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Blog post: Reading with hexagram eyes again

hilary

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This morning I picked up a book at random, opened it at random, and found myself reading what Thomas Moore has to say about jealousy in Care of the Soul. He relates it to the myth of Hippolytus, a young man who was a devotee of the goddess Artemis, something of a misogynist, avoided women and preferred to spend time with his horses. Aphrodite had her revenge and panicked the horses into trampling him to death. So… repress your sexuality, seek to remain child-like and pure, focus exclusively on one goddess and neglect the other, at your peril.

Then he tells the story of a young man who was also ‘pure’ and child-like, who lived a very high-minded, principled life,*believed entirely in freedom in relationships – and was overwhelmed by intense jealous rage, which alarmed him greatly as such possessiveness ‘wasn’t like him’ at all. Rather than seek to ’solve’ and eliminate this jealousy, Moore spent time listening to it:

“The idea was to let it reveal itself, to allow it to become more rather than less, and thus lose some of its compulsion.”

There is a lot more to this part of Moore’s book – not just about jealousy, but more about understanding such emotions in mythological terms rather than just as personal faults and ‘insecurities’. All fascinating, and makes me want to re-read the whole thing.

But all I wanted to write about here was what this reminded me of in the Yijing. Bringing out the hidden compulsion, giving it more space and more presence, listening to the spirit that’s angered by neglect before it overwhelms you… yes, that would be hexagram 18. (The chapter is even called ‘Jealousy and Envy: Healing Poisons‘.)

And the young man who wants to remain pure and child-like rather than engage with the complexities of adulthood? How about looking across to the complement and pair of Corruption, the place it somehow ‘comes from’, Following? Hexagram 17, line 2:

‘Bound to the small child,
Letting the mature man go.’

Yi, unlike generations of commentators, doesn’t say whether this is a good or a bad idea, much less why this happens. It’s just that at the inner centre of Following, when reaching out for relationship, when motivated by Opening (the zhi gua, 58), it happens.

Then the paired line, responding to this one, is 18.5 –
‘Ancestral father’s corruption.
Use praise.’
– and that sounds remarkably like Moore’s therapeutic response: ‘using praise’ and gentle power of Hexagram 57 to penetrate to the heart of things without awakening antagonism.

(“What if you tried to learn something from your jealousy,” Moore asked the young man, “like some value in being less open? Maybe you need to be less tolerant in life in general.”)

This naturally sends me looking for more patterns – could it be that each pair of lines in 17-18 is showing a hidden inner motivator and a response that makes it conscious?

Well no, it couldn’t – nothing so obvious or formulaic. Different line positions have different characters, and a conversation between line 2 and line 5 is going to look more like a conversation between client and therapist than, say, a conversation between 3 and 4:

‘Bound to the mature man,
Letting the small child go.
Following, there is quest and gain.
Settling with constancy bears fruit.’
‘Comfortable with the father’s corruption.
Going on sees shame.’

Those two seem like two ways of identifying what’s ‘good enough’. As a reason to step across the threshold into action, at line 3, it bears fruit; as a reason not to change anything, it really doesn’t.

So… no easy pattern here. But this has all got me noticing something else : how many of 17’s line texts are about a choice. An official has a change of heart; you choose the small child, or the mature man; you can choose between following to make a catch rather than holding to the path with clarity. Only the upper two lines, the ones you might expect to be more awake and aware, have just a single thing to follow.

I think this reflects how puzzlingly multi-faceted 17 is in reading experiences: sometimes it’s a state of effortless flow, sometimes it demands a quite frustrating amount of patience, and sometimes the ‘following’ becomes more of a pursuit. All of these utterly different experiences have in common the basic dynamic of ‘going with the flow’, of consenting to it. Then what follows depends on what kind of ‘flow’ you’re connected with: a swift flow of synchronicities or a glacial one too slow to perceive, or the currents of your own desires. Then it no longer feels like ‘consent’ at all, but more like a hunt.

So… the lines, as 17’s junctions and points of change, contain choices. What will you tune into? Which current will you flow with? And the zhi gua for each line suggests what you’re listening to, what’s guiding and moving you, and maybe what choices you’re presented with. (And incidentally… the pathway from 17.2 leads through 58 and 57, and Moore’s story leads through Aphrodite and Artemis…)

This is what happens when reading with hexagram eyes – lots of scattered ideas, some of which might (or might not) lead somewhere. Later. Maybe.
 

rosada

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I look at the sequence of 16. Enthusiasm, this incredible excitement, a veritable circus, changing to 17. "At nightfall the superior man goes indoors for rest" and what happens while he rests? Does he reflect on all he's seen, all the possible roles other people played, the tightrope walkers, the trapeze artists, the opportunities that other people saw but he never dared to grasp? Does he then wish he could somehow go back and do it all over again, 18. Work on what has been spoiled? 17.6 leads to 25 Innocence - so ultimately 17 says next time he wont be so restricted, wont be so rule bound by what Father says can or cannot be done?
-rosada
 

hilary

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I think when he rests, he dreams. The thunder that was 'out there' as something to gaze after/ imagine/ aspire to, the kings' music to dance to, becomes an inner rhythm. Only presently he may become the marionette of that inner rhythm, and then it's time for 18.

