Cultivate inner strength and unite with purpose, for gathering hearts leads to collective triumph.
From
44
Temptation
To
45
Gathering Together
One keeps one's tongue in one's mouth so as not to provoke envy. taoscopy.com
Temptation44
A fleeting encounter with a powerful influence. Be mindful and cautious. Keep your integrity intact.
↓ Line 2
There is a potential opportunity, but it is not yet time to act. Patience and restraint are advised.
↓ Line 3
Awareness of difficulties and potential dangers is crucial. Caution can prevent serious errors.
↓ Line 6
Aggressive or forceful approaches lead to embarrassment, but the situation is not beyond repair. Humility and reflection are needed.
↓ Gathering Together45
Coming together for a shared purpose; unity and collective effort lead to strength. It's time to rally support and focus on communal goals.
Other titles: Coming to Meet, The Symbol of Meeting, Contact, Sexual Intercourse, Encountering, Coupling, Infiltration by Inferior Men, Adultery "Contains a definite warning about a person or situation which may appear harmless but will prove dangerous." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Temptation shows a female who is bold and strong. It will not be good to marry such a female.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Coming to Meet. The maiden is powerful. One should not marry such a maiden.
Blofeld: Contact. Women wield the power. Do not marry. [At this time marriage would be unfortunate; the husband would almost surely be henpecked.]
Liu: Encountering. The female is forceful. One should not marry her.
Ritsema/Karcher:Coupling, womanhood invigorating. No availing-of grasping womanhood. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the encounter of primal energies. It emphasizes that seeing-through your personal situation as the connection of objective forces is the adequate way to handle it...]
Couple , KOU: intense, driven encounter, at once transitory and enduring, that is the reflection of primal yin and yang; meet, encounter, copulate; mating animals; magnetism, gravity; to be gripped by impersonal forces. Primal forces couple in the inner world, seeding enduring new forms.
Shaughnessy: The maiden matures ; do not herewith take a maiden.
Cleary (1):Meeting, the woman is strong. Don’t get married.
Cleary (2): In meeting, the woman is strong. Do not marry the woman.
Wu:Rendezvous indicates that the woman is strong. It is not advisable to marry that woman.
The Image
Legge: The image of wind with the sky above it forms Temptation. The sovereign, in accordance with this, delivers his charges, and promulgates his announcements throughout the four quarters of the kingdom.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Under heaven, wind: the image of Coming to Meet. Thus does the prince act when disseminating his commands and proclaiming them to the four quarters of heaven.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind blowing across the face of the earth. When the ruler issues commands, he has them proclaimed in every corner of the world.
Liu: The wind under the sky symbolizes Encountering. The ruler issues his directives, announcing them to the four corners (throughout his country).
Ritsema/Karcher: Below heaven possessing wind. Coupling. The crown-prince uses spreading-out fate to command the four sides.
[Fate, MING: individual destiny; birth and death as limits of life; issue orders with authority; consult the gods. The ideogram: mouth and order, words with heavenly authority.]
Cleary (1): There is wind under heaven, meeting. Thus do rulers announce their directives to the four quarters.
Wu: There is wind under heaven; this is Rendezvous. Thus, the sovereign announces the royal mandate to the whole nation.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Temptationhas the significance of unexpectedly coming on. We see in it the magnetic line coming unexpectedly on the dynamic ones. Marriage is improper, because one so symbolized should not be long associated with. When heaven and earth meet together as here represented, all the variety of natural things becomes displayed. When a dynamic line finds itself in the central and correct position, good government will nourish all under the sky. Great indeed is the significance of what has to be done at the time indicated byTemptation.
Legge: A single, magnetic line enters at the bottom of the hexagram. This is the figure used to represent the time of year when light and heat begin to wane. In the divided line we see the symbol of the inferior man, beginning to insinuate himself into the government of the country. His influence, if unchecked, would go on to grow and fill the vacant seats with others like himself. The objective of the Judgment is to arouse resistance to this evil influence.
Temptation is defined here as a sudden and casual meeting with something inferior -- the divided line is seen as appearing all at once in the figure. The first line, magnetic in a dynamic place, becomes the symbol of a bold woman of more than questionable virtue who appears unexpectedly on the scene with the object of seducing all five of the dynamic (male) lines to herself. No one would contract a marriage with such a female, and every good servant of his country will repel the entrance into government of every officer who can be so symbolized.
