Break barriers gently; hidden connections await in the unlikely.
From
59
Dispersion
To
38
Opposition
Ensuring one' s reputation as a researcher
One vows not to publish anything without first making new discoveries. taoscopy.com
Dispersion59
Adapt to situations by letting go of rigidity; dissolve obstacles through openness and flexibility.
↓ Line 1
Initiating action with energy and determination leads to success.
↓ Line 4
Breaking away from limiting associations can lead to greater opportunities and success.
↓ Line 5
Expressing oneself openly and honestly can lead to resolution and understanding.
↓ Opposition38
Conflict arises from differences. Seek common ground and understanding to overcome separations and oppositions. Mutual respect paves the way for harmony.
Other titles: Dispersion, Dissolution, Disintegration, Dispersal, Overcoming Dissension, Scattering,Dispersing, Unintegrated, Reuniting, Evaporation, Reorganization, New Deal, Re-Shuffle, Course Correction, Catharsis
Judgment
Legge: Expansion intimates that there will be progress and success. The king goes to his ancestral temple. It will be advantageous to cross the great stream. It will be advantageous to be firm and correct.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Dispersion. Success. The king approaches his temple. It furthers one to cross the great water. Perseverance furthers.
Blofeld:Scattering -- success! The King has approached his temple. [An omen of safety.] It is advantageous to cross the great river (or sea). [I.e., to go on a long journey.] Persistence in a righteous course brings reward.
Liu: Dispersion. Success. The king approaches the temple. It is of benefit to cross the great water. It benefits to continue.
Ritsema/Karcher: Dispersing , Growing. The king imagines possessing a temple. Harvesting: wading the Great River. Harvesting Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of confronting obstacles, illusions and misunderstandings. It emphasizes that clearing away what is blocking the light is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: disperse what obstructs awareness!]
Shaughnessy: Dispersal: Receipt; the king approaches into the temple; beneficial to ford the great river; beneficial to determine.
Cleary (1): In Dispersal there is development. The king comes to have a shrine. It is beneficial to cross great rivers . It is beneficial to be correct.
Cleary (2):Dispersal is successful. The king goes to his ancestral temple. The benefit crosses great rivers. It is beneficial if correct.
Wu: Dispersion indicates pervasiveness. The king does homage to his ancestral temple. It will be advantageous to cross the big river, but only with perseverance.
The Image
Legge: The image of wind moving over water forms Expansion. The ancient kings, in accordance with this, presented offerings to God and established the ancestral temple.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The wind drives over the water: the image of Dispersion. Thus the kings of old sacrificed to the Lord and built temples.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind blowing across the face of the waters. The kings of old built temples in which to sacrifice to the Supreme Lord of Heaven. [A temple is a place of safety from the ills of the world. The symbolism here is that the upper trigram forms a temple in which people are safe from the pit (the lower trigram); its middle line (five) signifies the King. The implication is that we should employ spiritual or moral means to preserve ourselves from the danger threatened by the lower trigram.]
Liu: Wind blowing over water symbolizes Dispersion. The ancient kings offered sacrifices to the Deity, then built temples.
Ritsema/Karcher: Wind moves above stream. Dispersing. The Earlier Kings used presenting tending-towards the supreme to establish the temples.
Cleary (1): Wind blows above water, Unintegrated. Thus ancient kings honored god and set up shrines.
Cleary (2): Wind travels over the water, dispersing. Ancient kings honored God and set up shrines.
Wu: The wind moves above water; this is Dispersion. Thus, the ancient kings made offerings to the Supreme Being and consecrated their ancestral temple.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The dynamic line is central in the lower trigram, and the magnetic fourth line is correct in the upper trigram, uniting with the dynamic ruler above her. The king's mind is without any deflection as he goes to his ancestral temple. He rides over water in a vessel of wood, and will cross the great stream with success.
Legge: The hexagram of Expansion denotes a state of dissipation or dispersion. It shows men's minds alienated from correctness and sure to go on to disorder. Here an attempt is made to show how the situation should be remedied.
The lower trigram represents Water, and the upper, Wind. Wind moving over water evaporates it, and suggests the idea of dispersion. Success is intimated because there are dynamic lines occupying the central places in the trigrams. The king's piety moves the spirits by its sincerity -- when the religious spirit rules men's minds, there will be no alienation from what is right and good. Under such conditions even hazardous enterprises may be undertaken.
