Coming together in unity and perseverance guides you toward gradual and meaningful progress.
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Gathering Together
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Development
One is talking nonsense because one has not bothered to study one's case. 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 3
There is a sense of dissatisfaction or longing. While progress is possible, it may come with minor setbacks or embarrassment.
↓ Line 4
This line indicates a time of great success and prosperity, free from any fault or blame.
↓ Line 6
There may be sorrow or emotional release, but it is a natural process and carries no fault.
↓ Development53
Steady progress through gradual development.
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 3
Legge: The third line, magnetic, shows it subject striving after union and seeming to sigh, yet nowhere finding any advantage. If she go forward, she will not err, though there may be some small cause for regret.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Gathering together amid sighs. Nothing that would further. Going is without blame. Slight humiliation.
Blofeld: A mournful gathering it would seem. There is no objective which would be favorable; yet to advance would involve no error, only slight regret. [Obviously we had better not advance now, unless our reasons for doing so are so important that we are willing to suffer a certain amount of regret.]
Liu: Gathering with deep sighs. No benefit for an undertaking. Go with no blame. Slight humiliation.
Ritsema/Karcher: Clustering thus, lamenting thus. Without direction: Harvesting.Going without fault. The small abashed. [Without direction: Harvesting, WU YU
Li: no plan or direction is advantageous; in order to take advantage of the situation, do not impose a direction on events.]
Shaughnessy: Finished-like, sighing-like; there is no place beneficial; in going there is no trouble; small distress.
Cleary (1): Gathering, lamenting; no benefit. If one goes, there is no fault, but a little shame.
Wu: He wishes to be with others, but feels sorry that he cannot be. There is no advantage on insisting on going. If he goes ahead, there will be no serious setback, but little embarrassment.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In the subject of the top line there is humility and condescension. Wilhelm/Baynes: The Gentle is above. Blofeld: Advancing entails no error for what lies beyond is gentle. Ritsema/Karcher: Ground above indeed. Cleary (2): The one above is willing. Wu: The one above is likely to grant entry.
Legge: Line three is magnetic in a dynamic place and advanced past the center. The topmost line is not a proper correlate. Line three is possessed by the desire for union, and though lines two and four decline to associate with her, she presses on to line six, which is also desirous of union. That common desire brings them together despite the fact that they are both magnetic lines. It is therefore with difficulty that three accomplishes her object.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man attempts to join with others. But the enveloping circle excludes him. He
should resolutely seek to ally himself with a man near the center of the group, who will bring him in. Some humiliation may occur at first, but this is not a mistake.
Wing: A desire for unity is thwarted. The group is closed and you will feel humiliated if you continue in your attempts to penetrate it. If it is terribly important to you, you can achieve your aim by aligning yourself with an influential member of the group.
Editor: Wilhelm's Confucian commentary portrays "The Gentle" lying above -- which implies that magnetic or receptive forces sympathize with the difficult situation here symbolized. The image suggests the frustration of being unable to make any progress in forging a connection, solving a problem, or effecting a union. It can also depict a less than ideal situation which can only be tolerated for now.
Everything good is costly, and the development of personality is one of the most costly of all things. It is a matter of saying yea to oneself, of taking oneself as the most serious of tasks, of being conscious of everything one does, and keeping it constantly before one's eyes in all its dubious aspects -- truly a task that taxes us to the utmost. Jung --The Secret of the Golden Flower
A. Work to make a connection.
B. You have missed the point, but don't feel badly about it -- keep trying.
C. “In order to take advantage of the situation, do not impose a direction on events."
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 6
Legge: The sixth line, magnetic, shows its subject sighing and weeping; but there will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Lamenting and sighing, floods of tears. No blame.
Blofeld: Sighs and lamentations, but no error. [We shall be afflicted by distress, but through no fault of our own.]
Liu: Lamentation and deep sighing, with tears from the eyes and dribbling from the nose. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Paying-tribute: sighs, tears, snot. The above not-yet quiet indeed.
Shaughnessy: Snuffling tears and snivel; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Sighing and weeping. No blame.