On the first two sentences of the Confucian commentary, the K'ang-hsi editors say: "The magnetic line meets with (or comes unexpectedly on) the dynamic ones. The magnetic line, that is, plays the principal part. The case is like that of the minister who assumes the power of decision in place of the ruler, or of a hen crowing at sunrise -- is not the name of shameless boldness rightly applied to it?"
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Do not unite with an inferior element in your situation. ("Lead us not into temptation.")
The Superior Man formulates his code of conduct and abides by it.
Wilhelm translates the forty-fourth hexagram as Coming to Meet, and Blofeld gives it the rather startling subtitle of Sexual Intercourse. There is no doubt at all that the figure has an aura of illicit excitement associated with it which I feel is best conveyed by R. L. Wing's title of Temptation, though Adultery might also be suitable. One sometimes receives this hexagram under dramatic circumstances, and it serves to dump cold water on a potentially volatile series of choices and their equally volatile consequences.
When we consider the importance of the proper correlation of male and female lines in the I Ching, we see that the Judgment in this hexagram can psychologically depict the temptation to an adulterous union of thought and feeling. Adultery is a very useful metaphor for understanding the principles of the Work -- it means union with anything which, inI Ching terms, is not a "proper correlate.” To adulterate something is to degrade a pure substance by the addition of an inferior ingredient. The image of a temptation to adulterate the Work in this hexagram is therefore a warning in the strongest possible terms that you are vulnerable to some inferior choices.
Consequently by marriages not only the earths but also the heavens are filled with inhabitants ... The earth indeed may be filled with inhabitants by fornications and adulteries as well as by marriages; but not heaven. The reason is that hell is from adulteries, and heaven from marriages ... When the procreations of the human race are effected through marriages in which the holy love of good and truth from the Lord reigns, then it is done on earth as in the heavens, and the kingdom of the Lord on earth corresponds to the kingdom of the Lord in the heavens. Swedenborg -- Apocalypse Explained
The concept of the hieros gamos, or holy marriage, is a ubiquitous archetype found in every tradition rooted in the Perennial Philosophy. If this "marriage” symbolizes a proper union or reunion of previously separated elements, then it follows that the opposite situation: a union of mismatched entities would be symbolized by adultery. To recreate a primordial gestalt of perfection out of an exploded multiverse of mixed forces demands that all of the original pairs of opposites become properly matched correlates. Although any two opposite genders might feel a mutual attraction, there is really only one opposite which is an appropriate spouse. In the realm of human relationships this is evoked in the concept of the Soul Mate. Esoterically speaking, every polarized force in the multiverse has its proper correlate; it follows that the Work (in its largest conception) cannot be completed until each is reunited with each.
Indeed every act of sexual intercourse which has occurred between those unlike one another is adultery... Members of a race usually have associated with those of like race. So spirit mingles with spirit, and thought consorts with thought and light shares with light. If you are born a human being, it is the human being who will love you. If you become a spirit, it is the spirit which will be joined to you. If you become thought, it is thought which will mingle with you. If you become light, it is the light which will share with you. The Gnostic Gospel of Philip
The point is important enough to bear repeating: psycho-spiritually interpreted, sexual intercourse and marriage symbolize the possibility of a unification of forces. Conversely, union with an improper correlate means adulteration of the Work. This is the esoteric meaning underlying the Hindu caste system:
When (unrighteousness) overwhelms the family, O Krishna The women of the family become corrupt; and when, O Krishna, the women are corrupt, there arises a mixing of castes. Bhagavad-Gita 1: 41
The "mixing of castes” is, in the symbolism of theI Ching, the union of improper correlate forces. ("Women,” as we have seen, usually symbolize the emotional and feeling aspects of the psyche.) We readily recognize that the above quotation from the Bhagavad-Gita accurately reflects the symbolism of the forty-fourth hexagram, reiterating the great truth that when emotions make the choices, the unity of the psyche is compromised.
Added notes, 9/7/10: Sometimes this hexagram is received in answer to queries related more to a fated (karmic) situation than anything normally regarded as “temptation.” In these cases Ritsema/Karcher’s expanded notes on the ideograms are useful guides: “… gripped by impersonal forces. Primal forces couple in the inner world, seeding enduring new forms… This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the encounter of primal energies. It emphasizes that seeing-through your personal situation as the connection of objective forces is the adequate way to handle it...”
Line 2
Legge: The second line, dynamic, shows its subject with a wallet of fish. There will be no error. But it will not be good to let the subject of the first line go forward to the guests.
