Three of Wands

The energetics of the Three of Wands is the launching of a new venture, the opening up of a young system to multiple new inputs, enriching stimulation, where adding seems more like multiplication. It’s an energy gradient for living systems to feed on. The circulation of energy scrubs, clarifies, and organizes the system (or the self) through which it flows. As it does, so it becomes new and applied information. Things working themselves out tend to learn and follow their natural inclinations. As input is broadened, so is the effect. While positive feedback is not always to be desired, motion builds on motion here, and enrichment on enrichment. We learn best by doing, and the lessons learned just seem to work themselves out without micromanagement. A new or growing enterprise may under way. Business and commerce can be understood both literally and metaphorically here. What is suggested and even recommended (and in the corresponding Yijing Gua) is free market economics, free trade, open-door policy, classical liberalism, loosened external constraints, and the invisible hand. But lest there be confusion, this is absolutely distinct from modern corporate capitalism, where the laws, trade agreements, subsidies, and governments are purchased on the cheap and enacted to serve a top heavy and stratified economy. This is a far less corrupt, more dignified approach to business: expanding horizons, exploring possibilities, exploiting opportunities, growing in vision and influence, and simply responding to demand with supply. There is no reason that this cannot be accompanied by conscience, which is normally a casualty of unfair interference and the artificial manipulation of market signals relating to supply and demand. But expansion doesn’t necessarily mean growth, and growth in finite systems isn’t always a positive thing. It’s often better to substitute development, improvement, or refinement. Free minds are the close analogs of free markets. They will capitalize, by way of broad-mindedness, on the free speech and inquiry in the marketplace of ideas. They thrive on sunshine and openness. The free exercise of liberty is by far best teacher we have. As we work out our chosen destinies, we learn to be accountable for our actions, and we unlearn the worth of blaming others. We learn from the risks we are willing to take. We can learn not to touch the stove or the fan in theory, but the freedom to touch might lead us to learn it indelibly. Legal prohibition only drives behavior underground and into the shadows, to organize crime. The censorship and distortion of information diminishes our understanding of reality. Sunshine, fresh air, and transparency are, for the most part, only unfriendly to pathogens. The Yijing counterpart is Gua 35, Advance or Progress, and uses the rising sun, or daylighting, for its central metaphor. It refers to the free circulation of free energy, both its liberation and its capture. The analogies and their benefits extend to the commerce in interpersonal energy, to social activity, and to the learning of moral and ethical behavior. This is the card’s common association with character and virtue as a fiery or Wands force. With tolerance, we live and learn to let live. Right is the reciprocal and the complement of duty: my right to speak my mind is also my duty to let you speak yours. We learn this by interacting and exercising our freedoms, not by being told by a leader, preacher, or book. Full accountability means that we are responsible for how this world runs and that people get the government they deserve. Our world is not the sum of all of our actions: it’s the sum of each of our actions. The fire and the sovereignty is in the individual. The expansive or extensive thrust of the Three helps to make this contagious. Victims must learn to unite and take down their own bullies all by themselves, and until that day, the bully will rule. But permission sometimes must be taken, not merely begged for. Energy needs to risk itself to learn and understand, as either the air or the wings must be moving before a bird can change its course, or as a boat must be in motion before its rudder will work.