Not saying what one has planned
One senses a change that others are struggling to hide. taoscopy.com
Temptation44
A fleeting encounter with a powerful influence. Be mindful and cautious. Keep your integrity intact.
↓ Line 1
The situation must be controlled from the beginning. Firmness and caution are necessary to prevent potential problems from escalating.
↓ Line 3
Awareness of difficulties and potential dangers is crucial. Caution can prevent serious errors.
↓ Line 5
Unexpected help or fortune may arrive. Hidden potential or resources become available.
↓ Opposition38
Conflict arises from differences. Seek common ground and understanding to overcome separations and oppositions. Mutual respect paves the way for harmony.
Original Readings
44 Temptation
Other titles: Coming to Meet, The Symbol of Meeting, Contact, Sexual Intercourse, Encountering, Coupling, Infiltration by Inferior Men, Adultery "Contains a definite warning about a person or situation which may appear harmless but will prove dangerous." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Temptation shows a female who is bold and strong. It will not be good to marry such a female.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Coming to Meet. The maiden is powerful. One should not marry such a maiden.
Blofeld: Contact. Women wield the power. Do not marry. [At this time marriage would be unfortunate; the husband would almost surely be henpecked.]
Liu: Encountering. The female is forceful. One should not marry her.
Ritsema/Karcher:Coupling, womanhood invigorating. No availing-of grasping womanhood. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the encounter of primal energies. It emphasizes that seeing-through your personal situation as the connection of objective forces is the adequate way to handle it...]
Couple , KOU: intense, driven encounter, at once transitory and enduring, that is the reflection of primal yin and yang; meet, encounter, copulate; mating animals; magnetism, gravity; to be gripped by impersonal forces. Primal forces couple in the inner world, seeding enduring new forms.
Shaughnessy: The maiden matures ; do not herewith take a maiden.
Cleary (1):Meeting, the woman is strong. Don’t get married.
Cleary (2): In meeting, the woman is strong. Do not marry the woman.
Wu:Rendezvous indicates that the woman is strong. It is not advisable to marry that woman.
The Image
Legge: The image of wind with the sky above it forms Temptation. The sovereign, in accordance with this, delivers his charges, and promulgates his announcements throughout the four quarters of the kingdom.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Under heaven, wind: the image of Coming to Meet. Thus does the prince act when disseminating his commands and proclaiming them to the four quarters of heaven.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind blowing across the face of the earth. When the ruler issues commands, he has them proclaimed in every corner of the world.
Liu: The wind under the sky symbolizes Encountering. The ruler issues his directives, announcing them to the four corners (throughout his country).
Ritsema/Karcher: Below heaven possessing wind. Coupling. The crown-prince uses spreading-out fate to command the four sides.
[Fate, MING: individual destiny; birth and death as limits of life; issue orders with authority; consult the gods. The ideogram: mouth and order, words with heavenly authority.]
Cleary (1): There is wind under heaven, meeting. Thus do rulers announce their directives to the four quarters.
Wu: There is wind under heaven; this is Rendezvous. Thus, the sovereign announces the royal mandate to the whole nation.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Temptationhas the significance of unexpectedly coming on. We see in it the magnetic line coming unexpectedly on the dynamic ones. Marriage is improper, because one so symbolized should not be long associated with. When heaven and earth meet together as here represented, all the variety of natural things becomes displayed. When a dynamic line finds itself in the central and correct position, good government will nourish all under the sky. Great indeed is the significance of what has to be done at the time indicated byTemptation.
Legge: A single, magnetic line enters at the bottom of the hexagram. This is the figure used to represent the time of year when light and heat begin to wane. In the divided line we see the symbol of the inferior man, beginning to insinuate himself into the government of the country. His influence, if unchecked, would go on to grow and fill the vacant seats with others like himself. The objective of the Judgment is to arouse resistance to this evil influence.
Temptation is defined here as a sudden and casual meeting with something inferior -- the divided line is seen as appearing all at once in the figure. The first line, magnetic in a dynamic place, becomes the symbol of a bold woman of more than questionable virtue who appears unexpectedly on the scene with the object of seducing all five of the dynamic (male) lines to herself. No one would contract a marriage with such a female, and every good servant of his country will repel the entrance into government of every officer who can be so symbolized.
On the first two sentences of the Confucian commentary, the K'ang-hsi editors say: "The magnetic line meets with (or comes unexpectedly on) the dynamic ones. The magnetic line, that is, plays the principal part. The case is like that of the minister who assumes the power of decision in place of the ruler, or of a hen crowing at sunrise -- is not the name of shameless boldness rightly applied to it?"