Wilhelm/Baynes: There is a fish in the tank. No blame. Does not further guests.
Blofeld: There is a fish in the bag -- no error! But it is of no advantage to the guests.
Liu: There is a fish in the kitchen. No blame, but there is no benefit to the guest.
Ritsema/Karcher:Enwrapping possessing fish. Without fault. Not Harvesting: guesting.
Shaughnessy: The wrapper has fish; there is no trouble; not beneficial to have audience.
Cleary (1): When the fish is in the bag, there’s no fault. It is not advantageous to the visitor.
Cleary (2): There is a fish in the bag, etc.
Wu: There is a fish in the wrapping. This is blameless, but disadvantageous to friends.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: It is right for him not to allow the first line to get to the guests. Wilhelm/Baynes: It is a duty not to let it reach the guests. Blofeld: This implies that we are not dutiful to our guests. Ritsema/Karcher: Righteously not extending-to guesting indeed. Cleary (2): Duty does not extend to visitors. Wu: There is no reason to share it with friends.
Legge: The wallet of fish symbolizes line one, which has come into the possession of line two. With his strength he must repress her advance, and he therefore assumes the rulership of the hexagram. All of the other dynamic lines are merely guests. He is the first line of defense, and it is important that he should prevent line one from contaminating them. The commentaries say that the lesson of line two is that he should make the repression of the first line his exclusive work, and not allow it to pass on to any of the other lines.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The inferior element is contained not by force but by gentle means. No error will issue from such a course. However, contact of the inferior with those farther away must be prevented. Otherwise, the evil will spread.
Wing: Keep the lid on the situation. Gently control the weak spots and do not allow them to show. If they become obvious to others, things may get out of hand.
Editor: Fish are aquatic animals. If water symbolizes the realm of the emotions and the unconscious psyche in general, then any denizen of this world represents an autonomous psychic force dwelling below the level of consciousness. A contemporary alternative for "wallet of fish" might be: "can of worms." Line two has to deal with the can of worms, chaotic mess, or sticky problem of line one. The situation is favorable because the fish are contained in a wallet, tank or wrapper -- not swimming free. Line two is a threshold guardian who must protect the forces above him from contamination by lower elements. (Compare the VII of Wands in the Tarot deck.) In some situations, the line can suggest comprehension of something (a theory, perhaps) that has some substance to it, but is not accurate enough to be acted upon in its present state.
Without taboos there is no means for training the will or achieving discipline. The child's experience of being surrounded by taboos cannot be set down to an arbitrary high-handedness of parents or culture but is an indispensable necessity arising from a need of the psyche to develop adequate ego functioning. E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
A. Protect the Work from contamination by inferior elements.
B. "Hold that line! Block that kick!"
Line 3
Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows one from whose buttocks the skin has been stripped so that he walks with difficulty. The position is perilous, but there will be no great error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: There is no skin on his thighs, and walking comes hard. If one is mindful of the danger, no great mistake is made.
Blofeld: His haunches have been flayed and he walks totteringly -- trouble, but no great error!
Liu: He loses skin on his thighs and walks with difficulty. Danger. No great mistake.
Ritsema/Karcher: The sacrum without flesh. One moves the resting-place moreover. Adversity. Without the great: fault.
Shaughnessy: The buttocks has (Sic) no skin; his movements are hither and thither; danger; there is no great trouble.
Cleary (1): No flesh on the buttocks, having trouble walking. If one is diligent in danger, there’s no great fault.
Cleary (2): With no flesh on the buttocks, the walk is halting. There is danger, but no great fault.
Wu: His buttocks have no skin. He hobbles along. He is in a precarious situation, but makes no big error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He walks with difficulty, but his steps have not yet been drawn into the course of the first line. Wilhelm/Baynes: He still walks without being led. Blofeld: Being able to walk without being dragged. [Despite rather severe trouble, for which we are not much to blame, we shall manage to get along somehow.] Ritsema/Karcher: Moving, not-yet hauling-along indeed. Cleary (2): The walk is halting because it is unconnected. Wu: He does not lead the sheep away.
Legge: Compare this line with line four of the preceding hexagram. Line three is dynamic, but has gone beyond the central place and has no correlate above. He is cut off from the first line by the intervening second line, and therefore cannot do much against her. But since his aim is to repress her, there will be no great error.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Liu: The man is tempted to join with the inferior element. Circumstances prevent this, leaving him with a painful decision. The position is perilous, but a clear insight will prevent great errors.
