Computer cafe

Well, here I am at the computer cafe. Don't have any of my books with me though, so let me ad lib here, or think of at least something to say.

When line one of hexagram one changes, we have hexagram fourty four. This hexagram continues the theme of line one in the sense that it is telling us this first yin line has something of an ulterior motive. In this way, yin gets short shrift, let us say. It always has, being considered the dark side, the cold side, the crafty side, the indirect side, and a lot of things that we may think of as unsavory. Hexagram 44 tells us that the yin side is strong, do not interlink with such a situation. In general in divination, we would look at this as a more negative response to our question, and may want to back away. There is an advantage here though, for nothing can be absolute yang or absolute yin. Yang, being dereft of a polar opposite, would itself disappear into nothingness, as would yin. So also, light cannot shine if there is no darkness to receive it. And the Wilhelm Baynes version also, in the commentary, tells us that there is an exceptional time when yin and yang come together, and their union creates all that is. Throughout the book of changes, we see the forces of dissolution combining with the forces of evolution, and through it, we have constant and continual change. The big fish eat the little fish, who in time, die, and are eaten by the little fish. A continual cycle, and we cannot have it without the constant interaction of yin and yang.

When the second hexagram's line changes, it because hexagram twenty four, the hexagram of the yang light. It seems odd at first because the first line of hexagram two says, "When hoarfrost is under foot, solid ice is not far off." So we see here the first signs of decay. Why then would it change to the hexagram of the young light? As a second hexagram, or relating hexagram, the hexagram can take on more the meaning of "A turning point." here the turning point is to the darkness. However, there is a secondary meaning here too, devoid of the words of the line itself. When the first line changes, we have the first yang in a totally yin hexagram. In other words, the darkness is passing, and the light is just beginning. In divination, we might more likely take a look at the meaning of the words in the line itself. In personal work, we might see the more esoteric, secondary meanings, and make use of them.

In the Confucian model, we might more likely take a look at the lines, and the meanings conveyed by the words, in the Taoist model, we might more likely take a closer look at the line placement, and the trigrams involved that make up the primary and the relating hexagrams.