23 / 01 Splitting Apart
Pruning, Cutting-Back
(26->23->45->43)

"PO : flay, peel skin; remove, uncover, degrade, split, slice; reduce to essentials; slaughter an animal. The ideogram : knife and carve, trenchant action."ERANOS p293

Image :

"[With devotion comes retainment].
A Mountain approaching the earth : Stripping (Reduce to essentials).
[Using the liberal use of thought to quiet the devotion below]."

In a context of devotion we utilise discernment.

Commentary

In hexagram 23 we recognize that the establishment of history is an important part of social development. It enables the culture to have depth and firm ground to stand on and thus something to balance on. This sense of history, and therefore tradition, is fostered by studying the thoughts of old (26) as well as spiritual celebration. An imbalance can occur when the deeds of the past are interpreted as being relevant and superior to now. Spiritually, this can be a backward step and these thoughts should be discarded; only the core is retained. The context gives the return to the 'correct' path, together with uniting others around the core principles - seperating chaff from wheat - Pruning.

(All four hexagrams (26,43,45,23) deal with the social past and it's influences on the now as part of the generic concept of balance seeking as symbolised by their base trigrams.)

Hexagram 23 is the specific form of hexagram 49

The Traditional Single Changing Line Comments:

Line 1

"Traditions are like a bed, they are something a culture rests on. The first step is to strip the bed starting with it's base. those who ignore this perish."

Line 2

"To avoid any conflict, agreement is made on those parts to be removed."

Line 3

"An individual feels that the situation is wrong. He withdraws without fault."

Line 4

"The tie between the individual and the tradition is broken, it's heart revealed."

Line 5

"Despite the changes, the ruler still retains some of the past within his home."

Line 6

"Some things are allowed to remain for they will redevelop in the future. The superior go on their way. The inferior suffer as always."

Extended Commentary

The raw context from which the situation develops is described by hexagram 24 returning(to a path). It passes through hexagram 08 Uniting before reaching here.

Transformative methods

By introducing this hexagram as context, you can change a state described by any other hexagram into a state described by hexagram 02. To make a state associated with another hexagram transform into this state, introduce hexagram 02 as context.

It is important to remember that, when using transformative methods, the more lines requiring change, the more energy required when attempting to introduce a different context. It may therefore be of benefit to work on existing changing lines and achieve your goal in steps rather than attempt, for example, a six-line change all at once.

Further IC+ extensions