The second sentence of the Confucian commentary literally begins: "The king is indeed in the middle..." This means that his heart and mind are set on the central truth of what is right and good. The ancestral temple signifies the recognition that sincere religious practices counteracted the tendency to mutual alienation and selfishness among men. The wooden vessel refers to one of the attributes of the upper trigram, which is Wood. It suggests a boat riding on water (the lower trigram), hence: crossing the great water.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Focus on the ideals of the Work and maintain your will. A major synthesis is possible.
The Superior Man subdues his ego to attain his latent potential.
Because of the intimate relationship between this figure and hexagram number 45, Contraction, I have chosen the title of Expansionto best emphasize their polarity.
The "ancient kings and sages" are more mythical than historical, so we can assume that they symbolize archetypal forces ("gods") within the psyche -- of whom the ego is only the current spacetime representative (i.e., servant- facilitator). The Self is the focal point, the center of this multidimensional awareness complex.
In both timeless and spaceless experiences, the mundane world is virtually excluded. Of course, the converse is true of the mundane state of daily routine, in which the oceanic unity with the universe, in ecstasy and Samadhi, is virtually absent. Thus, the mutual exclusiveness of the "normal" and the exalted states, both ecstasy and Samadhi, allows us to postulate that man, the self- referential system, exists on two levels: as "Self" in the mental dimension of exalted states; and as "I" in the objective world, where he is able and willing to change the physical dimension "out there.” R. Fischer -- "A Cartography of the Ecstatic and Meditative States," Science:174, 1971
The symbol of a temple, where one worships one's ancestors may be taken as the perfect gestalt of the Work as it exists outside of spacetime, as well as the karmic repository of all previous incarnations. It represents both the completed Work and the Work in progress. That the family temple was regarded in China as symbolic of an ideal standard of perfection such as this, is implied in the following passage:
Diplomatic negotiations were carried on in the ancestral temple, in the veritable presence, it was believed, of the ancestors; diplomatic banquets were given there, also. Even a proposal of marriage was received by the father of the prospective bride in his ancestral temple, in the presence of the spirits ... (The world of Confucius), we must remember, was one in which there was a nearly complete breakdown of moral standards ... Only in the performance of religious ceremonies could there still be found, consistently, a type of conduct regulated by a socially accepted norm of behavior, in which men's actions were motivated by a pattern of cooperative action, rather than swayed by the greed and passions of the moment. H.G. Creel -- Confucius and the Chinese Way
Psychologically, Expansion depicts a state of inner pressure capable of fruitful resolution if it can be properly guided. The king in the Image (in this case, the ego) sacrifices for a high ideal: the good of the Work. Legge's commentary tells us that the "second sentence of the Confucian commentary literally begins: `The king is indeed in the middle...'" This suggests a combination of his second and third sentences into the paraphrase: "The king steers a middle course when crossing the water to the ancestral temple." This gives the image of a vessel and the proper way to guide it toward a destination. Anyone who has ever steered a boat with a rudder knows that to over-correct on either side is a mark of poor seamanship: the goal is to maintain a dynamic balance in our guidance of the Work. Lines two and five represent proper course-correction because they are both in the middle of their respective trigrams.
Expansionis the inverse of the following hexagram of Restrictive Regulations. What is there confined and hoarded is here dispensed -- but this dispensation must conform with the ultimate good of the Work. Not just any release of tension will do -- it must recombine itself into a new and better organization, as imaged in the fourth line. If this new order is a proper one, the released tension precipitates a catharsis, as imaged in line five.
The form, then, in which our complexes confront us is the form in which the fundamental materials of our human structure come into our here-and-now existence. Like crystals they are always imperfect to some extent and often unrecognizable or grossly disfigured in comparison with the “ideal” shape, the shape that would represent the “pure” incorporation of the crystal scheme. But we have to meet them in this more or less imperfect or distorted form and out of this form we have to transform them into something that may be more akin to the aboriginal “intent” inherent in their archetypal cores. This undertaking, this process, is what Jung calls individuation. E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
The Judgment of hexagram number forty-five, Contraction, also mentions the king going to his ancestral temple. A close comparison of this figure with Expansion will reveal much about the dynamics of the Work.
Line 1
Legge: The first line, magnetic, shows its subject engaged in rescuing from the impending evil and having the assistance of a strong horse. There will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: He brings help with the strength of a horse. Good fortune.
