5 Waiting - The I Ching
Les Jeux et Plaisirs de l’Enfance, Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella. 1657.
Chris Gabriel December 6, 2025
Judgment
Waiting in faith. Cross the great river.
Lines
1
Waiting outside.
2
Waiting in the sand. There are rumours.
3
Waiting in mud invites danger.
4
Waiting in blood. Get out of the hole.
5
Waiting in wine. Feast!
6
Going in the hole invites three uninvited guests.
Qabalah
Yesod and its place on the Middle Pillar. The cloudy phantasies of Yesod. The 4 Nines.
Particularly Cruelty, the Nine of Swords and Strength, the Nine of Wands.
In the fifth hexagram we are given the image of waiting. For many of us, in this age of instant gratification, the task of waiting has become exponentially more difficult. Yet waiting has never been easy; in a drought, the desperate waiting for rain which all engage in is exasperating and miserable. To await the response to a significant message, to wait to be let into a house, to wait for something, anything, to happen - waiting is an eternal issue. It is being given a blank potential and projecting fantasies onto it. Waiting is grappling with Nothing.
Few texts express the miserable nature of waiting like Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’, in which two men desperately await the arrival of a third who never comes.
Vladimir
What do we do now?
Estragon
Wait.
Vladimir
Yes, but while waiting.
Thus the Judgment of the hexagram: “waiting in faith”. One must have faith in the arrival of what it is they are waiting for, though the lines of this hexagram offer no assurance that the rain will come.
1
In this line we are away from the action, outside and considering the feelings and questions one has while waiting outside of a door. Are they home? Will they let me in? How long will I be out here? Even further, we can think of the suburbs or the outskirts of a place: what it is like to be outside of the life of a city or town?
2
With the context of waiting for the rain, sand is inevitably frustrating. One is either in a desert, where rain will certainly not come soon, or on a beach. “Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.”
As in Godot, gossip, rumours, and worried discussions come when you wait for too long.
3
Mud is unstable, if you wait in it, you will surely sink deeper in
4
This line following the last calls to mind the trench warfare of the First World War, the drudgery and horror of mud and blood. ‘Get out of the hole’ is ironic in a way, as war, like gambling, is often done for far too long in an attempt to “get out of the hole”. To break even is a sunk cost fallacy.
5
It’s much easier to wait for a friend inside a warm bar than it is to wait outside in the cold.
6
Even if one is stuck in a difficult situation, others will come, if we treat them well, often we will be helped.
The key issue of this hexagram is not whether or not what one is waiting for comes or not, but where and how one waits. The proper place and approach will determine the experience entirely.