Wu: He is weeping and sniffling. No error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She sighs and weeps. She does not yet rest in her topmost position. Wilhelm/Baynes: He is not tranquil at the top. Blofeld: For this top line presages distress. Ritsema/Karcher: The above not-yet quiet indeed. Cleary (2): [This is because of] not being comfortable at the top. Wu: He is uneasy to be in the top position.
Legge: Line six is magnetic and at the extremity of the figure, yet still anxious for union. But she has no proper correlate, and all below are united in line five. Although she mourns her isolation, her good nature will preserve her from error and blame. Resting in the topmost position of the upper trigram of Frivolity she might be expected to abandon the cause of Contraction, but she cannot bear to do it.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man does not remain inactive in his high position but seeks alliance with another, who misjudges him. He is saddened by the rebuff. But the unity will come eventually as a result of his determination.
Wing: Any approach toward union will meet with rejection. This will bring you frustration because your intentions are misunderstood. Turn your attention inward instead, in order to penetrate the meaning of this disharmony. An inner accord with your Self will strengthen your position, and unity may become possible after all.
Editor: The image suggests the tension of an incomplete synthesis, or a failure due to lack of capacity rather than wrong intent. Ritsema/Karcher translate "snot" as: "YI: mucous from the nose; snivel, whine." The line can sometimes just mean that the Work is often unpleasant and difficult, and sorrow is a natural and not blameworthy response to it.
There is no light without shadow and no psychic wholeness without imperfection. To round itself out, life calls not for perfection but for completeness; and for this the "thorn in the flesh" is needed, the suffering of defects without which there is no progress and no ascent. Jung -- Psychology and Alchemy
A. Although the synthesis is incomplete, your goodwill preserves you through the crisis.
B. "You can't win 'em all" -- no need to whine about it.
Other titles: Development, The Symbol of Progressive Advance, Gradual Development, Infiltrating, Advancing, Growth, Developing, Gradualness, Dialectical Progression, Step by Step, "The slower the stronger." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Gradual Progressshows the good fortune attending the marriage of a young lady. Firm correctness brings advantage.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Development. The maiden is given in marriage. Good fortune. Perseverance furthers.
Blofeld: Gradual Progress. The marriage of a maiden brings good fortune. Persistence in a righteous course brings reward.
Liu: Gradual Development. The marriage of a girl -- Good Fortune. It benefits to continue.
Ritsema/Karcher:Infiltrating, womanhood converting significant. Harvesting Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of gradually achieving a goal. It emphasizes that advancing through diffuse but steady penetration is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: infiltrate!]
Shaughnessy:Advancing: For the maiden to return is auspicious; beneficial to determine.
Cleary (2):Gradual Progress in a woman’s marriage is auspicious. It is beneficial to be chaste.
Wu: Gradualness indicates that it is auspicious for a woman to get married and it is advantageous for her to be persevering.
The Image
Legge: A tree on the mountain -- the image of Gradual Progress. The superior man attains and nourishes his extraordinary virtue to improve the manners of the people.
Wilhelm/Baynes: On the mountain, a tree: the image of Development. Thus the superior man abides in dignity and virtue, in order to improve the mores.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a tree upon a mountain. The Superior Man, abiding in holiness and virtue, inclines the people towards goodness.
Liu: A tree on the mountain symbolizes Gradual Development. The superior man, in maintaining his virtue, improves society's customs.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above mountain possessing wood. Infiltrating. A chun tzu uses residing-in eminent actualizing-tao to improve the vulgar. [Actualize-tao: Ability to follow the course traced by the ongoing process of the cosmos ... Linked with acquire, TE: acquiring that which makes a being become what it is meant to be.]
Cleary (1): There are trees on the mountain, growing gradually. Thus do superior people abide in sagacity and improve customs.
Cleary (2): …Developed people improve customs by living wisely and virtuously.