Blofeld: Helping others with the strength of a horse – good fortune!
Liu: To rescue one with a strong horse. Good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Availing-of a rescuing horse, invigorating significant.
Shaughnessy: Holding aloft a horse; auspicious; regret is gone.
Cleary (1): Act to save the horse. Vigor will have good results.
Cleary (2): For rescue, it is fortunate that the horse is strong.
Wu: To rescue with the aid of a strong horse is auspicious.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The good fortune is due to the natural course pursued by its subject. Wilhelm/Baynes: Is based on its devotion. Blofeld: Results from willing accord with others. Ritsema/Karcher: Yielding indeed. Cleary (2): The fortune of the first yin is in following. Wu: The auspiciousness comes from an amiable relationship.
Legge: Line one, at the commencement of the hexagram, tells us that the evil has not yet made great progress, and that dealing with it will be easy. But the subject of the line is magnetic in a dynamic place. She cannot cope with the evil herself. She must have help, and she finds it in a strong horse, which is understood to symbolize the subject of the dynamic second line. The "natural course” that line one pursues is that required by the circumstances of the time.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man overcomes misunderstanding through a precise and energetic response to the needs of the moment.
Wing: You can see the very beginning of discord. This is fortunate indeed, for it is far easier to reunify and overcome separation when it first arises. Good fortune.
Editor: Both the Wilhelm and Legge commentaries tell us that line two is the horse referred to here. It follows that if line two is the horse, then we can think of line one as its "rider.” Horses symbolize raw energy, and suggest the instinctual-emotional components of the psyche. The rider would be the ego who controls this energy. See the commentary on line two for additional insights.
One might compare the relation of the ego to the id with that between a rider and his horse. The horse provides the locomotor energy, and the rider has the prerogative of determining the goal and guiding the movements of his powerful mount towards it. But all too often in the relations between the ego and the id we find a picture of the less than ideal situation in which the rider is obliged to guide his horse in the direction in which it itself wants to go. Sigmund Freud
A. The situation demands all of your energy. Concentrate your forces and do your utmost to guide the Work through difficulty.
B. Emotional energy serves the will.
C. Seek help.
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows its subject scattering the different parties in the state, which leads to great good fortune. From the dispersion she collects again good men standing out, a crowd like a mound, which is what ordinary men would not have thought of.
Wilhelm/Baynes: He dissolves his bond with his group. Supreme good fortune.
Dispersion leads in turn to accumulation. This is something that ordinary men do not think of.
Blofeld: He disperses his group of companions [Namely a group of people who have proved themselves inimical to the public good] -- sublime good fortune! Dispersion leads to accumulation, but this is not something that ordinary people understand. [This is an auspicious time to "cast our bread upon the waters." Acts of great generosity are now essential to our success.]
Liu: He disperses his group. Great and fortune. (Sic.) He disperses his hills (property). Ordinary people do not think of this.
Ritsema/Karcher: Dispersing one's flock, Spring significant. Dispersing possessing the hill-top. In-no-way hiding, a place to plunder.
Shaughnessy: Dispersing his flock; prime auspiciousness. Dispersal has a hillock; it is not that about which the younger sister thinks.
Cleary (1): Dispersing the crowd is very auspicious. On dispersal there is gathering, inconceivable to the ordinary.
Wu: He disbands cliques. Great fortune. A few mounds remain. This is not what ordinary people can anticipate.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Brilliant and great are her virtue and service. Wilhelm/Baynes: His light is great.Blofeld: In this context, sublime good fortune connotes glory. Ritsema/Karcher: Shining great indeed. Cleary (2): The illumination is great. Wu: What he does is right and brilliant.
Legge: Line four, though magnetic, is in its correct place, and adjoins the dynamic fifth-line ruler. The subject of four therefore fitly represents the minister, whose task is to assume a great part in remedying the evil of dispersion. She brings divisive partisanship to an end, and re-assembles those who had been divided into a great body so that they stand out conspicuously like a hill.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man brings dissent and partisanship to an end by his transcendent view of life's interrelationships. He rises above personal friendships to assemble good men from near and far.
Wing: Here you can bring dissent and discord to an end. The perspective that comes with far-reaching ideals and concerns for the general welfare will allow you to transcend partisan interests. In this way you will find extraordinary success.
