7 Army - The I Ching
Chris Gabriel December 20, 2025
Judgment
The Army is pure if it’s led by a wise man.
Lines
1
The Army goes with discipline.
2
In the middle is the commander with three orders from the King.
3
Sometimes the Army leaves wagons full of corpses.
4
Then the Army rests.
5
Fields full of birds. Catch them. An older boy leads the army. A younger boy is dead.
6
A great one gives orders, opening the country and accepting families. Small ones can’t do this.
Qabalah
Malkuth to Yesod: The Path of Tau. The Universe. Malkuth envelopes the energy of Yesod. The Earth to the Moon.
In this hexagram, we see the image of earth over water. It is something simple atop something dangerous, so in this way we are given the image of the Army. Consider revolutions in which simple folk become warriors. Naturally, this hexagram depicts an aquifer, or an underwater reservoir - a great resource hidden underground.
A clear natural example that intertwines the Army with the underground is an Ant colony and an anthill is not so different from a military bunker.
The lines give us a very stark look at war.
1
An army is worse than useless if it is undisciplined. Yet again, the Ant provides the ideal of the military, absolute devotion and a singular purpose.
2
An army won’t get much done without orders from above.
3
Even when the military functions properly, many people die for the sake of some greater goal.
4
After atrocities and horror, soldiers must rest and recuperate.
5
This is the most significant line in the hexagram. We should not mistake the realistic view of the military here with a denouncement of war - this line clearly advocates for the military acquisition of resources. War comes with the ultimate cost - teenagers leading men in battle against fellow teenagers, and few coming out alive.
6
After war, the land a state has taken is put to use and inhabited.
Another military development through which this hexagram can be understood is camouflage. Camouflage allows something that looks simple to hide something dangerous. Consider the deceptive fulfillment of prophecy by Malcom in Macbeth:
Let every soldier hew him down a bough
And bear ’t before him. Thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host and make discovery
Err in report of us.
