19 story

The image of hexagram 19
Lín, approach, the overseer.

Hexagram 19 has trigram Lake below or inside, Earth above or outside. Lake or Marsh is about exchange and connections. About being part of a social environment. Earth is nurturing and caring. Together they create the overseer or guardian.

What does it mean, 'inner' and 'outer trigram' (popup)

When trigram Duì is below (popup)

When trigram Kūn is above (popup)

Lake below Earth: an inner connection and openness to people, and to the outside the responsibility and nurturing care of Earth.

The ancient diviners gave this combination of trigrams a name: Lín, slave or servant. Lín is the connection with yore and death, with the ancestors and your own past. It is the instinct to belong together and to take responsibility for your actions and for people. Redress wrongs before it is too late, they will return and haunt you in the dark.

Ideogram of the hexagram name: above right is a standing person with (top left) a big eye. He bends over and looks down, so the eye is vertical. There are 'mouths' or 'things' beneath it: looking over your people and/or responsibilities and rituals. In the version above there are lines from the eye to the objects below. It means nearing, overseeing, be adjacent to, soaking (like marinading), approach, descending from a mountain, face, overlook, arrive, be present, copy (calligraphy/ painting), on the point of, just before, be about to, facing, mourning. Rituals and events like marriage and death especially need an overseer.

The 'Great Image' says: Above marsh there is earth, overseeing. The noble one teaches and ponders inexhaustibly, he tolerates and protects the people without limits.

Hex.19 is the contrast of 33, which is about withdrawing.
Hex.19 is very much present in its surroundings, responsible, looking around if everything is right, helping but also imbuing with admiration. An old meaning of Lin is coming down from the mountain.

Hex.19 is connected to the beginning of he farming season, Chinese New Year. The Celts called this 'Imbolc', 'in the womb'. Ewes were pregnant, seeds germinated, the start of a new cycle.

But "Reaching the eighth moon there is a pitfall." The full moon in September, the 8th moon-month, is the date of the harvest festival, people gather with friends and family, eating mooncakes and carrying lanterns. By that time all the work for the crop and the storage for the coming harvest has to be done. If not, then pitfall, because now comes the busy time of the harvest.

Story: On old pictures one can find the All-seeing Eye. It is the eye of God (or Allah, Manitou, Universe, whoever), looking down to the earth. In hexagram 20 it is the goddess, the female aspect of looking down, hearing prayers and sorrow and joy.
Here it is the person who cares, who sees, and provides what is needed. It is the head of the family or of rituals, making sure everyone can follow his/her Dao and find his destiny. His ego is not involved, he is objective and severe and fair, and without limits.

The image of hexagram 19 Lín, approach, the overseer.

The image of hexagram 19
Lín, approach, the overseer.