51, Shock, as relating hexagram

Shock in the background

I’ve been mulling over how Hexagram 51, Shock, feels as relating hexagram. After all, a relating hexagram is often the background to an answer – scene-setting, a personal theme, the chapter heading for this part of your life. How does something as abrupt as ‘Shock’ work here?

I’ve found the basic experience of 51 relating is of the ground falling away under my feet. Of course – as with any hexagram in any position – this can happen on different scales. It could be a complete existential collapse, or something narrow and specific, like technology not behaving as expected. Only the basic ‘shape’ of things is consistent: what you imagined this all rested on isn’t really there. Your next step might be onto solid ground, or then again it might not.

(It’s worth remembering that Shock means not only thunder but also earthquake.)

The Oracle of Hexagram 51 paints a very vivid emotional picture:

‘Shock, creating success.
Shock comes, fear and terror.
Laughing words, shrieking and yelling.
Shock spreads fear for a hundred miles.
Someone does not lose the sacred ladle and libation.’

I think this falls into two parts: the fear and terror, shrieking and yelling, spreading ripples of panic on the one hand; the one who does not lose the sacred ladle and libation, on the other. So you’re both in the centre of the panic, and also – perhaps – you could be the one who holds to enduring truth and isn’t infected by the prevailing headless-chicken-itis. Can you be in the midst of the upheaval without losing touch with the essential?

Single lines changing to 51

Six hexagrams are just one line away from Hexagram 51…

Hexagram 16, line 1

‘Enthusiasm calling out,
Pitfall.’

How does Enthusiasm work with Shock? Not well, apparently. From the readings I’ve seen, this ‘calling out’ tends to be a reaction to shock or insecurity – more headless chicken, not much sacred ladle. The calling out comes without considering the whole picture, or without full understanding; sometimes this is just loud self-expression without listening. (Shock can follow, too, when reality catches up!)

There are also a few readings where I think Yi was using this line to criticise an unconsidered question, especially one that neglected the querent’s own agency.

Hexagram 54, line 2

‘With one eye, can see.
A hermit’s constancy bears fruit.’

This one seems (also from experience) to be most about the aftermath of shock, and often more gradual subsidence than outright earthquake. What would the marrrying maiden’s shock be? Surely having it fully sink in that her standing is not what she might have thought it would be – or your position in this relationship is not what you expected. (I’ve had it a couple of times when I was expecting to be given credit and status for work, and instead saw it erased. Very bad for the ego!)

But this is a second line, in the inner centre – unlike line 1, which is more likely to be an unmediated/instinctive reaction. There’s the possibility here to continue on your own way, by your own lights, and not be disrupted. I think the hermit is a close cousin of the priest who doesn’t lose the ladle.

Seeing with one eye, you’re not completely unaware – though you can’t see everything; the hermit up his mountain isn’t aware of everything going on in the valley. (And that could be a useful reflection in itself…) But you can see enough to go on your way, self-possessed, internally rather than externally motivated.

Hexagram 55, line 3

‘Feng is flooded with darkness
At midday, seeing a froth of light.
Your right arm broken,
Not a mistake.’

The readings I’ve seen with this one provide good examples of the variety of scale in readings: from a website going down to a loss of sanity. What follows is confusion, disorientation, bewilderment: Shock striking in the midst of Abundance, at Feng, where there is a lot going on. Here you are in the middle of it all, and incapacitated: unable to do anything about it at all. And apparently this is no bad thing – which makes sense if you remember 16.1. Inaction has to be better than a blind, kneejerk reaction.

The example the Sorrells give for this line in their I Ching Made Simple is of getting into financial trading and finding themselves ‘in over our heads’. That’s a good choice of language, as there’s actually a lot of water imagery here: Feng is darkened, but with a word that also means heavy rainfall; at midday you see dimly, but with a word that also means foam; both characters contain the radical for ‘water’. And the name of Hexagram 51 itself includes ‘rain’.

Hexagram 24, line 4

‘Walking in the centre, returning alone.’

The Shock isn’t evident in the moving line text here, but it’s clear enough in reading experience. People are often dealing with disquiet in the aftermath of shock – such as finding yourself unemployed. As Mousse wrote in Shared Readings, “For months, I’ve been totally lost and unsure about what to do with my life.” That seems to sum it up well.

Walking in the centre – with two broken lines one each side of it – this line is in a resonant relationship with 24’s solid first line, and so it need not ‘follow the crowd’. Instead, there’s a process of waking up to your own inner voice, as life is gradually brought back into good order – like the Image of Hexagram 51:

‘Rolling thunder. Shock.
A noble one in fear and dread sets things in order and is watchful.’

