涣
GUA 59 · HUAN
SCATTERING
Overall Image (大象)
The wind passes over the water
Scattering
The early sovereigns, accordingly, made offerings to the divine
and founded ancestral shrines▼
Overall Image (大象)
The wind passes over the water
Scattering
The early sovereigns, accordingly, made offerings to the divine
and founded ancestral shrines
The wind moves over the water, passing the moisture around throughout the climate, bearing a myriad aeroform seeds, with hopes of life to continue in far distant lands. The wind fills the sage’s sails as well, as it carries his little boat over great waters, as a great spirit once moved, back when it all began. Trusting in that which endures, he will sow his wisdom into the wind. Risking all for everything, he rises into the higher states of existence, turning his life into example, his example into a teaching, into a dharma. To survive in the long run means making friends with the boundless. This will mean changing his state, planting viable seeds, and a temple when he can.
Main Judgment (Scattering) (卦辞)
Fulfillment
The sovereign approaches his temple
Worthwhile to cross the great stream
Worthwhile to be dedicated▼
Main Judgment (Scattering) (卦辞)
Fulfillment
The sovereign approaches his temple
Worthwhile to cross the great stream
Worthwhile to be dedicated
The sovereign prepares to go beyond, to learn of a greater glory, to leap beyond the limited. His ancestor’s message, his story, is heard across the ages. His own will be one day as well, carried on by the memory of life. Friends might reach out to friends across the great stretches of time, from thousands of years and cultures away. Life will distribute its life, as evolution diversifies forms. It will change some things into others. Life is not diminished thus: the web grows tighter and stronger, ecosystems gain depth. But communing with these higher powers, with the forces that encircle the world and carry themselves down through the ages, will in some way demand our surrender, some degree of change in ourselves so complete that we might not be recognized later. A little pond turns itself into a cloud to cross the desert’s expanse. The teacher survives the dark ages by becoming a couple of stories. The sovereign is carried by the memory of his reign. As a single flower becomes a thousand seeds, this life will soon be gone: into every niche it can find and take hold in. Thus we can reappear in many places at once. A kind of informed light was all that we ever were.
Key Words (关键词)
Distribute, disperse, disseminate, propagate, dispel, diffuse; to broadcast, as seed▼
Key Words (关键词)
Distribute, disperse, disseminate, propagate, dispel, diffuse; to broadcast, as seed
Dissociate, disincorporate, sublimate, dissolve, dissipate, rarify, diversify, expand The mystic’s truth, reintegration with a higher unity, ecstasy, surrender, embrace Changes of state: melt, dissolve, evaporate, evanescence; subtlety, metasolutions Disintegrate, reintegrate, a breakup or breakdown of structure; reunion, salvation Transcendence, metamorphosis, sublimation, opening up, letting go, going to seed
Structure & Connections
Structure Class
Kan-Li Family
This classification indicates the hexagram's role in the 12 Sovereign Cycle (Earthly Branches) or its structural family.
Astrology
note:Third House, Mutable Air, Gemini
element:Air
Tarot
card:The Lovers
suit:Trump
Qabalah
note:Zain; Path between Hod and Tipareth (Trad: Tp-Bn)
The Lines
11st • YangRely on assistance
The horse is powerful
Promising▼
1
1st • YangRely on assistance
The horse is powerful
Promising
59.1x First six holds promise:
(In) acceptance
Reaching beyond our selves and our own resources is our first movement into the greater world. Surrender to higher powers and forces is frightening to young egos, so the next state above and beyond this is made to look more familiar. The forces which heal or aid us are totems with animal powers, or medicines which embody an animal’s special gift. The one who will save us from human error looks human too, except for transcending error. Paths are set forth for the newly arrived. But most of us will not soon outgrow them. When we need strength, endurance and power, why not reach into dream time and ride a totem horse? Piglets would perceive the divine as infinite food and mud. Fishes would see this as water. Humans, as all we could wish for, or someone to set us some limits. We will have what we are ready to have.
