Staying at a distance
One protects one's relatives from the noxious effects that one may have triggered. taoscopy.com
Decrease41
Simplify and reduce. Embrace minimalism to gain clarity and focus on what truly matters. Letting go can bring unexpected abundance.
↓ Line 2
Steadfastness is advantageous, but taking on new ventures may lead to trouble. By maintaining one's own resources, one can support others.
↓ Line 5
External support is assured and unstoppable, leading to great success and prosperity.
↓ Increase42
Growth and progress: Favorable conditions and efforts lead to increase and success. Be generous, share your gains, and stay humble.
41 Decrease
Other titles: Decrease, The Symbol of Lessening, Loss, Diminishing, Reduction, Diminution of Excesses, Decline, Bringing into Balance, Dynamic Balance, Sacrifice, "Not necessarily material loss. Can mean decreasing the lower self to increase the higher." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Compensating Sacrifice means that sincerely maintained rectitude brings great success. Action is appropriate if one's sacrifice is sincere -- even two baskets of grain, though there be nothing else, may be offered.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Decrease combined with sincerity brings about supreme good fortune without blame. One may be persevering in this. It furthers one to undertake something. How is this to be carried out? One may use two small bowls for the sacrifice.
Blofeld: Loss accompanied by confidence -- sublime good fortune and no error! It is favorable to have in view some goal (or destination). If there is doubt as to what to use for the sacrifice, two small bowls will suffice.
Liu:Decrease with sincerity: great good fortune, no blame. One may continue. It is beneficial to go somewhere. How can this (decrease with sincerity) be done? One may use two bamboo containers of grain for a sacrifice.
Ritsema/Karcher: Diminishing, possessing conformity. Spring significant. Without fault, permitting Trial. Harvesting: possessing directed going. Asking-why: having availing of. Two platters permit availing-of presenting. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of sacrifice and loss. It emphasizes that lessening yourself and decreasing your involvements is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: There is a return; prime auspiciousness; there is no trouble. It can be determined. Beneficial to have someplace to go. Why use two tureens; you can use aromatic grass.
Cleary (1): Reduction with sincerity is very auspicious, impeccable. It should be correct. It is beneficial to go somewhere. What is the use of the two bowls? They can be used to receive.
Cleary (2): … It is beneficial to have somewhere to go, etc … They can be used for presentation.
Wu: Loss indicates that with confidence there will be great fortune, no error, perseverance, and advantage to have undertakings. What to use in offerings? Two boxes of grain are adequate.
The Image
Legge: The image of a mountain and beneath it the waters of a marsh form Compensating Sacrifice. The superior man, in accordance with this, restrains his wrath and represses his desires.
Wilhelm/Baynes: At the foot of the mountain, the lake: the image of Decrease. Thus the superior man controls his anger and restrains his instincts.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a marshy lake at the foot of a mountain. The Superior Man keeps his anger under control and is moderate in his desires.
Liu: The lake beside the mountain symbolizes Decrease. The superior man curbs his indignation and restricts his desires.
Ritsema/Karcher: Below mountain possessing marsh. Diminishing. A chun tzu uses curbing anger to block the appetites.
Cleary (1): There is a lake under a mountain, reducing it. Thus does the superior person eliminate wrath and cupidity.
Cleary (2): Lake below a mountain – Reducing. Thus do developed people eliminate anger and greed.
Wu: There is a marsh below the mountain; this is Loss. Thus the jun zi mitigates his anger and restrains his desires.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Compensating Sacrificethe lower trigram is diminished to increase the upper, and the flow is upward. The two baskets of grain accord with the time. There is a time when the strong should be diminished and the weak strengthened. Decrease and increase, overflowing and emptiness, take place in harmony with the demands of the time.
Legge: Ch'eng-tzu says: "Every diminution and repression of what we have in excess to bring it into accordance with right and reason is comprehended under Compensating Sacrifice. If there is sincerity in doing this it will lead to success and happiness, and even if the offering is small, yet it will be accepted."
The K'ang-hsi editors say: "What is meant by diminishing in this hexagram is the regulation of expenditure or contribution according to the time. This would vary in a family according to its poverty or wealth, and in a state according to the abundance or scantiness of its resources. If one supplements the insufficiency of his offering with the abundance of his sincerity, the insignificance of his two baskets will not be despised."
