Hexagram 37 and 38

About together and apart

Clan of Man, hex.37

Here the two lines which combine earth and man are receptive: the energy comes from human reality. The feet (territory), emotions, leadership and spirit are all active.

   Being a family means, that every member has its own rightful place, and no place is empty.
This applies to a real family, where the father is father, the mother is mother and every child fills in its own place. Or to a firm, a community, a school, or an ecologic ‘community’ where every animal and plant fills in its own niche. And it applies to all the forces and assets which make up a living creature.
   An organic whole is vigorous, harmonious, healthy.

37.1 This organic whole is like a home for all its members. A strong home, which can operate on its own, and ward off intrusions which can weaken it. From out this base, all members have a background which functions as a protection and guideline wherever they are.
(Changes to 53.1  The wild geese can take risks, because they form each others protection. Alone they are vulnerable, but together they are strong)

37.2 Filling in one’s place is one of the pillars of life. Much more so than fulfilling an ambition or joining someone else’s place. This is what makes the connection between the members, knowing where I am, and knowing where you are.
(Changes to 9.2 Don’t let yourself be distracted from your own road, and listen when you are called back to it. Like a sheep which is guided back by the shepherd)

37.3 A family needs severity. The structure is important, don’t let emotions interfere with it. Everything has to be clear and open to all, it is important to have rules and to follow them.
(Changes to 42.3 Hardships summon increase. Don’t hide them, report them to the prince)

37.4 When resources and forces are balanced, the family will prosper. For this a decisive mind is necessary, with oversight and wisdom. And in the first place with the ability to make it clear to everyone how things are organized and what they have to comply with. This line is the decision-maker of the clan.
(Changes to 13.4 Man has been provided with a mind which can withstand man. Because he knows the other so well: resembling himself. It makes it possible to live together without getting swallowed or intruded upon.)

37.5 A clan or family survives because they have an ability to deal with the big demands made on them. Be a first class captain, self-assured and certain of your position. Your mind has to do the trick, and your body and your clan will follow. Go for the challenge, enjoy it. Big challenge, big joy... and big survival power. This line is the mental leader/motivator of the clan.
(Changes to 22.5, the beauty of health and energy and the joy in life.)

37.6  Make your spirit totally open for the moment, for what happens right now, without any second thought. All your senses doing this and only this. This line is the inspirator (source of inspiration) of the clan,
(Changes to 63.6, everything clear-cut and obvious. In your mind you are already across, nothing else is possible than the success you already ‘know’)

Askance, hex.38

The earth-man lines are active: people can oppose each other. But both heaven-man lines are receptive.

Hexagram 38: Gui is the last day of the ten-day week, the day on which the ancient kings divined about the coming ten days. Maybe the eyes were added to the picture of the offering mat to show the anxiety with which they all awaited the prognostication. Who was the cause of the mishap or disease? Is the ancestor angry with us - or is there someone among us with an evil mind? Will the drought continue or will it rain? What if we attack the neighbor state?
It may be a picture of the eyes of the ancestor looking down on the offering. Below is an ancient graph: a hand with a piece of meat and an offering mat, in the center the eye of the ancestor, and at the top the ancestor himself, coming head-first down from the heavens.

Hex. 38 is often dreaded, it talks about being different, not understanding each other. But it has a beautiful positive side too. When one is different, then one can still 'see' each other by using love to bridge the gap. Without 38 there would be no passion in love, no unselfishness, no transcending one's limits in order to reach the other. It is fire above lake, the manifestation of sharing, of exchange, and of the joy which it brings.

37 and 38
Could there be two kinds of people? The ones who are social and can get along with each other and help each other and need to get rid of egos which are in the way of being like that.. And the individuals who are not social in that way and cannot get along with each other in that way, or help in that way, or have egos which trouble them in that way.

They can get along and everything, but in a different way. They don’t have the social skills or humane feelings or egos of the social ones. Their ego does not trouble them, it is not in the way of anything they do, on the contrary, they need it in order to be individual. They can develop it, in the same way the social ones can develop their social skills.

A society needs a big bunch of social ones, so it exists as society. They are indispensable. But without some individuals nothing will come about. There are not many of them needed. They give the start signals which end up as culture, art, love, everything which makes that society alive and beautiful. What they do is not very visible. It looks weird, is not adapted to the way society functions, very often it even goes against it. It needs to be turned social by the socials, so it gets a visible form. Before that it just turns things upside down, or is not even seen by anyone. It brings the one who made it in jail, or lonely in a shed/cave in the mountains.

The social ones find warmth and love and security together. Everything you can wish. But the individuals have a special kind of happiness which the socials will never know.