64 – Sixty-Four Wei Chi / The End In Sight
Fire ascends above the Water: The Superior Person examines the nature of things and keeps each in its proper place. Too anxious the young fox gets his tail wet, just as he completes his crossing. To attain success, be like the man and not like the fox.
SITUATION ANALYSIS:
Resist the rush to completion. Anticipation of fulfillment may cause you to be careless before you have fully absorbed the lessons of the journey. The endpoint of this Quest will only prove to be the threshold for another. You are short steps from Mastery on this plane, yet you stride toward Ignorance of the challenges lying beyond. Savor this accomplishment. Fully Become. Take full possession of your world before embarking to discover the next one. That voyage begins soon enough, and you will reminisce about this one. These are the Good Old Days.
Six at the beginning [yin at bottom] means:
Careless so near to shore, the fox gets his tail wet. Humiliation.
He gets his tail in the water. Humiliating.
Female blackbird taking bath – Landsmeer Holland 2010 photo Lex van den Bos
In times of disorder there is a temptation to advance oneself as rapidly as possible in order to accomplish something tangible. But this enthusiasm leads only to failure and humiliation if the time for achievement has not yet arrived. In such time it is wise to spare ourselves the opprobrium of failure by holding back.1
54 – Fifty-Four Kuei Mei / A Loveless Marriage
The Thunderstorm inseminates the swelling Lake, then moves on where the Lake cannot follow: The Superior Person views passing trials in the light of Eternal Truths. Any action will prove unfortunate. Nothing furthers.
SITUATION ANALYSIS:
This is at best a Marriage of Convenience. You have found yourself in desperate straits, a position of weakness, and you are tempted to pay dearly for a remedy. A drowning man isn’t picky about who throws him a rope. The rescue offered to you now is undesirable. It may pull you out of this sticky situation, but it will cause even greater predicaments down the road. Don’t obligate yourself in this way. You are selling your future for a quick fix today.
1. Note how this situation differs from that in the first line of the preceding hexagram 63 . There the tail gets wet as well, but after completion.