I ching

I Ching Hexagram 13
T'ung Jen (Fellowship)

Action: Socialize

Hu Gua (hidden influence) 44 Coming to Meet: Encounter

Zong Gua (underlying cause) 7 Army: Correct Discipline

If you understand nature’s symmetries,
you will use no counting rods.

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. – Chief Seattle

Reading at a Glance: T’ung Jen is a hexagram that explores your principles, character, integrity, and how you interact with others. In joining with another, the relationship will allow you to share a special connection, but is not always a romantic or harmonious interaction .This is because there is more of an emphasis on gaining Clarity about how you behave in relationship to others. Yet, there is a lot to learn from these partnerships. We are often attracted to groups because of our shared interests. Once in the group however, we discover the ways in which we are different. The hidden influence of Coming to Meet allows for the exploration of the Shadow in your relationships. It is an opportunity to own the dynamics you bring to your relationships rather than blame others for your condition. If you can discover even the smallest insight about yourself through a relationship, regardless of its duration, it has been successful. Moving away from the underlying cause of Army, we had the opportunity to put individual expression aside to work as a Team. Now partnerships have to be viewed in terms of how you can best serve them while discovering more about yourself. Fellowship places emphasis on socializing so if you have been introspective, it is time to return to the group. There is a sense of caring and emotional well being at play as you interact with others. If you are isolated from others, Fellowship is a call to realize that no person is an island. We are part of a tapestry of interaction, yet each individual fulfills their own destiny. Fellowship presents a relationship with an emphasis on what it can teach you about yourself.

Nature nurtures

unity,

while honoring diversity;

it is a crossing

holding hands.

“Heaven together with fire: the image of fellowship.” The Clinging Flame reflects the Creative fire and sparkles like stars that mark cosmic time and order. T’ung Jen is a message that asks you to overcome feeling separate from everything around you. Discover your connection to others and transcend the boundaries that separate you from life.

The master said: "Everything in the universe is interacting and exchanging energy in some way." Although you cannot see nature’s symmetries and connectivity, they are there. “One who understands the activities of Nature, uses no counting rods.” The meaning of one thing can only be understood in relation to what stands next to, and influences it.

Fellowship provides the opportunity to merge with the whole to understand the importance of the part you play within it. Let go of the limitations that hold you back from seeing your unity with all that unfolds around you. If you are experiencing rejection, check to see that you are not stalking the relationship with a fear of abandonment.

The planets moving through constellations in a fixed rhythm above demonstrated a predictable method of marking time for the ancients. Observing these cycles provided the knowledge of when to plant and harvest, allowing civilization to thrive. While these patterns reveal our dependency on what is taking place above, it also shows the outline or behavior of a larger organism connected to what is below.

All people are complex networks of cells, but we only recognize them in one form. Your perception makes distinctions in the natural world that are not necessarily there. In the same way, you can project qualities on others from past experiences or repressed fears that make a person appear different than what they really are. Interacting in social circles allows you to learn about yourself through your differences to identify your unique gifts. You sometimes discover your deficiencies too, or uncover unhealthy dynamics that you carry forward into relationships. Fellowship can be a learning journey through interaction.

In the image of quietly knowing, without being able to describe it, when you give and receive through others, you are able to move beyond your self-limiting structures and orientation to life. Through giving you learn more about yourself. Through self love or opening to love, you find it was there all along.

“Life becomes brilliant when purpose is a light that shines upon it.” You are not made meaningless and irrelevant. On the contrary, by becoming a part of the group or joining in an attitude of caring and service to others, you are awakened to greater meaning and purpose in life.