Tag Archives: hexagram #1

Chuck’s Place: Necessary Waiting In A Time Of Urgency

Time of Patient Waiting…
-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

The urgency of now is ever so upon us. I have encouraged for quite some time the exercise of autosuggestion to manifest desired change. But how long must one wait? The urgency of now tempts impulsive if not revolutionary action.

I posed this dilemma to the I Ching. In response I received hexagram #1, Chien, The Creative, with moving lines in the 1st and 4th places.

Chien is comprised of 6 Yang lines. This is an extraordinary feat: 6  throws of the coins, 6 solid lines. This hexagram represents Heaven, the Divine, Initiation, the Beginning; in a word, the Word.

All things on Earth issue forth from the Word and Imagination, as suggestions from the conscious to the subconscious mind are birthed in physical form. The subconscious mind is hexagram #2, Kun, The Receptive.

It is the Receptive feminine, that conceives with her divine masculine counterpart, The Creative, to give birth to, that is, to transmute, our desires into physical life.

The first charged moving line of Chien warns sternly: Hidden dragon. DO NOT ACT! In China the dragon is a symbol of an electrically charged, arousing dynamic force that presents itself in a thunderstorm.

This is the primal impulsive energy of Yang, sick of waiting, ready to break forth and impose its will. This is ego, drawn to surrender itself to Id.

The I Ching counsels utmost restraint. This creative force is still buried at the bottom, in the Earth. The Earth is Yin, carrying her pregnancy with all its dynamic forces contained. Yin, the subconscious mind will deliver physical life when it is time to deliver, not upon demand.

The guidance is to rest content in the knowing that the pregnancy is real, new life is coming. Take solace in this deep knowing. A warning is put out that if one acts precipitously, that is, tries to make something happen through the will of the ego, it will be faced with Hexagram #44, Coming To Meet.

In Coming To Meet the ego is met with a seduction. An easy, seemingly harmless opportunity to get what it wants presents. Ego, in its hungry desirousness, takes the bait and then is confronted with the true nature of what it has dallied with: a power greater than itself that robs it of its thunder, the very energy needed to manifest desired change. Heed the warning: DO NOT ACT!

Having prevailed beyond this temptation, ego rises next to the activated line in the 5th place where guidance rejoices: Dragon flying in the sky; there arises a great person to be a leader.

Here the attitude of calm knowing faith is rewarded with the manifestation of the right person to assume leadership. Here ego is in conformity with the High Self. This is not the inflation of Icarus. Ego is refined to act in alignment with the Tao.

The patience of the ruler, the 9 in the 5th place results in the birth of the physical reality that it is fully fit to lead. The dragon soars, its energy fully deployed to effect great change. The key to this maturation lies in humility, faith and alignment with what is right.

Having heeded the warning of the first activated line, the ego was humble, accepting that nature was in charge of the pregnancy, that things shouldn’t be rushed based upon ego righteousness or immaturity. What is right is calm readiness to receive when the time is right.

Faith rested upon the absolute knowing that what was rightfully one’s own to live would come to physical manifestation. The key is to hold to that truth in the quiet of the knowing mind, enjoying it always in the spirit life of the imagination,

The future of this hexagram becomes Hexagram #50, The Caldron. The Caldron is the cooking vessel used in achieving communion and nourishment with the ancestral spirits.

What has been brought to physical life is in alignment with the depth of one’s Spirit and is sure to enjoy lasting influence, that is, until the cycle of life calls for a new play!

Faith, Patience and Imagination rule,
Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Seeing & Being Seen

I Ching: What is the guidance for all in this time of great disarray?

Seeing the Present & the Future…
– Diagram by Chuck Ketchel

As can be readily seen, the first four throws produced highly charged Yin Lines, topped with two solid Yang lines.

The image generated is one of a large tower on a mountain that captures a wide view of the countryside. Likewise, it is easily seen from a great distance. Thus, the image urges developing a broad perspective, as well as being a good example for all to see.

The four activated building blocks of the tower’s supporting columns (represented by the X marks) offer nuanced guidance and turn into their opposites, as they become the Primal Spirit: The Creative, hexagram #1. These four lines highlight the necessary progressive changes required before one steps into directing their power effectively. Their individual guidance, in the order of their position, as follows:

  1. Contemplation hindered by immaturity. A shallow, thoughtless view of prevailing forces hinders effective leadership. Counsel encourages growing up and accepting responsibility. Contemplate the fuller picture of the interconnected whole.
  2. One looks out only through the crack of the door, a narrow one-sided point of view. This is the narcissistic perspective that relates everything to oneself. Guidance: dispassionately widen your horizon. Tolerate and strive to understand and value the views of others.
  3. Place of transition. Going to the heart center to receive guidance from the high Soul as to right action. This is ego moving beyond blame and one-sidedness, seeking inner truth.
  4. Time for action. Being in alignment with the deepest truth, ego acts in accordance with the true needs of the interconnected whole.

