I Ching on my current situation.
Cast Hexagram:
13 – T’ung Jên / Social Mechanism
Heaven reflects the Flame of clarity:
The Superior Person analyzes the various levels and working parts of the social structure, and uses them to advantage.
Success if you keep to your course.
You may cross to the far shore.
SITUATION ANALYSIS:
This is a matter of Positioning — not only yourself, but others as well.
There are niches to be filled, potentials to be realized, right livelihoods to be found.
You are not building a new organization, but shoring up an existing infrastructure.
It’s worth the effort, because it will provide union, community, and an ironclad alliance.
Changing Lines:
There is One Changing Line.
Hexagram Thirteen/Line Five
He is drawn to another.
He fights the attraction fiercely, but his later surrender brings joy.
Transformed Hexagram:
30 – Li / Igniting
Fire sparks more Flames:
The Superior Person holds an inner Fire that ignites passion in every heart it touches, until all the world is enlightened and aflame.
With so searing a flame, success will not be denied you.
Take care to be as peaceful and nurturing as the cow in the meadow; you are strong enough to be gentle.
SITUATION ANALYSIS:
A Promethean flame is delivering light and heat to the situation at hand.
This radiance will cause such an alchemical transformation of circumstances that the changes will seem magical, miraculous.
Yet they are only shifts of perspective and attitude that bring clarity.
The passions kindled by this fire must be harnessed and used judiciously, or they threaten to consume your hopes and dreams.
Notes: The first one fits well. I am in a situation where I am beginning to work again after a period of illness and rest, and I am positioning myself (geographically, in terms of work, in terms of further studies) and I am shoring up existing infrastructure. If that leads to the second one, we’ll see.
Here is another explanation of the same hexagrams:
I Ching hexagram 13 – T’ung Jen / Fellowship with Men
- Above Ch’ien the Creative, Heaven
- Below Li the Clinging, Flame
Introduction
The image of the upper trigram Ch’ien is heaven, and that of the lower, Li, is flame. It is the nature of fire to flame up to the heaven. This gives the idea of fellowship. It is the second line that, by virtue of its central character, unites the five strong lines around it. This hexagram forms a complement to Shih, The Army (7). In the latter, danger is within and obedience without the character of a warlike army, which, in order to hold together, needs one strong man among the many who are weak. Here, clarity is within and strength without–the character of a peaceful union of men, which, in order to hold together, needs one yielding nature among many firm persons.
Judgement
Fellowship with Men in the open. Success. It furthers one to cross the great water. The perseverance of the superior man furthers.
Judgement Commentary
True fellowship among men must be based upon a concern that is universal. It is not the private interests of the individual that create lasting fellowship among men, but rather the goals of humanity. That is why it is said that fellowship with men in the open succeeds. If unity of this kind prevails, even difficult and dangerous tasks, such as crossing the great water, can be accomplished. But in order to bring about this sort of fellowship, a persevering and enlightened leader is needed–a man with clear, convincing, and inspiring aims and the strength to carry them out. (The inner trigram means clarity; the outer, strength.)
The Image
Heaven together with fire: The image of Fellowship with Men. Thus the superior man organizes the clans and makes distinctions between things.
Image Commentary
Heaven has the same direction of movement as fire, yet it is different from fire. Just as the luminaries in the sky serve for the systematic division and arrangement of time, so human society and all things that really belong together must be organically arranged. Fellowship should not be a mere mingling of individuals or of things–that would be chaos, not fellowship. If fellowship is to lead to order, there must be organization within diversity.
……..
I Ching Hexagram 30 – Li / The Clinging, Fire
- Above Li the Clinging, Fire
- Below Li the Clinging, Fire
Introduction
This hexagram is another double sign. The trigram Li means ‘to cling to something,’ and also ‘brightness.’ A dark line clings to two light lines, one above and one below–the image of an empty space between two strong lines, whereby the two strong lines are made bright. The trigram represents the middle daughter. The Creative has incorporated the central line of the Receptive, and thus Li develops. As an image, it is fire. Fire has no definite form but clings to the burning object and thus is bright. As water pours down from heaven, so fire flames up from the earth. While K’an means the soul shut within the body, Li stands for nature in its radiance.
Judgement
The Clinging. Perseverance furthers. It brings success. Care of the cow brings good fortune.
Judgement Commentary
What is dark clings to what is light and so enhances the brightness of the latter. A luminous thing giving out light must have within itself something that perseveres; otherwise it will in time burn itself out. Everything that gives light is dependent on something to which it clings, in order that it may continue to shine. Thus the sun and moon cling to heaven, and grain, grass, and trees cling to the earth. So too the twofold clarity of the dedicated man clings to what is right and thereby can shape the world. Human life on earth is conditioned and unfree, and when man recognizes this limitation and makes himself dependent upon the harmonious and beneficent forces of the cosmos, he achieves success. The cow is the symbol of extreme docility. By cultivating in himself an attitude of compliance and voluntary dependence, man acquires clarity without sharpness and finds his place in the world.
The Image
That which is bright rises twice: The image of Fire. Thus the great man, by perpetuating this brightness, illumines the four quarters of the world.
Image Commentary
Each of the two trigrams represents the sun in the course of a day. The two together represent the repeated movement of the sun, the function of light with respect to time. The great man continues the work of nature in the human world. Through the clarity of his nature he causes the light to spread farther and farther and to penetrate the nature of man ever more deeply.