Hexagram 2 as a relating hexagram

[liquidity]

I'm intrigued by hexagram 2 as a relating hexagram. What are people's experience, intuitions, and thoughts on this?

2 has been a relating hexagram in many instances for me, and it seems both positive and mysterious, open and ambiguous.

What commonalities do you see in your readings where you've had The Receptive as your relating/resultant hex?

 

[rosada]

I've come to see it as meaning the situation calms down, becomes quiet. Think of a stone thrown into a placid lake. First there are ripples and then the ripples disappear and it is as if nothing had happened at all. It seems to say nothing much comes from the action or that a person should go about their duties without attracting attention. Things come to completion.
24.1 Return without fanfare.
7.2 Take responsibility without involving a lot of extra people or outside considerations.
15.3 Be efficient, do what's required. Again, no extra hoopla.
16.4 More energy, commotion but still contained.
8.5 A connection that may seem very important, but then not much more heard about it - like a wedding and then they lived happily ever after.
23.6 A difficult separation but it turns out it was for the best.

 

[mandarin_23]

And even if you have several changing lines, hexagram 2 as a related hexagram seems to give the pure essence of the whole situation. It seems to be like a resonance. Things are quite clear with hexagram 2 as a related, or should become quite clear, as you can listen to what the first hexagram with all it's moving Yang lines really wants to say. So it will be good to read the Image of the reading.

And it calms down. I used to have a lot of hexagram 2 as a relating when I was really upset in a certain situation, worn out, stressed, needed consolation, listening, coming down-to-earth.

 

[Freedda]

One way I think of the related hexagram is that it's about what attitude to have -- or what action to take -- to best address the situation shown in the primary hexagram. So, my general take-away is that 2 is suggesting being practical, down to earth, perhaps nurturing and accepting. It also speaks of actual work, activity, and taking action in the world - in contrast to just planning or being in one's head. It's best here to feel, see and touch things instead of imagining them.

Best, D

 

[my_key]

Hex 2 can be about giving form to things by being in the world ( per Freedda comment) additionally though especially when received in the related hexagram position it kind of says for me that it will be supportive of the primary hexagram and particularly the guidance given in the changing lines.
Rosada paints a lovely picture of ... a stone thrown into a placid lake. First there are ripples and then the ripples disappear and it is as if nothing had happened at all. I like that image, however would take it a bit further.

For me when in the relating position hex 2 will tend to follow through on the stones that are cast into the lake. For stones read changing lines. It supports the stones impact on the lake surface and the size of the splash - depending on the size and number of the stones the perspective around the situation will vary. Remember, the role of hex 2 is to give form to change. She has no preferences as to what that change is and will just do her best to manifest the creative tensions held in the changing lines.

Multiple changing lines in the primary can produce choppy waters or even stormy seas that need to be navigated through before the placid lake reverts to just ripples on the surface. Hex two plays a supporting role in that navigation, If she tries to steer on a different course then things can really go out of balance. It may even be some time before the lake becomes placid again, and it is more than likely that during that time hex 2 has given form to a different kind of lake than that which was there before.

Good Luck

 

[kevin]

I think that when Hx.2 is the relating trigram one first has to ask the question, "What changes are happening to get me here?" That is what gives the meaning to any resulting Hexagram.

One must also decide whether the relating hexagram is the context of the cast (primary) hexagram, or whether it is the direction the changes in the cast hexagram are leading towards. This is part of the art of divination. There are no rules for this.Though my experience is that most often the relating hexagram is the direction of the changes at hand.

Staying with it being the direction of change:

Were we to have a cast hexagram of Hx. 46 Ascending, Pushing Upward etc with the 2nd and 3rd Lines changing.... Hx.46.2.3 <>Hx.2 then we might regard the emerging sapling / seedling (whatever that is in terms of the question) as reaching a stage of development in the lower trigram of inspiration (e.g. not yet manifest in the outer world, or made real as in the upper trigram), and the subject of the question has moved from development (Sun) to a point where the 'subject' is fully formed (manifested) in the inner or unseen part of the question situation. Though still underground. Manifested in the upper and lower trigram positions here relate to the position not what trigram is there in this way of looking at hexagrams. It is different when looking at hexagram lines as representative of a hierarchy of people, or Heaven, Earth and Man systems.

Thus:
Line 2: True and confident (H.B)
Line 3: Pushing Upward into an Empty City (HB) No resistance - (me ))

Allows the development of the situation to fully manifest in Hx.2. It becomes real in the world.

So what is happening is different in every case, but Hx.2 is always whatever Hx. 2 represents for any given diviner for any given question within the flow of Change.

I wouldn't see Hx.2 as darkness, hidden things, nor something being buried, though it might be. Not dissipating that's in other places in the sequence. It is the great female gestation and forming the new, the building of things, the making things substance-ial. 'Things' can be ideas and relationships as well.

So the real work is being done by the diviner. The Yijing merely gives a coded message to guide those insights. It will not work in the same way as an internet search engine. (Yes, I know you didn't suggest that).

I hope this is helpful.

Best

Kevin

 

[my_key]

One must also decide whether the relating hexagram is the context of the cast (primary) hexagram, or whether it is the direction the changes in the cast hexagram are leading towards. This is part of the art of divination. There are no rules for this.Though my experience is that most often the relating hexagram is the direction of the changes at hand.

Context or direction ? Always a conundrum and as you say there are no rules for this. I have increasingly started off interpretations as seeing the relating hexagram as a field of context. If I can make enough meaning from the primary hexagram and changing lines and walk in the 'right direction' in the field then the relating hexagram will be more likely to be seen as the direction of change. The potential direction of change has to be in the context of the readings right from the start. In some readings I have seen it to be both, but not had your experience of 'direction of change' being the dominant form particularly.

So what is happening is different in every case, but Hx.2 is always whatever Hx. 2 represents for any given diviner for any given question withing the flow of Change.

I wouldn't see Hx.2 as darkness, hidden things, nor something being buried, though it might be. Not dissipating that is in other places in the sequence. It is the great female gestation and forming the new, the building of things, the making things substance-ial. 'Things' can be ideas, or relationships as well.

So the real work is being done by the diviner. The Yijing merely gives a coded message to guide those insights. It will not work in the same way as an internet search engine. (Yes, I know you didn't suggest that).

Agree.
Agree.
Agree. The responsibility for the real work lies with the diviner. The best direction for the work comes from insights given through the unspoken aspects of the message. I'm not sure it is coded, as such, just beyond words.

 

[kevin]

The best direction for the work comes from insights given through the unspoken aspects of the message. I'm not sure it is coded, as such, just beyond words.

Yes. I like the way you put that. Thank you.

Adding, I think what I meant by coded is that the symbols in Yijing, be they embedded in the word images or the Xiang can be accessed in different meaningful ways using different methods. Some more basic (?) and others more focused. Different parts of the same map as it were, revealed by scaling in on different parts of the change. In that sense we are perhaps decoding different parts of the message before/whilst processing it in a liminal way.