Lines
Line Meanings
- Line 6 – exiting – outside of the situation – omniscient view of the situation as a whole
- Oversight/”God/Source”
- After Sales Service
- Line 5 – in the center of the outer portion of the situation – highest point of interaction
- King
- The Product
- Line 4 – in transition from the lower portion – ready to embark on outer/upper portion of the situation
- High Ranking Official
- Marketing and Sales
- Line 3 – in transition to the upper portion of the situation – has the most information of the inner situation
- Duke
- Production
- Line 2 – in the center of the inner/lower portion of the situation
- Domestic official
- Technology/Know-how
- Line 1 – entering the situation (not yet in it)
- Commoner
- Material
Line Groupings
Primary Trigrams
- Upper/Outer Trigram:
- Turns the inner workings of the lower position into situation
- Lifts up and pulls out
- The “tool” / How
- Inner/Lower Trigram:
- Brings the vibration of the trigram and is expressed through the outer trigram
- The core/foundation
- The “material” / What
- Example:Heaven over Earth –
- The generous, devoted, and receptive nature of Earth is brought forth into a powerful strength and order of Heaven in the situation.
- This ends up as “Standstill” because the still receptivity of Earth is held in its form by the powerful order of Heaven
Nuclear Trigrams
The Nuclear Trigrams can also be combined into a “Nuclear Hexagram”, which unfolds into some interesting patterns when applied to the full set of 64 hexagrams. Whether or not this was a consideration within the original text is contested, and not essential when consulting the I Ching.
- This may not be an essential portion of the hexagram interpretation, but it does provide a deeper level of understanding in the situation
- Premise is that lines 1 and 6 are in the core of the situation (they are entering and exiting respectively), so the 4 lines in the center represent the core action in the situation
- In the example on the left, it is Wind over Mountain, and those can be interpreted similarly to how the Primary Trigrams are interpreted
This diagram shows the overlap of the trigrams:
- 1&6: outside the situation
- 2&5: showing the center-ness the portions
- in either lower/upper respectively
- 3&4: showing the transition
- In both lower/upper
Qualities
- A way of grouping the lines – not essential in the text
- Heaven: 5&6 – the wisdom of the situation
- Man: 3&4 – the work/life of the situation
- Earth: 1&2 – sets the stage for the situation
- Review also in relation to the digrams
Pairs
Often, the hexagrams are stored in pairs (this is also the King Wen sequence, and the one most used – when you look up “hexagram 10”, it is the 10th hexagram in the King Wen sequence.
- The first type of pair is “Rotational”
- They are rotated versions of each other.
- These are considered “normal” gradual change
- 28 Pairs of hexagrams work like this
- The second type of pair is “Symmetrical”
- These do not change when rotated, so they are inverted
- They are considered radical change
- 4 Pairs of hexagrams work like this
- Another type I’ve noticed where the rotation and inversion yield the same hexagram
- 4 Pairs of hexagrams work like this
Nuclear Hexagrams
Do this one more time to the resulting 16, and you are left with 4 what is referred to as ‘Seed hexagrams, and they represent the first 2 and the last 2 hexagrams in the King Wen sequence.
4 Seed Hexagrams
Doing this process to all 64 hexagram yields 16 hexagrams.
When you put the nuclear trigrams in the hexagram together, you can come up with a new image of a hexagram, that some refer to as the “Nuclear Hexagram”.
16 Nuclear Hexagrams
This is another piece that seems to be wildly debated on whether this is a deeper understanding or a dilution of the system. I find that patterns that emerge quite fascinating, so I definitely wanted to include it here.
The Scarf Witch 
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