Gathering before the battle
One prays to God to ask for His blessing. taoscopy.com
Splitting Apart23
Unraveling structures; necessary endings. Prepare for new beginnings. Embrace the change, allowing the old to fall away.
↓ Line 4
The damage is severe, affecting the core, leading to misfortune.
↓ Line 5
Support comes from unexpected quarters, leading to favorable outcomes.
↓ Line 6
Opportunities remain for the wise, while the unwise face disintegration.
↓ Gathering Together45
Coming together for a shared purpose; unity and collective effort lead to strength. It's time to rally support and focus on communal goals.
23 Splitting Apart
Other titles: Splitting Apart, The symbol of Falling or Flaying, Peeling Off, Decay, Flaying, Stripping Away, Intrigue, Deterioration, Collapse, Fracturing, Tearing, Disintegration, Ruin, Unraveling, "Can refer to a physical parting. Making a secure foundation." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Disintegration means that it is not advantageous to make a movement in any direction whatever.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Splitting Apart. It does not further one to go anywhere.
Blofeld: Peeling off. At present, there is no goal (or destination) which can be sought with advantage. [Peeling off in the sense of getting rid of hindrances (or hinderers) one after another. The first four lines of this hexagram symbolize a process of ridding ourselves progressively of all those upon whom we are accustomed to rely, for the powers of darkness are in the ascendant and no one can be trusted. However, in the long run, virtue triumphs, as indicated by line five, and ultimately we are all the more esteemed for our steadfastness, as can be seen from line six.]
Liu: Decay. It is unfavorable to undertake anything.
Ritsema/Karcher:Stripping not Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of something outmoded or worn out. It emphasizes that eliminating what has become unusable is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Flaying: Not beneficial to have someplace to go.
Cleary (1):Stripping away does not make it beneficial to go anywhere.
Cleary (2): … It is not beneficial, etc.
Wu: Tearing indicates that it is not advantageous to have any undertaking.
The Image
Legge: The image of a mountain adhering to the earth forms Disintegration. Superiors therefore strengthen their inferiors to secure the peace and stability of their own position.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The mountain rests on the earth: the image of Splitting Apart. Thus those above can ensure their position only by giving generously to those below.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a mountain resting upon the earth. The truly great shower generosity upon those under them to enable them to live in peace and comfort. [The upper and lower trigrams, mountain and Earth, symbolize the Superior Man and the people in his care.]
Liu: The mountain stands on the earth, symbolizing Decay. Those above should act with benevolence toward those below. Then there will be peace and security.
Ritsema/Karcher: Mountain adjoining with-respect-to earth. Stripping. Using munificence above to quiet the position below.
Cleary (1): Mountains are joined to the earth. Those above secure their homes by kindness to those below.
Wu: The mountain is subordinated to the earth; this is Tearing .Thus those above treat those below with liberal rewards to secure their own positions.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Disintegration means overthrowing or being overthrown: the magnetic lines attack the dynamic line at the top in order to change it into one of themselves. It is unwise to move in any direction because inferior elements are now increasing in power. The superior man, observing this, stops all forward movement. He defers to the exigency of the time, realizing that increase and decrease, ripeness and decay are cyclic rhythms.
Legge:Disintegrationis the symbol of falling or causing to fall, and refers to the process of decay or overthrow in both the natural and political worlds. The figure consists of five yin lines below and one yang line on top. Decay has begun at the bottom and crept upward. The hexagram symbolizes the ninth month when summer has passed and the year is about to fall into the sterile arms of winter. In the political world, inferior men have gradually displaced good men until only one remains. The lesson for him is to wait because the power operating against him is too strong. Eventually a change for the better will appear. The specific image is that of a bed and its occupant, and the symbolism describes the attempts made to overthrow him. The lower trigram of Docility and the upper trigram of Keeping Still suggest to the superior man of line six how he can best deal with the prevailing circumstances. The situation is not hopeless -- winter is followed by spring, night by day, and the waning moon soon grows full again. So will it be in the course of human affairs.
