...life can be translucent

Menu

Hex 48

malka

visitor
Joined
Nov 4, 1971
Messages
301
Reaction score
3
Can someone talk to me about what 48 looks like in the real world? I've received it as a relating hexagram twice recently: 29>48 and 5>48. Thanks!!

Blessings,
Malka
 
C

candid

Guest
Hi Malka,

I'm not sure what you mean by what it 'looks like in the real world.' As with every hexagram 48 is an image or archetype, which can mean any number of things depending on it's application.

As a well, it symbolizes containment of life giving water. As the implement of lifting water from the well, it symbolizes prudence and depth. As a structure, it is unmovable and central to being. As a resource, it depends on it?s maintenance. With conscientious work, it becomes utterly reliable.

C
 

jte

visitor
Joined
May 31, 1972
Messages
724
Reaction score
12
Malka -

This is a tough question.

I've seen 48's lines "mean" very different things, depending on the moving line: some examples: line 2 a mentally ill person, line 3 someone whose needs are not understood, line 6 the (beneficial) culmination of a process/series of events.

I'm going to go out on a limb here: both your 5 and your 29 have a lot of water in them. Maybe this means that you are going to do things that accumulate a lot of experience/wisdom for you: this experience will in time be a resource to you and possiby to others.

Metaphorically, the rain/running water of your experience will eventually accumulate to make you a "well".

I must confess this is very much of a hunch on my part. If it turns out to have nothing to do with your questions, just ignore it.

Take care,

- Jeff
 

malka

visitor
Joined
Nov 4, 1971
Messages
301
Reaction score
3
Thank you all for your responses!

When I asked about what 48 looks like in the real world, I meant to ask for some examples of how I might recognize 48 expressing itself in the world. What would be an example of "setting a foundation" or of "establishing the source" in human relationships?

In the abstract I understand the concept of 48, and I can see the archetype, but this is one of those hexagram's where I find difficult to apply or recognize the unfolding in front of me.

In my case, one question I asked related to "what action to take" (29>48) and the other was "what's going on here?" (5>48). Both questions were about the same situation, and both produced 48 as the relating hexagram. So this is my immediate context for wanting to undestanding 48 better.

Somehow, 48 looks to me as a process that happens on it's own, behind the scenes. I don't see it as advice to take any particular action, or as a type of active process. It feels passive to me. Do people agree/dis-agree? This is why I thought learning of some examples of 48 in the real world might help.

Jte, you are right about all the water. Danger, sexuality, challenge, opportunity? This is how I see water. 48 is a holding space for this glorious water, but also confinement. Yet a well can also be the source of the glorious water. Huang talks about 48 as Replenishing and as I read his material it suggests to me a situation needing to be replenished. But how? Might it be describing a situation that needs replenishing but that is also capable of replenishing itself? Might 48 represent the duality of being both the source and the holding space?

Blessings,
Malka
 

malka

visitor
Joined
Nov 4, 1971
Messages
301
Reaction score
3
Just a thought -- there seems to be an aspect of 48 that reminds me of 32 Enduring. In the sense that the well cannot be changed, it is permanent and remains ... isn't this aspect of 48 a similar expression to 32? I know that 32 is primarily about a naturally occuring process that endures, whereas 48 seems to be a combination of a naturally occuring source (the water underground) that is brought in union with with a man-made structure (the access to the water.) Yes? No? Th

Just some thoughts,
Malka
 

jte

visitor
Joined
May 31, 1972
Messages
724
Reaction score
12
(All IMHO)

"48 looks to me as a process that happens on it's own, behind the scenes ... It feels passive to me."

Depends on what you are accumulating and how it is distributed but definitely can be passive - one can't go out and get wisdom, it has to build up.

"Might it be describing a situation that needs replenishing but that is also capable of replenishing itself? Might 48 represent the duality of being both the source and the holding space?"

Yes, but distinguish between what does and doesn't need replenishing - intellectual knowledge doesn't (until the facts change) but your energy for sharing it does. Some things are ambiguous - does wisdom need replenishing? How about the ability to make good decisions? Don't ask me, I don't know... :)

"In the sense that the well cannot be changed, it is permanent and remains ... isn't this aspect of 48 a similar expression to 32?"

From the "judgements" in W/B and Legge, yes definitely an idea of duration is suggested.

"Danger, sexuality, challenge, opportunity?"

Have fun. :)

- Jeff
 
C

candid

Guest
hmmm, a difference though is that endurance is a self renewing process while the well takes human effort to maintain/renew, and also to draw water from the well.

I think the well is a great place for 5.
 

malka

visitor
Joined
Nov 4, 1971
Messages
301
Reaction score
3
Candid, what does this mean "I think the well is a great place for 5?" Please explain! (What in your opinion is so great about it??)
 

malka

visitor
Joined
Nov 4, 1971
Messages
301
Reaction score
3
Jeff, I'm starting to see that the well is a place that receives continuous replenishing (from the water that it attracts), it is also the source and the gateway to replenishment itself.

"Metaphorically, the rain/running water of your experience will eventually accumulate to make you a "well". " -- yes, this reads to me like 5>48. And, the rain comes in it's own time.
 
C

candid

Guest
Malka, 5 is waiting and is also nourishment. The well also means nourishment. So what better place to wait than at the well?
 

malka

visitor
Joined
Nov 4, 1971
Messages
301
Reaction score
3
In the Torah there is a story of which I'm forgetting the exact details about who is involved (Candid, maybe you will know? I think it's Jacob) but I do recall that the event takes place at a WELL! It is the first time in the Torah where a match takes place -- where one meets their "besheret" (often translated as "soulmate" or "destiny"). And W/B says that 48 means UNION. Somewhere else I've read that part of the reason for waiting is to allow DESTINY to unfold in it's own time. Interesting, huh?
 
C

candid

Guest
Malka, I'm not familiar with a story of the well in the Torah but Jacob's well is mentioned in the new testament Bible in John 4:6-29, the woman at the well. There, Jesus told the woman about herself. Symbolic, no?
 

malka

visitor
Joined
Nov 4, 1971
Messages
301
Reaction score
3
Oh my - I found it!

In Genesis 29:11, it is Jacob who set out from his father's house and encountered Rachel at the well of Haran. "And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept," overwhelmed, according to some commentaries, by his immediate love for her. His love proved so powerful that, in order to marry her, he was willing to work for her father, Laban, for seven years, which "seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her" (Genesis 29:20). And, of course, because of Laban's cunning, he had to work another seven years.

If this isn't a description of 5.1 >48 I don't know what is! Calculated Waiting/Needing at the Well.

I was wrong about this story being the first match mentioned in the Torah. But it is the first time a couple finds each other on their own, and it all happens at the well. Before this story we have a matchmaking story (Abraham sends Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac and he comes back with Rebecca, etc.)

I also found the reference from the new testement: Jacob's Well is where Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman and discussed the spiritual "water" which quenches forever the soul's deepest thirst (John 4:1-42).

Some powerful history around the image of a well!
 
C

candid

Guest
Malka, 14 years is a long time to wait! I do recall the story now, a wonderful metaphor.
 

malka

visitor
Joined
Nov 4, 1971
Messages
301
Reaction score
3
A long time indeed! But I love these expanded images of the well, "quesches the soul's deepest thirst" and being the meeting place for one to come into union with their destiny, or soulmate - how beautiful!
 

Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom

Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).

Top