BLOG POST FOR MARCH 28, 2021=9

PASSOVER. FULL MOON. 14* VIRGO in opposition to Venus and the Sun conjunct in Pisces. Today is a #9 day of completion/ending. It is the 28th=10=1 day of the month, a day of new beginnings. A #1 and # 9. The Alpha and Omega. On this day I drew the Chinese hexagram #43 of the I Ching, Kuai/Break-through (Resoluteness). The Heaven (28) Chien is below.  The joyous, Lake, Tui is above. 

This hexagram signifies on the one hand a break-through after a long accumulation of tension, as a swollen river breaks through its dikes, or in the manner of a cloudburst. On the other hand, applied to human conditions, it refers to the time when inferior people gradually begin to disappear. Their influence is on the wane; as a result of resolute action, a change in conditions occurs, a break-through. This hexagram is linked with the third month {April-May}.

THE JUDGMENT

BREAK-THROUGH. One must resolutely make the
 matter known
At the court of the king.
It must be announced truthfully. Danger.
It is necessary to notify one's own city.
It does not further to resort to arms.
It furthers one to undertake something.

Even if only one inferior man is occupying a ruling position in a city, he is able to oppress superior men. Even a single passion still lurking in the heart has power to obscure reason. Passion and reason cannot exist side by side-therefore fight without quarter is necessary if the good is to prevail.

The meaning of the hexagram is based on the fact that a dark line is at the top, in the outermost place, hence the six at the top is the constituting ruler. But the five light lines turn resolutely against the dark one. The fifth line is at their head, and furthermore in the place of honor**; therefore the nine in the fifth place is the governing ruler of the hexagram.
**Bruce was born when the Sun was trine Saturn which means the Soul of Honor. 

THE SEQUENCE

If increase goes on unceasingly, there is certain to be a break-through which means resoluteness.  The strong turns resolutely against the weak. The five strong lines are thought of as mounting from below, resolutely forcing the weak upper line out of the hexagram. The lake has evaporated and mounted to the sky. There it will discharge itself as a cloudburst, the idea of a break-through.

In a resolute struggle of the good against evil, there are, however, definite rules that must not be disregarded, if it is to succeed. 

First, resolution must be based on union of strength and friendliness. 

Second, a compromise with evil is not possible; evil must under all circumstances be openly discredited. Nor must our own passions and shortcomings be glossed over. 

Third, the struggle must not be carried on directly by force. If evil is branded, it thinks of weapons, and if we do it the favor of fighting against it blow for blow, we lose in the end because thus we ourselves get entangled in hatred and passion. Therefore it is important to begin at home, to be on guard in our own persons against the faults we have branded.  In this way, finding no opponent, the sharp edges of the weapons of evil become dulled. For the same reasons we should not combat our own faults directly. As long as we wrestle with them, they continue victorious. Finally, the best way to fight evil is to make energetic progress in the good. 

In forcing out the dark line at the top it is essential that it be done in the right spirit. For the issue of this struggle is not in doubt. What happens is inevitable, therefore a serenely cheerful and calm resoluteness is the correct attitude of mind...But since the situation in itself promises success, there is no need of using weapons against outside forces.

THE IMAGE

The lake has risen up to heaven:
The image of BREAK-THROUGH.
Thus the superior man
Dispenses riches downward
And refrains from resting on his virtue.

When the water of a lake has risen up to heaven, there is reason to fear a cloudburst. Taking this as a warning, the superior man forestalls a violent collapse. For all gathering is followed by dispersion. Therefore the superior  man begins to distribute while he is accumulating. In the same way, in developing his character he takes care not become hardened in obstinacy but to remain receptive to impressions by help of strict and continuous self-examination.

THE LINES

Nine at the beginning.

In times of resolute advance, the beginning is especially difficult. We feel inspired to press forward but resistance is still strong; therefore we ought to gauge our own strength and venture only so far as we can go with certainty of success. To plunge blindly ahead is wrong, because it is precisely at the beginning that an unexpected setback can have the most disastrous results.

Six at the top means:

Victory seems to have been achieved. There remains merely a remnant of the evil resolutely to be eradicated as the time demands.  Everything looks easy. Just there, however, lies the danger.  If we are not on guard, evil will succeed in escaping by means of concealment, and when it has eluded us new misfortunes will develop from the remaining seeds, for evil does not die easily. So, too, in dealing with the evil in one's own character, one must go to work with thoroughness. If out of carelessness anything were to be overlooked, new evil would arise from it. This line is representative of the evil that is to be rooted out. The undertaking requires caution; its kind must not be tolerated; otherwise it is to be feared that from the neglected solitary yin line, evil will sprout forth as from a seed.

THE FOLLOW UP HEXAGRAM is #44 Kou/COMING TO MEET. Great indeed is the meaning of the time of COMING TO MEET...Thus it is an important time, the time of the meeting of the light with the dark.