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Do not unite with an inferior element in your situation. ("Lead us not into temptation.")
The Superior Man formulates his code of conduct and abides by it.
Wilhelm translates the forty-fourth hexagram as Coming to Meet, and Blofeld gives it the rather startling subtitle of Sexual Intercourse. There is no doubt at all that the figure has an aura of illicit excitement associated with it which I feel is best conveyed by R. L. Wing's title of Temptation, though Adultery might also be suitable. One sometimes receives this hexagram under dramatic circumstances, and it serves to dump cold water on a potentially volatile series of choices and their equally volatile consequences.
When we consider the importance of the proper correlation of male and female lines in the I Ching, we see that the Judgment in this hexagram can psychologically depict the temptation to an adulterous union of thought and feeling. Adultery is a very useful metaphor for understanding the principles of the Work -- it means union with anything which, inI Ching terms, is not a "proper correlate.” To adulterate something is to degrade a pure substance by the addition of an inferior ingredient. The image of a temptation to adulterate the Work in this hexagram is therefore a warning in the strongest possible terms that you are vulnerable to some inferior choices.
Consequently by marriages not only the earths but also the heavens are filled with inhabitants ... The earth indeed may be filled with inhabitants by fornications and adulteries as well as by marriages; but not heaven. The reason is that hell is from adulteries, and heaven from marriages ... When the procreations of the human race are effected through marriages in which the holy love of good and truth from the Lord reigns, then it is done on earth as in the heavens, and the kingdom of the Lord on earth corresponds to the kingdom of the Lord in the heavens. Swedenborg -- Apocalypse Explained
The concept of the hieros gamos, or holy marriage, is a ubiquitous archetype found in every tradition rooted in the Perennial Philosophy. If this "marriage” symbolizes a proper union or reunion of previously separated elements, then it follows that the opposite situation: a union of mismatched entities would be symbolized by adultery. To recreate a primordial gestalt of perfection out of an exploded multiverse of mixed forces demands that all of the original pairs of opposites become properly matched correlates. Although any two opposite genders might feel a mutual attraction, there is really only one opposite which is an appropriate spouse. In the realm of human relationships this is evoked in the concept of the Soul Mate. Esoterically speaking, every polarized force in the multiverse has its proper correlate; it follows that the Work (in its largest conception) cannot be completed until each is reunited with each.
Indeed every act of sexual intercourse which has occurred between those unlike one another is adultery... Members of a race usually have associated with those of like race. So spirit mingles with spirit, and thought consorts with thought and light shares with light. If you are born a human being, it is the human being who will love you. If you become a spirit, it is the spirit which will be joined to you. If you become thought, it is thought which will mingle with you. If you become light, it is the light which will share with you. The Gnostic Gospel of Philip
The point is important enough to bear repeating: psycho-spiritually interpreted, sexual intercourse and marriage symbolize the possibility of a unification of forces. Conversely, union with an improper correlate means adulteration of the Work. This is the esoteric meaning underlying the Hindu caste system:
When (unrighteousness) overwhelms the family, O Krishna The women of the family become corrupt; and when, O Krishna, the women are corrupt, there arises a mixing of castes. Bhagavad-Gita 1: 41
The "mixing of castes” is, in the symbolism of theI Ching, the union of improper correlate forces. ("Women,” as we have seen, usually symbolize the emotional and feeling aspects of the psyche.) We readily recognize that the above quotation from the Bhagavad-Gita accurately reflects the symbolism of the forty-fourth hexagram, reiterating the great truth that when emotions make the choices, the unity of the psyche is compromised.
Added notes, 9/7/10: Sometimes this hexagram is received in answer to queries related more to a fated (karmic) situation than anything normally regarded as “temptation.” In these cases Ritsema/Karcher’s expanded notes on the ideograms are useful guides: “… gripped by impersonal forces. Primal forces couple in the inner world, seeding enduring new forms… This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the encounter of primal energies. It emphasizes that seeing-through your personal situation as the connection of objective forces is the adequate way to handle it...”
Line 1
Legge: The first line, magnetic, shows how its subject should be kept like a carriage tied and fastened to a metal drag, in which case with firm correctness there will be good fortune. But if she move in any direction, evil will appear. She will be like a lean pig, which is sure to keep jumping about.