22nd • YangScattering, then hurrying to one’s support
Regrets pass▼
2
2nd • YangScattering, then hurrying to one’s support
Regrets pass
59.2x Scattering, (then) hurrying to one’s support:
To secure the hopes
He has a little idea of how the universe works. Invoking often has helped him get used to some other perspectives. He still rubs his thing for good luck; his idols are well-fed and shiny. When troubled, he needs but call out to his long-dead savior. He has so much security now, how will the next step be taken? Truth is too alien still, and inhuman. Because truth is so very much more than human, humans will band or huddle together and make sure that this part of truth is not seen. Artifice and artifact, steps, altars and tables, numbers and letters, words and ideas, become the ultimate stuff of the world. Trees are illusions, as is anything created more than a few days before us. What a small world we build here for fewer regrets! Illusory trees reach out for more world, up for more fire and air, down for water and earth.
33rd • YangScattering one’s sense of self
No regrets▼
3
3rd • YangScattering one’s sense of self
No regrets
59.3x Scattering one’s sense of self:
The purpose lies beyond
He defies the toxic ideas that say to explore no further, and is setting himself aside to learn of a few more perspectives. Much of the search for truth is done from one point of view, a confusion of transient entities known as the self. Moving through time, this point becomes a thread or a path. Traced through space, threads become fabrics and paths become fields. Sometimes this will show order and sometimes a tangled mess. Within this, where are the boundaries, where are the limits of self? We reach into family and race, into species, order, phylum and kingdom, into the stuff of the earth and the stuff of the stars. But this is only what we are if we can keep ourselves fed. That all is one is not the end. It is only a better place to begin. Can we, should we, break open our heads, and let this larger world come through?
44th • Yang(Fan Yao* 06.4: unable to contend, take up a higher purpose)
Scattering those groups
Most promising
Scattering claims the high ground*
This is not commonplace thinking▼
4
4th • Yang(Fan Yao* 06.4: unable to contend, take up a higher purpose)
Scattering those groups
Most promising
Scattering claims the high ground*
This is not commonplace thinking
59.4x Scattering those groups (is) most promising:
Exemplifying maturity
He will not dissolve in dissent or one side of the issue. There isn’t a set of beliefs which doesn’t leave something out, or defend itself against some part of the truth. Human belief is parochial, it is narrowed to local objectives. To dissolve into this is never a perfect solution. One with higher standards will be on his own, lost first in his own best interest, or maybe a higher purpose. The eclectic mind discriminates, yet every source may be resource: the fool on the box in the park, or the nut with the net chasing faeries. Much of use or value might be found printed backwards, between lines, or even turned inside out. This does not make it worthless. To pick and choose only the best and move on with the highest grade ore, affiliate lightly, understand deeply, embrace opposites and paradox: this is mind’s higher ground.
55th • YangEvanescent as sweat
And that great cry for help
Scatter the royal stockpiles
Nothing is wrong▼
5
5th • YangEvanescent as sweat
And that great cry for help
Scatter the royal stockpiles
Nothing is wrong
59.5x The royal stockpiles, (yet) nothing (is) wrong:
(With) the proper dignity
After only a few generations, the steady state of things cannot hold. An end time has arrived, the focal point collapses. No institution is able to resist the changes forever. The king abides in his feverish sweat, his cries carried off by the wind, the change of state from solid into liquid and gas has begun, a newer state of relief, taking out heat in the process. The timing is perfect for falling apart, for allowing it all to go. The world does not have to end here, only a human-made structure. If the king has some grace and dignity left, he may give a few final commands and open the doors to the granaries, and maybe the door to the vault. If ever he envied that fellow who lives in the forest, aimlessly tracking up virgin terrain, now is the best time to go. Disaster, or childhood’s end? Mulch and some seeds still remain. Give it to time.
6Top • YangDispersing one’s hot-bloodedness
Getting distance
Far away to reappear
No blame▼
6
Top • YangDispersing one’s hot-bloodedness
Getting distance
Far away to reappear
No blame
59.6x Dispersing one’s (hot-)blood(edness):
Removed from suffering
Some say it is living to steam up with passion, to burn oneself up with high heat, to bleed much and often, for this means that they have made contact. And yet it is this, not staying away from trouble, which will leave them numb and thick-skinned. Passion is much more fun when it gets to choose where and how it plays, but this might mean cooler hearts and minds, with plenty of air, wind and distance to take away some of the heat of hot blood. Those emotions wrongly called strong become vapor and steam: this is the best way for them to get carried away. Resentment and jealousy, anger and fear: detachment from these is not anesthesia, it is staying away from entanglements and unenlightened activity. The climate is rich with alternative states to explore. In some of these, angst and suffering are but voluntary endeavors.
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 59 begins on Page 414-422.
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