Once these issues are addressed, allowing one to penetrate the objective truth and take the necessary actions to support that truth, one becomes seen and experienced by others as an example to be followed, as they contemplate the truth of their own lives. The tower that affords the broadest view is the healing model for all.

With the strength afforded by surmounting the limitations to objective contemplation, one is fortified to direct the dynamic Spirit energy of the Creative, the life force itself. This is the optimal arrangement, a mature, broadminded leader who directs the life force toward the true needs of the interconnected whole.

The Creative is the active side of infinity. What’s at question is how that energy will be directed. As shamans point out, the life force can be directed toward good or evil deeds. Both can be manifested on a grand scale. Leadership that contemplates the true needs of the interconnected self, and the interconnected universe, is best fit to direct the power of the Creative.

Contemplate with humility, objectivity, and equanimity from the heart center, as you direct the creative force of your life and assess the intent of others.

Contemplating,

Chuck

 

Chuck’s Place: Receptive

Together in accordance with nature...
Together in accordance with nature…

I dream. I’m in a country setting. Three female figures stand facing each other at three cardinal points, each with a tombstone in front of them with the same inscribed message: RECEPTIVE. There is no sense of death associated with the stones; it is not a cemetery. The dream message is emphatic: BE RECEPTIVE!

The receptive is the archetype of the feminine, hexagram #2 in the I Ching. Six yin lines piled upon each other to form the image of the earth, matter, manifestation.

The receptive is the completion of hexagram #1, the masculine creative, spirit, six yang lines piled to form the image of heaven. The creative and the receptive are completely equal and complimentary. Spirit finds a home in matter, matter finds its purpose in spirit.

Intent is spirit. We set intent and must allow for its manifestation. Manifestation is the receptive. The receptive is primal energy that acts of its own volition; we cannot control it, but we can get in its way, though only partially.

How often the ego gets impatient, or doubts the receptive and engages the mind to implement intent. “Oh yes, I must exercise, follow this regimen—this will allow me to reach my goal.” Then perhaps we fail or fall off course and become embroiled in self-hate or self-discipline with promises of better behavior in the future.

Such drama provides a major distraction, taking the focus away from the energetic manifestation of intent through the magical power of the receptive. The ego, doubting the receptive—the completer—actually opposes the manifestation of intent by contradicting the process through its interference. The ego identifies with the masculine creative—spirit—and barks orders at the body for change. This is slavery. The manifested body—the creation of the receptive—shuts down and refuses to budge. Its message to the ego: “Get out of the way and allow the receptive to complete its creation.”

Nature will take over and do as it will... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Nature will take over and do as it will…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Indeed, the receptive may require the ego to accept the role of subcontractor in the project, for the receptive is the contractor, the one that directs and manifests the concrete, substantial, actual physical realization of the intent.

The receptive is an extremely active energy. How deceiving it is to conceive of the feminine as inert or passive! The power of the receptive is so intense that the world ego shudders as we are now poised for the symbolic feminine in human form, woman, to assume the position of world leadership. Perhaps that woman will be Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren, or maybe a ticket of both.

The world is prepared now for the ascension of the feminine. The raising of Mary in the Catholic Church to Godly status with the Assumption in 1950 was the first modern Western sign of the ascension of the feminine, the valuing of the feminine on equal par with the masculine trinity of heavenly status, which Jung predicted, at the time, to be inevitable. He foresaw that it was going to happen; we are there now. Even in the midst of the power of war and mass confusion, change is on the horizon; the feminine is rising.

The manifestation of the power of the feminine receptive marched 300,000+ strong through New York City this past Sunday in support of protecting the planet, Mother Earth. This is feminine energy, a flowing river of energy gathering power, manifesting a new intent. This intent will be realized completely now as the world is reshaped to continue to live. That is the intent of spirit, life, and the receptive is manifesting the changes needed to complete that intent, the feminine working hand in hand with the masculine.

The issue has little to do with man or woman per se. All beings are composed of the creative and the receptive, the masculine and the feminine energies of spirit and matter. The challenge now is to realign the ego to support the receptive’s manifestation of needed change. Only the receptive can manifest, and boy is there manifesting going on! By all accounts that means we are in for real change. Intent is spirit, and it is powerful, but the receptive is the active energy that is bringing needed change to our world and to the self.

The receptive manifests the intent of the seed... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The receptive manifests the intent of the seed…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

It is time for the ego to step back and allow the receptive to manifest the needed change. We can all participate by following the dictates of the manifested body, as it guides, nourishes, and heals in accordance with the true purpose and intent of spirit: Life!

Being receptive,
Chuck