In the transition from 02, a state of devotion and trust (or total darkness), to a state of 23, where we 'prune' things to get back to the fundamentals, the motivation is described by hexagram 15, modesty or levelling-out. Hexagram 15 emphasises reducing the mountains and filling the valleys and so creating a level playing field. It is this that motivates the 02-to-23 transformation where the reduction of the 'highs' and 'lows' is the motive to get back to fundamentals.
Hexagram 23 in its King Wen pattern (cooperative) emphasises seperating the chaff from the wheat. Hexagram 23 in its Fu Hsi pattern (oppositional) emphasises the immanent collapse of something; the pruning has gone to far and we start to cut the flower itself.
The ERANOS translation of hexagram 23 is:
"PO : flay, peel skin; remove, uncover, degrade, split, slice; reduce to essentials; slaughter an animal. The ideogram : knife and carve, trenchant action."
The ERANOS translation of the motivational hexagram, 15, is:
"CH'IEN : think and speak of yourself in a modest way; respectful, unassuming, retiring, unobtrusive;
yielding, compliant, reverent, lowly. The ideogram: words and unite, keeping words close to the underlaying facts."
The reverse path, from 23 to 02 is motivated by 02.
The ERANOS translation of both the outcome hexagram and the motivational, 02, is:
"K'UN: Surface of the world; concrete extension; basis of all existance, where CH'IEN..exerts it's power; all-involving service; earth; moon, wife, mother; courtiers, servants. The ideogram: terrestrial globe and stretch out, stability and extension."
What seems to be missing in this translation is the concept of 02 manifesting total darkness; the above translation is very 'King Wen' oriented, ignoring the original Fu Hsi bias of darkness.