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