Unite with purpose, pivot towards renewal, and find strength in new beginnings.
From
45
Gathering Together
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24
Return
One suppresses any harmful thoughts to focus on the points that can be improved. taoscopy.com
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.
↓ Line 1
Initial sincerity is important, but it must be maintained. Inconsistency leads to confusion. However, reaching out can restore harmony and resolve issues.
↓ Line 4
This line indicates a time of great success and prosperity, free from any fault or blame.
↓ Line 5
Holding a position of influence requires responsibility. Perseverance and sincerity are needed to bring others into alignment and remove any regrets.
↓ Return24
Pause, reflect, and start anew. Embrace change and renewal.
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.
Line 1
Legge: The first line, magnetic, shows its subject with a sincere desire for union, but unable to carry it out, so that disorder is created. If she cries out for help to her proper correlate, all at once her tears will give place to smiles. She need not mind the temporary difficulty; as she goes forward, there will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: If you are sincere, but not to the end, there will sometimes be confusion, sometimes gathering together. If you call out, then after one grasp of the hand you can laugh again. Regret not. Going is without blame.
Blofeld: When sincerity (or confidence) does not remain until the last, dispersal and assembling will alternate. There was a cry, but one reassuring clasp of the hand made him ready to laugh [Perhaps we shall experience an unnecessary fright] -- no cause for anxiety. Advancing now will entail no error.
Liu: In the beginning sincerity, later change. Disorder and gathering alternate. If you cry out, after grasping someone's hands you will smile again. No fear. Go with no blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Possessing conformity, not completing. Thereupon disarraying, thereupon Clustering. Like an outcry, the-one handful activates laughing. No cares. Going without fault.
Shaughnessy: There is a return that does not end, but then is disordered and then
finished. It is as if he cries out, one room in laughter; do not pity them; in going there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Having sincerity that is not conclusive, there is disorder and mobbing. If you cry, in a moment it’ll turn to laughter; don’t grieve. To go is blameless. [ This is gathering in the sense of reforming error and returning to correctness.]
Cleary (2): There is trust, but it does not last to the end. There is disorder and mobbing. If you cry, laughter is mixed in. Do not worry; it is blameless to go.
Wu: He has confidence, but does not keep it long. He is perplexed about the congregation. If he calls for help, he will soon find himself holding hands with his friend and smiling. He should not be worried. Going ahead will be blameless.
Hua Ching-Ni: Even if one has unquestionable sincerity, the correct purpose of the gathering may not be clearly understood. Confusion may arise. Clarity and order are brought about by patience, firmness and the demonstrated sincerity of the group. Then the gathering becomes a happy one. There is nothing wrong. Proceed.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Her mind and aim are thrown into confusion. Wilhelm/ Baynes: The will is in confusion. Blofeld: Alternating dispersal and assembly betoken indecision. Ritsema/Karcher: One's purpose disarrayed indeed. Cleary (2): Confusion of mind. Wu: Because he wavers.
Legge: Line one is magnetic in a dynamic place. Her proper correlate is line four, but they are separated by the intervention of two magnetic lines. The consequence is shown in the first part of the symbolism. But she is possessed with the desire for union, which is the theme of the hexagram, and by calling out to her correlate she obtains help. Sorrow is thereby turned to joy.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man desires union. But confusion and indecision exist because he is separated from his associates. He calls for help, which is provided, thereby transforming distress into joy.
Wing: Your hesitation to fully unite with others and make a commitment to shared goals creates indecision in your life. Only by penetrating to the center will you resolve this problem. Locate the leader or central compelling force. If you ask for help now you will receive it.
Editor: The image here is one of indecisive confusion which can only be resolved by making a proper connection. This line often refers to your lack of confidence in making proper choices related to the Work -- sometimes a crisis of faith in the Work itself is implied.
