ARTICLE
Yin-yang as the base for the total development of The Creative and The Receptive in an astral chart.
Luminous and dark lines alternate. Positive and negative signs alternate, too. The path of development, with profusion of lives, shapes and colors, may turn the components into artistic elements, too. Such as we associate moments in the art of our lives, we could also correlate trigrams and hexagrams with the planetary distribution of any astral chart.
The art is Venus' domain, a linking planet that finds a way to represent. Representing is presenting again and, on this occasion, we inhale I Ching and Astrology at the beginning, for exhaling later hexagrams into the astral.
- Heaven, Moon & Earth
- Trigrams to Heaven
- Two Hexagrams of the Astral Chart
- Hexagrams to Heaven
- The Totality
- Comment
I. Heaven, Moon & Earth
Chien ䷀ The Creative 1 and Kun ䷁ The Receptive 2 are the hexagrams associated to the Sun and Moon, Heaven and Earth, Father and Mother. Next, we find the rest of 62 situations describing external development (or the sequence of natural phenomena). In the sequence, the astral charts rule, as representations in Heaven of those lives born on Earth.
Trigrams and hexagrams represent the Moon's development. Following the same spatial orientation, the beginning of the Zodiac is set in Pisces, a sign classified as negative and ruler of the feet, which are the basis and take the first position in a hexagram. But for walking the way, or starting a developmental path, some light like the heat of the Sun is needed. The rest of the tendential-zodiacal path represents Heaven and Earth as dimensions of a single totality.
II. Trigrams to Heaven
The inversion of perspectives/spaces is quite usual, especially if it's about the Moon. From the negativity and positivity of Earth phenomena, each trigram is related to two groups of planets. We may consider one or the other according to the inferior or superior position the trigram takes in a hexagram.
K'an is water flowing into an abyss. Tui is a quiet lake. Chien is creative heaven. Kun is receptive earth. Ken is a lying mountain. Li is adhering flame. Chen is a shaking thunder. Sun is penetrating wind.
indexIII. Two Hexagrams of the Astral Chart
The chart represents the Moon and Earth together, like a seed when growing and developing. The entire design, of the seed, of the astral chart, is unfolded by heat and motion towards a horizon. And that horizon is for the Sun. So the chart is the art of the Sun and Moon, or the combination of two hexagrams: a creative-luminous one and a receptive-dark one. Each person embodies the luminaries, integrating Heaven into the Earth and Earth into Heaven, living the experience as a generative (Chien) matrix (Kun).
Finding the two hexagrams of a chart is like drawing strokes after an oracular reading. In this case, we ask the astral chart. During the last Solstice of 2025, Neptune (ruler of Pisces) is in Pisces, so it takes the first position and, as a negative sign, it takes it in the receptive hexagram: the first lunar stroke is yin. By following the same logic, the other five strokes of the lunar hexagram can be deduced, as well as the solar hexagram.
Rulerships: Neptune in Pisces, Uranus in Aquarius, Saturn in Capricorn, Jupiter in Sagittarius, Pluto in Scorpio, Venus in Libra, Mercury in Virgo, Sun in Leo, Moon in Cancer, Mercury in Gemini, Venus in Taurus, Mars in Aries.
IV. Hexagrams to Heaven
In addition to the classic sequence of dark and luminous strokes, there's a celestial path where the art of the Sun and Moon inverts their natural space: the yin-yang expression of the chart is not just on Earth but also in Heaven. By just coming back to the rulers of the lunar and solar strokes.
The art represents the Sun-Moon tie taking place on Earth and, at the same time, it displays the representation in Heaven, as if Heaven was on Earth. In the chart of integration, we may look at the yin-yang composition of planets and the aspectations. In general terms, there's a great balance: two solar planets, two lunar planets and two luni-solar planets. The aspectations channel the vital energy of the solstice towards a mostly yin expression (lunar Neptune in Pisces, a negative sign), and none of the three tense aspectactions come entirely from the lunar or solar hexagram exclusively. Except for the yin concentration (Neptune), the rest of the energies show a yin-yang expression: of a lunar origin in a positive sign, of a solar origin in a negative sign, or of a luni-solar origin.
indexV. The Totality
The hexagrams have their own astral representation according to the planetary distribution mentioned in Trigrams to Heaven:
As complements in Heaven, the astral hexagrams of the Solstice takes Chien & Kun distribution partially, the ones expressing the totality when they complement each other. Yin (Lü, Moon) and yang (Hsien, Sun) come from the same origin (Ken, the mountain), and complement each other quite well in the external expression, in which they mostly take different spaces and cover almost all of the areas. Taking two parts of a total of three, just 4 positions remain free: 3 inferior ones (which correspond to Tui -metal, lake-), and 1 superior one. For the total expression of The Receptive and The Creative during the Solstice, including the metal element at the base would be the best option, since it would allow reaching almost 90% of the complementary total expression. The element would also mean a conflictive relation to the lunar-receptive-dark (due to metal Tui - fire Li interaction) although productive to the solar-creative-luminous (pure metal Tui). Michel Gall's comments about these hexagrams invite to meditate on how they could complement each other:
Lü The WandererThe flame runs through the flanks of the mountain without staying in its place. But it turns itself off and die when all the vegetation has been exhausted. Like an uncautious traveler may, after consumming the food supplies, find himself in an ungrateful country and risk his life because of not foreseeing the consequences. A bright departure may end up tragically. Lü invites to be prudent: the flame just has to be clarity (pure discovering), the mountain (base) must not be destroyed.