Editor: Psychologically interpreted, "parties in the state" can symbolize obsolete attitudes and limiting beliefs held by complexes within the psyche. The image suggests a process of psychic re-organization. One is reminded of the alchemical aphorism: Solve et coagula, et habebis magisterium. (“Separate and recombine, and you will have the masterpiece.”) This refers to the differentiation of all the aspects of a situation for the purpose of recombining them into a totally new entity.
Ultimately all conflicts of man are not only created by his, let us say, wrong conscious attitude, but by the unconscious itself in order to reunite the opposites on a higher level. Therefore this situation, where some religious doctrine or teaching or tradition is poisonous and destructive to the physical instinctuality of man, is not only to be viewed as a catastrophe or as a deviation from the original pattern, but just as much a device of the unconscious psyche to bring forth higher consciousness. M.L. Von Franz -- Alchemical Active Imagination
A. Breaking up old patterns of perception makes room for new ideas.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows its subject amidst the dispersion issuing his great announcements as the perspiration flows from his body. He scatters abroad also the accumulations in the royal granaries. There will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: His loud cries are as dissolving as sweat. Dissolution! A king abides without blame.
Blofeld: Scattering perspiration, he issues his royal command. The King disperses the treasures in his palace among the people -- no blame. [One additional commentary suggests that perspiration comes from illness and anxiety and that the meaning is: "The King rids himself of cause for anxiety by ordering that his goods be dispersed among the needy.” Again, large generosity is required for our success.]
Liu: Dispersion is like sweat pouring from the body, with loud cries. Separation from the king's palace. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Dispersing sweat, one's great crying out. Dispersing. Kinghood residing, without fault.
Shaughnessy: Dispersing his liver with a great cry. Dispersing the king's residence; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Dispersing defilement, that is a great directive. The dispersing king remains impeccable.
Cleary (2): Scattering sweat; the great call scatters. The king abides. There is no fault.
Wu: At the time of dispersion, he proclaims with loud voice until he perspires. He distributes the contents in the royal residence. No error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The accumulations of the royal granaries are dispersed, and there is no error -- this is due to the correctness of the position. Wilhelm/Baynes: He is in his proper place. Blofeld: The correct position of this ruling line. Ritsema/ Karcher: Correcting the situation indeed. Cleary (2): This is the right position. Wu: His position is correct.
Legge: Line five shows us the proclamations and benevolent actions of the ruler himself. Canon McClatchie gives an ingenious and original note upon the symbol of the perspiration: “As sweat cures fevers, so do proclamations cure rebellions.”
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man announces a great policy during a period of disunity and deadlock which serves as a rallying point for reforms. Misunderstanding is thereby dissipated by his proclamation.
Wing: During times of discord and disunity a great proclamation or inspiring idea is necessary to again reunify the situation. In this way, others put aside their factionalism and work together once again.
Editor: Perspiration is a healing release of energy in response to somatic disequilibrium: a catharsis. The definition of catharsis is: "Any purification or purgation that brings about a spiritual renewal or a satisfying release of tension.” Wilhelm interprets this as an idea or concept: “In times of general dispersion and separation, a great idea provides a focal point for the organization of recovery.” Psychologically interpreted, "royal granaries” (or "treasures”) are wellsprings of libido or Chi (Qi). The line thus suggests psychic energy being redistributed as the result of the elimination of a previously blocked condition. The keywords are redistribution/ reorganization -- showing how the forces symbolized in this hexagram and Number 45, Contraction, comprise the expansion and contraction phases of a larger evolutionary process. At its most neutral, the line can depict any sudden release of energy, such as conversational enthusiasm.
Shaughnessy’s rendering: “Dispersing his liver with a great cry…” suggests a connection with Chinese medicine which may be useful in interpreting the symbolism of this line:
“Traditional Chinese physiology tells us that the healthy liver establishes a smooth and soothing flow of energy through the whole person, in both body and mind … When obstructed, stagnant, or overheated, the energy flow in the liver and throughout the body is hampered, resulting in myriad physical and emotional problems … Mood swings as well as emotional excesses in general are liver-related … From the Five Element perspective, an excessive and “greedy” liver not only steals from its mother, the kidneys, but…also refuses to give sufficient energy to its own son, the heart. One of the most efficient ways of improving the condition of the liver is to give its excess a place to go, and the obvious place is where it naturally flows – to its son, the heart. By strengthening the heart and encouraging it to receive energy, the liver is encouraged to release its excess .” P. Pitchford – Healing with Whole foods
A. Release of tension ("letting-go") creates a nourishing catharsis.
B. Image of a beneficial reorganization of some kind: perhaps of ideas or beliefs.
C. "You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs."
Other titles: Opposition, The Symbol of Strangeness and Disunion, The Estranged, Opposites, Polarizing, Alienation, Distant From, Perversion, Disharmony, Separated, Contradiction, Estrangement, Incongruity
Judgment
Legge: Despite Mutual Alienation there will be success in small matters.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Opposition. in small matters, good fortune.