Hexagram 17, line 5

‘True and confident in excellence.
Good fortune.’

Again, there’s no Shock apparent in the line itself, but plenty in experience. At line 5, it shows up differently – often as the recurrent disturbance that makes it harder to stay on track. (The I Ching Community archives have two readings with this line for people who were focused on staying sober, and two for people trying to follow a creative path.)

The world at large is not designed to be helpful: you need to keep your own grip on the ladle, holding fast to your own self-respect. The word for ‘excellence’ has two components: a phonetic element meaning ‘place on, confer on, add to’ and a drum – which makes me wonder whether I should be hearing the |:: |:: of Hexagram 51 as the drumbeat.

Hexagram 21, line 6

Looking back through the ‘story so far’…

16.1 seems disconnected from the real world, calling out without listening; 54.2 has limited insight but retains self-direction; 55.3 is similarly limited, but without mistake – maybe even because it can’t act. 24.4 walks in the midst of it all but rediscovers its own way, and 17.5 holds fast to what is praiseworthy no matter what.

The pattern that emerges for me is of being in the middle of the action, but still going your own way – internally, not externally motivated, despite everything that’s going on around you. It’s that basic ‘shape’ of Hexagram 51: spreading panic and someone not losing the ladle – except that your own way is not always necessarily the best idea. 21.6, for instance…

‘Shouldering a cangue so your ears disappear.
Pitfall.’

… takes that theme of being internally, not externally motivated to the wrong extreme when it stops listening.

Punishment, in Hexagram 21, isn’t supposed to be a shock: it’s meant to be understood. That’s why the ancient kings brought light to punishments, why inner thunder translates into outer light. Only this can’t happen if you can’t listen, as often seems to be the case with this line. (My most recent journal entry for 21.6 describes it as a moment of being ‘punch drunk’, unable to take more in – and sure enough, disastrously missing the point.)

Reflections and examples

So here’s 51 relating: coping with insecurity, with uncertainty, and trying to find self-determination anyway. ‘Coping with uncertainty’ might sound like relating hexagram 4 – Not Knowing – or 29 – Repeating Chasms, and there are some similarities.

Hexagram 4 also isn’t certain and would really like to be – but it doesn’t have 51’s deep insecurity, and it does have a place to stand and a way to find out (if not as much or as fast as it would like). With 51 relating, that feeling of having no solid ground underfoot can be overwhelming.

Hexagram 29 is also floundering in the emotional depths, but it’s more in the dark than 51. With 51 going on, you probably know exactly where you are (unemployed, or homeless, or dealing with someone emotionally volatile) – you just have no idea what might happen next.

Hexagram 2 changing to 51 shows this very simply and directly:

‘Treading on frost,
Hard ice is arriving.’
‘Tied up in a bag.
No blame, no praise.’

The signs of the times are clear and immediate, crunching underfoot; the contents of the bag are unknowable.

Of course, if understanding it all now is vital, you’re in trouble – as in 21.6, and also as in 62.1.3 to 51:

‘Bird in flight means a pitfall.’
‘Not going past, he defends himself.
Someone following may strike him down.
Pitfall.’

Small exceeding demands that you meet the reality: listen to the bird, get the message. This doesn’t easily happen in a state of Shock, and so you end up both with 51’s panic (line 1) and missing the essential / losing the ladle (line 3). Being in the midst of it 62 without complete connection doesn’t go well.

(I received this one many years ago when asking about recurrent episodes of gastric upset – which had me thoroughly 51-d as I’ve always been ridiculously healthy. I was flapping about, following pet theories, cutting back on wheat and sugar – and only realised much later, after a bout that laid me out for a week, that this was actually food poisoning from raw milk.)

Overall, 51 relating seems to mean a fine balancing act is required between awareness of present reality and truth to one’s own path. Take 49.3.5 to 51 –

‘Setting out to bring order means a pitfall,
Constancy means danger.
As words of radical change draw near three times,
There is truth and confidence.’
‘Great person transforms like a tiger.
Even before the augury, there is truth and confidence.’

Line 3 needs time to create connection and confidence with others; line 5 has a tiger’s utterly independent truth and confidence.

This also shows up in line texts as discussion of constancy – see for instance 35.1.6 and 34.2.3, with constancy in different circumstances or with different strategies (nets vs horns!) means different results. Marching (49.3) or charging (35.6, 34.3) ahead regardless through the earthquake zone could be a bad idea – but then so is running aimlessly about trying to dodge the falling masonry.

(Other two-line changes leading to 51, in case you’d like to explore: 40.1.2, 45.1.5, 19.2.4, 58.2.5, 38.2.6, 36.2.4, 22.3.6 and 3.4.5.)

I Ching Community discussion

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