Hsien InfluenceXian is one of the four hexagrams representing sexual union. It corresponds to the period preceding life in common, when "the mountain is reflected on the lake and the lake watches itself in the mountain". Period of exchanges, harmony, of mutual understanding and also for exchanging social status. It's a moment to ask for advice to awakened people who have lived the same moments.
Michel Gall in I Ching, the Chinese bible
Reaching the total expression implies that polarities are no more, and the game of opposites disappears. It happens when some double hexagrams are gathered: formed by the same trigram at the base and top, the strokes could be represented as planets related in the 66 aspectations of the totality. In the astral configuration, any move could disintegrate the composition.
| Total hexagrams | P | R | D |
| Chen ䷲ 51 & Sun ䷸ 57 Shake & The Gentle. Thunder and wind (wood). | ✓ | × | × |
| Chien ䷀ 1 & Kun ䷁ 2 The Creative & The Receptive. Heaven (metal) and earth. | ✓ | ✓ | × |
| Ken ䷳ 52 & Tui ䷹ 58 Keeping-still & The Joyous. Mountain and lake (metal/water). | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| K'an ䷜ 29 & Li ䷝ 30 The Abyssal & Clinging. Water course and flame. | × | × | ✓ |
| Cycles: productive (P), reductive (R) and destructive (D). | |||
In the total expression, there's no move since there's no space to be taken, and the main characteristic comes from the elemental interaction. When K'an The Abyssal and Li Clinging are combined, both together reach the totality in a kind of union that is conflictive (water-fire) and, if interested in preserving the integration, the conflict cannot be avoided. Richard Wilhelm's comments about the two hexagrams let us perceive those conflictive moves inside of the greatest development for the receptive and the creative:
K'an The Abyssal"With the repetition of danger, one gets acquainted with it. Water gives an example for the right behaviour in such conditions. It flows and flows and fills all places up wherever it goes through, up to the borders and nothing else; it doesn't move backwards in front of any dangerous place, in front of any falling, and nothing makes it lose its own essential quality. In all circumstances it stays loyal to itself. So truthfulness makes oneself in hard circumstances perceive internally, with the heart, the background of the situation...".
Li Clinging"The dark adheres to the luminous and thus perfects the clarity of the luminous. The clear, by irradiating light, requires the presence of the perseverant within, for not burning it all and being in condition of illuminating in a lasting way. All that expands light in the world, depends on something to stay adhered to so it can enlighten in a lasting way. Thus the Sun and the moon adhere to heaven; the grains, herbs and trees adhere to earth. Thus the double clarity of the predestined man adheres to the righteous...".
Richard Wilhelm in I Ching, the book of changes
VI. Comment
The birth chart, and the rising sign, show a horizon to orient our moves. Because there's no primordial integration, colors and life itself have a chance. Not-taken places, free, unlinked or partially linked, make it possible to play a game.
The yin-yang expression on the Solstice's chart, or on any other chart, describes a distribution, tendencies and internal combinations. And, based on all of it, then there's a chance for balancing, concentrating or diluting. The lake (Tui, metal element) could be included as part of one of those games, which in the integration of the Solstice, would provide much more energy although many more interactions too, resting just a little free space to make things circulate, rearranged or flow without disturbing other energetic areas.
Precisely because the primordial mutates, we find variations on Earth, different shapes and some relations (and not other ones). That's why it is said that the sequence of hexagrams starts with Chun ䷂ Difficulty at the Beginning 3, a hexagram evoking the process of birth delivery, or the opening of a path as much as it is possible.
Many times, the yin-yang expression is paradoxical. For example, the contrary hexagrams to K'an and Li are themselves! It's not a contradiction, since each hexagram counts on definite and very understandable tendencies inside of its relational logic. The paradox they show is a structurally adviced-unadviced move.
In the same way, the birth chart displays a primordial combination, Sun and Moon, tending to a developmental process which is only possible if the composition, or the unfolded expression of the luminaries, doesn't reach it all. For a move to happen from the primordial, something is transformed, changed, mutated. Luckily, the Earth's motion opens temporary games: in the next Solstice, at another moment in the sky, with any new birth, a new integration will take place and, at that exact moment, something will change, too.
indexRelated articles
- Trigrams and hexagrams' structure in I Ching
- A 2 pp .pdf document with the main meanings of lines and trigrams, and the correspondences. Read here.
- I Ching: oracle of the empty
- About yin-yang principles, several ways to represent them, and how changes happen. Read here.
- I Ching's double ones
- Eight hexagrams have the same inferior and superior trigram, and are called double ones. They're visible but indicate that not-visible changes have happened, even in readings with no mutable lines. Read here.
- Adding more info to I Ching readings
- A mini-series of three articles about: the hexagrams related to the main one we got (Part I); forecasts based on the sequences of macro origins, micro (natural) development, and transcendental or out-of-series hexagrams (Part II); and the relation of natural elements, trigrams and cycles of energy (Part III).
Source: Moments at Azul.
