乾
GUA 01 · QIAN
CREATING
Overall Image (大象)
Heaven moves inexhaustibly
The noble young one, accordingly,
is naturally energetic, without rest▼
Overall Image (大象)
Heaven moves inexhaustibly
The noble young one, accordingly,
is naturally energetic, without rest
Heaven and heaven only, in motion as always, and at least twice as great as anyone thought to think. And forever is only half spent, so things could go twice this far. Life’s little part in forever is heaven evolving to learn of itself, a great work indeed, and a lifetime of great work wants a lasting supply of power, with strength to create and not merely endure. We things and selves are too finite and humble to have this. To team up with the power that drives the stars is to feed on nature’s momentum, to move with nature’s inertia and thus to act in accord with the time. True sorcery uses this source, but the power even to know this requires both patience and sense.
Main Judgment (Creating) (卦辞)
The greatest fulfillment rewards persistence▼
Main Judgment (Creating) (卦辞)
The greatest fulfillment rewards persistence
Many would make this out to be some magical formula. It begins our sacred text, and so it cannot be simple. First-rate satisfaction is not a thing to wish or pray for. This is not so mysterious: life’s most rewarding moments express higher powers: they follow sustained hard work, come along with persistence and repay dedication. Power is the tempo of change, power does work, and work is even its measure. A dragon is what dragon does, not just what he wishes and dreams he could be. And much is given to dragons, including the power to fail in spectacular ways. At the source, where a self is simply a short lived nexus of forces and choices, where causes get knotted up for a while, the earth’s humble network of entities, including its highest gods, are no more than little children, reaching out to know. Life seems driven in just one direction, out of and over itself, and into the untried. The highest offering, the greatest sacrifice, might be to give back some of these lives to make a better world, to make it sublime, as the sun lifts the water into the clouds. The purpose or plan to all this is life’s art, and even divine force learns as it grows.
Key Words (关键词)
Higher purpose, self-actualizing drives, autonomy, calling, vocation, star quality▼
Key Words (关键词)
Higher purpose, self-actualizing drives, autonomy, calling, vocation, star quality
Sovereignty, command, self-mastery, dragonhood, genius, authority, cogency Diligence, drive, lasting energy, enduring vigor, persistence or duration in time Higher orders, design, innovation; co-authoring with the infinite, dynamic life Positing, originality, initiative; sublimation, sunlight transforming water to vapor Perspective from outside of humanity, attunement to higher rhythms & purposes
Structure & Connections
Structure Class
Sovereign Gua, 4th Moon (May)
This classification indicates the hexagram's role in the 12 Sovereign Cycle (Earthly Branches) or its structural family.
Astrology
note:Uranus in Air
planet:Uranus
element:Air
Tarot
card:Two of Swords
suit:Swords
Qabalah
note:Chokmah in Yetzirah
sphere:Chokmah
The Lines
11st • YangLurking dragon - not at all useful▼
1
1st • YangLurking dragon - not at all useful
01.1x - Lurking dragon - not at all useful:
The light remains below.
As beings from four dimensions and more, the young dragon knows things that young humans do not. Patience and restraint, for example, while feeble as forces, are mighty as powers, since to act at the wrong time is just as defective as acting in wrong directions. What luck that there is so much to do before learning to fly, so much to consider and contemplate still. Ages pass as dragon seed, ages more as an egg, with no more to show than two meter’s height and a couple of cracks in the shell. But one does not challenge a sky so full of stars on little pink wings. This is not indecision. What to do is implicit and latent. It is still the wrong place and wrong time. To try not to be the wrong dragon is enough of an effort for now. Who would want to be this dragon or even put him to use gets to use power to wait.
22nd • YangDragon appears in the field
Rewarding to encounter a mature human being*▼
2
2nd • YangDragon appears in the field
Rewarding to encounter a mature human being*
01.2x - Dragon appears in the field:
Merit’s reach (is) extensive
When you want to grow into adulthood, it is good to live and learn among peers. When you want to grow to potential, it is wiser to seek out those more advanced. How many of these you can find will measure that potential, in degrees of humility. With so much to learn, so much to not reinvent, and so much to unlearn only later, all held as treasure by culture, the young dragon searches the fields of his choice, adding horizons, models and new points of view, becoming exposed and familiar, allotting much of that long span of years simply to learning all of the basics: of fluid and aerodynamics, of eclectic method, of the words and deeds of ancestral dragons, what they have done, and failed to do, having the sky for a limit. Most knowledge will be second hand, for even the purest of selves is made of what others can offer.
