Southwest advantageous. Northeast not advantageous.
If you have no direction to go, the return will come.
If you have a direction to go, begin at daybreak.
Wise Words! The Way opens. Put your ideas to the Trial.
Solve problems, untie knots, dispel bad feelings and liberate blocked energy. Don’t go back to the security of your old group. Beware of dwelling on the past, holding grudges, wasting energy. Complete unfinished work and stabilize the situation in an optimistic, calm and equitable way.
The Image
The old character shows an animal’s horn, a knife that cuts it free and an instrument made from horn used to untie knots and loosen nets.
Circle of Meanings
Solve problems, untie knots, dispel sorrows, release blocked creative energy; explain, understand, analyze, detach, untie, scatter; sexual climax, fever breaking; liberation, freed from the suffering of the past. Containing your fear and impulse now brings a liberating awareness of the whole. Heart Theme: 63 the ongoing process of change.
Spirit Helpers
Thunder above the Ghost River. Eldest Son and Middle Son, the Groundbreaker and the Navigator, are beginning a new time in the outer world while the old is dissolved within. Release things from tension and use the new energy that it makes available. Untie knots, dispel sorrows, solve problems and understand motivations. Do not struggle on alone (northeast). If you have nothing to do, wait for the energy to return. If you do, then do it now. Joining with others (southwest) will bring profit and insight. The way to achievement is open. Wash the slate clean and enjoy your new freedom. You can gather the crowds around you. Heaven and Earth loosen things through thunder and rain and the seeds of all plants burst forth. This is a great time.
Voice of the Mothers
Release the energy now bound up in the past. Untie knots, dispel sorrow, forgive and forget. Containing your fear and impulse now brings a liberating awareness of the whole. This is a time of flourishing personal recognition (35). Do not focus on disentangling from old influences (25).
Jie, Deliverance releases the Rouser who frees us from difficulties, the emergent Dragon released from the river of ghosts. It is a critical moment, an opening in time that combines release and good augury or blessings, an exorcism at the city walls. The root of the word is horn: the horns of a sacrificial victim, a horned instrument to undo knots, the rhinoceros-horn wine cup used at the River Mountain festivals, the one-horned beast that attacks evil-doers, the cornucopia. It represents a juncture, a point of insertion or critical point when the inner work is done, the sacrifice is accepted and the blessings flow. It signifies escape, release, the loosening of the trap, released from the knot or noose of a hostile fate. It is dissipating melancholy, awakening from illusion, fever breaking, satisfying natural needs, opening communication and sexual climax when inhibited forces are set free and the blessings shared. The word was used to describe release from the body, liberation through spiritual practices and becoming an Immortal, a Sage who perceives through the bright spirits and is thus liberated from compulsion and fear.
Winter (40): Find the seed of the new by freeing creative energy from past patterns. Be vigorous. Talk to your trusted advisors. You are in the right position. Move slowly.
Spring (54): Rouse new growth by leaving the old ways behind. Stay in your new group. Seek real alliances. Let yourself be led. Things may look dangerous, but have no fear. Everything you want is there.
Summer (38): Ripen the fruits. Do not worry over what seems gone. Don’t take chances. Stay clear and connected.
Fall (64): Harvest the crop by letting the past dissolve. Celebrate your accomplishments. Start slowly. Join with others. This begins a new time.
Voice of the Fathers
This is a Realizing Figure and a Heart Theme of Change. It is a Transition from our struggle to found an individual dwelling, family and career to the stage of the Symbolic Life that confers higher levels of empowerment in culture and a new ritual status on the fully individualized being.
The Situation: The successful resolution of a serious problem and return to normal functioning.
Caring for Others: Re-establish routine practice through objective agreement. Systematize family practices to provide for natural contingencies of increase and decrease. Treat the new situation as experimental and find working balances.
Setting Intentions: Let the new routine run in gently. Do not force the pace. Monitor results over time and adjust energy levels. The objective is to maintain a condition of general recovery.