The idea behind the Image is that a mountain has the earth for its foundation. If the earth is thick, the mountain preserves its height. So it is with the sovereign and people.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment:Disintegration means do not act.
The Superior Man stabilizes his responses and seeks tranquility.
The twenty-third hexagram is the inverse ofReturn, the hexagram immediately following it. Each figure depicts an opposite pole in a cyclic progression. Here the old cycle has disintegrated to the point of dissolution. The following hexagram depicts theReturnto the beginning of a new cycle.
The first four lines of Disintegration show the gradual erosion of a position or frame of reference, symbolized by a bed or couch. The inferior forces creep up from below like termites to undermine a solid foundation. The fifth line shows a gathering of forces for a potentially positive transformation, and the top line suggests the first stages of this transformation. The implication is that times of disintegration needn't always be regarded as negative, or a foregone conclusion. We still have the choice to alter conditions in our favor.
That the superior man "strengthens his inferiors" to insure the stability of his position, means that one stabilizes one's psychological situation by defusing the causes of rebellion -- safeguard the foundation where it is weak. Hexagram number forty-three, Resoluteness, is a negative picture of this figure, and the message in the Image is very similar: "The superior man does not hoard his wealth, but shares it with his subordinates." The idea is subtle -- it doesn't mean to indulge your weaknesses, but to monitor them encouragingly so that they may become transformed into positive forces.
Whenever we go deep enough toward the core of a sub- personality, we find that the core -- which is some basic urge, or need -- is good. For practical purposes, this can be considered an absolute. No matter how many layers of distortion may surround it, the basic need, the basic motivation, is a good one -- and if it becomes twisted, it was because of not being able to express itself directly. The real core -- not what the sub- personality wants, but what it needs -- is good. A basic purpose of the coordination phase is to discover this central urge or need, to make it conscious, and to find acceptable ways in which it can be satisfied and fulfilled. And, provided we have sufficient understanding and skill, it can be satisfied -- if not fully, at least enough to maintain the process of growth. James Vargiu -- Subpersonalities
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows its subject having overthrown the couch, and going on to injure the skin of him who lies on it. There will be evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The bed is split up to the skin . Misfortune.
Blofeld: He continues the peeling off at the mattress of his bed -- misfortune!
Liu: The entire bed rots, reaching the body. Misfortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Stripping the bed, using flesh . Pitfall.
Shaughnessy: Flaying the good together with the skin; inauspicious.
Cleary (1): Stripping away even the skin on the bed , misfortune.
Cleary (2): Stripping a bed to the skin brings misfortune.
Wu: He rips off the matting in the bed . There will be foreboding.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Calamity is very near at hand. Wilhelm/Baynes: This is a serious and immediate misfortune. Blofeld: This presages our being very close to a terrible misfortune. Ritsema/Karcher: Slicing close-to calamity indeed. Cleary (2): Getting very close to disaster. Wu: The danger is imminent.
Legge: Danger is imminent. The bed has been overthrown. The person of the occupant is at the mercy of the destroyers.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Calamity is imminent. Neither warning nor protection is forthcoming. The man is at the mercy of destroyers.
Wing: You are exposed to danger. Calamity is imminent and you are unable to hold it back. Without warning, you are on the threshold of defeat.
Editor: This is one of the most negative lines in the I Ching-- an image of maximum destruction. Legge’s translation suggests that the dynamic sixth line may be regarded as the bed’s symbolic occupant -- i.e., it's his skin which is being flayed. Psychologically interpreted, this can suggest the Self which is in some sense em-bed-ed in its satellite complexes.
Even at the height of [Hitler's] power there was for him no Germany, there were no German troops for whom he felt himself responsible; for him there was -- at first sub-consciously, but in his last years fully consciously -- only one greatness, a greatness which dominated his life and to which his evil genius sacrificed everything -- his own ego. Colonel-General Franz Halder
A. You are destroying the Work.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, magnetic, shows its subject leading on the others like a string of fishes, and obtaining for them the favor that lights on the inmates of the palace. There will be advantage in every way.
