49 Revolution - the I Ching
The Tennis Court Oath, Jacques-Louis David. 1792.
Revolution is certain as Spring.
Lines
1
Bound in yellow ox hide.
2
On a Spring day, revolt.
3
Revolution is said three times, then it is believed.
4
Change fate.
5
Great men change like tigers, without divining they have faith.
6
Sages change like leopards. Small people only change their faces.
Qabalah
Path of Yod: Tiphereth to Chesed. The Hermit.
In this hexagram we find the image of coming change. Fire under the lake is water coming to a simmer, a crisis reaching the boiling point. The ideogram shows the hide of an animal. Just as animals are killed so their meat and skins can be used, a nation revolts against its government to transform itself. The word Mao Zedong used for “Revolution” contains this ideogram: 革命. “Change fate”.
Judgment: Revolution here does not refer purely to politics, the revolution is also that of the Earth around the sun, the journey through the Zodiacal wheel as mankind moves with the Heavens. The night cannot last, so the Sun always rises. Winter cannot go on, so Spring comes. This is the fate of every government, when the time comes, people will make a revolution. When a state loses the Mandate of Heaven, it will fall.
Image: While I usually avoid the repetitive image portion of the text, it is highly relevant here: Fire in the Lake. Sages set the calendar in order and make the seasons known.
1 As with the yellow hide in hexagram 33, this is the most sensitive point. A revolution is easiest to quell when it is just beginning, made up of a few dissidents.. Think of the flowers that come up just as winter is ending, but spring has yet to come: they will often die in the last few cold spells. The early revolutionary organizers and acts must be secretive so as not to incur counter actions. The seeds are sown, but time is needed.
2 When the time comes, you revolt openly. If you act at the proper moment, the Heavens support you. Consider the impossible odds of many revolutions; it is solely through fate that they succeed and obstacles which seemed insurmountable are overcome with ease.
3 Consider the quote, often misattributed to Goebbels or Lenin: “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.” Before it can overthrow a government, the revolution must be believed in by the people as the real truth. People are often very attached to even the most degrading, but stable environments. It can be very difficult to incite them, so propaganda must be repetitive.
4 A change in regimes signal a change in the destiny of a people. The Ancients believed that states are like Gods; they exist beyond the officials, leaders, and buildings and permeate the whole culture and tradition of a people. A revolution destroys not only material things, but the God as well. This is why the French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions were hellbent on complete change. The French revolutionaries went so far as to create a new calendar with new months and new days. Julius and Augustus Caesar are still seen in our calendar.
5 The great must have an absolute confidence and feel themselves to be kings. This is the pride of Napoleon crowning himself. This is acting without permission and gaining popular support through public displays. Many of the men who gain power in periods of transformation and revolution simply seize it as no one else was willing to.
6 Wise people are able to change everything about themselves and go through a complete transformation. Small people can only change their appearances. This is echoed perfectly in Jeremiah 13:23
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
This too is the nature of much political change: if it is not absolute, nothing at all changes. Most people are entirely incapable of transforming from within, they must be changed by others.
When we think of change, it often seems impossible. As Mark Fisher puts it: “it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” Fortunately, this is not the reality. When the time is right, the whole world changes with a natural ease. All great changes in life are fated: when we try to force them to start prematurely, we will be met with immense resistance, but when we follow the Weltgeist, we can move mountains. Therefore let us be ready for the changes in our own life, and in the world. When the time comes, we will be transformed through and through.