To be born as a human being is a privilege, according to the Buddha's teaching, because it offers the rare opportunity of liberation through one's own decisive effort, through a "turning-about in the deepest seat of consciousness..." W.Y. Evans-Wentz --The Tibetan Book of the Dead
A. Good intentions can't replace effort -- your heart is in the right place, but you need to make some necessary connections to achieve your goal. Pull yourself together.
B. Confusion demands the re-establishment of equilibrium; making a connection leads to accord. Seek appropriate assistance.
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, dynamic, shows its subject in such a state that, if he is greatly fortunate, he will receive no blame.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Great good fortune. No blame. [This describes a man who gathers people around him in the name of his ruler. Since he is not striving for any special advantages for himself but is working unselfishly to bring about general unity, his work is crowned with success, and everything becomes as it should be.]
Blofeld: Great good fortune and no error!
Liu: Great good fortune. No blame. (But the position is not correct.) [Incorrect behavior breeds trouble.]
Ritsema/Karcher: The great significant, without fault.
Shaughnessy: Great auspiciousness; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Great fortune, no fault.
Cleary (2): If there is great good fortune, then there is no blame.
Wu: Great auspiciousness. No error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: His position is not the proper one to him. Wilhelm/Baynes: For the place demands nothing. [Footnote by C.F. Baynes: "The Chinese text reads literally, ‘The place is not correct.’ Wilhelm's translation follows suggestions of the Chinese commentators."]Blofeld: Because the line, though a firm one, is not in the ruling position. Ritsema/Karcher: Situation not appropriate indeed. Cleary (2): There is no blame only if there is great good fortune, because one is out of place. Wu: He is out of place.
Legge: Line four has his correlate in line one, and he is next to the ruler in line five. We may expect a good auspice for him. Because he is dynamic in a magnetic place caution is intimated.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man rallies the people to the country's service. This brings good fortune to himself, though he does not actively seek it.
Wing: In this position you gather with others to serve a larger goal. Such sacrifice will meet with personal success.
Anthony: Sometimes in striving for unity, we find it necessary to go alone, with our acts being misunderstood. However, because we work unselfishly to bring about general unity, our work is ultimately successful.
Editor: Note that this line (minus the Confucian commentary) is unambiguously favorable. Line four and the ruler above him are the only yang lines in the hexagram, and since the idea of the figure is the focusing of disparate forces for union, we can think of these parallel lines as the hexagram's "lenses," or focal points. Although dynamic in a magnetic place, if line four abides correctly all will be fortunate. This suggests a kind of passive virtue which attracts devotion, inspires emulation or draws higher energy into the situation without acting itself. A proper ego/Self relationship may be inferred from this. Liu, who usually does not translate the Confucian commentary, here includes it in parenthesis. In contrast to the other translators, his personal commentary is negative. Cleary’s Confucian commentary rationalizes the seeming anomaly.
I have come to know myself, and I have collected myself from everywhere, and I have not sown children to the Archon but have uprooted his roots and have collected the dispersed members, and I know thee who thou art: for I am of those from above. Epiphanius -- Panarion Haeresium 26. 13
A. You're sitting pretty: don't push your luck.
B. “Handsome is as handsome does."
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows the union of all under its subject in the place of dignity. There will be no error. If any have no confidence in him, let him see to it that his virtue is great, long-continued, and firmly correct, and all occasion for repentance will disappear.
Wilhelm/Baynes: If in gathering together one has position, this brings no blame. If there are some who are not yet sincerely in the work, sublime and enduring perseverance is needed. Then remorse disappears.
Blofeld: On account of his high position, he gathers people together -- no error! Yet he cannot secure the confidence of the people; therefore he should exalt his virtue and prolong his persistence so that he need no longer feel regret. [All this is said of a minister; applied to ourselves, it suggests that we need people's confidence now and should strive hard to deserve it.]
Liu: If one has position, people will gather. No blame. If he does not have the trust of all, he should perpetuate his magnanimity. Remorse will vanish.
Ritsema/Karcher: Clustering: possessing the situation. Without fault: in-no-way conforming. Spring, perpetual Trial. Repenting extinguished.