Wilhelm/Baynes: A shoal of fishes. Favor comes through the court ladies. Everything acts to further.
Blofeld: A string of fishes symbolizing the high favor enjoyed by maids in the palace -- everything is favorable. [This line seems somewhat to contradict the omen provided by this unlucky hexagram. In such cases, what is said in the moving line must be regarded as specially apt for our particular circumstances; i.e. in spite of the wretched conditions prevailing, those who receive this moving line can pursue their goals without fear of failure.]
Liu: A string of fish. Favor comes through women of the palace. Everything is good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Threading fish. Using housing people, favor. Without not Harvesting.
Shaughnessy: Strung fish; eating the palace men's steamer; there is nothing not beneficial.
Cleary (1): Leading fish, gaining favor through court ladies; beneficial in every respect.
Cleary (2): Leading fish with the favor shown to court ladies, there is all-around benefit.
Wu: Like a school of fish, the court ladies are led in to gain the royal favor. Everything will be fine.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In the end there will be no grudge against her. Wilhelm/ Baynes: In the end this is not a mistake. Blofeld: This implies that ultimately we shall be entirely free from blame. Ritsema/Karcher: Completing without surpassing indeed. Cleary (2): In the end there is no grudge. Wu: There will be no resentment in the end.
Legge: With line five the symbolism changes. She is the ruler of all the other magnetic lines who are at her disposal. They are imaged as fishes (which come under the category of yin), following each other as if strung together. The ruler of these yin lines is loyal to the yang sixth line, the rightful sovereign in his palace, and she leads the others to him to enjoy his favors. The K'ang-hsi editors say: "The magnetic fifth line occupies the most honorable place in the figure. She is a queen who leads her subjects to obtain the favors given to the inmates of the palace. She has no jealousy or other vice which seeks to overthrow the ruler."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The dark forces undergo change, yielding to the strong influence of the basic goodness of men.
Wing: An inferior situation is beginning to change for the better. Through co-operation, opposing forces can come together for mutual benefit. There is now a possibility for success in your endeavors.
Editor: This is an image of an intermediate power organizing inferior powers to lend support to (or obtain favors from) a superior power. Psychologically interpreted, one can think of ego, archetypal complexes and Self, respectively.
The governor of a circle is of course its center, around which everything revolves. In the psyche likewise, the center is ruler of the entire man. In the conscious realm the ego is master, but in this larger sphere the ego is only one voice among many. The ruler here must transcend the ego. It must be a suprapersonal value that can command the allegiance and obedience of the ego, just as the ego, through the development of consciousness, comes to transcend the [archetypal complexes]. This ruler Jung has called the Self. M.E. Harding -- Psychic Energy
A. An approaching synthesis. Disparate forces are brought under control.
B. Insights present themselves for contemplation.
C. Contemplate what is wrong in the situation and integrate your forces.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows its subject as a great fruit which has not been eaten. The superior man finds the people again as a chariot carrying him. The inferior men by their course overthrow their own dwellings.
Wilhelm/Baynes: There is a large fruit still uneaten. The superior man receives a carriage. The house of the inferior man is split apart.
Blofeld: The ripe fruit remains uneaten. [Few care to accept advice or help, although the Superior Man will gladly give it them.] The Superior Man will acquire a carriage, whereas the mean man will lose his own house. [This line presages great good fortune for the truly virtuous; for, in the end, their virtue is widely recognized and men rally to their support. On the other hand, those who hitherto have managed to obtain good fortune through dishonest methods pursued at a time when virtue as under an eclipse will lose everything they have.]
Liu: A large fruit not eaten. The superior man acquires a carriage. The inferior man's house falls apart.
Ritsema/Karcher: The ripe fruit not taken in. A chun tzu acquiring a cart. Small People Stripping the hut.
Shaughnessy: The stone fruit is not eaten: the gentleman obtains a chariot the little man flays a gourd.
Cleary (1): A hard fruit is not eaten. The superior person gets a vehicle. The inferior person is stripped of a house.
Cleary (2): … The leader gets a vehicle. The petty person, etc.