The waters of a marsh are continually rising up in vapor to bedew the hill above it, and thus increase its verdure. What is taken from the marsh gives increase to the hill.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: A sacrifice creates equilibrium.
The Superior Man sacrifices his appetites to a higher principle.
The traditional name for this hexagram is Decrease, but the lines and commentary all describe a compensating exchange of forces to attain equilibrium. The idea of "sacrifice" is mentioned in the Judgment, and that also might make a good title, though the image of two baskets of grain suggests a balancing scale: a "compensating" device. In this hexagram, the flow of energy moves from below upwards -- the waters of the lake or marsh are dispersed to enrich the mountain. In psychological terms we think of the ego sacrificing or decreasing its autonomy to achieve psychic equilibrium with the Self: we forfeit something valuable to obtain something even more valuable. Without this quid pro quo, the concept of sacrifice is meaningless and irrational.
A sacrifice is meant to be a loss, so that one may be sure that the egoistic claim no longer exists. Therefore the gift should be given as if it were being destroyed. But since the gift represents myself, I have in that case destroyed myself, given myself away without expectation of return. Yet, looked at in another way, this intentional loss is also a gain, for if you can give yourself it proves that you possess yourself. Nobody can give what he has not got. Jung -- Transformation Symbolism in the Mass
Compare the Image message from hexagram number 15, Temperance with the notion of a compensating balance: "The superior man, in accordance with this, diminishes his excesses to augment his insufficiencies, thus creating a just balance." We are reminded of another "Temperance" -- the 14th Arcanum of the Tarot, which depicts an angel pouring water from one vessel into another: "compensating." A comparison of its symbolism with that of hexagram number 41 yields many insights:
The Path of ... TEMPERANCE, leads from ... the Personality [ego] to the Higher Self ... The whole experience is one of preparation of the Personality [ego], and the body in which it is operating, to deal with an influx of Light which would be devastating to a system unready to handle such energy. Most important here is the monitoring of progress, the continual testing from above. It is the angel here which is at once the Higher Self and the initiatory forces of Nature, which pours the elixir from vase to vase. This is an ongoing process of testing; measuring to see how much the physical vehicle can bear. R. Wang --The Qabalistic Tarot
Without belaboring the point, we can see that all sacrifice is a kind of remuneration: it couldn't be otherwise in an interconnected universe. The Image instruction for the superior man to “control his anger” is also echoed in the Temperance card. This relates to:
...an aspect of the Mysteries only rarely discussed, and certainly germane to the Twenty-Fifth Path [the Kabbalistic equivalent of the relationship between lines one and four in this hexagram]: this is the very real hostility often felt by the student toward the Path itself, as he works day after day and seems to be getting nowhere. Such hostility and frustration is in itself a major test; it is part and parcel of the work prior to the emergence of inner proofs. -- Ibid
"Decrease with sincerity" (Liu) refers to one's continuous sacrifice for the goals of the Work, and "curbing anger" (Ritsema/Karcher) is how one handles the archetypal forces evoked when the decrease seems endless and you've yet to receive anything in return. Like any other hexagram, Compensating Sacrifice can symbolize an infinity of possible situations, but psychologically speaking we can first regard it as an image of sacrifice for the purpose of attaining a balance of power within the psyche. Without the sacrificial devotion of the ego, the Self cannot attain its will; and if the Self can't make it, the ego is doomed by default.
Line 2
Legge: The second line, dynamic, shows that it will be advantageous for its subject to maintain firm correctness, and that action on his part will be evil. He can give increase to his correlate without taking from himself.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Perseverance furthers. To undertake something brings misfortune. Without decreasing oneself, one is able to bring increase to others.
Blofeld: Persistence in a righteous course brings reward, but to advance (or go anywhere) now would bring misfortune. This is not a time for decreasing but for augmenting.
Liu: To continue is beneficial. Undertakings bring misfortune. Without decrease, without increase.
Ritsema/Karcher: Harvesting Trial. Chastising: pitfall. Nowhere Diminishing, augmenting it.
Shaughnessy: Beneficial to determine; to be upright is inauspicious. Not decreasing it, but increasing it.