Wilhelm/Baynes: It must be checked with a brake of bronze. Perseverance brings good fortune. If one lets it take its course, one experiences misfortune. Even a lean pig has it in him to rage around.
Blofeld: The chariot wheel is held with a metal brake. Persistence in a righteous course brings good fortune. Those with a goal or destination in view will witness misfortune. However, even a lean pig is able to wiggle its trotters.
Liu: The cart is held in check by a metal brake. To continue this is good fortune. If one goes somewhere, one meets misfortune. The lean pig that wriggles does not go any farther.
Ritsema/Karcher: Attaching tending-towards a metallic chock. Trial: significant. Possessing directed going. Visualizing: pitfall. Ruining the pig, conforming: hoof dragging.
Shaughnessy: Tied to a metal ladder; determination is auspicious. If you have someplace to go, you will see inauspiciousness; the emaciated piglet returns helter-skelter.
Cleary (1): A metal brake is applied. It is good to be correct. If you go anywhere, you will see misfortune. An emaciated pig leaps in earnest.
Cleary (2): Arrested by a metal brake, etc.
Wu: Staying with a silk spinning machine will be auspicious if consistent. Going elsewhere will be foreboding. It is like a sow hopping around boars.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The metal drag describes the arrest of the magnetic line in its advancement. Wilhelm/Baynes: It is the way of the weak to be led. Blofeld: The weak have to be dragged. Ritsema/Karcher: Supple tao hauling-along indeed. Cleary (2): The reining of the course of flexibility. Wu: To restrain the yin’s way.
Legge: Line one represents the Bete Noir of the figure. If it can be halted, firm government and order will prevail. If she can't be restrained, she will become disgusting and dangerous. It isn't enough for the carriage to be halted by the metal drag -- it must also be chained fast to some steadfast object. Internal and external restraints must stop the evil influence from advancing.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the inferior man has wormed his way into the organization. He must be held in check energetically; otherwise he will grow disgusting and dangerous.
Wing: You have the opportunity to put limits upon an inferior element and prevent the growth of its influence. Do not be tempted to allow things to develop naturally. If you ignore it, it will not go away but will, instead, become a sizable problem. Act now.
Editor: Chetwynd, in his Dictionary of Symbols, says that a pig symbolizes the "dark side of the mother: (she) may be a monster or wild pig, with whom the Hero has to do battle at the appropriate time, in order to avoid being castrated or devoured by her." The pig in this line is symbolically identical with the fish in lines two and four: both represent a kind of untamed extravagance now unfolding -- primal forces challenging our will and intent to protect and advance the Work. The situation demands all of our control to prevent deterioration or loss.
This necessary ego function called willing is also the ability to say "no" to our drives, to ourselves and to others. E.C. Whitmont --The Symbolic Quest
A. Cease and desist -- bring this notion to a screeching halt right now!
B. “Yield not unto temptation.”
Line 3
Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows one from whose buttocks the skin has been stripped so that he walks with difficulty. The position is perilous, but there will be no great error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: There is no skin on his thighs, and walking comes hard. If one is mindful of the danger, no great mistake is made.
Blofeld: His haunches have been flayed and he walks totteringly -- trouble, but no great error!
Liu: He loses skin on his thighs and walks with difficulty. Danger. No great mistake.
Ritsema/Karcher: The sacrum without flesh. One moves the resting-place moreover. Adversity. Without the great: fault.
Shaughnessy: The buttocks has (Sic) no skin; his movements are hither and thither; danger; there is no great trouble.
Cleary (1): No flesh on the buttocks, having trouble walking. If one is diligent in danger, there’s no great fault.
Cleary (2): With no flesh on the buttocks, the walk is halting. There is danger, but no great fault.
Wu: His buttocks have no skin. He hobbles along. He is in a precarious situation, but makes no big error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He walks with difficulty, but his steps have not yet been drawn into the course of the first line. Wilhelm/Baynes: He still walks without being led. Blofeld: Being able to walk without being dragged. [Despite rather severe trouble, for which we are not much to blame, we shall manage to get along somehow.] Ritsema/Karcher: Moving, not-yet hauling-along indeed. Cleary (2): The walk is halting because it is unconnected. Wu: He does not lead the sheep away.
Legge: Compare this line with line four of the preceding hexagram. Line three is dynamic, but has gone beyond the central place and has no correlate above. He is cut off from the first line by the intervening second line, and therefore cannot do much against her. But since his aim is to repress her, there will be no great error.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Liu: The man is tempted to join with the inferior element. Circumstances prevent this, leaving him with a painful decision. The position is perilous, but a clear insight will prevent great errors.