Wu: The grand fruit is not picked for eating. The jun zi gains a carriage. The little men tear down their shelters. [This is the lone yang line in the hexagram, like a big fruit not yet picked. Translation: the only remaining yang not stripped off by the yin. Here is the jun zi [chun tzu, superior man] who has the support of the people. Despite temporary setbacks, goodness prevails in the end.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The superior man finds himself in a carriage: he is carried along by the people. The inferior men have over-thrown their own dwellings, which can never again be of use to them. Wilhelm/Baynes: He is carried by the people. "The house of the inferior man is split apart": he ends up as useless. Blofeld: The carriage symbolizes the support of the people. The mean wretch who loses his house is ultimately found useless for anything. Ritsema/ Karcher: Commoners: the place to carry indeed. Completing, not permitting availing-of indeed. Cleary (2): The leader (is) carried by the people. The small person is after all unsuitable for employment. Wu: Because the people support him. Because they have destroyed their own usefulness.
Legge: The dynamic sixth line, notwithstanding the attempts against him, survives and acquires fresh vigor. The people again cherish their sovereign, and the plotters have wrought to their own destruction.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The evil finally brings about its own demise, and good times return.
The man acquires fresh vigor, and the sovereign is strengthened by public support.
Wing: The forces of Deterioration have ended. The power will return to persons of worthwhile vision, who will again win the support of others. Inferior persons are destroyed by their own evil, for without power, negativity is self-consuming.
Editor: Fruit: Generally, the results of any action, either good or bad: An accrual of Karma. "By their fruits ye shall know them." (The context here being favorable.) Chariot: A vehicle, means of progress, way of going. It can symbolize the psyche as the vehicle of evolution. Here, the superior man (or Self) has a "new way of going." People:"(Symbolic of) the lower mental and emotional qualities; the natural undeveloped instincts and activities which are to be disciplined and used as a means to the end of the manifestation of the Self." [Gaskell --Dictionary of Scriptures and Myths]. Dwelling:in the symbolism of this line, the dwellings of the inferior men are the focal points of autonomous, unregenerate forces within the psyche: desires, appetites, etc. But now these foci are overthrown, so the inferior forces no longer "have a home." Generally speaking, this line tells us that the time of disintegration has passed or will soon change for the better. As Legge points out in his commentary on the hexagram: "The situation is not hopeless -- winter is followed by spring, night by day, and the waning moon soon grows full again. So will it be in the course of human affairs."
Happy is the virtuous man, for he will feed on the fruit of his deeds; Woe to the wicked, evil is on him, he will be treated as his actions deserve. Isaiah 3: 10-11
A. The consequences of past actions have yet to manifest themselves, or you have yet to assimilate an insight concerning a natural separation of positive and negative elements within the situation. However, a reorganization and new synthesis of forces is imaged and stability is being re-established.
45 Gathering Together
Other titles: Gathering Together, Massing, The Symbol of Gathering into One, Assembling, Congregation, Gathering, Unity, Accord, Making Whole, Focusing, Marshalling One's Forces, Clustering, Finished
Judgment
Legge: When forces are gathering, the King goes to his ancestral temple. For successful progress, maintain firm correctness and see the great man. A large sacrifice brings good fortune -- proceed toward your destination.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Gathering Together . Success. The king approaches his temple. It furthers one to see the great man. This brings success. Perseverance furthers. To bring great offerings creates good fortune. It furthers one to undertake something.
Blofeld: Gathering Together -- success! The King approaches the temple. It is advisable to see a great man, which will ensure success. Persistence in a righteous course brings reward. Great sacrifices are offered -- good fortune! [These were religious sacrifices, but they may be taken to mean that the time has come for us to make important sacrifices of another sort.] It is favorable to have in view a goal (or destination).
Liu:Gathering. Success. The king attends the temple. It is of benefit to see the great man; this leads to success. Continuance benefits. Offering a great sacrifice leads to good fortune. It benefits one to go somewhere.
