Confined and Oppressed. Make an offering and you will succeed.
Trial: Wise Words! The Great Person opens the Way.
This is not a mistake. If you hear words, don’t trust them.
Find ways back to common values. Confront your fate and release its purpose. Don’t just put a new face on things. Beware of giving up. Do not cooperate with existing powers. Do as little as possible.
The Image
The old character shows a tree inside an enclosure, a big mouth or ramshackle house that threatens to engulf it.
Circle of Meanings
Oppressed, restricted, exhausted, cut off, at the end of your resources; prisons, penal codes, a noble oppressed by a harsh ruler and oppressive duties; worry, fear, anxiety, fatigue, disheartened, weary; the moment of truth, search within to find the way out. Containing your fear and impulse now gives you the ability to express the spirit in the human community. Heart Theme: 37 establishing a new Dwelling.
Spirit Helpers
Ghost River below Lake. Middle Son and Youngest Daughter, the Navigator and the Mediator, are finding hidden ways back to the common source of value. You are cut off, oppressed and exhausted. Be great and master the situation from within. Find what is truly important. Make the hidden connections. The situation is not your fault but words are not to be trusted now. Do not believe conventional wisdom. Gather your strength and wait for the right moment to break through. You must find the Great Person in yourself, where you are strong, clear and focused. Do not get caught in grudges or negative emotions. The purpose of this isolation is not to make you suffer, but to force you to find your individual connection to the Way. There is a mandate for change hidden in the situation. Think for yourself. Finding value in what your oppressors say will only exhaust you.
Voice of the Mothers
You are oppressed by conventional ideas. Do not trust what people are telling you. Search within to find the way out. Containing your fear and impulse now gives you the ability to express the spirit in the human community. Regroup your own thoughts and find new spiritual kin (8). Do not try to reform the corruption of authority (18).
The character for kun, confining shows an old, dilapidated house or a great open mouth in which a tree is imprisoned, its growth cut off. It suggests a tight, oppressive, devouring structure and evokes penal codes and punishments, onerous duties, oppression by authority and the inherent emotional distress and alienation. The figure mentions several the major punishments which included nose cutting, foot cutting, branding, castration, imprisonment, exile and death in various forms – becoming an offering to the ancestors. It also suggests the oppression of a noble person who is confined and oppressed by his duties and his precarious position under a tyrannical and exploitative lord. It implies the threat of poverty, exhaustion, being at the end of your resources, unable to meet the challenges presenting themselves and suggests being isolated as much mentally as physically, alienated from those around you who you should be able to trust. Communication is blocked now, indeed deceptive and deceitful. You do not know who your friends are and the words of authorities are not to be trusted. Philosophically, however, this oppression is exactly what teaches de, power and virtue, the power to find what is great and truly rely on it. It exhausts the old and awakens you from its collective dream of anger and hatred through the common source of feeling, value and true humanity.
Winter (47): Find the seed of the new by maturing beyond old beliefs and behaviour. Don’t get caught in isolation. The time is changing. Solve problems and bring out the best in others.
Spring (58): Rouse new growth through joyous communication with others. Host gatherings for alliances. Use your time wisely. Don’t let this opportunity slip through your fingers. This connection is bigger than you and personal ambition.
Summer (10): Ripen the fruits. Lead with confidence to collaborate with the new destiny. Be simple and pure in your efforts. Go your own way. Don’t try to control people. Changes are coming. Respect them and you achieve everything you desire.
Fall (6): Harvest the crop by inaugurating new developments. Don’t get lost in power plays. Create a solid vision of your goal. You will soon find support.
Voice of the Fathers
This is an Inspiring Figure. It is part of a Zone of Radical Transformation, a Great Transition when we confront the Ghost River and the shades of the past in order to fully emerge as an individual. It is a Mission of the stage of the Symbolic Life that confers higher levels of empowerment in culture and a new ritual status on the fully individualized being.
The Situation: The wrong people are in positions of authority. Progress is impossible.
Caring for Others: Your relationship with yourself is capable of transforming this situation. Be flexible. Speak little. Move slowly. Protect yourself. Recognize the limits. Show fortitude and waste no energy complaining.