Shaughnessy: In finishing there is position; there is no trouble. It is not a return; prime permanent determination; regret is gone.
Cleary (1): Gathering, there is a state without fault. Not taking oneself seriously, if one is basically always correct, regret will disappear. [If one knows how to fill the belly and also empty the mind, practices non-doing and incubates the spiritual embryo, ever correct and undivided, using the natural true fire to melt away the residual mundanity of acquired conditioning, such a one is called a true human without taint – how could regret not vanish? This is gathering in the sense of incubating the spiritual embryo.]
Cleary (2): Gathering around the position, there is no blame. If those who are not loyal remain ever-faithful to their original commitment, regret vanishes. [If one just relies on one’s position and expects others to gather around, one’s aspiration is not yet glorious.]
Wu: He is in place in Congregation and in no error. But lacking the full confidence of his people, he should forever remain persevering to dispel regret. [ We may consider this [line] as an amendment to the judgment of the hexagram. An important ingredient of the congregation is moral authority. In its absence or lacking of it, the grandiose show is merely a fanfare. It makes no lasting impression on the people.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Although there is union in the place of dignity, his mind and aim have not yet been brilliantly displayed. Wilhelm/Baynes: If in gathering together one has only position, the will does not yet shine forth sufficiently. Blofeld: It is only on account of his high position that he is able to assemble the people; his will is not strong enough to achieve remarkable results from this. Ritsema/Karcher: Purpose not-yet shining indeed. Cleary (2): One’s aspiration is not yet glorious. Wu: His aspirations are not enlightening.
Legge: Line five is dynamic, central, and in his correct position. Through him there may be expected the full realization of the idea of the hexagram, though the fact that "his mind and aim have not yet been brilliantly displayed" indicates that some may even still not have confidence in him.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Although the people unite under the man's leadership, certain difficulties remain. His aims have not been clearly explained, and his thinking is beyond the comprehension of all. Some followers stay with him because of his influential position. If he remains steadfast in his virtues so far as practically possible, he will eventually dissipate these uncertainties.
Wing: The person in this position has a great deal of power and influence within the group. Many attach themselves to him because of this. He must further prove his virtues and qualities of leadership in order to gain the true confidence of the group. In doing so he can accomplish his aims.
Editor: Psychologically interpreted, the image depicts forces (unconscious complexes) assembling for integration. Conditions are less than optimum for complete transformation however, and a concentration of will and intent is required. The outcome may be dubious: if this is the only changing line, the new hexagram created is Enthusiasm, with a corresponding line portraying a chronic ailment. The ego’s concentration on the task at hand is not as strong as it could be. Sometimes (rarely perhaps) the line can depict a coerced concentration of energy needful to complete a specific task. It goes without saying that compulsory integrations seldom endure, yet when mandated by the Self, such expedience may be necessary. In its most negative sense, this can portray a "hostile takeover."
Separation into apparently dissimilar things, such as heaven, the elements, man, etc., was necessary only for the work of generation. Everything separated must be united again in the production of the [philosopher's] stone, so that the original state of unity shall be restored. But, says Dorn [an alchemist], "Thou wilt never make from others the One which thou seekest, except first there be made one thing of thyself." Jung -- Aion
A. You have gathered your forces, yet haven't gained full mastery over them. Unswerving devotion to the Work and refusal to yield to temptation should eventually bring success.
B. You can force the issue, but don't expect it to last for long. (Nevertheless, this may be necessary in the present circumstances.)
Other titles: The Turning Point, The Symbol of Returning, Revival, Recovery, To Repeat, Renewal, Restore, Return to the Way, Cyclic Repetition, "Return to virtue or happier conditions." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Progress and freedom of action are found in Return. Goings and comings are unimpeded, and friends approach without error. Return to repeat the proper course. Seven days returns the cycle to its beginning. There is advantage in choosing one's path.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Return. Success. Going out and coming in without error. Friends come without blame. To and fro goes the way. On the seventh day comes return. It furthers one to have somewhere to go.