Wing: Although you are tempted to fall into an inferior situation, you are held back in spite of yourself. You must now resolve this indecisive conflict. Give it a great deal of thought, gain some insight, and you can avoid mistakes.
Editor: Line four of hexagram number forty-three also describes "One from whom whose buttocks the skin has been stripped.” Since hexagram forty-four and hexagram forty-three are upside down images of each other, it is interesting to note that lines three and four swap places with very similar images. Note the difference between them however -- in the present instance no blame is attached to the position. It is a good rendering of the stresses of temptation, of the discipline required to resist any compulsion. Sometimes the line suggests that you may only be able to affect the situation in a limited way. At its most neutral, it's an image of walking a tough path.
But it is to be known that no one is regenerated without temptation; and that many temptations succeed, one after another. The reason is that regeneration is effected for an end; in order that the life of the old man may die, and the new life which is heavenly be insinuated. It is evident therefore that there must certainly be a conflict; for the life of the old man resists and determines not to be extinguished; and the life of the new man can only enter where the life of the old is extinct. Swedenborg -- Arcana Coelestia
A. A difficult position. Cope with care and sensitivity. Don't surrender to circumstances.
B. You have not yet yielded to temptation and can still escape its consequences.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows its subject receiving others on his horns. There will be occasion for regret, but there will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: He comes to meet with his horns. Humiliation. No blame.
Blofeld: It rubs against things with its horns -- regret, but no error! [We shall regret our inability to progress, even though we are not at fault.]
Liu: Encountering on the horns. Humiliation, but no mistake.
Shaughnessy: Meeting its horns; distress; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Meeting the horn is humiliating. No blame.
Wu: He tries to meet the yin with his horns and is embarrassed. No error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He is exhausted at his greatest height, and there will be cause for regret. Wilhelm/Baynes: At the top it comes to an end, hence humiliation. Blofeld: Regret owing to the complete exhaustion of our powers. Ritsema/Karcher: Exhausting abashment above indeed. Cleary (2): The humiliation of coming to an impasse above. Wu: This is a desperate move from the highest position.
Legge: The K'ang-hsi editors say: "The subject of this line is like an officer who has withdrawn from the world. He can accomplish no service for the time, but his person is removed from the workers of disorder. He does nothing to repress their advance, but keeps himself from evil communication with them."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: After his retirement from the everyday world, the man rebuffs the low and the inferior who come to him. He is blamed and reproached for his noble pride. Since he is no longer active in the world, he is able to bear criticisms with composure and continues to speak forthrightly without error.
Wing: Even if you withdraw from an inferior element and reject it openly, it will still be there. You will be thought proud and aloof. It would be more practical and less humiliating to retreat quietly. Nevertheless, you are not to blame for your actions.
Editor: Line six meets line one on its horns -- not as a direct attack as much as a petulant warning. (One is reminded of how an adult animal might nip or butt an importunate youngster in irritation, but with no real intent to inflict harm.) It's an image of a harsh rebuff which, though impolite, is not necessarily unjustified. Note that although Confucius emphasizes that there will be cause for regret, the original line ends with "no blame." Since the Self seldom shows much consideration for the ego's feelings, we must assume that there are situations when the ego may do likewise with others. At its most neutral, we have an image of exhausted irritability: unpleasant perhaps, but understandable.
I am a rough man, born in a rough country; I have been brought up in pine-woods, and I may have inherited some knots. That which seems to me polite and amiable may appear unpolished to another, and what seems silk in my eyes may be but homespun to you. Paracelsus
A. Fatigue and petulance prevent resolution of the matter at hand. Withdraw from contention for now. Perhaps you are trying too hard to force (or grasp) the issue.
B. An inferior force repulsed.
C. Could be an "attitude problem." You're tired, cross, impatient, (maybe scared), and being excessively defensive about your position.
D. There's no law that requires you to suffer fools gladly.
E. A plausible (albeit regrettable) response to being “rubbed the wrong way.”
Other titles: Gathering Together, Massing, The Symbol of Gathering into One, Assembling, Congregation, Gathering, Unity, Accord, Making Whole, Focusing, Marshalling One's Forces, Clustering, Finished
Judgment
Legge: When forces are gathering, the King goes to his ancestral temple. For successful progress, maintain firm correctness and see the great man. A large sacrifice brings good fortune -- proceed toward your destination.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Gathering Together . Success. The king approaches his temple. It furthers one to see the great man. This brings success. Perseverance furthers. To bring great offerings creates good fortune. It furthers one to undertake something.