Setting Intentions: Keep silent.
Communication and Interaction: Negative. Do not engage. Rest. Seek personal contentment.
Change from the Inside Out: Save your energy. Take no risks. Do not let others become aware of your position.
- Immediate Future: you face burdensome duties, fatigue and anxiety.
- Personal Development: free yourself from conventional ideas.
- Working within the Family: do not take what others say at face value.
- Expanding the Circle: be strong and silent. Take no risks.
- Partnership: go deep within to work things out. Make your own way.
Pairing: Bringing Change to Life
Each hexagram is part of a Pair that that activates hidden paths of transformative energy through the interaction of the trigrams or Spirit Helpers, connecting phases of Inspiration and Realization. You are in the Inspiring phase of this Pair.
The transformative process of the pair 47:48 Confining and the Well develops the strength to escape from oppression by re-connecting with real human values.
Outer to Inner: The process of the pair transforms the Mediator trigram in the outer world trigram of 47 into the Matchmaker trigram in the inner world of 48. This turns your need to influence the world around you into inner self-cultivation.
Inner to Outer: This interiorisation shifts the Navigator trigram from the inner world of 47 to the outer world of 48, turning inner self containment into the ability to manage the flow and flux of events.
Transforming Lines
Mothering Change presents Transforming Lines as Steps of Change that show you where and how to focus your energy. Click on the links to connect with the Relating Figure generated by each line.
Inner World
Buttocks punished with a wooden rod. If you enter the shadowy gully now,
you will encounter no one for three years.
You have been hurt or punished but you are your own worst enemy now. Do not retreat into melancholy darkness. Put yourself in order. You can connect with the source of human values. If you stir up sorrow then there will be sorrowing. Have no fear. You will soon find supportive friends. Gather energy for a decisive new move. (58 Opening/Mediator)
Confined and Oppressed at food and drink.
Scarlet sashes are coming on all sides.
Advantageous to make presentations to your ideals.
Chastising closes the Way. This is not a mistake.
You ostensibly have all you need but you feel oppressed by lack of recognition. Help is on its way. Hold on to your ideals and extend the gathering. This will lead to great works. Climb the steps and open your heart anew. You can clear the source of common good. Proceed step by step. Gather energy for a decisive new move. (45 Gathering)
Confined and Oppressed by stones, you grasp the thorn-vines.
You enter your palace and do not see your consort. Trap! The Way closes.
You are beating yourself against impossible obstacles, grasping at things that hurt you. You cannot even see your partner who is eager to help. The structure of your life is buckling. Do not be trapped in this pitfall. Sacrifice the old and let in the hidden connections. If you do not add more, your life will soon be crowned anew. Do not be afraid to act alone. You are connected to a creative force. (28 Great Transition)
Outer World
Confined and oppressed in a bronze war-chariot.
It comes slowly, slowly. Distress. There will be completion.
You are confined by oppressive duties and burdensome thoughts. The solution to your problems will arrive slowly. It will take a change of heart to recognize it. Do not be trapped in collective opinions. Sacrifice the old and let in the hidden bonds. The connection to the common source of value is disturbed. Move on and you can share your gifts. Be open and provide what is needed. (29 Ghost River/Navigator)
Your nose cut, your feet cut, Oppressed by the crimson sashes.
Slowly this will be loosened. Advantageous to make offerings to your ideals.
You are being oppressed by corrupt authorities. As your bitter feelings loosen you will be set free. Concentrate on your ideals. Though you confront many difficulties, this is not your fault. The source of common value has been corrupted by those who seek only their own gain. Prepare yourself through inner work. These comings and goings release energy now bound up in the past. Co-operate with the ongoing process of change. (40 Deliverance/Liberating)
Confined and oppressed by trailing creepers, you trip on tree stumps.
Say it like this: If you stir up the causes of sorrow,
then there will be sorrowing. Chastising opens the Way.
This seeming oppression should not even bother you. If you sit around and lament, then all you will hear is lamentation. You are contesting for mastery in a corrupt situation and you simply cannot win. The source of common good is like an old neglected well. Activate your energy and accept the heavy going. You will find supportive friends. Prepare the decisive new move. (6 Arguing)