44 Encountering - The I Ching

In this hexagram, the single yin line that sat at the top of 43 is now entering from below. This is a threat ignored because of its small size. The ideogram gives us the image of sex. Together they make a “femme fatale”, a Jezebel or Deliliah.

‍

Judgment: While this direction is very clear, anyone with experience knows this advice is nearly always futile. When someone is enamoured, they lose their senses, and can no longer see the faults which are obvious to those around them. Though someone may have a strong body and mind, the heart is nearly always vulnerable.

Burroughs writes of it well in regard to Egyptians:

Number 4 is Ba, the heart, often treacherous. This is a hawk’s body with your face on it, shrunk down to the size of a fist. Many a hero has been brought down, like Samson, by a perfidious Ba.

1 This line shows the beginning of the trouble, and that what is underway must be stopped. In regard to the femme fatale, the golden ball and chain is the wife. She is the resistance to the negative change while the man here is the pitiful pig. Though we may not feel it, the saying “all men are pigs” is mostly true: there exists a lustful animal inside us all.  Both images show how people in weak positions are controlled, through barriers and hunger.

2 The fish in the bag is a “bun in the oven”, pregnancy. This is the same image that appeared in hexagram 2. To not have guests is to keep the growing baby safe. Whenever something is beginning, it’s important to protect it from external forces. This is rejecting a “homewrecker” while one’s partner is pregnant.

3 In spite of great difficulty, they persist. Think of animals who survive grievous injuries and live maimed. This is the same image as the previous hexagram’s line 4, but here there is no one to lead us.

4 Here, one is isolated, virginal, and as such remains sterile. Sterility is good in hospitals but bad for those who want to produce an heir. Consider Henry VIII ending his marriage with Catherine because she had not given him a son, a common problem for royalty in the past.

5 In trying to remain virginal, a woman hides herself in modesty just as a tree keeps its fruit high above the ground and hidden under leaves. This situation will not last though, someone will “fall out of the sky” before them, or they themselves may “fall from grace”. 

6 We have been warned of the powerful woman, and at last she reveals her danger in the final line. This is when Delilah cuts Samson’s hair or Judith beheads the sleeping Holofernes. As it is the last line, it is now too late to avoid the danger she presents.

‍

While the text itself is focused on men enamoured with women, we can clearly see how these patterns play out equally. Many strong women are brought down by dangerous men. The danger of the hexagram is sex in general, not from a moral  perspective, but a practical one. When we have sex, we grow close to someone and invite them into our private life,  if they are the wrong sort of person we will suffer the consequences.

Being cautious of who we keep around us is easy when we think of work or friendship, but we can’t “decide” who we are attracted to and as such our lower instinct can overtake our rational minds and lead to all sorts of trouble. Attraction leads us to outrageous actions, think of Shakespeare’s “romantic” tragic plays like Romeo and Juliet, Othello, or Antony and Cleopatra. In each, a confusion arising from the passions leads to death, not only for the lovers but for many around them. Sexual relations can bring down individuals, families, companies, and even countries.

As such, we must keep our wits about us, even when our hearts are inflamed with passion. Or at least, we must try not to be led too far astray. After all, without sex none of us would be here.