A change to greater activity of the life force cannot be fully used in this tao where we are without a feeling of it and not identifying in outer action.

She marries but not fully, he can walk but not fully; it is better to have this partial movement than none, it is better to participate in what is on offer than to live in our images of what ought to be on offer.

We do not properly take part in the outer activity of this tao; we long to share but we cannot (sometimes dare not) give ourselves up to it. When the activity decreases we are able to take some part in it, an entrance into a world we wish to share.

A servant does not participate, a concubine does; a servant has separate quarters, a concubine co-inhabits. Here we become a participator, we enter the world of others and our energies have some outlet.

In this moving line we are involved, we are interested or even dedicated to becoming involved; but this tao is a result of a long time of denial of outer flow and of acceptance of inner inactivity, so becoming interested in feelings of flow does not cause a torrent of activity, it prepares for movement.

As the life force manifests actively here, it is easy to follow it innocently. There is no complication because innocence does not try to manipulate or identify itself anywhere but simply experiences; identity finds it easiest to do this with a new activity.

The life force becomes active in its natural cycle so that a clear flow will appear within it which is easy to follow.

When our feeling does not interpret the life force, we act innocently; there is no basis for planning what to do with our situation

Truly innocent activity cannot be planned; the changes (third year symbolizes changing in cycles) come of their own accord although we also reap what we sow. Being like this our direction is not confined, there is advantage in any direction that happens.

It is the nature of identity to identify the life flow and give it form. Here the outer flow is fixed and so is lost.

The unexpected comes to us when we are not in the flow (when in the flow the unexpected is normality). By roping the ox we lose it; when we travel in the flow the unexpected is a gain, a step forward, but when we settle down we turn it into a loss because we do not want change expect that which we plan for.

It is in this line that identity monitors our outer activity, so we may also manipulate it for our own ends.

It is necessary to follow the tao, it is fine to be involved in outer activity if we do this innocently; if we see a gain for ourselves we will lose our innocence.

Here we absorb ourselves in the feeling of stillness from the emerging life force and hope to gain something, but the life force will move again when it will, and all we will gain by our interest in its inactivity is an entanglement in feeling stillness which creates a blockage of activity.

Illness is at base always an interruption in the flow of something, a blockage of function. Being involved in the stillness of the life force causes us to manifest it, but it will pass as the life energy flows again.

Innocence brings on the unexpected, but to intentionally travel out to meet the unexpected is not innocence, it is a sort of cunning to defeat its unexpectedness. In the whole of this tao the harmonious is uncomplicated by desires and goals, identity is carried by the life force and has problems if it imposes its will.

Any action that we take through our interest in the unexpected flow is bound to be an interference with it. As in the fifth line we are acting out of discomfort and not allowing it to pass through our experience.

Here is new activity developing from the inside; we need to await its development so that we act outside in phase with it.

The general rule when going through transition is to keep going, but here we are just in “after completion” and there are still parts which have not completed the change, or the tail is still in the water in the image of crossing the great water. It is no error to slow down so that these parts can catch up with the change.

In a new situation, after transition, there may be feelings of insecurity which cause us to feel over-exposed and withdraw our feelings.

She feels vulnerable as we do at this time, but as the cycle completes itself (the seven days) the protection of confidence returns. This vulnerability is actually an advantage if we accept it as natural to our situation and not an error to be corrected, it gives us additional sensitivity which we need in new surroundings.

If we have outer activity increasing directly after completion it shows that we have not yet changed our external mode of being; transition does not occur through making changes out there in the world, it is by change in the way we ourselves are.

Three is the number of transition or change, so it is this that creates the success. A devil or evil one in a situation of change is the narrow view which will not change and allow enlargement, and this is also the inferior man—the opposite of the great man so often referred to.

Our outer state (line 3) is inactive in this tao and we need to preserve that inactivity if we are to change out of our mind-desire mode of being—the mode of trying to make something “better”.

Amongst our wide aspirations are narrow desires; all day is throughout conscious activity, and being always aware of them will itself change them.

Intuitive feeling is the basis of our knowing our circumstance and this line 5 is about the conscious interpretation of that feeling; when we become more involved here we consider how to use the life force.

The ox is the strength of outer activity and this is sacrificed at the beginning (the east where the sun rises).
The spring offering is the sacrifice of beginnings (a giving up before we start and so an offering, not a killing); this is made at the end of a cycle (the west).
So it is more beneficial to give up starting new things, which arises when the old are ended, than to kill off the outside activity after it has developed.

If our inner being does not accept the end of a cycle the transition cannot complete.

The head is the controller and here it is right in the liquifying process of change. For identity to emerge changed from transition it needs to flow in the momentum of being changed, not to get involved in controlling it.