, so that between her and either of the others there can be no division or collision. The lesson in the Confucian commentary is not unity in diversity, but union with diversity.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: In resolving disputes, begin with their least controversial aspects.
The Superior Man respects alternative points of view.
Turn the hexagram of Familyupside-down and you get the hexagram ofMutual Alienation. The opposite of family unity is estrangement, which combined with the idea of polarity, suggests the kind of energetic "pushing away" one feels when two horseshoe magnets are matched to the same poles. Despite this opposition however, every line deals positively with the situation -- there is not one image in the hexagram that doesn't intimate an eventual resolution.
The thirty-eighth hexagram lays even more emphasis than usual on the relationships (polarities) existing between its correlate lines. This suggests that inner connections outrank any superficial estrangement. The Mutual Alienationthen, is not a permanent condition -- it represents more of a challenge than a disaster. All polarity is potential energy to accomplish useful work, and in this hexagram the polarities are more than usually available for this purpose. This doesn't mean that the work here is necessarily easy, just that it offers a major opportunity for growth.
A crisis develops when some pressure or event creates a state of uncomfortable disequilibrium which fails to respond to usual defenses and coping mechanisms. It involves danger with both a considerable risk for worsening and opportunity for growth (with enhancement of insight, mastery, and self-esteem) ... The patient should be educated to understand his situation and helped to see that painful episodes may prove to be part of a constructive process, and are not proof of a dire outcome. R.P. Kluft -- Hypnotherapeutic Crisis Intervention in Multiple Personality
Line 1
Legge: The first line, dynamic, shows that to its subject occasion for repentance will disappear. He has lost his horses, but let him not seek for them -- they will return of themselves. Should he meet with bad men, he will not err in communicating with them.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Remorse disappears. If you lose your horse, do not run after it; it will come back of its own accord. When you see evil people, guard yourself against mistakes.
Blofeld: Regret vanishes! Do not follow the straying horse, for it will return of its own accord. Though he allows evil men to visit him, he remains without error.
Liu: Remorse vanishes. If one loses a horse, one should not look for it; it will return by itself. Even if one sees evil men, no blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Repenting extinguished. Losing the horse, no pursuit, originating-from returning. Visualizing hateful people. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: Regret is gone; Losing a horse, do not pursue; it will of itself return. Seeing an ugly man; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Regret disappears: When you lose the horse, don’t chase it – it will return on its own. Seeing an evil person, there is no blame.
Cleary (2): Regret vanishes. Having lost the horse, do not chase after it – it will come back by itself. Seeing evil people, there is no blame. [Whenever thoughts of gain and loss become serious, or the idea of good and bad is too defined, then what is the same will be differentiated, and what is different cannot be made the same. Only when we follow firm and upright celestial virtue do gain and loss disappear, good and bad merge. Then even if we are in a time of oppositions, we can be free of regret.]
Wu: There will be no regret. He need not look for a lost horse, as it will come back by itself. If he meets with a disagreeable man, there will be no error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He communicates with the bad men to avoid the evil of their condemnation. Wilhelm/Baynes: When you see evil people, avoid mistakes. Blofeld: That is to say, his very purpose in receiving them is to avoid error. [We must expect to encounter unlikable people whom it would be impolitic or dangerous to ignore.] Ritsema/Karcher: Using casting-out fault indeed. Cleary (2): Seeing evil people, one avoids blame. Wu: He meets with a disagreeable man to avoid getting into troubles.
Legge: The first line is dynamic in a dynamic place, but his correlate in line four is also dynamic, so disappointment and repentance are likely to ensue. However, through the good services of line four the first line won't have to repent. His condition may be symbolized by a traveler’s loss of his horses, which return to him of themselves.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man slips into avoidable mistakes during times of opposition. When members of his own fold are estranged, he should not run after them; he should let them come back of their own accord. On the other hand, those who do not belong to this group but force their evil presence into the company must be endured. This silences their slanderous tongues; they will withdraw of their own accord.
Wing: There is an estrangement present between elements that naturally belong together. Do not try to reunify the situation with force. Allow things to return to a state of accord naturally, as they will. Do not worry about it. Things will work themselves out. If something inferior is being forced upon you, a cold shoulder will work wonders.
Editor: Psychologically, to lose one's horses is to lose one's power, or to have emotion "run away with itself." The image suggests a temporary loss which one need not worry about. To "communicate with bad men" means to consciously monitor your negative feelings -- to be aware of resentments, fears, hostility, or whatever the situation has called forth, without acting on them. In other words, maintain your will in the face of unstable impulses. The unusual beneficial correlation between two dynamic lines in one and four recalls a similar configuration in hexagram number fifty-five.
