The Third Lunar Month and Hexagram 43

Spring continues to threaten to emerge here in Portland, Oregon; we are witnessing a deficient ShaoYang spring that is throwing many people into illness. One day it is warm and sunny, the next cold and rainy. But even on the cold days the spring energy is definitely palpable if not in your face. The daphne has an intoxicating sucker punch, the magnolia tree in front of my house is about to pop, and the birds won't shut up about the twists and turns of Obama's budget proposal (to be fair, i'm not fluent in bird, they're probably just talking about sex).

At any rate, the third lunar month (March 26 - April 24) is all about light eliminating the shadows of our lives so that we can make clear and decisive decisions without hesitation. This month is represented by Hexagram 43 夬 which translates as Stride, Eliminating, Decisiveness, or Receive. It is also related to the Stomach organ in Chinese Medicine. In this way, proper nourishment through outward decision is imperative to what we take in from the external and make part of ourselves.



The text from the Yi Jing:

揚于王庭，孚號有厲，告自邑。

An inquiry at the King's court, confidence shouted carries terrible reports from the fiefdoms.



不利即戎，利有攸往。

It is not an auspicious time for going to war, it is beneficial to have someplace to go.



夬、決也，剛決柔也。健而說，決而和。


Stride, is decision. Firm but yielding. Strong and vocal, decisive and harmonious.

「揚于王庭」、柔乘五剛也，「孚號有厲」、其危乃光也。
"Inquiry at the King's court" means to yield to the 5 strengths (laws?), "confidence shouted carrying terribleness" means that the light shining (inquiry) is dangerous.

「告自邑不利即戎」、所尚乃窮也，「利有攸往」、剛長乃終也。
"Reports from the fiefdoms that it is not beneficial to war" means that the places of esteem are actually poor, "beneficial to have someplace to go" means firm and lasting only in the termination or ending of things.

I find this text really interesting for a number of reasons. For one, we're in the middle of spring and as we all know it is good to do some spring cleaning at this time of year. But from a cultivational standpoint, we can see this as symbolically cleaning out the ego, shining light on our skeletons in the closet and airing them out to dry. I understand this inquiry at the court to be a questioning of the ego in this way. Because of the instability that this causes, it is not correct to wage a battle because the structure of the ego itself is so changeable at this time. Instead it is best to move with the energy of spring and terminate those aspects of ourselves which are no longer useful to us and move outside of ourselves in travel or coming into contact with new things.

As Wilhelm writes:

This hexagram signifies on the one hand a break-through after a long accumulation of tension, as a swollen river breaks through its dikes, or in the manner of a cloudburst. On the other hand, applied to human conditions, it refers to the time when inferior people gradually begin to disappear. Their influence is on the wane; as a result of resolute action, a change in conditions occurs, a break-through.