It is a time of conflict. Paths are converging that are unable to occupy the same space. If one or the other is unable to change, there can be no resolution. You can force an outcome with some measure of success, which you will constantly have to defend.
If you are entangled in a conflict, your only salvation lies in being so clear- headed and inwardly strong that you are always ready to come to terms by meeting the opponent halfway. To carry on the conflict to the bitter end has evil effects even when you is the right, because the enmity is then perpetuated.
Adversity produces creative solutions within you. If you can bend and go deep within, it makes you stronger and less vulnerable to attack through changes to your weakest attributes. You can grow beyond the self that invited the attacks and leave no target for future adversaries.
The text reads:
Times of adversity are the reverse of times of success, but they can lead to success if they befall the right man. When a strong man meets with adversity, he remains cheerful despite all danger, and this cheerfulness is the source of later successes; it is that stability which is stronger than fate. He who lets his spirit be broken by exhaustion certainly has no success. But if adversity only bends a man, it creates in him a power to react that is bound in time to manifest itself. No inferior man is capable of this. Only the great man brings about good fortune and remains blameless. It is true that for the time being outward influence is denied him, because his words have no effect. Therefore in times of adversity it is important to be strong within and sparing of words.