Analytic experience has shown that there seems to be a general law which decides between psychic health and psychopathology. The balance is tipped by the ego's strength, capacity and willingness to unbar the doors and windows to the unconscious and to receive the stranger; that is, to confront and channel the inner world of images and affects while, at the same time, retaining its own grasp upon external reality. E.C. Whitmont --The Symbolic Quest
A. A temporary conflict will soon resolve itself. Endure the inferior elements in the situation without polarizing them to action.
B. For the moment your emotions have run away with you. Confront a harmful or severely limiting attitude or belief.
Line 2
Legge: The second line, dynamic, shows its subject happening to meet with his ruler in a bye-passage. There will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: One meets his lord in a narrow street. No blame.
Blofeld: He encountered his lord in a narrow lane -- no error!
Liu: One meets his superior in an alley. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Meeting a lord, tending-towards the street. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: Meeting the ruler in an alley; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Meeting the master in an alley, there is no blame. [When yin and yang have gotten out of harmony, aberrant energy is strong and true sane energy is weak – the mind of Tao is not easy to meet. However, if firmness is applied with flexibility, advancing by way of a small path, using the human mind to produce the mind of Tao, this is like “meeting the master in an alley.” The formerly blameworthy can then be blameless. This is setting disharmony right when it is in full force.]
Cleary (2): Meeting the ruler, etc.
Wu: He meets his master in a lane. There will be no error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He has not deviated for this meeting from the proper course. Wilhelm/Baynes: If one meets his lord in a narrow street, one has not lost his way. Blofeld: He was not in error for he had not strayed from his path. Ritsema/Karcher: Not-yet letting-go tao indeed. Cleary (2): Does not deviate from the right way. Wu: He has not gone beyond the bounds.
Legge: The fifth-line correlate of the second line is magnetic and the two might meet openly if it weren't for the separation and disunion of the time. A casual, as it were a stolen interview, as in a bye-lane or passage, will be useful however, and may lead to better understanding.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Misunderstanding prevents people who share an inner affinity from meeting together in the normal way. A casual meeting between the man and his master under informal circumstances proves useful.
Wing: An unexpected or accidental encounter with an important idea or person will benefit you. There is a natural attraction at work here, although a direct approach would have been inconceivable or impossible.
Wilhelm (from Lectures on the I Ching): (Man)...accepts his karma, his fate, which from within the situation has been given him and which he affirms. The image of the narrow street indicates that this is not a simple transaction. A counterpart is, for example, found in the Bible, when a prophet receives his calling. Prophets are such men who have met their masters in narrow streets. How the prophet Jeremiah rages and complains! All his life he reproaches God for having burdened him with too heavy a load, but nonetheless accepts his destiny and completes the task.
Editor: The image is one of a meeting (union) between high and low in a tight place, or under restricted circumstances. This "narrow passage," pinched circumstances, or rough-going, could refer to the discipline of the Work. An ego/Self connection is implied.
The aim of the ordinary man is to live his life avoiding all difficulties, discomforts and unpleasantness within the bounds of his conscience. The esoteric student should be a man with a very demanding conscience and so his life is more difficult. This does not mean that he goes about seeking for or making difficulties for himself, but he meets all obstacles as a challenge, and the greater the obstacle the greater the opportunity it is for him to overcome the weaker aspects of his nature. Gareth Knight -- Qabalistic Symbolism
A. Truth or duty is encountered in a tight spot or limited situation.
B. Restricted circumstances evoke their own dynamics for growth. Stress is a great teacher.
C. "A tough row to hoe." A difficult (fated) co-incidence of some kind.
Line 3
Legge: In the third line, magnetic, we see one whose carriage is dragged back, while the oxen in it are pushed back, and she is herself subjected to the shaving of her head and the cutting off of her nose. There is no good beginning, but there will be a good end.
Wilhelm/Baynes: One sees the wagon dragged back, the oxen halted, a man's hair and nose cut off. Not a good beginning, but a good end.
Blofeld: He watched them dragging at his axle and striking his oxen. As for himself, his topknot and nose were sliced off -- not much of a beginning, but there was an end to his troubles. [This is a frighteningly inauspicious line. We must expect severe trouble; the only comfort we can take is the knowledge that it will not be permanent.]
Liu: When the ox stopped, the cart moved back. He sees a man whose hair and nose have been cut off. Misfortune in the beginning, good fortune later.
Ritsema/Karcher: Visualizing the cart pulled-back. One's cattle hampered.
One's person stricken, moreover nose-cut. Without initially possessing completion.
Shaughnessy: Seeing the cart with one horn upturned, its cow dragging, its man branded on the forehead and with his nose cut off; there is no beginning, there is an end.
Cleary (1): One sees the vehicle dragged back, the ox halted; the person’s hair and nose are cut off. There is no beginning, but there is an end.
Cleary (2): Having the vehicle dragged back, the ox halted, the person is punished by heaven. There is no beginning, but there is an end.
