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.

Here we cease to accept the life force as it emerges into manifestation and act as though we could create activity; but the life force is not active so our actions become gestures only.

In both these images the action of the person is empty, nothing in the basket and no blood in the sheep. Whether we feel (the woman) or try to make identifying nourishment for identity (the man) there is nothing there and no direction we take, no action we make, will produce the result we desire at present. It is something to learn that we are not the creators.

If the life force appears to falter here it is a temporary swing; gathering together is the prevailing movement and it will certainly manifest itself. If we feel insecure due to lack of present support we can gain confidence by looking overall, where gathering together has strength and confidence.

Gathering together has its ups and downs and if we have our being too acutely in the present this appears as gathering and scattering.

The change occurring in us is an inner gathering together and feeling turns inwards and becomes quiet. This moves with the tao, we await the change, we nurture it, but do not try to distinguish it even with feeling—we are allowing it to be itself.

Allowing involves the sacrifice of separate will, without this sacrifice feeling remains a feeling “about” experience and not a feeling from within it.

Although gathering together is internal, identity still needs a flow and action itself is not against the tao; a rhythm of activity, little things, keeps structure in place and feelings secure. Here we need to act but not to focus our being in the act.

The regret comes from the focusing, for the activity is a necessary part of our situation but will not carry our life flow.

Our outer reality (line 3) is in an active state and by identifying in this while the inner strength is gathering together we interfere less with the process; also we are then in the right place when the new energy is manifest.

Here we are identifying with active feeling which centres identity and gathers its elements together.

The regret we have is that some parts are unworthy, untrustworthy, wrong. Without acceptance of these parts we cannot be gathered together.

Our being is now less involved in the process of gathering together. We are not yet ready to accept the consequences of sacrificing our separateness (or what we think are the consequences).

It is not an error to continue in identity, it only means that we are not experienced enough yet to leave it; despite its problematic nature, its sighs and tears, we choose it.

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.