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Penetration57
Adapt influence like the wind; subtle shifts bring progress. Consistency and endurance will penetrate barriers.
↓ Line 1
Be adaptable and flexible, like the wind. Success comes through perseverance and the ability to adjust to circumstances.
↓ Line 5
Steadfastness and commitment to your path will lead to success. Any doubts or regrets will dissipate.
↓ Line 6
Going too deep into matters can lead to loss and misfortune. Know when to stop and avoid excessive probing.
↓ Peace11
Harmony and prosperity arise when opposites attract and balance is maintained. Positive energies are in alignment, and collaborative efforts lead to growth and advancement. Embrace peace and cooperation for continued success.
57 Penetration
Other titles: The Gentle, The Penetrating, Wind, The Symbol of Bending to Enter, Willing Submission, Gentle Penetration, Ground, Calculations, Complaisance, Penetrating Influence, The Penetration of the Wind, Humility, Devoted Service, Submission
Judgment
Legge:Penetration indicates modest success. See the great man and move in the direction that implies.
Wilhelm/Baynes:The Gentle. Success through what is small. It furthers one to have somewhere to go. It furthers one to see the great man.
Blofeld:Willing Submission -- success in small matters. It is advantageous to have in view a goal (or destination) and to visit a great man. [This is a reasonably auspicious hexagram; it augurs a certain amount of success for those who submit to circumstances -- unless a moving line indicating the contrary is received. This is not a time for resistance but for submission.]
Liu:Penetration. Small success. It is beneficial to go somewhere. It is beneficial to see a great man.
Ritsema/Karcher: Ground, the small: Growing. Harvesting: possessing directed going. Harvesting: visualizing Great People. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of providing an underlying support. It emphasizes that subtly penetrating and nourishing things from below, the action of Ground, is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to enter the situation from below!]
Shaughnessy: Calculations: Little receipt; beneficial to have someplace to go; beneficial to see the great man.
Cleary (1):Wind is small but developmental. It is beneficial to have somewhere to go. It is beneficial to see a great man.
Cleary (2):The small comes through successfully. It is beneficial to have a place to go. It is beneficial to see great people.
Wu: Complaisance indicates that the small are pervasive. It is advantageous to have undertakings. It is also advantageous to see the great man.
The Image
Legge: Two wind trigrams following each other form Penetration. The superior man proclaims his commands and undertakes his work.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Winds following one upon the other: the image of the gently penetrating. Thus the superior man spreads his commands abroad and carries out his undertakings.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a favorable wind. The Superior Man performs his allotted tasks in consonance with heaven's (or the sovereign's) will. [The component trigrams combine the concepts of wind and blandness -- hence a favorable wind.]
Liu: Wind following wind symbolizes Penetration. The superior man proclaims his directives and executes his affairs.
Ritsema/Karcher: Following winds. Ground. A chun tzu uses distributing fate to move affairs.
Cleary (1): Wind following wind.Thus do superior people articulate directions and carry out tasks.
Wu: One breeze follows the other; this is Complaisance. Thus the jun zi gives further injunctions in order to administer public affairs.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Repeated wind trigrams show the repetition of governmental orders. The dynamic fifth line has penetrated to his correct central place and carries his will into action. The magnetic first and fourth lines obey the dynamic lines above them. Hence it is said that there will be success in small matters.
Legge: Penetration symbolizes both wind and wood, and has the attributes of Docility, Flexibility and Penetration. We are to think of it as wind with its penetrating power which finds its way into every nook and cranny.
Confucius said: "The relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend when the wind blows upon it." In accordance with this, the hexagram must be understood as the influence and orders of the government designed to remedy what is wrong in the people. The upper trigram denotes the orders issuing from the ruler, and the lower the obedience rendered to them by the people.