Cleary (1): It is beneficial to be correct. An expedition is inauspicious. No reduction or increase of this. [If you do not know when enough is enough and go on reducing and increasing, you will reactivate the human mentality and thus obscure the mind of Tao … It is because the strong energy is balanced, not biased or lopsided, that there is no more reduction or increasing to be done.]
Cleary (2): … Increase it without reduction.
Wu: It is advantageous to be firm and correct, but foreboding to go ahead. His decision of not taking a loss will benefit the other. [It may be justifiable for the below to support the above in a very moderate way in time of Loss, but it would be unacceptable by asking the below to give up all of its possessions … to satisfy the above.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: His central position gives its character to his aim. Wilhelm/Baynes: It has the correct mean in its mind. Blofeld: The central position of this line in the lower trigram indicates that persistence will be rewarded by the fulfillment of what is willed. Ritsema/Karcher: Centering using activating purposes indeed. Cleary (2): The balance that characterizes its aim. Wu: He is to remain central.
Legge: Line two is dynamic and in the central place. But he is in the place of a magnetic line, and should maintain his position without moving to help his fifth line correlate. Maintaining his own firm correctness is the best way to give assistance. " His aim" is to abide where he is and help the fifth line by the exhibition of firm correctness.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man renders faithful service without sacrificing himself. Forfeiting one's dignity and personality to do the bidding of a person of high rank is shameful.
Wing: When aiding others, be certain to maintain your sense of dignity. If the nature of your task diminishes your strength or compromises your principles, or if you sacrifice your personality to please your superior, you are acting shamefully. Only efforts that do not diminish your Self are worthwhile.
Editor: This line changes the hexagram to number twenty- seven, Nourishing, the corresponding line of which carries a similar message, i.e., the idea that one's impetus to act is incorrect. Lines one and three each show some variation of active compensating (balancing) going on. Here in line two, which is the center of the lower trigram, action is inappropriate. It is the fulcrum or point of balance which must remain stationary. Note the subtle differences in the various translations of the last sentence. You decide.
The Sage uses his mind like a mirror. It remains in its place passively, and it gives back what it receives without concealment. Therefore it can overcome things without distorting them. Chuangtse
A. You serve the Work best now by remaining in place. Willpower, non-action and example are all the assistance that is required.
B. Maintain the status-quo.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, magnetic, shows parties adding to the stores of its subject ten pairs of tortoise shells, and accepting no refusal. There will be great good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Someone does indeed increase him. Ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it. Supreme good fortune.
Blofeld: There was one who enriched him to the extent of ten PENG of tortoise shells (2,100 of them) and who would accept no refusal -- sublime good fortune!
Liu: He is enriched by twenty tortoises and he cannot refuse. Great good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Maybe augmenting's ten: partnering's tortoise. Nowhere a controlling contradiction. Spring significant.
Shaughnessy: Increasing it by ten double-strands of turtles; you cannot deflect it; prime auspiciousness.
Cleary (1): One is given a profit of ten pairs of tortoise shells. None can oppose. Very auspicious.
Wu: He may be presented with ten pairs of tortoise shells and may not decline the gift. This is great fortune.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: This is due to the blessing from above. Wilhelm/Baynes: The supreme good fortune comes from its being blessed from above. Blofeld: Good fortune coming from those above. Ritsema/Karcher: Originating-from shielding above indeed. Cleary (2): Help from above. Wu: He has been blessed from heaven.
Legge: Line five is the seat of the ruler, who is here humble, and welcomes the assistance of her correlate in line two. She is a ruler whom all her subjects of ability will rejoice to serve in every possible way, and the result will be great good fortune.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Fate has marked the man for good fortune. Nothing opposes him. He needs fear nothing.
Wing: You are marked by fate. Nothing stands in the way of this. It comes about through refined inner forces that have led you into this situation. Fear nothing. Good fortune.
Editor: The most ancient method of divination in China involved the use of tortoise shells (Plastromancy). The yarrow stalk and coin methods didn't come into vogue until after King Wen committed the I Ching to writing. At the time that this line was composed then, to receive ten pairs of tortoise shells was a very numinous gift -- perhaps equivalent to "having God on your side.” The "blessing from above” is mentioned by some commentators as a reference to the oracles obtained through divining with the tortoise shells, and could be construed as an endorsement of your interpretative skills. This line changes the hexagram to number sixty-one,Inner Truth, the corresponding line of which expresses the idea of a beneficial synthesis of forces.