Blofeld: Return. Success! All going forth and coming in is free from harm. [For it is only when the whole series is completed that we can understand the reasons for many things (death, winter and so on) which, at the time, seemed unproductive, negative or positively evil.] Friends arrive and no error is involved. They return whence they came, spending seven days in all upon their coming and returning. It is favorable to have in view some goal (or destination).
Liu:Return:success. One goes out and comes back in without harm. Friends arrive without blame. Going to and fro is the way. Returning on the seventh day. It benefits one to go anywhere. [Return or Revival signifies a bad time becoming better... Anyone receiving this hexagram should prepare for a great opportunity...]
Ritsema/Karcher:Returning, Growing. Issuing-forth, entering, without affliction. Partnering coming, without fault. Reversing Returning one's tao. The seventh day coming: Returning. Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of something that is re-emerging. It emphasizes that going back to the starting point in order to begin anew is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the times you are told to return!]
Shaughnessy:Returning: Receipt; in exiting and entering there is no illness; when the burying comes there is no trouble; turning around and returning to its way, in seven days it comes in return; beneficial to have someplace to go.
Cleary (1): Return is developmental. Exiting and entering, there is no ill. When a companion comes, there is no fault. Reversing the path, returning in seven days, it is beneficial to have a place to go.
Cleary (2):Return is successful, etc. … Returning back on the path, etc.
Wu:Renewal is pervasive. He who comes and goes will have no error. Friends come without harm. The course repeats itself. In seven days, one cycle of reversion completes. There will be advantage to have an undertaking.
The Image
Legge: Thunder in the middle of the earth -- the image of Return. Thus the ancient kings closed the passes on the day of the winter solstice to prevent travelers from pursuing their journeys, and princes from inspecting their states.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder within the earth: the image of The Turning Point. Thus the kings of antiquity closed the passes at the time of the solstice. Merchants and strangers did not go about, and the ruler did not travel through the provinces.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder in the bowels of the earth. [The component trigrams in this position suggest thunder coming from under the earth; but the trigram of thunder also means to sprout or quicken; it is this concept of a quickening within the earth that makes this hexagram generally favorable.] The ancient rulers closed the passes during the solstices [The solstices were times for solemn sacrifice; it has always been the practice in China for people to return to their homes for the celebration of the great yearly festivals. Return in this sense is highly auspicious.] and the merchants were unable to travel. Even the rulers abstained from touring their territories at those times.
Liu: Thunder in the earth symbolizes Return. Thus in ancient times the kings closed the roads during the winter solstice. Merchants and travelers ceased traveling. And rulers would not visit their territories.
Ritsema/Karcher: Thunder located-in earth center. Returning. The Earlier Kings used culminating sun to bar the passages. Bargaining sojourners [used culminating sun] not to move. The crown-prince [used culminating sun] not to inspect on-all- sides.
Cleary (1): Thunder is in the earth; Return. Thus did the kings of yore shut the gates on the winter solstice; caravans did not travel, the ruler did not inspect the regions.
Wu: Thunder is inside the earth; this is Renewal. Thus on the day of the winter solstice, the ancient kings ordered the city gates closed, so that merchants and travelers could take a break of their journeys; the kings refrained from performing official duties.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Return shows the coming back of the dynamic principle. His actions show movement directed in accordance with the natural order. Such is the movement of the heavenly cycle. The dynamic lines are growing and increasing. Do we not see inReturn the mind of heaven and earth?
Legge: Return symbolizes the idea of coming back or over again. The previous hexagram showed the ascendancy of inferior forces, when all that is good in nature or society yields before what is bad. But change is eternal, and here we see the beginnings of recovery from the former situation. Return is associated with the time of the winter solstice when the sun begins its journey back toward summer. In harmony with these cycles in nature are the cycles in human affairs.
