Skinning. Your own day. There is a connection to the spirits.
Source of Success: an Advantageous Trial. The cause for sorrow disappears.
Get rid of obsolete ideas. Regulate your calendar to reflect the changes. Do not keep things hidden. Beware of going to extremes, violent or partisan attitudes. Adapt existing resources to new ends by addressing fundamental needs.
The Image
The old character shows an animal skin with horns attached, stretched on a frame of branches.
Circle of Meanings
Peel away the old, overthrow, revolt, renew; a radical change in culture, a time when you can strip away the old and let new life emerge. Accepting inner guidance now gives you the ability to express the spirit in the human community. Heart Theme: 44 Coupling, the entrance of a new fate.
Spirit Helpers
Fire in the Lake. Middle Daughter and Youngest Daughter, the Visionary and the Mediator, create a transformative inner awareness that melts away obsolete ideas. Skin away all that has grown old and useless so that new life can emerge. Wait for the right moment to act. When the moment arrives, act with confidence. Radically change basic ideas and the way things are presented. Overthrow what has grown corrupt or decadent. Your doubts and sorrows will disappear. This is your moment. You can inaugurate a new time. Reject old quarrels and bad memories. Present yourself in an entirely new way. Your doubts and sorrows will vanish. Yield to and serve this great time when the world around you is renewing itself.
Voice of the Mothers
Strip away the old and let new life emerge. Reject the decadent and renew the Way. Wait for the right moment to act. Accepting inner guidance now gives you the ability to express the spirit in the human community. Attend on the spirit and wait for the right time to act (5). Do not focus on preparing yourself for the call (16).
Touching the source of life in the common people creates the need to renew the time. Ge, skinning shows a time of revolution: Fire in the Lake: Change Heaven’s Mandates. It suggests animal transformations, a snake changing its skin and the annual changes of form all animals were thought to undergo. It focuses on ritual transformations that occur as the Wu, the technicians of the sacred, put on the animal masks to call the spirits and change the time. These ritual dances occurred at Spring’s Beginning (New Year) when the Fang-xiang or exorcists dressed in bear skin and wearing a bear mask with four golden eyes would drive out the spirits of the old year, pushing them over the edge of the world into renewal and change. At this time the people, too, wore animal masks; men dressed as women, men and woman came together and the things of the old year were destroyed. Everything moved into the liminal state and the Moon Goddesses were called on to read the Changes. Perhaps the most dramatic and secret of these rituals were the dances and ceremonies that led up to melting the metals to cast the new Vessel or Ding that is the founding sign of a new dynasty or a noble house. In the time of skinning the basic images of our lives go into flux and renewal through that mysterious quality called Change. We cooperate with this by skinning away what is past and done with and challenging our old ideas and experiences to enter the new time.
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 by joining 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 carefully. The creative energy is there.
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.
Voice of the Fathers
This is an Inspiring Figure, a key site on the Sacred Sickness Pathways that connect personal disorders with cultural change. It is a Transition from the time of empowerment in ritual and culture to the stage of the Symbolic Life when we must deal with the proper exercise of power and our responsibilities to the human community.
The Situation: A great and long awaited change is taking place.
Caring for Others: This is a change that can restore equilibrium and answer a real need. See the whole before making the first move. Bringing your thoughts into line with the new time calls for far-reaching reorganization. Concentrate on core changes and be decisive. Do not be caught in details.
Setting Intentions: Identify key needs and the means to meet them. Move with the change. Draw your own conclusions and forget about the experts. Concentrate on core changes and let residual issues take care of themselves.
Communication and Interaction: Be direct and honest. This is no time for secrets. Be clear and do not doubt.
Change from the Inside Out: Change your basic stance and implement new ideas. Stick to your plans. Expect cooperation from new sources.
- Immediate Future: expect radical change and prepare to move with it.
- Personal Development: strip away old patterns that block your real power.
- Working within the Family: bring hidden creative energy to expression.
- Expanding the Circle: have a clear vision and implement changes.
- Partnership: time to shed the old and reveal the new.
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 49:50 Skinning and the Vessel develops the freedom to let old grief depart and the courage to grasp renewal.
Outer to Inner: The process transforms the Mediator, the outer world trigram of 49 into the Matchmaker in the inner world of 50. This turns your need for public expression into inner self cultivation.
Inner to Outer: This interiorisation shifts the awareness and clarity of the Visionary trigram from the inner world of 49 to the outer world of 50. It turns accepting inner guidance into the ability to find real directions in life.
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
Tightly secured in the yellow bull’s skin.
You are held tight and cannot move for now but the inner work is going on. Feel the spirit moving and search for the vision of the new. Give it an enduring place in your heart. Do not be afraid to act alone. You are connected to a creative force. (31 Conjoining)
This is your own day, so Skin it!
Wise Words! Chastising opens the Way. This is not a mistake.
This is your time. You can change the world. Take vigorous action. Bring it out, even in adversity. Your new destiny will tumble down from above. Announce it. Be resolute and part from the past. You are connected to a creative force. (43 Deciding/Breakthrough)
Chastising closes the way. Trap!
Trial: Adversity, the hungry souls and angry ghosts.
When the Skinning words pass round three times,
you will be connected to the spirits.
This is not the time to discipline others. You are facing danger with roots in the past. Let go of simply adapting and release the power of your experience. If you co-operate with corrupt authorities now you will be swept away with them when the great change comes. Proceed step by step. Gather energy for the decisive new move. (17 Following)
Outer World
The cause for sorrow disappears.
There is a connection to the spirits that will carry you through.
Changing Heaven’s Mandate. Wise Words! The Way is open.
This is your day. Act and have no doubts. Eliminate the old negativity. Everything may feel clogged up but have no fear. This is a transformation of your life in the most fundamental sense. Strip away the old. Step out to meet the new destiny. Gather energy for the decisive move. (63 Already Crossing)
The Great Person makes a tiger transformation.
Even before the omens are cast, there is a connection to the spirits.
Let your creative strength be seen. People will recognize you. You have received a real purpose from higher powers. This is substantial, so have no fear. Your enemies cannot harm you. You will soon acquire helpers. Do not be afraid to act alone. You are connected to a creative force. (55 Abounding)
The Realizing Person makes a leopard transformation.
Small People put on a skin mask. Trap! Chastising closes the Way.
Stay where you are. Wise Words! Trial: The Way is open.
Change with grace and elegance. Do not simply put on another mask. Stay where you are and gather the people for the new endeavor. Accept the hard work and your sorrows will disappear. You must overturn things to clear the channels of communication. Step outside the norms and re-imagine the situation. These goings and comings will release the energy now bound up in the past. You are coupled with a creative force. (13 Harmonizing People)