Marriage as a Finality

The title in itself may not make much sense, for marriage in the modern day certainly isn't the end of anything in our world for most people. But it was meant to be. To a lot of people, marriage isn't much different than what used to be called, going steady. But in ancient China, and indeed in most all ancient societies, marriage was considered a finality, and there was no loophole for divorce, except, occasionally in the case of unfaithfulness. But marriage was a symbol for the alchemical marriage of conscious and subconscious minds, and when we have that marriage, there is not much likelihood of divorce. In ancient Israel there was also the concept of the nation marrying their God, Jehovah. They could not break the union except in the case of unfaithfulness, and neither could Jehovah, although Jehovah ultimately did divorce Israel, supposedly temporarily, due to the unfaithfulness of the nation. These are all symbols for the alchemical marriage between the conscious and subconscious mind which does not destroy itself. This marriage is considered a finality because it is the ultimate goal of the entire creation. Another way of saying it is the perfect union between yin and yang.

In the commentary on hexagram two it is said of yin, "It is the perfect complement of The Creative...for the Receptive does not combat the Creative, but completes it." Further in the commentary it says, "Only when it abandons this position and tries to stand as an equal side by side with the Creative, does it become evil." The Creative and the Receptive must work together hand in hand in order to accomplish anything. They cannot compete, they cannot oppose each other or nothing happens. In a marriage two people must work together. When they do, as in hexagram thirty seven, they accomplish all that they wish to accomplish. When they do not, they become like line six of hexagram fifty four where they only go through the emotions "soley to preserve the forms." Nothing is accomplished.

In the same way, if our conscious and subconscious minds do not align and work together, nothing is accomplished. You will live your life by default, and will not be able to accomplish the things you want to be successful in. It is imperative that each of us learn to align conscious and subconscious for without that there is no connection with the "universal subconscious mind." Jesus said, "It is the Father's good will to give you the kingdom," but we cannot attain that kingdom if we are out of alignment.

For this reason, in the hexagram pairs thirty one and thirty two, and the pair fifty three and fifty four, the second of each pair refers to a position of permanency. Hexagram thirty two speaks of that which does not change, which is change itself. The commentary on the image says, "What endures is the unswerving directive, the inner law of his being, which determines all of his actions." When we have formed full alliance between the conscious and the unconscious, we become unyielding in relationship to that which is right, and that which accomplishes our legitimate desires and goals, and that which is our duty to do. In the same way, hexagram fifty four depicts a permanency that comes once a maiden is married. It does so in that the four trigrams, outer and nuclear, refer respectively to the four seasons, and therefore depict completion. The image in hexagram fifty four states, "Thus the superior man understands the transitory in the light of the eternity of the end." He or she knows that union, or connection with the Higher Self is the ultimate goal of all creation, and that it represents a state of eternity. That is the ultimate goal and there is nothing beyond that. In the same way, after the Biblical Prodigal Son experiences the material world, with the illusions and delusions inherent within it, returns to the Father never to leave again. His sojourn into the outer realms of misery and illusion have been completed and he has learned the lessons thereof. He has attained the "mystical marriage."