(I like that we can see utterly different things in the same sequence.)
 

rosada

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Ah yes, in 18 he wakes up and says, "16. was a great party, 17. a good night's sleep and now time to clean up this mess."

But I also like playing around with the idea that the whole situation can be reformed AS ONE SLEEPS. 17.5 Go to bed, say your prayers, wish on a lodestar and 17.6 Your guardian angel steps in and 18. Fixes everything while you sleep (or at least over the next three days) then 19. you wake up and Approach things from a totally new perspective. Of course if you haven't learned the lesson it'll manifest again shortly, say 8 months..

r.
 

hilary

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Oh, I like the idea too, but I'm pretty sure you need to be awake for 18. You know, like you'd want your surgeon to be awake. (The guardian angel might just start to show up in 19.)
 

jilt

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oh, love your exchange, hope these words do not break in.
I learned that envy and jalousy has got something to do with oral fixations, the fear that someone steals your love, your food away. Very, very freudian vision on identifications with mothers breast.
Anyway, hex 27, and then especially the first line has to do with that kind of jalousy. The other lines from the inner trigram also deal with "status-inconsistency", taking the behaviour of "higher" strata in society in hope that that will magically call up the desired goods (in therms of modern myth, Hyacinth Bucket in "keeping up appearances), the 3rd line compensates the craving, the feeling of deprivation, jalousy for those who are better of, with addiction, claiming entrance to spirituality like line 6 has.
 

Trojina

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After reading Hilarys post I thought that hex 17 is a kind of inner navigational system then ? Resting, dreaming serve to realign us with inner currents so we can navigate/follow


I think perhaps 'Following' is another one of those misleading hexagrams names along with Grace, Modesty and Innocence ?

Because the word 'following' automatically gives rise to thoughts of following someone else. I hadn't actually even thought of it in terms of following inner flow.

Would there be a better name for this hexagram or is 'Following' the best there can be ?
 
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hilary

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Bert - it gets even better if you read the same thing and see different hexagrams :)

Trojan - yes, I suppose... I tend to think of 24 more in terms of inner navigational systems, and 17 not just navigating but also propelling/ drawing along. Of course, both have thunder on the inside, and there's another thing to study through 24, 25, 27, 17, 21, 3, 51 and 42 (did I get those right?) - how strong is the link between inner thunder and inner guidance? Well, it's a good job time grows on trees for this kind of thing, isn't it?

You can 'follow' someone else, or a road, or a signpost, or a desire. Also, things can 'just follow'. So I think 'following' is a sufficiently wide-open, generic term that it works.
 

rosada

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Playing with Trojan's comment that 17. Following could be another one of those misleading hexagrams:

17. Image
Thus the superior man at night fall
Goes indoors for rest and recuperation.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE! Maybe that's what's misleading!
While the image is saying the superior man goes indoors for rest, it doesn't tell us WHY. Does he do it because he's a mature man following his own inner knowingness or because he's a little boy following his parent's direction?

At line one it appears he is not going to follow this advice because it has come from the control freak parent of the previous hexagram. Looking at that hexagram again and the last line:

16.6
Deluded enthusiasm.
But if after completion one changes,
There is no blame.

Sounds like Dad telling the kid, "If you think people enjoyed your singing karaoke you are delusional! But the parties over so go to bed and if you promise never to do that again there's no blame."

Should the kid follow that advice?

The first line is always about things BEFORE the situation described is in full force. So BEFORE getting into Following we have him NOT Following. He is not yet following the Image's suggestion he go to indoors. (I tend to find The Image gives The Moral of The Story - the lesson one learns after having experienced the lines)

017.1 "The standard is changing, Folks. I intend to continue pursuing my career in stand-up, or singing or whatever. I don't need to go to bed. I need to go out the door in company and produce deeds!"

Then as we enter the hexagram at line two we hear all the arguments why he will not follow the parental advice:

17.2 "I know you're afraid if I don't obey, you'll lose your little boy, but if I follow your advice I'll never grow up to be a mature man!"

17.3 " I have to stop depending on your guidance. I follow my own."

17.4 " I know you just want what's best for me, but I gotta be me."

Finally, having made it clear he's not going to go inside because anyone is telling him to..

017.5 Sincere in the good. Good fortune.
He goes inside to rest because HE sincerely feels for himself it is the good thing.

Interesting how line one and line five are the controlling lines here. In line 1 he refuses to follow anyone else's direction, in line 5 he follows his own.

Line six is BEYOND Following, so now he must seek out some one to follow.

17.6 And now that I'm indoors resting, do I connect in my dreams with the higher guidance I do want to follow?

Anyway, it all leads to 18. Work on what has been Spoiled, so seems to be saying being self-reliant, able to follow one's own guidance, is an important pre-requisite for being able to repair any of the parents' faulty guidance. One ought not dismantle the scaffolding until they can first stand on their own!

-rosada
 
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