The arc of the sun (Hexagram 35, PROGRESS)

It might seem strange to begin a post about Hexagram 35, PROGRESS, with a quote about "bumps in the road" ... but Hexagram 39, OBSTACLES, is the nuclear (inner; implicit; embedded) principle within 35.

They'll always be there ... the bumps, the challenges, the seemingly implacable inner mountains that so often are the molehills of a life. Some of those challenges are with us for as long as we live. Even so ...

PROGRESS. An easy arc of movement, like the sun arising at dawn. Both an upward movement, and a lateral one. Thus, the arc. We might think of a rainbow.

It's been a long time since I've posted here. Grave challenges have hindered my health over the last few years, including basic abilities like ... thinking a thought all the way through! Even as some challenges have not eased, and indeed have worsened, there is an arc arising.

Inevitable dawn. We so easily forget the dawn during deepest night.

It's fitting to return to this blog with the principle of PROGRESS; my very first post was about it, too.

PROGRESS. It implies:

A Sunny Day

A Sure Sense Of Direction

Appropriate Expansion

Dawn In Progress

Ease of Movement

Effortless Effort

Flow

Full Steam Ahead!

Mutual Advancement

Preparing for Recognition

Refined and Worthy Work

Steady Gains.

Wilhelm's translation of the oracle's Judgment for Hexagram 35 states that "the powerful prince is honoured with horses in large numbers." I think of those "horses" as vital energy, intrinsic power (which is the theme of Hexagram 34). 

Wilhelm again: "The light of the sun as it rises over the earth is by nature clear. The higher the sun rises, the more it emerges from the dark mists, spreading the pristine purity of its rays over an ever widening area ... Clarity rises high over the earth." Progress radiates in all directions. 

"Everything that has a will to live seeks the light," writes Frits Block. Light seeks us, too. The two trigrams that make up the PROGRESS hexagrams are Fire over Earth -- natural elements in their natural placements. Sun over Ground. The "sun" of our mind, illuminating all that we do, if we choose to "shed light on [our] values and clarify what is most central" (Jack Balkin). 

My most recent divination -- a question about receiving spiritual direction from a particular person -- yielded PROGRESS with no changing lines. A huge "Yes!" Hua-Ching Ni, in his masterful translation of the I Ching, writes that "the most important progress to be made is the development of virtue ... by responding to high spiritual influences."

What an affirming divination to receive in early November, just after we've switched back to "standard time", when the world is darkening for Winter's deep sleep. 

Follow the radiance ... and be it.