Wu: He sees a cart pulled back, its ox led away, and its carter’s forehead tattooed and his nose cut off. He has a bad beginning that ends well.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The carriage is drawn back because of the inappropriateness of the line's position. The good end arises from her meeting with the strong topmost line. Wilhelm/Baynes: The place is not the right one. This happens through meeting one that is firm. Blofeld: The first part of this passage is indicated by the unsuitable position of the line. That, despite this poor beginning, there is an end to his troubles -- or ours -- can be deduced from this line's meeting with a firm one immediately above it. Ritsema/Karcher: Situation not appropriate indeed. Meeting a solid indeed. Cleary (2): Out of place. Having firmness. Wu: His place is out of order. He engages in strength.
Legge: Line three is magnetic where it ought to be dynamic. Her correlate line six is dynamic, and the relation between them might be correct if the magnetic three wasn't sandwiched between the dynamic second and fourth lines. Because it is a time of disunion, these two check and repulse her. At the same time, line six inflicts upon three the punishments mentioned. It is thus bad for three at first, but in the end it will go well with her, and this will be due to the strength of the sixth line. What is right and good is destined to triumph over what is wrong and bad. Disorder shall eventually give place to order, and disunion to union.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Things look completely hopeless. The man is opposed and dishonored. But if he clings to what he believes to be right, the ending will be good.
Wing: Difficulties will pile on difficulties and you will be opposed at every turn. Although this is a bad beginning, there is a possibility of a good ending. Cling to what you know is right or align yourself with a strong helper and the matter will end well.
Wilhelm (from Lectures on the I Ching): A complete change is taking place. This, however, is connected with utmost difficulty... This is the time of battles. Often, just after receiving the call, one makes no progress. And even if one succeeds for a short time, obstructions soon develop. One's own person is seen as weak among so many strong persons, and the movement, which is still governed by opposition that must be overcome, has at every step internal as well as external obstructions.
Editor: This is a very difficult line. Carriage: Vehicle, forward motion, ability to advance. Oxen: Castrated bulls used as draft animals: an image of inexorable power or motive force. Hair: Energy, power, (Samson lost his strength when his hair was cut off.) Nose: Subtle discrimination, intuition. The line is an image of (usually undeserved) interference that impedes development. Sometimes it can be a reminder that humiliation and impotence in the service of the Work do not last forever.
The news from France is very bad, and I grieve for the gallant French people who have fallen into this terrible misfortune. We shall defend our island, and, with the British Empire around us, we shall fight on unconquerable until the curse of Hitler is lifted from the brows of men. We are sure that in the end all will be well. Winston Churchill, June 17, 1940
A. It seems all but impossible to succeed now. However, if you keep the faith, the prognosis is for victory.
Other titles: The Wanderer, The Symbol of the Traveler, The Exile, Sojourning, The Newcomer, To Lodge, To Travel, Traveling, The Stranger, Strangers, The Traveling Stranger, The Outsider, The Alien, The Gnostic, The Tarot Fool, Wandering, Homeless, Uncommitted, On Your Own, "Can refer to being out of one's element." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Transition means that small attainments are possible. If the traveling stranger is firm and correct, there will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes:The Wanderer. Success through smallness. Perseverance brings good fortune to the wanderer.
Blofeld:The Traveler -- success in small matters. Persistence with regard to traveling brings good fortune.
Liu: The Exile. Small success. To continue leads to good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher:Sojourning, the small: Growing. Sojourning, Trial: significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of wandering journeys and living in exile. It emphasizes that mingling with others as a stranger whose identity comes from a distant center is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Traveling. Small receipt. Traveling; determination is auspicious.
Cleary (1): Travel is developmental when small; if travel is correct, it leads to good fortune.
Cleary (2): Travel has a little success. Travel is auspicious if correct.
Wu:Traveling indicates small pervasion. Perseverance will bring auspiciousness.
The Image
Legge: A fire on the mountain -- the image of Transition. The superior man exerts cautious wisdom in his punishments, and does not permit prolonged litigation.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Fire on the mountain: the image of The Wanderer. Thus the superior man is clear-minded and cautious in imposing penalties, and protracts no lawsuits.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes fire upon a mountain. The Superior Man employs wise caution in administering punishments and does not suffer the cases brought before him to be delayed.
Liu: Fire over the mountain symbolizes the Exile. The superior man is careful and clever in imposing punishments, and does not delay the cases brought.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above mountain possessing fire. Sojourning. A chun tzu uses brightening consideration to avail-of punishing and-also not to detain litigating.
Cleary (1): There is fire atop a mountain, transient. Thus superior people apply punishments with understanding and prudence, and do not keep people imprisoned.
Cleary (2): Fire on a mountain – traveling. Etc.