Ritsema/Karcher:Clustering, Growing. The king imagines possessing a temple. Harvesting: visualizing Great People. Growing. Harvesting Trial. Availing-of the great: sacrificial-victims significant. Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of collecting and assembling. It emphasizes that bringing people and things together through a common feeling or goal is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Finished: The king enters into the temple; beneficial to see the great man; receipt; beneficial to determine. Using the great animal offering is auspicious; beneficial to have someplace to go.
Cleary (1): Gathering is developmental. The king comes to have a shrine. It is beneficial to see a great person; this is developmental. It is beneficial to be correct. It is good to make a great sacrifice. It is beneficial to go somewhere.
Cleary (2):Gathering is successful. The king goes to his shrine. It is beneficial to see a great person; this leads to success, etc.
Wu: Congregation indicates that the king comes to his ancestral temple. It will be advantageous to see the great man. There will be pervasion, if persevering. It will be auspicious to use big sacrificial animals in the offerings. It will be good to have undertakings.
The Image
Legge: A marsh above the earth -- the image of Contraction. The superior man, in accordance with this, assembles his weapons in readiness for unseen contingencies.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Over the earth, the lake: the image of Gathering Together. Thus the superior man renews his weapons in order to meet the unforeseen.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a marshy lake rising above the earth. The Superior Man gathers together his weapons in order to provide against the unforeseen. [This is a time when foresight is required of us, too.]
Liu: The lake on the earth symbolizes Gathering. The superior man keeps his weapons prepared to meet the unexpected.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh with-respect-to earth. Clustering. A chun tzu uses eliminating arms to implement. A chun tzu uses warning, not precautions.
Cleary (1): Moisture rises onto the earth, gathering. Thus do superior people prepare weapons to guard against the unexpected. [When practitioners of the Tao get to where the five elements are assembled and have been returned to the source, when everything acquired is obedient to their will, if they do not know how to prevent danger and take perils into consideration, eventually what has been gathered will again disperse, and they will not be able to avoid the trouble of losing what has been gained… “Weapons” means the tools of wisdom, the work of silent operation of spiritual awareness. When the primordial has been congealed, it is not subject to injury by acquired conditioning, but it is still necessary to dissolve the influence of personal history before nature and life can be stabilized. If there is any remaining contamination, eventually conditioning will reassert itself and the primordial will again become fragmented. Therefore the work of guarding is indispensable.]
Wu: The marsh is above the earth; this is Congregation . Thus the jun zi causes the nation to be armed in preparation for contingencies.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Contraction shows massing for union through Cheerfulness and Obedience. The dynamic line is responded to in his ruling central place, hence the idea of union. With the utmost piety the king presents his offerings to the spirits in his ancestral temple. Union with the great man is effected through correctness. The law of heaven demands a sacrifice. Contemplation of the way forces are gathered shows us the way of heaven, earth and all of nature.
Legge:Contractionmeans collecting together, or things so collected. The hexagram deals with the union between the ruler and his ministers -- between high and low in the kingdom. This state is to be preserved through the influence of religion and the great man, who is a kind of philosopher king who meets the spirits of his ancestors in the temple. Whatever he does will succeed because he is correct and right, and his great sacrifices are in harmony with the times.
The two trigrams represent Docility and Cheerfulness. The dynamic fifth line has his proper magnetic correlate in line two -- which gives the idea of union. Ch'eng-tzu says that the ordinances of heaven are simply the natural and practical outcome of heavenly principle.
A marsh above the earth must be kept in by dykes -- so the Contraction must be preserved by precautionary measures, the chief of which is to be prepared to resist attack from without, and to quell internal rebellion.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Forces are assembling for integration -- focus inward, sacrifice your autonomy and allow the Self to guide the Work.
The Superior Man pulls himself together to face the unknown and preserve the Work. “Forewarned is forearmed.”
Psychologically, Contraction depicts a time when inner components of the psyche assemble for recombination into a new pattern. It is significant that this is the time when “the king goes to his ancestral temple.” That is, the governing intelligence turns toward the template or ideal image of the Work as it exists in its consummate state. (See commentary on hexagram number fifty-nine, Expansion, for further discussion of the symbolism of the ancestral temple.) If the gathering forces integrate in conformity with this archetype, the Work is thereby advanced.