Blofeld: Gathering Together -- success! The King approaches the temple. It is advisable to see a great man, which will ensure success. Persistence in a righteous course brings reward. Great sacrifices are offered -- good fortune! [These were religious sacrifices, but they may be taken to mean that the time has come for us to make important sacrifices of another sort.] It is favorable to have in view a goal (or destination).
Liu:Gathering. Success. The king attends the temple. It is of benefit to see the great man; this leads to success. Continuance benefits. Offering a great sacrifice leads to good fortune. It benefits one to go somewhere.
Ritsema/Karcher:Clustering, Growing. The king imagines possessing a temple. Harvesting: visualizing Great People. Growing. Harvesting Trial. Availing-of the great: sacrificial-victims significant. Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of collecting and assembling. It emphasizes that bringing people and things together through a common feeling or goal is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Finished: The king enters into the temple; beneficial to see the great man; receipt; beneficial to determine. Using the great animal offering is auspicious; beneficial to have someplace to go.
Cleary (1): Gathering is developmental. The king comes to have a shrine. It is beneficial to see a great person; this is developmental. It is beneficial to be correct. It is good to make a great sacrifice. It is beneficial to go somewhere.
Cleary (2):Gathering is successful. The king goes to his shrine. It is beneficial to see a great person; this leads to success, etc.
Wu: Congregation indicates that the king comes to his ancestral temple. It will be advantageous to see the great man. There will be pervasion, if persevering. It will be auspicious to use big sacrificial animals in the offerings. It will be good to have undertakings.
The Image
Legge: A marsh above the earth -- the image of Contraction. The superior man, in accordance with this, assembles his weapons in readiness for unseen contingencies.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Over the earth, the lake: the image of Gathering Together. Thus the superior man renews his weapons in order to meet the unforeseen.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a marshy lake rising above the earth. The Superior Man gathers together his weapons in order to provide against the unforeseen. [This is a time when foresight is required of us, too.]
Liu: The lake on the earth symbolizes Gathering. The superior man keeps his weapons prepared to meet the unexpected.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh with-respect-to earth. Clustering. A chun tzu uses eliminating arms to implement. A chun tzu uses warning, not precautions.
Cleary (1): Moisture rises onto the earth, gathering. Thus do superior people prepare weapons to guard against the unexpected. [When practitioners of the Tao get to where the five elements are assembled and have been returned to the source, when everything acquired is obedient to their will, if they do not know how to prevent danger and take perils into consideration, eventually what has been gathered will again disperse, and they will not be able to avoid the trouble of losing what has been gained… “Weapons” means the tools of wisdom, the work of silent operation of spiritual awareness. When the primordial has been congealed, it is not subject to injury by acquired conditioning, but it is still necessary to dissolve the influence of personal history before nature and life can be stabilized. If there is any remaining contamination, eventually conditioning will reassert itself and the primordial will again become fragmented. Therefore the work of guarding is indispensable.]
Wu: The marsh is above the earth; this is Congregation . Thus the jun zi causes the nation to be armed in preparation for contingencies.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Contraction shows massing for union through Cheerfulness and Obedience. The dynamic line is responded to in his ruling central place, hence the idea of union. With the utmost piety the king presents his offerings to the spirits in his ancestral temple. Union with the great man is effected through correctness. The law of heaven demands a sacrifice. Contemplation of the way forces are gathered shows us the way of heaven, earth and all of nature.
Legge:Contractionmeans collecting together, or things so collected. The hexagram deals with the union between the ruler and his ministers -- between high and low in the kingdom. This state is to be preserved through the influence of religion and the great man, who is a kind of philosopher king who meets the spirits of his ancestors in the temple. Whatever he does will succeed because he is correct and right, and his great sacrifices are in harmony with the times.
The two trigrams represent Docility and Cheerfulness. The dynamic fifth line has his proper magnetic correlate in line two -- which gives the idea of union. Ch'eng-tzu says that the ordinances of heaven are simply the natural and practical outcome of heavenly principle.
A marsh above the earth must be kept in by dykes -- so the Contraction must be preserved by precautionary measures, the chief of which is to be prepared to resist attack from without, and to quell internal rebellion.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Forces are assembling for integration -- focus inward, sacrifice your autonomy and allow the Self to guide the Work.