Ch'eng-tzu says:"Superiors, in harmony with the duty of inferiors, issue their commands; inferiors, in harmony with the wishes of their superiors, follow them. Above and below there are that harmony and deference; and this is the significance of the redoubled Wind trigram. When governmental commands and business are in accordance with what is right, they agree with the tendencies of the minds of the people who follow them."
Anthony: Getting this hexagram often refers to the presence of inferior elements that obstruct our having a good influence ... Because this hexagram is concerned with self-correction, we often get it together with Work on What has been Spoiled. [Hex. 18: Repair.]
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Get to the heart of the matter and act on the information obtained.
The Superior Man acts on his understanding by implementing it in the world.
The hexagram ofPenetration, made up of two trigrams symbolizing Wind (which is air in motion), suggests the activity of thought (the realm of air) trying to comprehend or "penetrate" something. Thus, each line of the figure may be seen as some aspect of an act of mental endeavor.
Therefore the student must exert his own mind to the utmost. If he does so, he will know his own nature. And if he knows his own nature, examines his own self and makes it sincere, he becomes a sage. Therefore the "Great Norm" says, "The virtue of thinking is penetration and profundity ... Penetration and profundity lead to sageness.” -- Ch'eng I
The first line depicts vacillation and indecisiveness; the second shows one trying to "get to the bottom" of a matter. Line three is an image of futile hypothesizing; four and five show two aspects of successful comprehension, and the sixth line symbolizes an inability to understand.
Man's intellect -- the greatest but most dangerous gift he has received from God -- builds a bridge across the seemingly unconquerable chasm between that which is personal and mortal and that which is impersonal and eternal. Through man's intellect he succumbed to the temptation to fall out of divine unity with his consciousness. But by the same token, his intellect gives him the possibility of bringing back his consciousness into full union with divinity. By means of his intellect, man is able to understand truth, and when he has understood, he will seek and keep on seeking and trying until he some day succeeds in finding the only path to the realization of his self. Elisabeth Haich -- Initiation
The hexagram can also symbolize humble submission and devoted service, thus suggesting the role of the ego in the Work. To truly comprehend the nature of the Work is to serve it with devotion. There are some interesting associations between the act of penetration and that of submission – when dynamic and magnetic are in full harmony they lose their individual identities and become one force which is both and neither.
Line 1
Legge: The first line, magnetic, shows its subject now advancing, now retreating. It would be advantageous for her to have the firm correctness of a brave soldier.
Wilhelm/Baynes: In advancing and retreating, the perseverance of a warrior furthers.
Blofeld: Advancing and retreating; the righteous persistence of the warriors brings advantage.
Liu: Advance and retreat. It benefits the military person to be firm.
Shaughnessy: Entering the inside; beneficial for a military man's determination.
Cleary (1): Advancing and retreating. It is beneficial to be steadfast like a soldier.
Wu: There is hesitation. It will be advantageous to have the perseverance of a soldier.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Her mind is perplexed. If she had the will of a brave soldier her mind would be well-governed. Wilhelm/Baynes: The will wavers. The will is controlled. Blofeld: The first three words imply that we have doubts about our own intentions. The rest of the passage suggests a will firmly under control. [Probably the implication is that we are now too hesitant and that we should benefit from acquiring the strong determination exhibited by soldiers in combat.] Ritsema/ Karcher: Purpose doubted indeed. Purpose regulated indeed. Cleary (2): The mind is wavering.The mind is under control. Wu: Hesitation implies doubts in the mind. The perseverance of a soldier indicates a determination to carry out orders.
Legge: Line one is magnetic where it should be dynamic. Her movements are perplexed because she lacks vigor and decision.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man is perplexed and drifts indecisively. A resolute military discipline is required of him.
Wing: Do not be indecisive and perplexed. If you drift about with an undisciplined attitude, nothing can be influenced. Make a decision and stick to it.
Editor: The image is of vacillation, indecisiveness and lack of will. The only remedy is to assume our responsibilities to the Work with the same will and spirit that we associate with the samurai warrior.
Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday. Miyamoto Musashi -- A Book of Five Rings
A. Take a realistic, tough-minded approach to the matter at hand.
B. Indecisiveness, uncertainty, anxiety, confusion.
C. Your question suggests a lack of commitment to the Work.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows that with firm correctness there will be good fortune to its subject. All occasion for repentance will disappear, and all his movements will be advantageous. There may have been no good beginning, but there will be a good end. Three days before making any changes, let him give notice of them; and three days after, let him reconsider them. There will thus be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse vanishes. Nothing that does not further. No beginning, but an end. Before the change, three days. After the change, three days. Good fortune.
Blofeld: Persistence in a righteous course brings reward; regret vanishes, and everything is favorable! A poor beginning, but a good end! The three days before and the three days after a change (now due to occur) are especially propitious.
Liu: Firmness -- good fortune. Remorse disappears. Everything is of benefit. Loss in the beginning, gain in the end. Three days before change. Three days after change. Good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Trial: significant, repenting extinguished. Without not Harvesting. Without initially possessing completion. Before husking, three days. After husking, three days. Significant.
Shaughnessy: Determination is auspicious; regret is gone; there is nothing not beneficial; there is no beginning, there is an end. Preceding the geng day by three days, following the geng day by three days; auspicious.
Cleary (1): It is good to be correct; regret vanishes. There is all-around benefit. There is no beginning, but there is an end. The last three days of the lunar cycle and the first three days of the lunar cycle are auspicious.
Cleary (2): Correctness leads to good fortune; regret vanishes, none do not benefit.
There is no beginning, but there is an end. The three days before a change and the three days after a change are auspicious.
Wu: Perseverance brings good fortune. Regret has gone. Every undertaking will be advantageous. The beginning may be rough, but the end will be great. It will be auspicious between three days before the change and three days thereafter.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The good fortune is owing to his correct position in the center. Wilhelm/Baynes: The place is correct and central. Blofeld: That we shall enjoy good fortune is indicated by the correct position of this line in the center of the upper trigram. Ritsema/Karcher: Situation correctly centered indeed. Cleary (2): Its position is correctly balanced. Correctly balanced. Wu: The position is correct and central.
Legge: Ch'eng-tzu says that line five is the seat of honor for the lord of the hexagram, from whom issue all charges and commands. It is central and correct and exemplifies the qualities of the figure in the highest mode. These qualities are docility and conformance to what is right, and the advantage of firm correctness is insisted upon. With this, all will be right. Compare the concluding image with the Judgment of hexagram number eighteen, Repair.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Continued integrity on the part of the man compensates for his poor beginning. However, prior to the change the man needs to ponder carefully. After the change, he needs to check his results.
Wing: If you wish to accomplish your aims and change the situation, you must continue your vigilance and influence. Although the beginning has problems, the end will bring good fortune. Yet even after the change is made, you should periodically evaluate the results.
Editor: If this is the only changing line, the hexagram becomes number eighteen, Repair, or Work on What Has Been Spoiled, the Judgment of which is nearly identical to this line. This suggests that the penetration involved in the matter at hand is concerned with the rectification of a past error. The key ideas in the line are: Firm correctness brings good fortune: Willpower is the cornerstone of the Work. Poor beginning vs. good end: Describes a sequence of events in which a situation is improved over time -- a process of repair. Three days before/after: A turning point, a moment of choice or decision which is consciously monitored. (This one-week sequence is a useful timetable for natural birth control: i.e., celibacy three days before, during, and after the calculated day of fertility. Obviously, willpower is essential for success.)
But as when an authentic watch is shown,
Each man winds up and rectifies his own,
So in our very judgments.
Sir John Suckling
A. Well-considered action, carried out with firm intent, will correct an earlier error and create the conditions for beneficial change.