Wing: Although you are tempted to fall into an inferior situation, you are held back in spite of yourself. You must now resolve this indecisive conflict. Give it a great deal of thought, gain some insight, and you can avoid mistakes.
Editor: Line four of hexagram number forty-three also describes "One from whom whose buttocks the skin has been stripped.” Since hexagram forty-four and hexagram forty-three are upside down images of each other, it is interesting to note that lines three and four swap places with very similar images. Note the difference between them however -- in the present instance no blame is attached to the position. It is a good rendering of the stresses of temptation, of the discipline required to resist any compulsion. Sometimes the line suggests that you may only be able to affect the situation in a limited way. At its most neutral, it's an image of walking a tough path.
But it is to be known that no one is regenerated without temptation; and that many temptations succeed, one after another. The reason is that regeneration is effected for an end; in order that the life of the old man may die, and the new life which is heavenly be insinuated. It is evident therefore that there must certainly be a conflict; for the life of the old man resists and determines not to be extinguished; and the life of the new man can only enter where the life of the old is extinct. Swedenborg -- Arcana Coelestia
A. A difficult position. Cope with care and sensitivity. Don't surrender to circumstances.
B. You have not yet yielded to temptation and can still escape its consequences.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows its subject as a medlar tree overspreading the gourd beneath it. If he keeps his brilliant qualities concealed, a good issue will descend from heaven.
Wilhelm/Baynes: A melon covered with willow leaves. Hidden lines. Then it drops down to one from heaven.
Blofeld: The medlar leaves wrapping the melon hide its beauty. Something falls from heaven. [This is more or less equivalent to hiding our light under a bushel.]
Liu: The melon lies under the medlar tree. The glory is hidden. Something (blessing) comes down from heaven.
Shaughnessy: With jealousy wrap the gourd; it contains a pattern; something drops from the heavens.
Cleary (1): Wrapping a melon in river willow. Hiding embellishments, being detached, one realizes the celestial self.
Cleary (2): Wrapping a melon in river willows, containing brilliance, there is a descent from heaven.
Wu: He uses willow branches to wrap a melon to protect its beautiful patterns, as if a mandate had come from heaven.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: His qualities are kept concealed because of his central and correct position. His aim does not neglect the ordinances of heaven. Wilhelm/ Baynes: It is in the middle and correct. Because the will does not give up what has been ordained. Blofeld: What is willed is consonant with heaven's decrees. Ritsema/Karcher: Centering correctness indeed. Purpose, not stowing-away fate indeed. Cleary (2): Balanced correctly. Aspiration not disregarding destiny. Wu: He is central and correct. He does not intend to compromise his prerogatives.
Legge: Line five is dynamic and in the ruler's place. His relationship to the first line is like that of a forest tree to a gourd growing beneath it. Force must not be used to repress or destroy the growth of line one. He must restrain himself and keep his excellence concealed. Then heaven will set a seal to his virtue. While mindful of his task of repressing the growth of the first line, he keeps his wise plans concealed until the time for carrying them into execution. Then comes the successful stroke of his policy as if it were directly from heaven.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man is well disposed toward his subordinates, tolerates their weaknesses, and protects their welfare. He is modest about his talents and does not resort to outward show or tireless admonition.
Wing: The superior person now relies upon the correctness of his principles and the force of his character to achieve an effect. He works quietly from within. His will is consonant with the direction of the cosmos, and he attains his aim.
Von Franz: “Hidden lines” means in China a pattern of the Tao which man does not yet know and which, when it becomes suddenly conscious to him after a ripening process in the unconscious, is compared with the falling of a ripe fruit from above. So the oracle evidently means that the melon represents a latent conscious order within the darkness, which suddenly and unexpectedly becomes manifest. [The Dream of Descartes]
Editor: Most of the translators render "gourd” as "melon” --a fruit described as beautiful or glorious. The image is of a fruit ripening unseen beneath sheltering leaves. (Every gardener has experienced the surprise of finding a large fruit or vegetable which grew hidden in such a fashion.) Ritsema/Karcher say the ideogram contains the meanings of: "enfold and self, a fetus in the womb.” Wilhelm says: "We entrust the fruit in our care entirely to its own natural development. Then it ripens of its own accord.” The line usually suggests the promise of future reward or sometimes can be a warning not to interfere with a natural process.