The dynamic bottom line is the first line of the trigram of Movement, and the upper trigram is that of Docility. The dynamic returning line will meet with no resistance and all the magnetic lines above it will be transformed into allies. The bright quality will be developed brighter and brighter from day to day and month to month.
"In seven days brings return" refers to the idea of a new cycle commencing when each of the six lines of a hexagram has changed -- the "seventh line," or seventh day begins a new cycle just as Sunday begins a new week.
Thunder in the midst of the earth is thunder shut up and silent, just able to make its presence felt. So it is with the first stirrings of life after the winter solstice and the first returning steps of the wanderer to virtue. As the spring of life has to be nurtured in quietness, so also the purpose of goodness.
Wilhelm: The hexagram of RETURN, applied to character formation, contains various suggestions. The light principle returns; thus the hexagram counsels turning away from the confusion of external things, turning back to one’s inner light. There, in the depths of the soul, one sees the Divine, the One. It is indeed only germinal, no more than a beginning, a potentiality, but as such clearly to be distinguished from all objects. To know this One means to know oneself in relation to the cosmic forces. For this One is the ascending force of life in nature and in man.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: The Work is recycled, perfected and refined over and over again.
The Superior Man pauses before he begins anew.
The mention of seven days in the Judgment and the winter solstice in the Image tells us that the hexagram of Return deals with cyclic progression.
In the I Ching, the hexagram fu, signifying the Return (one yang line beneath five yin lines) is the symbol of the rebirth of the Yang. At the winter solstice, the Yang seems to have disappeared, whereas the Yin is at its full; but this is the moment when the Yang is reborn and begins its return. Symmetrically, at the summer solstice the Yang is at the apogee of its power while the Yin prepares to return. The alteration of the Yin and the Yang is a going away and a coming back. Max Kaltenmark -- Lao Tzu and Taoism
Seven days is one-quarter of a lunar cycle and the module upon which a week is based. The Sabbath day is the seventh day and a day of rest in the Hebrew tradition, as was also the day of the new moon. The "closing of the passes" in the Image is another expression of the idea of resting at the beginning of a new cycle. To refrain from activity at these times was a sacrifice and a spiritual obligation. The concept behind it is the acknowledgment of one's Source, a review of the past cycle and a meditation upon the new cycle just beginning. Psychologically interpreted, forces in the unconscious psyche demand a pause before their dance can resume.
A special atmosphere of solemn celebration surrounded the Sabbath, which was thoroughly pervaded with Kabbalistic ideas about man's role in the unification of the upper worlds. Gershom Scholem -- Kabbalah
Although the Chinese observed no “Sabbath” that I am aware of, the idea of a rest at the commencement of a cycle is clearly intended in this hexagram. In terms of the Work, one eventually becomes aware of cycles and rest periods, even if one never noticed them previously. When one learns how to synchronize conscious awareness with these inner rhythms, the tempo of the Work begins to accelerate.
"There is advantage in choosing one's path" is rendered by Wilhelm as: "It furthers one to have somewhere to go." The idea is that when you are consciously on a path, the cycles begin to work in your favor. Instead of a monotonous round of inconclusive and random events, one's life takes on structure and purpose and inner progress becomes discernable.
Conforming to the rhythm of the universe is the prerequisite of wisdom in all Chinese thinking. But the Taoist mystic has greater ambitions than his ordinary compatriots: the question for him is not merely of adapting his ritual and hygienic observances to the alternation of the seasons; he intends to escape from the determinism of life and death by transcending it. This is what enables him to attain inner emptiness: he does not merely witness the return of all creatures to their origin, he precedes them to that origin. Max Kaltenmark -- Lao Tzu and Taoism
Every line of this hexagram refers to returning to the proper path, so the hexagram can imply that perhaps you have strayed from the Work to one degree or another. Without changing lines, it can mean to rest at the beginning of a cycle, or to get back on course: re-attune yourself with the current phase of the Work.
You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished. Black Elk