B. You have perceived the problem -- now rectify it.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows penetration beneath a bed, and its subject having lost the axe with which he executed his decisions. However firm and correct he may try to be, there will be evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Penetration under the bed. He loses his property and his ax. Perseverance brings misfortune.
Blofeld: Crawling below the bed. [This symbolizes exaggerated submission, servile humility, etc. Apparently, we have been guilty of this fault.] He loses what is required for his traveling expenses -- persistence brings misfortune!
Liu: Wind under the bed. He loses his wealth. Continuing leads to misfortune. [This line indicates possible loss or sickness.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Ground located below the bed. Losing one's own emblem-ax. Trial: pitfall.
Shaughnessy: Calculations are under the bed; losing his goods and ax; determination is inauspicious.
Cleary (1): Obedient under the floor, one loses one’s resources; even if faithful, there is misfortune.
Cleary (2): The obedient are below the platform. Losing resources and tools, it is proper that there be misfortune.
Wu: He acts so agreeably as if he were under the bed. He loses his means of supporting and protecting himself. Even with perseverance it is foreboding.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Though occupying the topmost place, his powers are exhausted. Though he tries to be correct, there will be evil. Wilhelm/Baynes: At the top, the end has come. Is this right? It brings misfortune. Blofeld: This top line indicates exhaustion of all possibilities. Losing his traveling expenses presages certain misfortune! Ritsema/ Karcher: Above exhaustion indeed. Correcting reaching a pitfall indeed. Cleary (2): Above there is an impasse. It is proper that there be misfortune. Wu: He has reached his limit. It is definitely foreboding.
Legge: The evil that line six concludes with arises from the quality of gentle penetration being carried to excess.
Anthony: Sometimes a diligent search for the hidden enemy reveals nothing specific. In getting this line, we should let go of the search. In sincerely seeking, our attitude has been corrected of careless overconfidence; that is enough.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man appreciates the underlying problem and traces the injurious influence to its ultimate origin. However, he lacks the power to overcome it and is hurt in the process.
Wing: By attempting to penetrate all the myriad possibilities of the situation, you have dissipated the energy to influence. Great understanding means little without decisive action. Negativity can no longer be prevented.
Editor: As in line two, "penetration" is comprehension, and "beneath a bed" suggests the unconscious realms of the psyche. "Penetration under the bed" is an attempt to understand the unknown. An axe is a metal cutting instrument with associations in common with the sword and arrow: that is, the discriminating mental faculty; intellect, scientific method, etc. To lose one's axe is to be without the ability to differentiate the components of an unknown situation. The line implies that you are asking questions beyond your capacity to understand; or you are asking the wrong questions; or the oracle is tired of your importunate questioning entirely: the "gentle penetration is being carried to excess." In the latter case, we are reminded of the Judgment in hexagram number 4, Inexperience:"I do not seek the inexperienced youth, but he seeks me. When he shows the sincerity proper for divination, I instruct him. If he asks two or three times, that is troublesome, and I do not instruct the troublesome."
Some (schools) claim that the way to enlightenment consists in holding dialogues with the archetypes, fantasy figures of the objective psyche, surrounding yourself with the personified projections of your mind in the form of "higher selves" and "inner guides." ... The "new age" optimism and superficiality of those who reduce the dark mysteries of Jung's Gnosis to the shallow level of their own limitations are apt to make people into the victims of the very unconscious they tend to treat so lightly. Those who naively wish to use the archetypes for their personalistic ends will be made subject to their cruel tyranny. S.A. Hoeller -- The Gnostic Jung
A. You are fumbling in the dark.
B. Confused thinking or compulsive speculation cripples intuition.
11 Peace
Other titles: Peace, The Symbol of Successfulness, Prospering, Pervading, Greatness, Tranquility, Prosperity, Conjunction, Major Synthesis, Hieros Gamos, Holy Marriage, "Yang supporting yin and going to meet each other. Good prospects for a marriage or partnership." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Harmony shows the inferior departed and the great arrived. There will be good fortune with progress and success.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Peace. The small departs, the great approaches. Good fortune. Success.
