Hexagram Two
K’un (Pro: Kwn; vowel so short as to be almost non-existent)- Receptivity
The vital feminine principle of receptivity and formation is indicated by this hexagram. All that is receptive, nurtures, gives form and substance and gives birth is at work. Persistence in a direction harmonious with personal needs and the society one lives within lead to success!
With careful awareness your ability to receive, to nurture and bring forth the new can stream through you. Do not avoid uncertainty, or losing your way, but hold to your goal, and you will find your direction. Much confronts you. Take from it like the plant takes the minerals it needs from the soil. Build it into what you are developing within you. But also give of yourself to what is forming.
Allow those who are warm and supportive to draw close. Let those who are cold and distant be lost from you.
Remaining receptive like the fertile earth mother, avoiding interference from distractions will bring success in a new birth. But receptivity is not passiveness. It receives, but it gives a quality of its own, it gives of its resources to form the new.
The power of receptivity is enormously enhanced in regard to the question. Allow the openness to remain to let the immense richness flow in and be shaped. Much that has existed in the past may now be re-formed and given new life. There may be a time when this seems very abstract. But as the new takes form and grows, then recognition arises. Follow the needs of what is growing in this way. Be nurturing to it. Recognise the fragility of what is still young and immature. Guard it well until it grows into strength.
To nourish means to give all your resources, to offer them to be used in what has been received through receptivity. Like the mother of the unborn baby whose very body becomes the nourishment for the inner child, let all your experience and feelings be food for what is developing.
If there is not a sense of being already fertile with inner growth, then that which will fertilise will be sought out or attracted. Constancy is a means of attaining great ends.
Key words: Receptivity, nurturing, creativity, formation.
The Moving Lines.
1 – The results of past action now accumulates – the reaping of what was sown. Be cautious. A wintry season approaches. Be prepared for it. Things must die before being re-formed
2 – Have no doubt, the way is clear and broad ahead. What is undertaken will prosper. There is little need for effort. Greater space is coming. Remain true to your principles.
3 – Success in this issue may not be immediate. Nevertheless it lies ahead. Meanwhile do not parade talent or beauty. This will unfold or be seen in its season.
4 – Be watchful and problems will be met and dealt with. But keep your light under cover in this issue. When the power of emergence is not strong, it has little effect to display what cannot be used.
5 – The inner quality is more important here than external show or reward. From this quality will emerge success in the world.
6 – When there is conflict between the male and the female, the receptive and the dynamic, there is a loss of power. Do not be in conflict when there can arise a joining together.