A fruit plucked before maturity rots and gets spoiled. A wound bleeds if you remove the scab before time, but when the wound is healed it drops off of itself. Sri Ramakrishna
A. Don't meddle in a growth process -- allow the situation to develop naturally.
38 Opposition
Other titles: Opposition, The Symbol of Strangeness and Disunion, The Estranged, Opposites, Polarizing, Alienation, Distant From, Perversion, Disharmony, Separated, Contradiction, Estrangement, Incongruity
Judgment
Legge: Despite Mutual Alienation there will be success in small matters.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Opposition. in small matters, good fortune.
Blofeld: The Estranged -- good fortune in small matters.
Liu: Opposition. In small things, good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher:Polarizing, Small Affairs significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of things that are connected but should not join. It emphasizes that putting things in opposition while acknowledging their essential link is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Perversion: Little affairs are auspicious.
Cleary (1): Disharmony. A small matter will turn out all right.
Cleary (2): Opposition, Etc.
Wu: Incongruity indicates auspiciousness for doing small things.
The Image
Legge: The image of fire over a marsh forms Mutual Alienation. The superior man, in accordance with this, accepts the diversities which make up the whole.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Above fire; below the lake: the image of Opposition. Thus amid all fellowship the superior man retains his individuality.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes fire above and a marshy lake below. The Superior Man achieves difference through unity.
Liu: Fire above the lake symbolizes Opposition. Living with the people, the superior man distinguishes among them.
Ritsema/Karcher: Fire above, marsh below. Polarizing. A chun tzu uses concording and-also dividing. [Cf. Solve et Coagula—Ed.]
Cleary (1): Above is fire, below is a lake, disparate. Thus are superior people the same yet different.
Cleary (2): Above is fire, below is a lake – opposite. Developed people, etc.
Wu: Fire above and marsh below form Incongruity. Thus the Jun zi take separate paths, but arrive at the same goal.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Mutual Alienation we see fire ascending and water descending. We see two sisters living together whose wills move in opposite directions. However, the lower trigram of Cheerfulness is attached to the upper trigram of Clarity, and the magnetic fifth line is responded to by the dynamic second line; these are signs that there can still be good fortune in small matters. Heaven and earth are separate and apart, but the work which they do is the same. Male and female are separate and apart, but with a common will they seek the same object. There is a diversity between the myriad classes of beings, but there is an analogy between their several operations. Great indeed are the phenomena and the results of this condition of disunion and separation.
Legge: Mutual Alienationshows a condition in which disunion and mistrust prevail. The hexagram teaches how this state of affairs may be overcome in small matters and the way prepared for the cure of the whole system. The commentators suggest that the condition symbolized here is a necessary sequel to the regulation of the family in the preceding hexagram.
The K'ang-hsi editors observe that in many hexagrams we have two daughters dwelling together, but that only in this and number forty-nine is attention called to it. The reason is that in these two diagrams the sisters are the second and third daughters, while in the others one of them is the eldest, whose place and superiority are fixed, so that between her and either of the others there can be no division or collision. The lesson in the Confucian commentary is not unity in diversity, but union with diversity.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: In resolving disputes, begin with their least controversial aspects.
The Superior Man respects alternative points of view.
Turn the hexagram of Familyupside-down and you get the hexagram ofMutual Alienation. The opposite of family unity is estrangement, which combined with the idea of polarity, suggests the kind of energetic "pushing away" one feels when two horseshoe magnets are matched to the same poles. Despite this opposition however, every line deals positively with the situation -- there is not one image in the hexagram that doesn't intimate an eventual resolution.
The thirty-eighth hexagram lays even more emphasis than usual on the relationships (polarities) existing between its correlate lines. This suggests that inner connections outrank any superficial estrangement. The Mutual Alienationthen, is not a permanent condition -- it represents more of a challenge than a disaster. All polarity is potential energy to accomplish useful work, and in this hexagram the polarities are more than usually available for this purpose. This doesn't mean that the work here is necessarily easy, just that it offers a major opportunity for growth.
A crisis develops when some pressure or event creates a state of uncomfortable disequilibrium which fails to respond to usual defenses and coping mechanisms. It involves danger with both a considerable risk for worsening and opportunity for growth (with enhancement of insight, mastery, and self-esteem) ... The patient should be educated to understand his situation and helped to see that painful episodes may prove to be part of a constructive process, and are not proof of a dire outcome. R.P. Kluft -- Hypnotherapeutic Crisis Intervention in Multiple Personality