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25 Disentangling WU WANG

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Disentangling. The Source of Success: an Advantageous Trial. If you do not correct yourself there will be blunders. Then it will not be advantageous to have a direction to go.

Use the great potential of this time to nourish everything involved. Don’t try to advance yourself. Beware of secret designs and seeking personal advantage. Use ideas that come naturally, inspired by a positive attitude towards others.

The Image
The old characters are the names of two demons, one that haunts abandoned tombs and one that that spreads physical and psychic disease. They show a person exerting himself against an obstacle in vain and a woman with a poisonous womb.

Circle of Meanings
Disentangling from negative emotions: lies, deceit, disorder, mania and disequilibrium; pure, spontaneous, unplanned, unexpected, freed from confusion; exorcism, purification. Heart Theme: 53 Gradual Advance to the symbolic world.

Spirit Helpers
Thunder below Heaven. Eldest Son and Father, the Groundbreaker and the Creator, are rousing inner potential that reflects real spiritual patterns. This is a time to disentangle yourself from disorder, compulsion and vanity. If you do not get caught up in things, you can act spontaneously and confidently. Free yourself from anger, lust, hatred and greed. You gain the capacity to act directly. This can begin a new time. If you do not correct yourself, you will continually make mistakes through ignorance and faulty perception. Then nothing you do will be of any use. Action now is inspired by the spirit of Heaven. If you act in this spirit, step by step, success will be your fate. If you become entangled and lose the connection, how could you do anything right?

Voice of the Mothers
Disentangle yourself from negative emotions and ghosts of the past. If you do not correct yourself you will keep making the same mistakes. Accepting the shock of inner enlightenment now lets you connect your actions with the spirit. Adorn your house with new beauty (22). Do not focus on personal deliverance (40).

The term “wang, entanglement” means succumbing to perverse influence or disease, being without order or rule, crazy, vain, the compulsive or afflictive emotions, something twisted, perverse, abusive and cruel. It suggests the wang demons, the deadly ghosts that haunt old tombs that carry contagious diseases, plague, miasma and drought as well as the exorcisms and purification rituals used by the Wu or Intermediaries to drive these demons out. Disentangling, wu wang, suggests the ways to maintain that freedom from affliction, a state of balance and purity that is the image of an originating connection with Heaven. Such a state of regained innocence lets you act spontaneously, deal successfully with what comes on the stream of time and attract and welcome the unexpected as a gift from the spirits. It refers to the nei yeh or Inner Way and the Sage Person or Sage Mind at its center. The meditative practices of the Inner Way are concerned with correcting and are designed to calm, tranquilize, rectify and free the body and the mind in order to restore a state of neutrality and alignment with Heaven. This allows energy and breath to circulate freely. It enables a person to collect energy and move with Heaven, disentangled from the emotions of greed, anger, desire and ignorance.

Summer (25): Ripen the fruits by clarifying your purpose. Be open to the unexpected. Collect the energy and insight to start anew. Have no fear. Success is assured.
Fall (12): Harvest the crop. You feel cut off, but have no fear. The hard time is ending. Search out your true friends.
Winter (45): Find the seed of the new by speaking out about where you are and what you want to do. Change your attitude. Serve your highest ideals. Gather energy for a decisive new move.
Spring (17): Rouse new growth by applying your experience to the ongoing project. Do not resort to previous methods. Correct past mistakes and you can open the way for everyone involved.

Voice of the Fathers
This is an Inspiring Figure, part of the Sacred Sickness Pathways that connect personal disorders with cultural change. It is an experience of the Centers of Power in the stage of the Symbolic Life that centers on initiation, finding a relation to culture and the search for an image of the deeper self.

The Situation: Re-examine motives and act from the real desires of the heart.

Caring for Others: Natural, spontaneous action untainted by greed will bring success in any project you are contemplating. Let your natural ability emerge and be seen. Do not plot, plan or calculate effects.

Setting Intentions: Good intentions will find support. Anything you begin in this spirit has a very good chance of both short and long term success. If people are doing what they are meant to do, results will come naturally.

