34, Rams & Humans

[moss elk]

34 is more than only the concept of 'strength' or 'vigor' (those are covered adequately in hex 1.. "strong, untiring, persevering")
And it is also off the mark to say it means to firmly stand one's ground. [As in... Defending a position)

The verb 'to Ram' comes from observation of the animal named Ram.
It is who they Are.
It is what they Do.

The Ram energy in 34 is similar: taking partially blind/ignorant/dumb/violent/destructive or aggressive action.
34 means to tell you: Don't act like a Ram

That's why it was written in the Wings: Great Vigor Means stopping. (m.e. edit : Acting like a Ram)
It means, precisely: "You there Human, do not act like a Ram."

Line 6 is about dealing with the consequences of having acted Ram-ish.

Observe how Rams/goats go around bashing people & things to understand 34:

 

[Trojina]

I didn't cast 34.6 about this recent experience but it bought it to mind very much at the time.

I took the lift at the Dr's surgery. Never having used it before the receptionist told me to press the button until the lift stopped, just keep on pressing she said till you get there otherwise you'll stop. So I did. I got in and I pressed the button and did not let go yet the lift stopped. I didn't know I had arrived since there was no exit, no doors opening, just metal in front of me. Starting to panic slightly I read the notice that said what to do if stuck and pressed a few other buttons that were meant to get me going but nothing happened, the doors did not open and I thought I was trapped. So I pressed the alarm bell. I could hear it ringing all over the surgery. It then occurred to me to turn around and lo and behold there was a glass door opening out on to the 1st floor. So I got out.

I have no idea why it didn't occur to me to turn around but I think it's very much like the line 6 mindset. I was looking for the solution dead in front of me. I'd got into the lift through one door and I expected the door I had come in through to be the one I'd go out of. It generally is. So I used my energy to effect a solution, I pressed buttons, I rang the alarm, I did everything I could see to do that was in front of me but I did not turn my head.

This must be a kind of metaphor for so many problems. How often metaphorically are we trying to solve problems of all kinds without thinking to turn around.

 

[surnevs]

Sakis Totlis, in his book 'True Eye of the Tiger ' * sees it in an interesting way:

​

*) https://www.academia.edu/24579224/_True_eye_of_the_Tiger_

 

[surnevs]

One good thing to be found in the brick thick book by Rudolf Ritsema and Shantena Augusto Sabbadini's "The Original I Ching Oracle" from Watkins.UK, 2005 (earlier from Eranos) is the Index concerning words appearing throughout the text. Here: Horns
Found in Hex. 34.3 and 35.6 and 44.6
(It probably refers to the vocabulary in this edition; for example from another hexagram, Hill's wherein other texts Mount's are used one can not use this Index)
In all of these three hexagrams, it refers to the horns of the Ram.
In hex. 34 the Tag being 'Great strength'
35: 'Advancing' and in
44: 'a match'
-------------
Translations of the Tags from Gregory C. Richter's edition

 

[moss elk]

Here: Horns
Found in Hex. 34.3 and 35.6 and 44.6

Yes,
Anger &
(tendency towards) force/violence
are present in all three situations.

That is the meaning of 'Horns.'
as it is used in Yi.

 

[surnevs]

On 5' July 2002, I received Hex. 35.6 concerning a tour with friends to the Swedish island Ven. There was one, Gunnar, who did not show up the morning we assembled to go. Back then I did not understand the reading at all partly because it showed up to be a beautiful trip with no problems and partly because I could not relate to the expression Horns. My inquiry was, as written in my handwritten Log: "Trip to Ven day after tomorrow ?" - and I can add that I sometimes made/makes a cast with the question: Anything to be aware of? implicit behind - but with a closer look in my mind at this fellow Gunnar, he later told us that up to the event he couldn't sleep, were not allowed to, due to the neighbour's loud noise that night. As a character, most will think of a warrior when spotting him, a big guy, a sportsman. Well, if Horns and/or Rams should fit into this reading it should most likely be with the imagination of what happened this night between Gunnar and his neighbours. I will of course not ask about the interpretation of the reading here, just noticing a glimpse of humour from behind the answer given by the I.
"Making progress with the horns is permissible
Only for the purpose of punishing one's own city....... etc." [Wilhelm/Baynes] that even telling Gunnar this reading before that night wouldn't probably have stopped his anger (Well, as I imagine it) - a Ram is a Ram.

Editing: Ram in hex. 35.6 seems only to occur in Gregory C. Richters translation (Attached) but there added in the interpretation of the received text. It's not to be found in Legge, Wilhelm, Zhu Xi, Wang Bi, Rutt, Kerson Huang, Lars Bo Christensens' translations - or elsewhere I've searched. I'm glad I checked it out.
And: pinyin dï, meaning Ram or he-goat


(LINK)

- only appears in 34.3 and 34.9 but not in hex. 35 or 44

 

[surnevs]

"Editing: Ram in hex. 35.6 seems only to occur in Gregory C. Richters translation (Attached) but there added in the interpretation of the received text. It's not to be found in Legge, Wilhelm, Zhu Xi, Wang Bi, Rutt, Kerson Huang, Lars Bo Christensens' translations - or elsewhere I've searched. I'm glad I checked it out.
And: pinyin dï, meaning Ram or he-goat

View attachment 4719
(LINK)

- only appears in 34.3 and 34.9 but not in hex. 35 or 44"

I can see that I was focused on Horns. My reading back then was hex. 35.6 and I made a mistake here, mixing it up with the hex. 34.6
I've just found my journal to check this again. So: Ram does NOT appear in hex. 35.6 but only in Hex. 34.6 - and not, as mentioned above in 34.3 (34.9 as I wrote was of course written in a haste, wrongly).
And to make an end to my editing here, my friend Gunnar - if it should be brought to its widest, is born in the sign Virgo and not in Aries.
Sorry for my distraction in this.