U

31 Conjoining XIAN

U

Conjoining. Make an offering and you will succeed.
Advantageous Trial. Embrace the woman. Wise Words! The Way opens.

Connect what belongs together. Don’t diminish your involvements. Get rid of personal ambition and accept all the people. Beware of bigotry, prejudice, small-mindedness. Be original and let the unexpected play a prominent part. Give credit where credit is due.

The Image
The old character shows an ax cutting into a sacrificial victim and a hidden mouth, the spirit’s response to the sacrifice.

Circle of Meanings
Excite, stimulate, influence, mobilize, trigger; a strong attraction that brings together what belongs together; an influx of spirit, a sacred landscape.   Heart Theme: 44 Coupling with a new fate.

 

 

Spirit Helpers
Lake rests on the Mountain. Youngest Daughter and Youngest Son, the Mediator and the Gatekeeper, create stimulating ideas that articulate an inner field. This is an influx of energy that triggers you into action. Reach out and join things, allow yourself to be moved. This influence excites you into action, an attraction or sudden surge of energy that brings together what belongs together. This is the attraction between the sexes and between spirit and human. Understand this power and feel its influence. Act through the receptive and the feminine and put your ideas to the trial. Conjoining is the way the world is made. What you feel now is the sign of something great. It can give you a way to order your heart and move the hearts of others. This is how beings give birth and how the sages move people’s hearts. Through this you can see what moves the hearts of everything in Heaven and Earth.

Voice of the Mothers
This is an influx that triggers you into action. Hold the empty center. Let yourself be moved. Reach out and join things that belong together. Inner self-restraint now gives you the ability to express the spirit in the human community. Confront difficulties by empowering others (3). Do not focus on driving forward alone (34).

Conjoining is an image of the sacred sites and River-Mountain paradises where the spirits dwell, where the Intermediaries call the Bright Spirits that unite and support the people. It portrays the Xian chi, the Pool at the base of the Sun Tree where the new sun is bathed and sets out on its journey. The root of the word is heart, the heart moved and moving, an image of the attraction and union of contraries – man and woman, human and spirit – an influx or inspiration that stirs deep wellsprings of feeling.  The term also means “to influence, to join with, to feel an influx,”   a physical sensing of spirit moving in the body that doubles the sacred landscape. This is the way of the Wu or Spirit-Intermediaries who call the spirits and set out their omens for others. Another variant of the term refers to cutting or opening the sacrificial body to reveal how Heaven and Earth influence the hearts of the myriad beings. The central injunction is to embrace the woman and the yin, to submit and be moved. This is the contrary to heroic striving.

Winter (31): Find the seed of the new by contemplating what comes next. Don’t try to do too much, too soon. You will find the way to what is great. Bring together what belongs together.
Spring (49): Rouse new growth by stripping away old ideas and patterns. Accept the hard work. Change with grace and elegance. Stay right where you are and the answers will fall into your hand.
Summer (13): Ripen the fruits. Join with others. Overcoming the obstacles will bring real success in the end.
Fall (33): Harvest the crop by restraining your enthusiasm. Hold back at first. Stay focused. Move forward carefully.  Have no fear.

Voice of the Fathers
This is an Inspiring Figure and a site of intense mediating activity that connects the primary powers to personal life. It is part of a Zone of Radical Transformation, a Great Transition when individual experience is transmuted into words that carry to a new generation. It is a Gate to the second half of life and the stage of the Symbolic Life when we struggle to found an individual dwelling, family and career.

The Situation: A time of potential connection and resonance between disparate parties.

Caring for Others: Communication is the key to growth and expansion. Create an open and friendly field for negotiations. Take the initiative and reach out to those you would usually consider smaller or weaker. Be willing to listen to unusual or seemingly insignificant ideas. Remember that power and wisdom are not always the same thing.  Do not blindly follow precedent and policy.

