The hexagram is the image used in the I Ching to provide guidance in the pursuit of answers to life's questions. It is the interpretation of the bidirectional flow of energy that is all myriad things of the Universe. There are "three" methods of interpretation or opening the mystery of those images.
The hexagram is comprised of two trigrams. In the hexagram there are three pairs of lines. Finally there are six separate lines or Yao. The hexagram can be divided up into "three" groups of two lines representing Heaven, Mankind, and Earth. The three groups of two lines are also mixed either by specific line numbers or adjacent lines of two each.
The trigrams consist of three lines each. In the hexagram you will find four interlocking trigrams called the upper, lower, upper nuclear and lower nuclear. The upper and lower are primary while the upper nuclear and lower nuclear are secondary.
The lower trigram relates to the seeker of the books wisdom. This is the seeker with the problem that is affecting their life. The upper trigram relates to the seekers environment that poses a challenge to that seeker. In general the seeker hopes the book will prove them with a response appropriate to the situation.
The lower and upper nuclear trigrams are determinate as to the conditions that create these aspects that are identified. The lower nuclear trigram as to why the seeker perceives a problem in the situation. The upper nuclear trigram is related in a similar fashion to the environment. What is it about the general environment that creates the problem?
The upper nuclear trigram will identify those aspects that are relevant.
Trigram Arrangement (family):
The female, or yin, aspects are those in which the flows are inward-directed, allowing the individual to receive information and influence from the world. They symbolize the cognitive, integrative, and supportive aspects of life.The masculine, or yang, aspects are those with outward-directed flows through which the individual seeks to affect the world. They include intention, decision, and action in various modes.
Intention, the yang aspect, will tend to hide the cognitive, integrative, and supportive aspects that may also be involved. On the opposite side, a trigram with two yang lines and one yin line is yin. In this case, we might view the two yang aspects as tending to pull in opposite directions, immobilizing each other and allowing the yin aspect to become evident.
First we originate, next we cope, then we finish. This sequence is reflected in the order of the sons, the Arousal, the Abyss, the Mountain.
The Nature of Change:
How does one know that a line changes? When you toss the coins a line is a changing line when that line is obtained by a throw of three heads or three tails. What this tells the seeker and diviner is the principle says, the condition is about to turn into its opposite.
A line is changing when it has reached its limit and so is about to change into its opposite. A reading of the Duke of Chou's texts on the lines quickly shows that they may either focus attention on what should be done, or on what needs to be guarded against. They either point out opportunities or threats.
Primary/Secondary Hexagrams:
The relation between the primary and secondary hexagrams is the primary one, before changing any lines, is clearly the most immediate answer to a question. The secondary one is the result of changing all the changing lines. Therefore, its significance lies in its indication of what will happen if all the unstable aspects change. It represents the greatest change in the situation that is likely to occur, either spontaneously or as a result of the seekers efforts.
All questions of action or decision have an implied time scale, whether we realize it or not.
There are various ways the secondary hexagram can be related to the primary one. It depends on the nature of the question, and on the state of mind of the seeker.
LING:
I have this term inserted to help understand the I Ching. Ling is a term/name used to infer one has the ability to use the I Ching. Now, it might be said that anyone who can throw coins and select the hexagrams can have ling and that would be true to a degree. The level of ling one has is determined by the level of understanding, proficiency and ability to divine using the book of changes.
Ling has two components - the ability to use the coins or other techniques to obtain an answer, and the ability to see what that answer has to do without he question.
One must have an ability to view the physical works as controlled, maybe created, by Mind at some higher level of consciousness … which I will go so far as to interpret as a belief in the Tao and what it can provide.
Adept/Master:
When we view the flow of influences we call to view the duality between the adept and the master. The duality is a general one applying to all levels of existence independent of titles, position, age, or sex. It is the duality between a person as a self-sufficient individual (adept) and as a participant in some larger whole (master).
To what extent we really have free will, and whether we are more often controlled by our history, environment, and some habitual patterns of stimuli-response can be debated.
Humans are in fact both individuals with full responsibility for self and participants subservient to a unity we cannot ever fully grasp.
The adept seeks to command the world. Being primarily concerned with the inner powers of the self, he or she seeks to exercise the yang aspect that is influence. The would be adept must remain in touch with the world that is the target of the attempt. In addition, the adept acts within the community or tribe and needs its validation. Therefore the adept not only acts with the community, he or she also receives from it. Opposing flows coexist, and the adept's acts are shaped in part by the community. Nevertheless, it is characteristic of the adept that primary attention is on the responsibility of his or her self.
The master seeks to be the vehicle through which some higher unity is manifested, the medium through which that unity's values are made manifest in the world and the community. The focus is on the source which is often assumed to be ineffable, ultimately unattainable, and unknowable (Tao?). A master may seek to influence others by example and self-discipline acting as the good shepherd.
The master, therefore, can be a powerful initiator of action and so exercise what seems to others an extreme yang principle. Yet the master's true focus remains on what he or she conceives as the source and on his or her duty toward that source. In the master's self-image, then, the vision is of himself or herself as yin to that source.
We each of us adepts when we see ourselves as unique and self-sufficient and as acting out of our own insights and intentions. We are each of us masters when we see our lives and actions as controlled by some external source. The source can be anything deemed worthy of allegiance.
IN GENERAL:
The hexagrams ergo the book of changes requires of the seeker a realization that they must assume "responsibility" which means, literally, that they must have the ability to respond, or to promos back. They must understand that responsibility is a willingness to learn from the moment and to become and grow according to the lessons of the moment.
Awareness of things beyond the reach of a single person (defined by one's bodily identity) can only come via the hierarchy! He or she has been able, by some means, to obtain information from or through the higher-level nodes of spiritual hierarchy (Tao?).
Bibliography: Pease, Marshall. The Aquarian I Ching. Brotherhood of Life, inc. Albuquerque, NM. 1993.
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