Communication and Interaction: Be honest and your actions will resonate in unforeseen ways. If you believe what you hear, support it fully. If not, offer no support. Your first impressions are likely to be the most reliable. Trust them.

Change from the Inside Out: Do not be indecisive. Trust your judgment. Make sure your efforts bring real benefit. Be prudent and fair in all negotiations. Beware of negativity and over caution. Seek support

  • Immediate Future: many old problems re-emerge. 
  • Personal Development: liberate your creative spirit from old thoughts.
  • Working within the Family: do not let your own issues contaminate this time.
  • Expanding the Circle: act from your heart now, not for gain.
  • Partnership: stay clear with each other. Act from a loving, trusting heart.

Pairing: Bringing Change to Life
Each hexagram is part of a Pair that that activates hidden paths of transformative energy through the interaction of the trigrams or Spirit Helpers, connecting phases of Inspiration and Realization. You are in the Inspiring phase of this Pair.

The transformative process of the Pair 25:26 Disentangling and Great Accumulates helps you free yourself from old cultural patterns and accumulate the great wisdom of the past.

Outer to Inner: The process shifts the energy of the Creator trigram from the outer world of 25 to the inner world of 26. This turns your creative activity in the outer world into inner perseverance.

Inner to Outer: This interiorisation transforms Groundbreaker trigram in the inner world of 25 into the Gatekeeper trigram in the outer world of 26, turning   inner enlightenment into the ability to perceive patterns that mark real ends and beginnings.

Transforming Lines

Mothering Change presents Transforming Lines as Steps of Change that show you where and how to focus your energy. Click on the links to connect with the Relating Figure generated by each line.

Inner World

Step 1 Beginnings: This return of the spirit attracts a new fate.
An unexpected encounter.
Wise Words! Go on, the Way is open.
What looks like an unfortunate incident may turn out to be heaven’s highway. Take vigorous action to find those with whom you belong. The walls of the old city are falling now, but this distress is a message from the center. Do not use force. Collect the energy and insight to start anew. Gather energy for the decisive new move. (12 Obstruction)

Step 2 Inner Center: This inner re-organization leads to harmony with others.
They don’t till, but they have a harvest.
They don’t clear the land, but have fields to plant.
Advantageous to have a place to go. Harvesting.
If you realize what this time means, all your plans will succeed. Smooth the way from the shadows. You have a hidden connection that binds you to others. Empty your mind of immediate goals. Supportive friends will soon arrive. Step out to meet the new destiny.  You can confront and disable a powerful and malevolent opponent. Gather energy for a decisive new move. (10 Treading)

Step 3 Threshold: This inner re-balancing lets you make your way in life.
Someone has tethered cattle.
If the moving people take them, it is the capital people’s disaster.
If you stay where you are, this is a disaster. Go into retreat and prepare a countermove. This may isolate you, but in the end you will definitely succeed. Accumulate the strength to carry heavy loads and confront difficult situations. Unite with others for a common goal. You are coupled with a creative force. (13 Harmonizing People)

Outer World

Step 4 Arrival: This inner preparation leads to what is greater.
Disentangling. An enabling trial. This is not a mistake.
Go through with what you contemplate. The center of life is moving, so pursue your goals. You will soon find a real friend and lose a false one. The hardship you confront will be advantageous in the end. You can disentangle yourself from past mistakes. Be open and provide what is needed. (42 Augmenting)

Step 5 Outer Center: This inner re-grouping lets your real purpose shine.
Disentangling from an unexpected affliction.
If you do not use medicine you will soon rejoice.
Though you may be in pain, do not treat it literally. Treat it spiritually and you will soon have cause to rejoice. Bite through the obstacles to union. You are carrying something valuable. Have patience. These goings and comings will release the energy now bound up in the past. Step outside the norms and re-imagine the situation. Gather energy for the decisive new move. (21 Biting Through)

Step 6 Culmination: This inner stripping leads to a breakthrough.
It is a blunder to make a move now.
No advantageous direction.
You have followed this path as far as you can. It is time to face the corruption of the past. Dedicate yourself to your highest ideals. Step out to meet your new destiny. Gather energy for a decisive new move. (17 Following)