Setting Intentions: Don’t overestimate your strength. Be careful about drawing conclusions. There’s something missing. You need intuition, use listening to find it.

Communication and Interaction: Create a congenial atmosphere. Be sensitive with feedback. Seek more than formal agreements.

Change from the Inside Out: Growth is possible. Be flexible and open to new approaches. Keep a modest profile and let your actions speak more than your words. Provide all the information you can in order to gain support. Unusual interactions can succeed if you follow your intuition.

  • Immediate Future: a new inspiring influence enters your life.
  • Personal Development: re-unite the separated parts of your soul.
  • Working within the Family: mobilize hidden creative energies.
  • Expanding the Circle: seek unusual connections. Be receptive.
  • Partnership: be open to each other. Your relation will change profoundly.

Pairing: Bringing Change to Life
Each hexagram is part of a Pair that that activates the 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 31:32 Conjoining and Persevering develops the power to join what is separated and make it an enduring part of your life.

Outer to Inner: the process transforms the Mediator trigram in the outer world trigram of 31 into the Matchmaker trigram in the inner world of 32. This turns your need to express yourself in public into inner self-cultivation.

Inner to Outer: This interiorisation transforms the Gatekeeper trigram in the inner world of 31 into the Groundbreaker trigram in the outer world of 32. This turns your inner self-restraint into a liberating awareness of the whole.

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.
It conjoins your big toes.
You feel the first stirrings of creative desire. The influence is just beginning. It will change the way you see your life. Begin the inner journey. Beware of trying to see too much, too soon. You are coupled with a creative force. (49 Skinning/Revolution)

Step 2 Inner Center: This inner re-organization leads to harmony with others.
It conjoins your calves. Trap! The Way closes.
Wise Words! Abide in the dwelling and open the Way.
Do not get swept off your feet by this powerful influx. A hasty move now will lead to nothing but trouble.  Stay right where you are and you will soon have what you want. You are surrounded by omens of rebirth and beauty.  Act through the receptive, not the aggressive. All cause for sorrow will disappear. You are coupled with a creative force. (28 Great Transition)

Step 3 Threshold: This inner re-balancing lets you make your way in life.
It conjoins your thighs. Hold on to your following!
Going on brings distress.
You are in danger of becoming obsessed by this influence. If you go on running after it you will be covered in distress. Every time you try to gather the people for a great project it will end in lamentation. Give this sort of effort up. Let go of the past and focus on your real ideals. There is no game in the field for you now. Open your heart to the new spirit. Gather energy for a decisive new move. (45 Gathering)

Outer World

Step 4 Arrival: This inner preparation leads to what is greater.
Trial: Wise Words! The Way is open. The cause of sorrow disappears.
You waver back and forth, “going and coming.”
Partners will simply follow your thoughts.
This is a very favorable influence. You go back and forth in your thoughts trying to understand it. Have no fear. Friends will be there to help you. Express your aims and desires. Difficulties are going, the connection is coming. Release yourself from your sense of burden and your desperate need for privilege. Step outside the norms. Gather energy for a decisive new move. (39 Limping) 

Step 5 Outer Center: This inner re-grouping lets your real purpose shine.
It conjoins your neck, moves along the spine. No cause for sorrow.
This is a very deep connection that will endure over time. You are feeling the beginnings now. The shrouding clouds bring no rain yet but the hidden connection is made. Be flexible and adapt. Identify with the mothers and the servants, not the fathers and leaders. Do not be afraid to act alone. You are coupled with a creative force. (62 Small Traverses/Flying Bird)

Step 6 Culmination: This inner stripping leads to a breakthrough.
It conjoins your jaws, cheeks and tongue.
This influence inspires you to burst forth in passionate speech. It may not last long. Though you can give voice to what inspires you, there is greater fertility in staying in retreat. Do not try to set others in order or launch an expedition. The energy is there but it must be nurtured. If you set forth now you will fall into the abyss.  You are coupled with a creative force. (33 Retiring/Retreat)