The Superior Man pulls himself together to face the unknown and preserve the Work. “Forewarned is forearmed.”
Psychologically, Contraction depicts a time when inner components of the psyche assemble for recombination into a new pattern. It is significant that this is the time when “the king goes to his ancestral temple.” That is, the governing intelligence turns toward the template or ideal image of the Work as it exists in its consummate state. (See commentary on hexagram number fifty-nine, Expansion, for further discussion of the symbolism of the ancestral temple.) If the gathering forces integrate in conformity with this archetype, the Work is thereby advanced.
He, therefore, who perceives himself to associate with God, will have himself the similitude of Him. And if he passes from himself as an image to the archetype, he will then have the end of his progression. Plotinus
In addition to being a gestalt of future perfection, the temple is the home of the ancestors: a karmic repository of all that has gone into the Work via the will and intent of former historical ego-personalities. This archetype of "the ancestors" is described by the Lakota shaman, Black Elk, in his Great Vision. Note that the "grandfathers and grandmothers" are present when the people are "walking in a sacred manner" -- i.e., conforming to the ideal archetypal pattern of the Work:
But I was not the last; for when I looked behind me there were ghosts of people like a trailing fog as far as I could see -- grandfathers of grandfathers and grandmothers of grandmothers without number. And over these a great Voice -- the Voice that was the South -- lived, and I could feel it silent. And as we went the Voice behind me said: "Behold a good nation walking in a sacred manner in a good land!"
The Ancestral Temple then, symbolizes the Work in progress as it exists outside of temporal awareness. At death the karmic complexes of the psyche, released from their spacetime ego-body, assume new configurations in hyperspace in accordance with the accomplishments of the just completed lifetime. Ideally, the ancestors and their heirs (choices and their consequences) within the Ancestral Temple undergo purification: this is what Individuation (the Work) is all about.
At the end of the dying process consciousness divides into the consciousness of one's parents and one’s children, and then it moves through these modalities, and then divides again. It's moving forward into the future through the people who come after you, and backward into the past through your ancestors. Terence McKenna --The Archaic Revival
In the multidimensional realms "beyond" our material world, time does not exist. In some way unimaginable to us, past, present and future are consolidated into an eternal Here and Now. Thus our choices in spacetime can have consequences in hyperspace which are inconceivable to us in the current situation. So if the Self (as manifested in the oracle) often seems to be tyrannically unreasonable, it is arguably because of the ego's dimensional myopia.
The Spirit ... may know the most violent love and hatred possible, for it can see the remote consequences of the most trivial acts of the living, provided those consequences are part of its future life. In trying to prevent them it may become one of those frustrators dreaded by certain spirit mediums. It cannot, however, without ... assistance ... affect life in any way except to delay its own rebirth. With that assistance it can so shape circumstances as to make possible the rebirth of a unique nature. W. B. Yeats --A Vision
Such conceptions of cause and effect seem irrational to ordinary awareness, yet quantum physicists hypothesize future events which affect the present as well as the past. The idea is not a new one:
Indeed, the hero of Hebrew myth is not only profoundly influenced by the deeds, words and thoughts of his forebears, and aware of his own profound influence on the fate of his descendants; he is equally influenced by the behavior of his descendants and influences that of his ancestors. Thus King Jeroboam set up a golden calf in Dan, and this sinful act sapped the strength of Abraham when he pursued his enemies into the same district a thousand years previously. Graves and Patai --Hebrew Myths
Should the ego's choices and their consequences not conform to the Self's intent, a rather cancerous growth is implied in which dynamic and magnetic forces are improperly consolidated -- in I Chingterms, dynamic and magnetic are mismatched. Through this "infidelity" of correlates the Work is thus adulterated and falls short of the archetypal ideal.
That the greatest effects come from the smallest causes has become patently clear not only in physics but in the field of psychological research as well. How often in the critical moments of life everything hangs on what appears to be a mere nothing! Jung -- The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales
Contraction is a compression inward toward a center. Psychologically, this can be regarded as an integration of complexes. Once the implosion completes itself, it is implied that the growth cycle reverses itself to expand away from the center. (Cf., hexagram number fifty-nine, Expansion, in which the ancestral temple is also mentioned.) The following hexagram, Pushing Upward,is the inverse of this one, and depicts a similar upward expansion of energy.
The archetypal themes displayed here are those of Solve et coagula, Implosion-Explosion, Contraction-Expansion, Black Hole-White Hole, Day and Night of Brahma, etc.