Wu: There are trees on the mountain; this is Gradualness. The jun zi chooses to live in the neighborhood known for its high moral standards and exemplary custom.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The ascent of Gradual Progress resembles the fortunate marriage of a young lady. The lines ascend to their proper places, indicating achievement. Because the ascent is made correctly the subject of the hexagram is empowered to rectify his country. He is shown as the dynamic ruler in line five, central and correct. The alternation of Keeping Still and Flexible Penetration ensure that the advance is continuous.
Legge: The written character for Gradual Progress is ordinarily used in the sense of gradually, but there is connected with it also the idea of advance. The whole of it denotes a gradual advance like the soaking in of water. The other two hexagrams that contain the idea of advance are number thirty-five, Advance of Consciousness and number forty-six,Pushing Upward-- each expresses its own nuance of meaning, and here the nuance is the gradual manner in which the advance takes place.
The theme of the hexagram is the advance of men to offices in the state -- how it should take place gradually and by successive steps. Lines 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all in their proper places as dynamic or magnetic, and we ascend them as by regular steps to the top of the hexagram.
The marriage of a young lady illustrates an important event which takes place according to various preliminary steps which must be correctly done in an orderly sequence. So must it be with the advance of a man in the service of the state.
The K'ang-hsi editors say: "A tree springing up on the ground is a tree as it begins to grow. A tree on a hill is high and large. Every tree when it begins to grow shows its branches and twigs gradually becoming long. Every morning and every evening show some difference; and when the tree is high and great, whether it be of an ordinary or extraordinary size, it has taken years to reach its dimensions."
Added Commentary: Blofeld appends the following footnote to each line in this hexagram: it is easier to read it here as his general commentary. [The additional Chinese commentaries explain that the wild goose is a bird which moves toward the sun. Now, a commonly used Chinese term for the sun is YANG, namely the male principle. So the bird obviously (sic) betokens a maiden seeking a husband. Its movement from river bank to rock, dry land, a tree, a hillock and the mainland (which is said in one commentary to mean peninsula) signifies gradual movement in an unchanging direction. From the point of view of divination, this is the best course for us, even if marriage is not our objective. Regarding marriage: the first line betokens gossip, although the marriage is not unsuitable; the second, a materially successful marriage; the third, an unfortunate marriage; the fourth, marriage to someone exceedingly kind and thoughtful; the fifth, a blissful marriage; the sixth, marriage to a public figure who has some responsibility for good order within the realm and who succeeds in his task.]
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: The proper union of forces within the psyche is a matter of slow maturation.
The Superior Man maintains his will and transforms the psyche. "Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other." -- Burke
This is one of the most hierarchical of the hexagrams -- each line represents a clear advance from the position of the preceding line, thus giving an image of Gradual Progress. The vehicle of this progression is the wild goose, which also appears in every line. A goose is a bird -- primarily a creature of the air, or realm of thought; but because it also thrives on either water or land, the goose symbolizes thought which permeates the lower two categories of consciousness -- emotion (water), and sensation (earth).
Another traditional interpretation of the goose motif is that of the universal aspect of the soul. The wild goose is able to move about everywhere, on firm land, in water and in the air. It is the bird of Hermes, who is the leader of souls. E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
The progress of the goose is a gradual one, from the shore, or threshold of awareness in line one, to the mountain heights, or realm of the Spirit in line six. The fact that this progress is linked with the idea of marriage in the Judgment is a clear hint that we are dealing here with the idea of the union of opposites within the psyche. (See commentary on hexagram number eleven.) The message is unambiguous: the process of psycho-spiritual growth is one of slow maturation. There are no short-cuts to enlightenment.
Evils and falsities must be removed, to the intent that a new life which is the life of heaven may be implanted. This can in nowise be done hastily; for every evil enrooted with its falsities has connection with all evils and their falsities; and such evils and falsities are innumerable, and their connection is so manifold that it cannot be comprehended ... From this it is plain that the life of hell in man cannot be suddenly destroyed, for if it were suddenly done he would straightway expire; and that the life of heaven cannot be suddenly implanted, for if this were done suddenly he would also expire. Swedenborg -- Arcana Coelestia