Wu: There is fire on the mountain; this is Traveling. Thus the jun zi exercises the utmost deliberations in exacting punishments such that prisoners will not be detained without cause.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Transition indicates that there may be some small attainment and progress -- the magnetic line occupies the central place in the upper trigram, and is obedient to the dynamic lines above and below it. We also have the attributes of Keeping Still connected with Intelligence in the lower and upper trigrams. Hence it is said that there may be some small attainment and progress. If the traveling stranger is firm and correct as he ought to be, there will be good fortune. Great is the time and great is the right course to be taken under these circumstances!
Legge: The written Chinese character for this hexagram denotes people traveling abroad, and is often translated as Strangers. The figure addresses itself to traveling strangers, and tells them how they ought to comport themselves through the cultivation of humility and firm correctness. By means of these they would escape harm, and make progress. The status of traveling stranger is seen as too low to expect great things of them.
It is assumed that the wanderer is in the position of the fifth line. The ideas of humility, docility, calmness and intelligence are derived from the attributes of the component trigrams. These are all characteristics which are proper to a stranger, and are likely to lead to advancement and attainment of his desires. Concerning the Image, K'ung Ying-ta comments: "A fire on a mountain lays hold of the grass, and runs with it over the whole space, not stopping anywhere long, and soon disappearing -- such is the emblem of the traveler."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: During a Transition, keep your willpower great and your expectations small.
The Superior Man sees clearly and does not embroil himself in complexity. He is clear-minded and cautious in judging the truth of the situation, maintaining detachment from the social milieu.
Wilhelm's translation of the title of this hexagram is The Wanderer. A wanderer is one who has no home, or who is between one home and another. This reminds us of the gnostic notion of the "Alien": the incarnate soul exiled to wander in the space-time dimension (i.e., this world).
The alien is that which stems from elsewhere and does not belong here ... The stranger who does not know the ways of the foreign land wanders about lost; if he learns its ways too well, he forgets that he is a stranger and gets lost in a different sense by succumbing to the lure of the alien world and becoming estranged to his own origin ... The recollection of his own alienness, the recognition of his place of exile for what it is, is the first step back; the awakened homesickness is the beginning of the return. Hans Jonas -- The Gnostic Religion
In the broadest interpretation then, the message in the Judgment: "If the traveling stranger is firm and correct, there will be good fortune" can refer to not becoming entangled in the affairs of this world in which we wander -- an idea emphasized in the first line. Ritsema/Karcher state it explicitly -- defining our challenge as "mingling with others as a stranger whose identity comes from a distant center." This is good general advice for anyone seriously engaged in the Work, since the "distant center" ("God," or the Self) represents the essence we incarnated to serve.
We are strangers in this world, and the body is the tomb of the soul, and yet we must not seek to escape by self- murder; for we are the chattels of God who is our herdsman, and without his command we have no right to make our escape. Pythagorean ethic
In more specific situations, the hexagram symbolizes a transitional phase. Lines two, three and four all depict "Inns" or temporary resting places (commonly experienced in dreams as images of hotels or motels). The symbolism is identical: the psyche is reflecting an interim situation during a state of Transition.
By definition, a transition is fluid and not yet fixed. Depending upon the choices made, one can go in different directions. In terms of consciousness, it is obvious that the transition can be from a lower state of awareness to a higher one, or vice-versa. Because a transition is an opportunity for deliberate choice-making, the Confucian commentary concludes with: "Great is the time and great is the right course to be taken under these circumstances!"
Lines one, three and six depict very negative situations involving ignorant, arrogant choices. We think of the ego blindly pushing the river of its desires, unable to see the unfortunate consequences it thereby engenders. Line two suggests a solid resting place during our journey, while line four depicts a tenuous, though not necessarily incorrect, similar situation. The fifth line counsels a kind of sacrifice to the ruler (the Self) which results in an eventual reward. The message is to let the Self guide you through a Transition.
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Hexagram number fifty-six is the reverse of hexagram number fifty-five. Compare the role of the superior man in the Image of each figure. How are they the same? How are they different? What are the differences and similarities of the component trigrams of each hexagram, and how do they affect their respective meanings?
Notes, August 15, 2009: A new paraphrase of the Judgment and Image:
The Gnostic Alien. Small attainments are possible if the Alien keeps a clear head and maintains his self-discipline. The initiated Adept is intelligent, discreet, and displays vigilant wisdom: he maintains and protects his gnosis via cautious reserve in worldly disputes, eschewing needless contention. [He can do this because he knows that this is an illusory reality: a set-up, a trap, a Loosh factory created by the Demiurge.] A chun tzu uses brightening consideration to avail-of punishing and-also not to detain litigating. [In other words “do the work in the place in which you find yourself” quickly, and efficiently, with as few entanglements as possible under the circumstances. Shun new karma. Implicit is that this experience is preparation for the bodhisattva vow.]