Already Crossing. Act through the Small.
Make an offering and you will succeed. Advantageous Trial.
Initiating things opens the Way. Completing them brings disorder.
Proceed actively. Stay the course. Think about danger and prepare a defence. Beware of blind confidence and over-achieving. Maintain balance and pace. Use your intuition.
The Image
The old characters show a person turning away from a vessel full of cooked food, a flowing river and a shallow place where a river can be crossed.
Begun, already underway, in progress, proceed actively; everything is in place; autumn and harvest, surrounded by danger but secure within. Accepting inner guidance now lets you manage the flux of events. Heart Theme: 64 preparing the decisive new move.
Spirit Helpers
Fire below Ghost River. Middle Daughter and Middle Son, the Visionary and the Navigator, proceed actively. You are in the middle of fording the stream of events. Stay the course. Everything is in its proper place, so make only small moves. Adapt to what crosses your path. If you try to complete this prematurely everything will fall apart. Do not try to bring the process to completion yet. Put your energy at the service of what is underway. Think deeply about the problems and dangers confronting you and evolve strategies to deal with them. You are in exactly the right place, so carry on with the work.
Voice of the Mothers
Everything is in place. Stay with it. Adapt to what crosses your path. Co-operate with the ongoing process of change. Accepting inner guidance now gives you the ability to manage the flow and flux of life. Spread the pervading blessings to all (11). Do not focus on finding the strength you need to realize things (2).
Ji Ji, Already Crossing is part of a group of four figures (1 and 2, 63 and 64) that form the Four Gates of Change, places where the Hidden Winds of the Four Directions enter the human world. The Pair is made up of Fire and Water in maximum integration and suggests all the metaphors of cooking and transforming, a continual creative relation to the process of Change. The Small Fox, a crafty shape-changing animal at home in the dream world presides over this process which is also imaged as a campaign into the Demon Country. The key term ji or crossing means to cross a river at a ford. It suggests the souls and spirits entering the Great Stream, a metaphor for the voyage of life and is the name of one of the four Great Rivers: Crossing the Ji is a metaphor for going to the River-Mountain Festival and for a bride being taken to her husband’s ancestral home. Crossing suggests realizing or achieving something, helping, aiding or rescuing. It adds what is lacking and represents an understanding of what is useful and profitable. Already Crossing evokes the world of autumn and harvest, surrounded by danger but secure within. We are on the voyage, crossing the stream, cooking the food. The situation requires care and attention but there is a correct alignment of force, a stable vessel for inner work of alchemical transformation. All we must do is co-operate with the ongoing process of Change.
Spring (63): Rouse new growth by co-operating with the ongoing process. Do not fall into the traps of the past. You have all you need to go on. It will bring you all you hope for.
Summer (37): Ripen the fruits. Secure your family first, and then seek new alliances. Do not follow the old ways.
Fall (53): Harvest the crop through slow and sure moves. Your difficulties will vanish. Seek advice from those important to you. You are in the right position to achieve everything you have aimed for.
Winter (39): Find the seed of the new by opening yourself to new ideas. Take your time. Let the old dissolve. Everything will benefit.
Voice of the Fathers
This is an Inspiring Figure and a Gate of Change, a site of intense mediating activity that connects the primal powers to personal life and culture. It is an Approach to the final stage of the Symbolic Life, birth into the life of the spirit and the passage across the River of Life and Death where the significance of life is revealed.
The Situation: A time of balance and order in which the new is prepared.
Caring for Others: Complete the work at hand. Pay attention to details. Maintain the pace of things and do not precipitate change. Allow events to carry you forward.
Setting Intentions: Recognize real achievements. Be prudent and prepare for new challenges. Refine things. The demands of the new time will arise out of what you set up in the past. Do not leave important elements unattended. What you accomplish will depend on a continued application of skill and care.
Communication and Interaction: Create understanding in which new possibilities emerge. Focus on excellence of motivation. Analyze feedback carefully.
Change from the Inside Out: Connect new efforts with past work.Do not think success is guaranteed. Analyze strategies carefully.
- Immediate Future: stay with the process that is already underway.
- Personal Development: let the transformative process do its work.
- Working within the Family: make small moves to support the ongoing process.
- Expanding the Circle: pay attention to detail. Do not push change.
- Partnership: combine your resources. Act together. Proceed cautiously.
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 63:64 Burning Water develops the balance to cooperate with the process of change and the insight to know when to make the decisive move.
Outer to Inner: The process of the pair shifts the Navigator trigram from the outer world of 63 to the inner world of 64. This turns your need to manage the flux of life into inner containment of fear and impulse.
Inner to Outer: This interiorisation shifts the clarity and awareness of the Visionary trigram from the inner world of 63 to the outer world of 64, turning inner guidance into the ability to find real directions in life for all.
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
Braking his wheels. Trailing her cord in the water.
The Small Fox soaks its tail. This is not a mistake.
You have a great connection but are starting too quickly. Hold back. Let yourself be lured on. Difficulties are going, praise and ease are coming. If you pull back and join with others now you can capture the oppressive force opposing your plans. You will soon have something to celebrate. Gather energy for the decisive new move. (39 Limping/Difficulties)
A lady loses her jade hairpin. Do not pursue her.
On the seventh day she will return.
It seems like what you hope and care for is lost. Do not chase it. When the time comes it will return of itself. Keep your eye on what is important and do not listen to all those chattering voices. You have the chance to present your case before a real authority. This will let your sincerity shine through. These goings and comings release energy bound in the past. Co-operate with the on-going process of change. (5 Attending)
The High Ancestor subjugates the Demon Country.
Three years go by and he controls it. Small people should not use this.
You are embarked on a great enterprise. Keep a firm purpose. Do not listen to what others tell you, confining your youthful spirit in a prison of outmoded thoughts. If you follow old desires you will lose yourself. Eliminate the negativity. Be open and provide what is needed. (3 Sprouting)
Outer World
Clothes in tatters. The wadded silk is soaked. Be careful till day is done.
You are in the middle of an important passage. Be vigilant. Everything may feel clogged up now but have no fear. You are on the edge of the great move. What you are beginning will bring all you want. You are coupled with a creative force. (49 Skinning/Revolution)
The Eastern neighbors slaughtered many cattle.
The summer sacrifice of the Western neighbor was not like this
When they received the great blessing.
Do not try to impress people. Sincerity and dedication are what count now. You must pretend to be part of this situation even as it is falling all around you. If you restrain your eager desires for fame and recognition you can acquire all you want. Let yourself be lured into action. These goings and comings will release the energy now bound up in the past. Co-operate with the on-going process of change. (36 Hiding Brightness)
You soak your head. Adversity, the hungry souls and angry ghosts.
You have let yourself fall into old negativity. Why go on like this? You have the spirit and intelligence to carry all before you. You are facing the hateful people within yourself. Do not let them poison your heart. Let the distress you feel return you to the flow. Harmony will return of itself. Gather energy for the decisive new move. (37 Dwelling People)