#hexagram 58

I Ching Hexagram 58 – Tui / The Joyous, Lake

My Comment: Today’s energies are so unusual and remarkable that I was moved to consult the I Ching. The first hexagram was thunder over thunder (#51) with two changing lines. The transformed hexagram is then #58, lake over lake, joyous over joyous. I find the English translation of Wilhelm’s original text of Tuiso uplifting that I am posting it for…

Great inspiration: Joy within, joy without, Balanced and correct.

6 Insubstantial joy, flattering and cajoling. Most unenlightened.

5 Bringing joy to the fallen, your sincerity inspires right action.

4 Deliberating brings about unease. Release. Be independent.

3 Pretensions of joy: a smiling face hides inner hollowness. Dismay.

2 Joyful and sincere, confident now in your aims. Regret vanishes.

1 Joyful harmony, no selfishness, no doubt. Greatly auspicious.

Lake over Lake; Joy over Joy. There is little agreement about meanings concerning this Hexagram. The general sense is of joy in companionship, of shared exchange. This notion is derived from the image of joined Lakes replenishing one another. A slightly more  deliberate historical reading finds the military image of the salient — a small force of armed men breaking through an enemy’s battle line. Such an exercise may bring victory from stalemate or, often as not, become a suicide mission for the fool-hardy warriors who break rank.

The lines, consequently, show an oddly equivocal series of responses. Joy, the youngest daughter, to my mind bears an undercurrent of insubstantiality; she is far too easily swayed by the opinions and expectations of others. When she manages some independence — lines 1, 2, and 5 — there is legitimate joy. Otherwise: pretension, forced happiness, the saccharine smile of the flatterer.

Great inspiration: Joy within, joy without, Balanced and correct.

6 Insubstantial joy, flattering and cajoling. Most unenlightened.

5 Bringing joy to the fallen, your sincerity inspires right action.

4 Deliberate joy brings about unease. Release. Be independent.

3 Pretensions of joy: a smiling face hides inner hollowness. Dismay.

2 Joyful and sincere, confident now in your aims. Regret vanishes.

1 Joyful harmony, no selfishness, no doubt. Greatly auspicious.

Lake over Lake; Joy over Joy. There is little agreement about meanings concerning this Hexagram. The general sense is of joy in companionship, of shared exchange — a notion reinforced by the image of joined Lakes replenishing one another. A slightly more  deliberate historical reading finds the military image of the salient — a small force of armed men breaking through an enemy’s battle line. Such an exercise may bring victory from stalemate or, often as not, become a suicide mission for the fool-hardy warriors who break rank.

The lines, consequently, show an oddly equivocal series of responses. Joy — the youngest daughter — to my mind bears an undercurrent of insubstantiality, far too easily swayed by the opinions and expectations of others. When she manages some independence — lines 1, 2, and 5 — there is legitimate joy. Otherwise: pretension, forced happiness, the saccharine smile of the flatterer.