Good fortune is a god among men, and more than a god. Aeschylus
A. A great reward -- the context of your query will tell you what it is.
B. Beneficial energy is on its way.
42 Increase
Other titles: The Symbol of Addition, Gain, Augmenting, Help from Above, Benefit, Advantage, Profit, Expansion
Judgment
Legge: Increase denotes advantage in every movement which shall be undertaken -- it will be advantageous even to cross the great stream.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Increase. It furthers one to undertake something. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Blofeld: Gain. It is favorable to have in view some goal (or destination) and to cross the great water (or sea).
Liu:Increase. It is of benefit to set forth. It is of benefit to cross the great water.
Ritsema/Karcher: Augmenting , Harvesting: possessing directed going. Harvesting: wading the Great River. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of increase and advance. It emphasizes that expanding the quantity and quality of your involvement is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to augment!]
Shaughnessy:Increase:Beneficial herewith to have someplace to go; beneficial to find the great river.
Cleary (1): For Increase, it is beneficial to go somewhere; it is beneficial to cross great rivers.
Wu: Gain indicates an advantage in having undertakings and in crossing a big river.
The Image
Legge: Wind over thunder -- the image of Increase. When the superior man perceives good, he moves toward it; when he perceives his faults, he eliminates them.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Wind and thunder: the image of Increase. Thus the superior man: if he sees good, he imitates it; if he has faults, he rids himself of them.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind and thunder. The Superior Man, seeing what is good, imitates it; seeing what is bad, he corrects it.
Liu: Wind and thunder symbolize Increase. When the superior man discovers good, he follows it. When he has errors, he corrects them.
Ritsema/Karcher: Wind, thunder. Augmenting. A chun tzu uses visualizing improvement, by-consequence shifting. A chun tzu uses possessing excess, by-consequence amending.
Cleary (1): Wind and thunder increase. Thus do superior people take to good when they see it, and correct whatever faults they have.
Wu: Wind and thunder make Gain. Thus, when the jun zi sees a good deed, he improves his own at once; when he realizes he is making a mistake, he corrects it at once.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Increase shows the upper trigram brilliantly decreased to augment the lower. What descends from above reaches to all below, and the satisfaction of the people is without limit. Advantage in movement is shown in the blessings dispensed by the second and fifth lines from their correct positions. The action of Wood shows that it is advantageous to cross the great stream. Through the trigrams of Movement and Humility there is unlimited daily advancement -- heaven dispenses and earth produces, and all proceeds according to the requirements of the time.
Legge: Increase has the opposite meaning to hexagram number forty-one, Compensating Sacrifice [Decrease]. What king Wen had in mind was a ruler or a government operating to dispense benefits to the people and increase their resources. The two important lines in the figure are the correlates two and five. The general auspice of the hexagram is one of being successful in one's enterprises and of overcoming the greatest difficulties.
The formation of the trigrams here is the reverse of that in the preceding hexagram. The people are full of pleasure in the labors of the ruler for their good. "The action of Wood" in the Confucian commentary refers to the upper trigram, which is the symbol of Wind and Wood. From wood boats are made on which the great stream may be crossed. In three hexagrams, this, fifty-nine and sixty-one, in which this is the upper trigram, we find mention made of crossing the great stream. In the Image thunder and wind are seen to increase one another, and their combination gives the idea of Increase.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Take advantage of your opportunities.
The Superior Man recognizes his duty and rectifies his mistakes. Or: "Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative."
If the ego's sacrifices for the good of the Work are described in the previous hexagram, here we see the inverse image of that figure in which it is the Self who bestows its blessings upon the psyche. The one implies the other -- in the words of an old Blues lyric: "If you don't put somethin' in, you can't get nothin' out..." The forty-first and forty-second hexagrams are intimately related, and in their interaction portray the active progress of the Work. To paraphrase the last sentence of the Confucian commentary: "The Self dispenses and the ego produces, and all proceeds according to the requirements of the time."
If a man continually weighs his actions and aims at the mean, he is in the highest of human ranks. In that way, he will come close to God and will attain what belongs to Him. This is the most perfect of the ways of worship. Maimonides -- Eight Chapters