Blofeld: Peace. The mean decline; the great and good approach -- good fortune and success! [In the following hexagram (Divorcement), where the trigrams symbolize heaven and earth in what would appear to be their normal positions, that arrangement is held to be disastrous; whereas here, where they seem to be upside down, everything is propitious. This may be because heaven above earth is held to imply that the two are existing separately without the intercourse which is the root of all growth; whereas here their intercourse is so absolute that heaven is actually supporting earth.]
Liu: Peace. The small is departing, the great is arriving. Good fortune. Success.
Ritsema/Karcher: Pervading . The small going, the great coming. significance Growing. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of prospering and expanding. It emphasizes that continually spreading this prosperity through communicating is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Greatness: the little go and the great come; auspicious; receipt.
Cleary (1): The small goes, the great comes. This is auspicious and developmental.
Cleary (2):Tranquility … Getting through auspiciously.
Wu:Prosperity shows that the small stays outside and the great stays inside. It will be auspicious and pervasive.
The Image
Legge: The intercourse of heaven and earth -- the image of Harmony.The wise ruler models his laws upon the principles of heaven and earth, and enforces them for the people's benefit.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Heaven and earth unite: the image of Peace. Thus the ruler divides and completes the course of heaven and earth; he furthers and regulates the gifts of heaven and earth, and so aids the people.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes heaven and earth in communion. [The component trigrams illustrate the kind of close intercourse just alluded to. This is surely the only way of depicting it under the circumstances, for any mingling of their component lines would produce quite different trigrams having no reference to heaven and earth.] It is as though a mighty ruler, by careful regulation of affairs, has brought to fruition the way of heaven and earth. In harmony with the sequence of their motions, he gives help to people on every hand.
Liu: Heaven and earth are unified, symbolizing Peace. The ruler reforms and completes the way of heaven and earth; He observes the appropriate methods of heaven and earth to direct the people.
Ritsema/Karcher: Heaven and Earth mingling. Pervading. The crown-prince uses property to accomplish Heaven and Earth's tao. The crown-prince uses bracing to mutualize Heaven and Earth's propriety. The crown-prince uses the left to right the commoners.
Cleary (1): When heaven and earth commune, there is tranquility. Thus does the ruler administer the way of heaven and earth and assist the proper balance of heaven and earth, thereby helping the people.
Cleary (2): … So as to influence the people.
Wu:Prosperity results from the interaction of heaven and earth. The king uses the wealth of the nation to achieve the ways of heaven and earth and to support their designs, so as to bring the sentiments of the people to the center.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Harmony shows the union of heaven and earth, and all things consequently united -- high and low, superior and inferior are all in accord. The lower trigram is made up of dynamic lines, and the upper of magnetic lines: strength is within, devotion is without; the superior man is inside and increasing, the inferior man is outside and decreasing.
Legge: The Judgment refers to the structure of the hexagram, with the three dynamic lines below, and the three magnetic lines above. The former are "the great," active and vigorous; the latter are "the inferior," passive and yielding. In many editions of theI Chingbeneath the hexagram of Harmonythere appears hexagram number fifty-four,Propriety, which becomes Harmonyif the third and fourth lines exchange places. A situation in which the motive forces are represented by three dynamic, and the opposing by three magnetic lines, must be progressive and successful.Harmonyis called the hexagram of the first month of the natural spring, when for six months the forces of growth are in ascendance.
Canon McClatchie translates: "The Image means that heaven and earth have now conjugal intercourse with each other, and the upper and lower classes unite together."
Ch'eng-tzu says on the Image that a ruler should frame his laws to operate like the seasons, so that the people exist within the structure of a natural rather than an arbitrary order.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Harmony depicts the waning of egotistical illusions and the waxing of true potential.
The Superior Man allows his inner virtue to rule the psyche.
