Every hexagram can be said to have a ‘nuclear hexagram’, formed by taking its inner lines and ‘unfolding’ them. From the original hexagram’s lines 123,456, you build a new hexagram with 234,345. The effect is like a seed germinating, and the nuclear hexagram’s often interpreted as a latent potential within… Read more »The family of Hexagram 37
Email from John: “I was wondering why someone such as the host of ‘Useless Tree’ would ask such large questions as he does. Isn’t it better to ask such questions so as to influence events to promote the general benevolence?” It’s a reasonable question, and I’ll send Sam Crane a… Read more »Why ask political questions?
Sam Crane has a great Taoist blog, the Useless Tree, where he’s branching out into I Ching divination – it looks as though he’s making ‘Friday I Ching blogging’ a regular thing. At the beginning of August, he asked: Will the six party talks on North Korea succeed? Yi says:… Read more »I Ching on international politics
Hexagram 37, People in the Home, defines a safe space. Within it we can find our place with one another, and become confident enough in our own identities that we can eventually reach out beyond its walls.
The first line of the hexagram sets up those all-important walls:
‘With barriers, there is a home.
Regrets vanish.’
It’s a very clear line: walls create a home; they separate ‘inside’ from ‘outside’, so there can be a secure, close-knit group within. In readings, this line very often points to the need to set limits, to have ground rules, without which there can be no mutual understanding. Fences, as Wu Jing Nuan comments on this line, make good neighbours.
