45 Gathering - The I Ching
Gathering is good. The King makes a great sacrifice at the temple.
Lines
1
Have faith, but not to the end. A confused gathering. Cry out. Take their hand, you’ll smile.
2
Being led is lucky. Faith is gained through sacrifice.
3
Gathering, sighing.
4
Great luck.
5
Gathering with an honorable position, but they have little faith. If your heart is pure, regret dies.
6
Weeping and wailing.
Qabalah
The Path of Vau: Chokmah to Chesed. The Hierophant
In this hexagram we find a similar image to that of hexagram 8 Union where water is gathering on the ground, though the size is smaller here and still in the midst of growth. The ideogram shows a uniformed soldier gathering grass, thus the image of gathering.
Judgment: When you gather people together for a single purpose, it is good to engage in ritual to make clear the singular will of the many. Consider the necessity of a great meal to accompany a wedding or funeral. This is how we forge and strengthen the bonds of union.
1 The scene is very clear in this line: one has gone to a gathering in faith, but found themselves lost and confused. They call out for a friend, and they find each other. Think of the times you’ve been at a loud concert, trying to find your friend, then you feel their hand on your shoulder, and smile together having been reunited.
2 When joining a gathering, it’s good to be led around to meet fellow congregants. Once you’ve all met, sacrifice is often necessary. Consider secret societies or criminal organizations which require new members to engage in a shared crime, so the group is bonded in culpability, none remain innocent. By sharing guilt, everyone is “in this together”.
3 This is a gathering which is both difficult to enter into and difficult to be in. Think of a stranger trying to get into a funeral, or someone crashing a wedding. Even if their presence is fated or necessary, it is extremely awkward and difficult to be an uninvited guest.
4 The gathering in this line is very fortunate: it is the first yang line in the hexagram, and when it changes into yin, the Union of hexagram 8 is formed. The strong bond is made, and allows for the next line.
5 This is King Arthur gathering the knights of the round table or Christ gathering the Apostles. When you have the honor of your place as a rightful king, it is easy to gather people to you. Though their faith may be small at first, they will come to believe in the purity of their leader.
6 The gathering was accomplished in the previous line, for here is the yin line which sits atop the hexagram. This is the Virgin Mary weeping at her son’s crucifixion. Negatively, this is Guinivere, lonely, though Arthur has gathered his knights.
Funerals, weddings, and many other ceremonies often begin with the line:“We are gathered here today”. The nature of the gathering here is not indicated in the hexagram, solely the act of gathering.
We are given an image similar to hexagrams 8 and 13, Union and Coming Together, that show the unifying of people under a proper leader and with a proper purpose. This hexagram shows us not the union itself or the people gathered, but the process and dynamics of gathering. The confusion, the awkwardness, the forging of bonds, and the eventual success.
How do we form lasting bonds? How do we turn strangers into brothers? How do we keep people unified? While I mentioned the Aesop’s fable of the Fasci in the commentary to hexagram 8, the ideogram for this hexagram directly shows the gathering of the sticks to form the fasci. The pioneer gathering wood to build a house, a seamstress gathering thread to sew a tapestry.