He, therefore, who perceives himself to associate with God, will have himself the similitude of Him. And if he passes from himself as an image to the archetype, he will then have the end of his progression. Plotinus
In addition to being a gestalt of future perfection, the temple is the home of the ancestors: a karmic repository of all that has gone into the Work via the will and intent of former historical ego-personalities. This archetype of "the ancestors" is described by the Lakota shaman, Black Elk, in his Great Vision. Note that the "grandfathers and grandmothers" are present when the people are "walking in a sacred manner" -- i.e., conforming to the ideal archetypal pattern of the Work:
But I was not the last; for when I looked behind me there were ghosts of people like a trailing fog as far as I could see -- grandfathers of grandfathers and grandmothers of grandmothers without number. And over these a great Voice -- the Voice that was the South -- lived, and I could feel it silent. And as we went the Voice behind me said: "Behold a good nation walking in a sacred manner in a good land!"
The Ancestral Temple then, symbolizes the Work in progress as it exists outside of temporal awareness. At death the karmic complexes of the psyche, released from their spacetime ego-body, assume new configurations in hyperspace in accordance with the accomplishments of the just completed lifetime. Ideally, the ancestors and their heirs (choices and their consequences) within the Ancestral Temple undergo purification: this is what Individuation (the Work) is all about.
At the end of the dying process consciousness divides into the consciousness of one's parents and one’s children, and then it moves through these modalities, and then divides again. It's moving forward into the future through the people who come after you, and backward into the past through your ancestors. Terence McKenna --The Archaic Revival
In the multidimensional realms "beyond" our material world, time does not exist. In some way unimaginable to us, past, present and future are consolidated into an eternal Here and Now. Thus our choices in spacetime can have consequences in hyperspace which are inconceivable to us in the current situation. So if the Self (as manifested in the oracle) often seems to be tyrannically unreasonable, it is arguably because of the ego's dimensional myopia.
The Spirit ... may know the most violent love and hatred possible, for it can see the remote consequences of the most trivial acts of the living, provided those consequences are part of its future life. In trying to prevent them it may become one of those frustrators dreaded by certain spirit mediums. It cannot, however, without ... assistance ... affect life in any way except to delay its own rebirth. With that assistance it can so shape circumstances as to make possible the rebirth of a unique nature. W. B. Yeats --A Vision
Such conceptions of cause and effect seem irrational to ordinary awareness, yet quantum physicists hypothesize future events which affect the present as well as the past. The idea is not a new one:
Indeed, the hero of Hebrew myth is not only profoundly influenced by the deeds, words and thoughts of his forebears, and aware of his own profound influence on the fate of his descendants; he is equally influenced by the behavior of his descendants and influences that of his ancestors. Thus King Jeroboam set up a golden calf in Dan, and this sinful act sapped the strength of Abraham when he pursued his enemies into the same district a thousand years previously. Graves and Patai --Hebrew Myths
Should the ego's choices and their consequences not conform to the Self's intent, a rather cancerous growth is implied in which dynamic and magnetic forces are improperly consolidated -- in I Chingterms, dynamic and magnetic are mismatched. Through this "infidelity" of correlates the Work is thus adulterated and falls short of the archetypal ideal.
That the greatest effects come from the smallest causes has become patently clear not only in physics but in the field of psychological research as well. How often in the critical moments of life everything hangs on what appears to be a mere nothing! Jung -- The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales
Contraction is a compression inward toward a center. Psychologically, this can be regarded as an integration of complexes. Once the implosion completes itself, it is implied that the growth cycle reverses itself to expand away from the center. (Cf., hexagram number fifty-nine, Expansion, in which the ancestral temple is also mentioned.) The following hexagram, Pushing Upward,is the inverse of this one, and depicts a similar upward expansion of energy.
The archetypal themes displayed here are those of Solve et coagula, Implosion-Explosion, Contraction-Expansion, Black Hole-White Hole, Day and Night of Brahma, etc.