What Is I Ching Hexagram 8 All About?
Hexagram 8 represents the potential to bring together an alliance for one cause or meaning. This Hexagram does not symbolize personal gain. But it is the opportunity for a group of people to accomplish work for the greater good.
Hexagram 8 symbolizes a need to unify that can be seen throughout history. In every community, dating back to the beginning of time, there was a reason for the group to survive. Alliances and groups are created to produce some product.
Whether that is protection, governing, or support, there is a human need to unify under one foundation to bring about a cause and effect. The first thought of a grand alliance is that of a government or nation. But Hexagram 8 refers to a smaller group in which we play a more significant role.
THE LINES
Six at the beginning means:
Hold to him in truth and loyalty;
This is without blame.
Truth, like a full earthen bowl”
Thus in the end
Good fortune comes from without.
Fundamental sincerity is the only proper basis for forming relationships. This attitude, symbolized by a full earthen bowl, in which the content is everything and the empty form nothing, shows itself not in clever words but through the strength of what lies within the speaker. This strength is so great that it has power to attract good fortune to itself from without.
Six in the second place means:
Hold to him inwardly.
Perseverance brings good fortune.
If a person responds perseveringly and in the right way to the behests from above that summon him to action, his relations with others are intrinsic and he does not lose himself. But if a man seeks association with others as if he were an obsequious office hunter, he throws himself away. He does not follow the path of the superior man, who never loses his dignity.
Six in the third place means:
You hold together with the wrong people.
We are often among people who do not belong to our own sphere. In that case we must beware of being drawn into false intimacy through force of habit. Needless to say, this would have evil consequences. Maintaining sociability without intimacy is the only right attitude toward people, because otherwise we should not be free to enter into relationship with people of our own kind later on.
Six in the fourth place means:
Hold to him outwardly also.
Perseverance brings good fortune.
Here the relations with a man who is the center of union are well established. Then we may, and indeed we should, show our attachment openly. But we must remain constant and not allow ourselves to be led astray.
Nine in the fifth place means:
Manifestation of holding together.
In the hunt the king uses beaters on three sides only
And forgoes game that runs off in front.
The citizens need no warning.
Good fortune.
In the royal hunts of ancient China it was customary to drive up the game from three sides, but on the fourth the animals had a chance to run off. If they failed to do this they had to pass through a gate behind which the king stood ready to shoot. Only animals that entered here were shot; those that ran off in front were permitted to escape. This custom accorded with a kingly attitude; the royal hunter did not wish to turn the chase into a slaughter, but held that the kill should consist only of those animals which had so to speak voluntarily exposed themselves.
There is depicted here a ruler, or influential man, to whom people are attracted. Those who come to him he accepts, those who do not come are allowed to go their own way. He invited none, flatters none—all come of their own free will. In this way there develops a voluntary dependence among those who hold him. They do not have to be constantly on their guard but may express their opinions openly. Police measures are not necessary, and they cleave to their ruler of their own volition. The same principle of freedom is valid for life in general. We should not woo favor from people. If a man cultivates within himself the purity and the strength that are necessary for one who is the center of a fellowship, those who are meant for him come of their own accord.
Six at the top means:
He finds no head for holding together.
Misfortune.
The head is the beginning. If the beginning is not right, there is no hope of a right ending. If we have missed the right moment for union and go on hesitating to give complete and full devotion, we shall regret the error when it is too late.
Explore Any I Ching Hexagram
Click on an I Ching hexagram below to learn more about its individual message and the profound insight it provides for your life, decisions, relationships, or whatever is on your mind!
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