33rd • YangA noble young one,* throughout the day, creating, creating
By nightfall looking frightful
A struggle
Not an error▼
3
3rd • YangA noble young one,* throughout the day, creating, creating
By nightfall looking frightful
A struggle
Not an error
01.3x Throughout the day, creating, creating:
Turning (and) returning (is) the way
The young dragon ends yet another full day with long hours under the night lights, poring over the tomes and glyphs, deciphering cryptic runes, hunting for something greater than himself, getting to know the big limitations, feeling less than immortal, learning the star routes by heart, forward and back, while his visions of how far there is yet to go deepen much faster than progress he makes. The air and the aura around this noble young one begins to crackle with essence and power. The young dragon teases the web of the scheme of all things, testing the intricate fabric of space time, in search of the greater ripples and warps, in search of optimum points of departure. Persevering was so very easy in theory, but much work has come before great work. There will be a test, where a valiant attempt at an ignorant flight might be fatal.
44th • YangSomehow to dance across the deep*
With no mistakes▼
4
4th • YangSomehow to dance across the deep*
With no mistakes
01.4x Somehow to dance across the deep:
To make progress is not a mistake
The shaman drinks his brew, spreads his feathers, steps to the edge of the known, to dance into higher realms. The brave young dragon stands at the edge of the cliff, facing this rite of passage one way, his white-knuckled talons scarring the rocks, preparing to leap from aerial theory to practice, now two different things at long last. To gain the abyss will mean to let go of that clawhold completely. The wind will be no easy thing to take hold of, until reaching dangerous speeds. But here is the only control to be gained, the wind becomes the master: the only conquest comes from obeying the facts. No wavering will lift this beast, much less beast and his baggage, so lightening up should help. And never miss half the point by failing to look down. There can be no half measures here, in fact, as there are no real dragons in theory.
55th • YangDragon in flight across the sky
Rewarding to encounter a mature human being▼
5
5th • YangDragon in flight across the sky
Rewarding to encounter a mature human being
01.5x Dragon in flight across the sky:
The mature human being creates
Heads turn as one to the sky, as the hopes of the masses below are carried up high by potential fully expressed. A wide recognition inspires the young ones to follow, if example were the point of it all. Yes indeed, from above they all look like bugs, and like bugs they may think this sky has been conquered. But above and beyond all of this is only the wind in your ears, screaming, then singing, then silent. Beyond gravity, in the cold and crystalline sky, we have met the darkness between the lights, the deep night no dragons will conquer, the humility only the great ones can grasp. What do you really command from up here? Only your own, a view, an attitude, whatever you need to accept all the rest. And little else, but that can be so much. Lesson and example are one: high up is halfway home. Triumph is in the landing.
6Top • YangArrogant dragon will have regrets▼
6
Top • YangArrogant dragon will have regrets
01.6x Arrogant dragon will have regrets:
Excessiveness is not suited to longevity
He is proud to be a dragon and he has every right to be so. He takes life beyond. Selfishness, pride and ambition, maligned though they may be, are not flaws or sins. Doing them badly is wrong, or stupid at least, and from this they get a bad name. And when pride starts to worship the self, that which is other more readily kills. Turning success into failure is just not fitness. Superior beings have further to fall. The dark, vast night has two moral lessons for us: to think about how large we are, and to love what we can while we can. The eons of a dragon’s span are not eternity. The little hops between the stars are not infinities. The earth, even in hand, is only a lucky, wet rock, among many. A master of existence knows nothing of Nothing. Life’s true home is humility: it does not belong in this sky until it can laugh at itself.
7Using • YangObserve a group of dragons - without a leader
Promising▼
7
Using • YangObserve a group of dragons - without a leader
Promising
01.7x Using Nines:
Heaven’s nature is not about playing the leader
Playing, adopting and following leaders are games played first by young children, and by the time they are grown, they play them so badly they injure themselves. Because it is their way, it must be the way the universe runs. The mightiest force in existence must be just like human kings. The small and feeble, too-human mind has things all backwards again. The story is not about them, or who created what, or who put all of the galaxies there, to light our way so poorly at night. One who spends time above has seen bigger pictures than this. In the grand scheme of things, and only a short time from now, humankind will be gone, whether to bones and dust or into better descendants. Breaking open the mind, who wants to live for what lasts will look beyond what the short sight will see. Creation is that which survives us.
Reference in Original Text & Resources
This content is derived from Bradford Hatcher's THE BOOK OF CHANGES: Yijing, Word By Word.
Original text for Hexagram 1 begins on Page 64-73.
Help improve this resource
Spot a typo or have a suggestion? We'd love to hear from you.