I Ching Rotation and Inversion

There are two core ways in which the trigrams and hexagrams change to their “opposite”: Rotate or Invert.

While any hexagram can have any other hexagram within a I Ching divination, I find that studying these corners is putting a structure behind how the situations relate in the whole. I think of them like table legs.

Trigrams

Invert Only

The 4 of the 8 trigrams can only be converted, and they seem to align with an overall binary of principles:

Heaven and Earth or the Creative and Receptive/Firm and Yielding – I refer to as ‘divine principles’ – the overarching principles by which the nature of all exists. Something must provide or start and something must be available to receive and end. This is the natural movement and being of everything.

Fire and Water or the Sun and Moon/Light and Dark- I refer to as ‘human duality’ – “human” is probably a poor term – what I mean to say is that it is within the world in which we know to be reality – where the Sun and Moon come into being. The Light and Dark are the principles that create the shape of a 3D reality. Fire and water are also commonly used as symbols of creation and duality.

Rotate and Invert

The other 4 trigrams can rotate and invert, and rotating seems to change where they are in the sequence, whereas inverting changes their nature.
According to Richard Wilhelm in his translation of the I Ching, the daughters in the trigram are said to represent stages of devotion and the sons the stages of movement.  It also aligns with the Divine Principles themselves - yielding and firm.

Hexagram Example

Rotating is turning the hexagram, so that what was on row 1 is now row 6, row 2 is row 5, etc.

This is 3 rotating to 4

Inverting is changing all of the lines, so that anything that was a solid line becomes a broke line, etc.

This is 3 inverting to 50

If a hexagram can be rotated, then its inverse pairs with its rotated inverse like this

Difficulty at the Beginning (3) rotates into Youthful folly (4) – still starting, still inexperienced, but with gusto to move forward.

The same gusto of 4 is used in Revolution/Abolishing the Old (49), but here we have the energy of something that came before – whereas in 4, the Youthful Folly is that of the ‘wise fool’. 49 contains the energy of understanding the old needing it to be destroyed, whereas 4 is more the blissful ignorance of youth.

The Cauldron/Establishing the New (50) contains a similar energy of 49 in that it understands that something had come before.

50 and 3 share in that there is some challenge – a recognition of work that needs to be done. They both come with inner trigrams of beginnings (wind and thunder, respectively).

Special Pairs

I plan on going into detail on the relational archetypes between hexagrams – here I am highlighting some pairs of Hexagrams that have special properties that the others do not

Note that 4 of the first 8 pairs are also nuclear hexagrams (1/2, 27/28, 63/64, 53/54)

Symmetrical Hexagrams – Invert only.

Inverting is said to be a more drastic change – as the nature of the situation itself changes rather than changing perspective.
Notice how the 4 built of invert-only trigrams are the same on top and bottom.
The 4 that are made of the trigrams that can rotate have flipped positions (upper to lower, lower to upper):
62 flips positions with 27; 28 flips positions with 61.

“Symmetrical Change” Hexagrams

On these 8 hexagrams, rotating and inverting will yield the same result.

This suggests, to me, that the change in these situations may not be what they seem. Either they are a drastic change seeming like a change in a perspective, or changing perspective creates drastic change.

Nuclear without special geometry

In the two other groups above – half of each group contained nuclear hexagrams.
There are 4 pairs of nuclear hexagrams left over that do not have limiting properties.
These work in groups of 4 like the other hexagrams.
I believe these pairs work more flexibly and clearly than the pairs above. I could say they act as fire over earth – which is hexagram 35 (Progress).
Stephen Karcher describes Nuclear hexagrams as ‘Hidden Possibilities’ in his book “Total I Ching: Myths for Change”.
So, the hexagrams that contain these hexagram pairs may also have a path to easier effortless change.

The Scarf Witch