Communication and Interaction: Develop an atmosphere of congenial cooperation. Forgive and forget past differences. Communicate the new mood as quickly and effectively as possible.
Change from the Inside Out: Continue with established projects. Your creative judgment is not quite stable, so avoid making intuitive assessments and acting on them now. Anything requiring vigorous new energy should be avoided. Let things stabilize before seeking new support. Establish equitable relationships. Any efforts at presentation or persuasion should be kept simple and straightforward.
- Immediate Future: a chronic problem dissolves.
- Personal Development: use clear insight to free yourself from old patterns.
- Working within the Family: find an image to unlock the prisons of the past.
- Expanding the Circle: Stabilize and progress in an equitable way.
- Partnership: let go of grudges and prepare the new.
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 Realizing phase of this Pair.
The transformative process of the Pair 39:40 Difficulties and Deliverance develops the insight to let go of heroic striving and the energy to move with change.
Outer to Inner: The process shifts the Navigator trigram from the outer world of 39 to the inner world of 40. This turns your struggle to manage the flux of events into an inner containment of fear and impulse.
Inner to Outer: This interiorisation transforms the Gatekeeper trigram in the inner world of 39 into the Groundbreaker trigram in the outer world of 40. This turns 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
Deliverance. This is not a mistake.
Act on your plans. You are in the right position. Difficulties are going, ripeness and abundance are coming. Talk to those who can connect you with what is great. Now is the time to put things in order. If you let yourself be led you can realize your hidden potential. Co-operate with the ongoing process of change. (54 Marrying Maiden)
You catch three foxes in the fields and acquire a yellow arrow.
Wise Words! Trial: The Way is open.
You can catch the forces that seem to be threatening you and acquire the power to act decisively. Though you are in the midst of great difficulties, have no fear. New partners will soon be there to help you. A hidden creative force is tearing through the obstacles to find you. Do not even complete the day, for the limits you set yourself are turning you to stone. Gather energy for a decisive new move. (16 Providing For)
He bears a burden yet rides in a carriage.
This attracts outlaws in the end. Trial: Distress.
You are tied to a false position, acting above or beneath yourself. Who you are trying to impress? Is it really worth it? If you go on like this you will be covered in shame. You think the world is against you but actually you are beating your head against a brick wall. Have no fear. Hidden friends are following you and your sorrows will soon disappear. Stabilize your heart and fix the real gift you have been given. Be resolute. You are connected to a creative force. (32 Persevering)
Outer World
Loosen your thumbs. Partners will come in the end.
Splitting apart brings a connection to the spirits that will carry you through.
Deliver yourself from your current connections. Do not keep chasing what you want. New friends will come after a time of loneliness. Have no doubt. Just wait calmly and the whole situation will reverse itself. Strip away the old and you will truly have cause to rejoice. Something significant is returning. (7 Legions)
The Realizing Person’s tether is loosened. Wise Words! The Way opens.
There is a connection to the spirits that reaches the Small People.
If you are truly committed to what you are doing you will be delivered from the constriction you feel. Hold fast to what you believe. Talented people without a leader will feel this and come to your aid. The difficulties you are facing are not your fault. You are held in an oppressive net of responsibilities by a corrupt authority while everyone seeks their own ends. Seek out the hidden and bring it to light. Your patience and inner work will be rewarded. Step outside the norms and re-imagine the situation. Gather energy for a decisive new move. (47 Confining/Oppression)
The prince uses this to shoot a hawk on a high rampart above.
He catches it. There is nothing that is not advantageous.
You can capture the forces opposing your plans. Have no fear. You will eliminate a highly placed enemy who is oppressing you. Difficulties are going, praise and ease are coming. Though you feel cut off, resist the temptation to simply push your way through. Open yourself to new thoughts and your frustrations will disappear. Your patience and inner work will be rewarded. Gather energy for a decisive new move. (64 Not Yet Crossing)