Without changing lines, Harmony suggests a fruitful union of opposites and consequent state of balance in the matter at hand.
Wilhelm translates the opening phrase of the Confucian commentary as: "Heaven and earth unite." Blofeld renders it: "The celestial and terrestrial forces have intercourse and all things are in communion with one another." Legge has already called attention to McClatchie's version of: "Heaven and earth have now conjugal intercourse with each other."
This image is one of the most universal symbols produced by the human psyche: the sexual union of Spirit and Matter (heaven and earth). This is the hieros gamos or holy marriage of alchemy, the union of Shiva and Shakti in Hinduism, the conjoined male and female deities in tantric Buddhism, the syzygies of Gnosticism and the union of heaven and earth in the Kabbalah.
The notions of the couple and the sacred marriage held a very important place in ancient Chinese religious thinking. Every sacred power was twofold, male and female; but since only one half of the sacred couple was generally enclosed in any one sanctuary, the ritual was directed at reconstituting the whole... The complete being is male and female; since most men neglect or repress their feminine nature, they are out of balance; their male aggressiveness comes to the fore, and their whole vitality suffers. There can be no true Holiness without a prior revitalization of femininity. M. Kaltenmark --Lao Tzu and Taoism
Psychologically, the condition pictured by this hexagram is a metaphor for a high state of integration within the psyche. Here it is described in alchemical and Jungian terminology:
The hermetic vessel is oneself. In it the many pieces of psychic stuff scattered throughout one's world must be collected and fused into one, so making a new creation. In it must occur the union of the opposites called by the alchemists the coniunctio or marriage... (This union), in psychological terms corresponds to man with his feminine soul, the anima, or to a woman with her masculine counterpart, the animus -- the union in each case constituting the inner marriage, the hieros gamos by which the individual must become whole. M.E. Harding --Psychic Energy
To receive this hexagram does not necessarily mean that one has attained such a high integration, but it might indicate a step in that direction. The ultimate hieros gamos only occurs after all of the scattered and mismatched forces within the psyche have been brought together in correct alignment -- in I Ching terms, when all of the lines are in their proper places with proper correlates as imaged in hexagram number 63, Completion. Until this final union there are innumerable "lesser" conjunctions which must first take place -- a fact recognized in tantric yoga:
The final goal of the tantricist is to reunite the two contrary principles -- Shiva and Shakti -- in his own body. When Shakti, who sleeps, in the shape of a serpent, at the base of his body, is awoken by certain yogic techniques, she moves through a medial channel by way of the chakras up to the top of the skull, where Shiva dwells, and unites with him. The union of the divine pair within his own body transforms the yogin into a kind of "androgyne." But it must be stressed that "androgynization" is only one aspect of a total process, that of the reunion of the opposites. Actually, Tantric literature speaks of a great number of "opposing pairs" that have to be reunited. Mircea Eliade -- Myths, Rites, Symbols
The establishment of the " Kingdom of Heaven on Earth" is yet another metaphor for this process of psychic unification. Here is the Kabbalistic version:
It is by the establishment of the celestial on the terrestrial, or of heaven upon earth, that the house of the King (humanity) will become united and the King will rejoice thereat, for then the two kingdoms will become one and then the new and living way will become opened to those who make themselves susceptible and receptive of the Higher and Diviner life... When these two worlds become united and blended together they are symbolized by the union of the male and female, the one being the complement of the other. The Zohar
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Legge points out that many editions of the I Chingassociate hexagram number fifty-four,Propriety, with this figure. What do the changing third and fourth lines ofPropriety imply about the role of the ego in the Work? The traditional name forPropriety is "The Marrying Maiden" -- how does that relate to the concept of the holy marriage in Harmony? Compare the Judgments and Images of the two hexagrams and the role of the superior man in each. Note also the lesson implied when lines two and five in Harmony unite to make hexagram number sixty-three, Completion.