Blofeld: The Estranged -- good fortune in small matters.
Liu: Opposition. In small things, good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher:Polarizing, Small Affairs significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of things that are connected but should not join. It emphasizes that putting things in opposition while acknowledging their essential link is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Perversion: Little affairs are auspicious.
Cleary (1): Disharmony. A small matter will turn out all right.
Cleary (2): Opposition, Etc.
Wu: Incongruity indicates auspiciousness for doing small things.
The Image
Legge: The image of fire over a marsh forms Mutual Alienation. The superior man, in accordance with this, accepts the diversities which make up the whole.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Above fire; below the lake: the image of Opposition. Thus amid all fellowship the superior man retains his individuality.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes fire above and a marshy lake below. The Superior Man achieves difference through unity.
Liu: Fire above the lake symbolizes Opposition. Living with the people, the superior man distinguishes among them.
Ritsema/Karcher: Fire above, marsh below. Polarizing. A chun tzu uses concording and-also dividing. [Cf. Solve et Coagula—Ed.]
Cleary (1): Above is fire, below is a lake, disparate. Thus are superior people the same yet different.
Cleary (2): Above is fire, below is a lake – opposite. Developed people, etc.
Wu: Fire above and marsh below form Incongruity. Thus the Jun zi take separate paths, but arrive at the same goal.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Mutual Alienation we see fire ascending and water descending. We see two sisters living together whose wills move in opposite directions. However, the lower trigram of Cheerfulness is attached to the upper trigram of Clarity, and the magnetic fifth line is responded to by the dynamic second line; these are signs that there can still be good fortune in small matters. Heaven and earth are separate and apart, but the work which they do is the same. Male and female are separate and apart, but with a common will they seek the same object. There is a diversity between the myriad classes of beings, but there is an analogy between their several operations. Great indeed are the phenomena and the results of this condition of disunion and separation.
Legge: Mutual Alienationshows a condition in which disunion and mistrust prevail. The hexagram teaches how this state of affairs may be overcome in small matters and the way prepared for the cure of the whole system. The commentators suggest that the condition symbolized here is a necessary sequel to the regulation of the family in the preceding hexagram.
The K'ang-hsi editors observe that in many hexagrams we have two daughters dwelling together, but that only in this and number forty-nine is attention called to it. The reason is that in these two diagrams the sisters are the second and third daughters, while in the others one of them is the eldest, whose place and superiority are fixed, so that between her and either of the others there can be no division or collision. The lesson in the Confucian commentary is not unity in diversity, but union with diversity.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: In resolving disputes, begin with their least controversial aspects.
The Superior Man respects alternative points of view.
Turn the hexagram of Familyupside-down and you get the hexagram ofMutual Alienation. The opposite of family unity is estrangement, which combined with the idea of polarity, suggests the kind of energetic "pushing away" one feels when two horseshoe magnets are matched to the same poles. Despite this opposition however, every line deals positively with the situation -- there is not one image in the hexagram that doesn't intimate an eventual resolution.
The thirty-eighth hexagram lays even more emphasis than usual on the relationships (polarities) existing between its correlate lines. This suggests that inner connections outrank any superficial estrangement. The Mutual Alienationthen, is not a permanent condition -- it represents more of a challenge than a disaster. All polarity is potential energy to accomplish useful work, and in this hexagram the polarities are more than usually available for this purpose. This doesn't mean that the work here is necessarily easy, just that it offers a major opportunity for growth.
A crisis develops when some pressure or event creates a state of uncomfortable disequilibrium which fails to respond to usual defenses and coping mechanisms. It involves danger with both a considerable risk for worsening and opportunity for growth (with enhancement of insight, mastery, and self-esteem) ... The patient should be educated to understand his situation and helped to see that painful episodes may prove to be part of a constructive process, and are not proof of a dire outcome. R.P. Kluft -- Hypnotherapeutic Crisis Intervention in Multiple Personality