Hexagrams – you probably know this – come in pairs: 1 with 2, 3 with 4, and so on, through to 63 with 64. Sometimes it’s obvious why a pair of hexagrams belong together, sometimes less so. It only really sank in for me recently why Hexagram 43, Deciding, would… Read more »Pairs and perspectives
Abundance, the citadel Hexagram 55 is Feng, Abundance – which is also the name of the Zhou interim, military capital city where they prepared, gathered allies and resources and watched the heavens for signs of their mandate to overthrow the Shang dynasty. So its themes include having an abundance of resources… Read more »55, Abundance, as relating hexagram
When I was preparing for our latest Well Gathering on the subject of Hexagram 6, I posted the above image to Facebook and invited people to guess the hexagram. The first guess posted was Hexagram 38 – which is completely understandable, but it got me thinking… The muddle Both hexagrams… Read more »Differences
Hexagram 53, Gradual Progress, has two lines about the high plateau: ‘The wild geese gradually progress to the high plateau.The husband marches out and does not return,The wife is pregnant, but does not raise the child.Pitfall.Fruitful to resist robbers.’ Hexagram 53, line 3 ‘Wild geese gradually progress to the high… Read more »Gradually nearing the high plateau
There are two lines in Hexagram 27, Nourishment, that refer to ‘rejecting the standard’: ‘Unbalanced nourishment.Rejecting the standard, looking to the hill-top for nourishment.Setting out to bring order – pitfall.’ Hexagram 27, line 2 ‘Rejecting the standard,Dwelling here with constancy: good fortune.Cannot cross the great river.’ Hexagram 27, line 5… Read more »Rejecting the standard
The next three hexagrams with trigram li outside are 30, Clarity (doubled li, inside and out), 35, Advancing (fire over the earth) and 38, Opposing (fire above the lake). Each one has a different kind of trigram interaction, but the outer light always seems to be expanding awareness: spreading the… Read more »More light outside: Hexagrams 30, 35 and 38
I’ve written about the trigram li, fire and light, and the role it plays as inner trigram, inside the hexagram. Here’s a look at fire on the outside… In the ‘Trigram Associations’ pdf that’s part of the Yijing Foundations Course, I simply wrote that, The outer li illumines more expansively, with less concentrated focus… Read more »Fire outside: hexagrams 14 and 21
