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24 Return (The Turning Point)
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"[With enlightenment comes trust]. Thunder in the centre of the earth : Return [Avoiding temptation] - In primal times one closed the gates at noon; merchants did not move about, and one did not go anywhere. [Until the 'day' cooled down]".
Class: Integrating
Cooperative Format : In hexagram 24 we are at a point of crossing, symbolically from the dark(uncomfortable) to the light. This is a 'knowing' lateral movement in that there is no sense of innocence here; we have been somewhere, tempted away, and are coming back to 'the path'. Contextually we seperate chaff from wheat leading to augmentation by a return to the 'correct' path. The line comments emphasize the tendancy to be easily distracted from our 'way' and thus to be wary of this; to avoid temptations. Hexagram 24 serves as an example of the general form of hexagram 33 In 33 the general 'return' of 24 is manifest in the particular act of a structured withdrawal, an act of 'sucking-in' the enemy - an act of temptation.
Oppositional Format : Hexagram 24 manifests a ray of light suddenly appearing in the dark.
Structural Format (Being): 24 is the opposite of hexagram 44 in that 24 reflects returning to a path as compared to being persuaded/seduced away from a path or onto another path.
Temporal Format (Doing): The goal of 24 is hexagram 02 (or 'how do I 02? - 24' - How do I express total devotion? Return to the one 'true' path)
Five-Phase Relationships : The trigram of Thunder reflects raw Production. The trigram of Earth reflects Filtration (through faith). The focus is on coming back to the 'true' faith, on repeating the cycle of development.
24 is the goal of 07 (or 'how do I 24? - 07' - How do I stick to the one path? establish uniformity, rigid order)
The raw context from which hexagram 24 has emerged is described in general by analogy with hexagram 27, reflecting a 'need' to be nourished, and in particular mental nourishment. Moving into the hexagram, hexagram 23 Cutting Back/Pruning is linked to to the bottom line of 24 where the general emphasis is to cut back and reflects a general notion of 'housekeeping'. The development path of the qualitative expression of 24 passes up through the lines until by the time we get to line 5 the expression is refined and analogous to the general characteristics reflected by hexagram 42 Augmenting. Thus augmentation reflects the final steps of 'comming back', of changing a level prior to the full expression of Returning as manifest when reaching the peak expression of 24, the top line.
The FULL development sequence, the 64-step sequence that orders the different qualitative expressions of 24 by analogy with the I Ching as a whole, and as summarised by snapshots above, is here given in column two below in a matrix format, read bottom right to top left, working right-to-left in each row. (Note this Quality Matrix does NOT deal with changing lines but more so the qualities of the line POSITIONS which includes combinations of line positions - all 64 of them)
Certain hexagrams of interest are in bold numbering, top line to bottom line (thus line position 1 of hexagram 24 is qualitatively analogous to a general interpretation of 23 - 'housekeeping'. The PEAK expression of pure STATIC yin is at line position 6 (mapped to hexagram 24 itself); the peak DYNAMIC expression is in the last hexagram of the sequence (28 - bottom row, far right) where the focus is on devotionally 'going beyond what is required':
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Root Vertical Binary |
Quality Matrix |
Root Horizontal Binary |
Balance Matrix |
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24 02 19 07 36 15 11 46 |
27 23 41 04 22 52 26 18 |
23 02 20 08 35 16 12 45 |
23 02 20 08 35 16 12 45 |
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51 16 54 40 55 62 34 32 |
21 35 38 64 30 56 14 50 |
52 15 53 39 56 62 33 31 |
52 15 53 39 56 62 33 31 |
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03 08 60 29 63 39 05 48 |
42 20 61 59 37 53 09 57 |
04 07 59 29 64 40 06 47 |
04 07 59 29 64 40 06 47 |
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17 45 58 47 49 31 43 28 |
25 12 10 06 13 33 01 44 |
18 46 57 48 50 32 44 28 |
18 46 57 48 50 32 44 28 |
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27 23 41 04 22 52 26 18 |
24 02 19 07 36 15 11 46 |
27 24 42 03 21 51 25 17 |
17 25 51 21 03 42 24 27 |
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21 35 38 64 30 56 14 50 |
51 16 54 40 55 62 34 32 |
22 36 37 63 30 55 13 49 |
49 13 55 30 63 37 36 22 |
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42 20 61 59 37 53 09 57 |
03 08 60 29 63 39 05 48 |
41 19 61 60 38 54 10 58 |
58 10 54 38 60 61 19 41 |
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25 12 10 06 13 33 01 44 |
17 45 58 47 49 31 43 28 |
26 11 09 05 14 34 01 43 |
43 01 34 14 05 09 11 26 |
What is being said here is that the 'top' quality of 24, as a whole, is to 'go beyond what is required' (28). The 'bottom' quality of 24, as a whole, the least it can do, is to 'need nourishment' (27). The reversal in form is expressed when we review hexagram 44 where the matrix is reversed and the 'top' quality focus on 44 forms an analogy that over exaggerates hexagram 27s focus on 'needing nourishment' to be 'hungering from the 'right' information' (a form of pruning) through continued 'ingestion' of the 'true' faith. At the bottom end of the hexagram 44 scale, the sense of a 'bottom' quality under exaggerates 44, as a whole, by analogy with hexagram 28 to a level of having a degree of 'excess' - in other words the least 44 can express qualitatively is a sense of being a little 'over the top'.
The above energy, or Quality, Matrix, as a whole, is split into two sections - the development of a STATIC focus on the qualitative elements of 24 (from 27 upto 24) and the development of a DYNAMIC focus on the qualitative elements of 24 (from 02 to 28). Thus the range of STATIC qualities is from 'hungering' (27) to 'returning to the 'true' path' (24). The range of DYNAMIC qualities (reflecting moving BEYOND just 24 as a static expression) is to 'be totally devoted'' (02) to 'at most going beyond what is required' (28).
The emphasis at all times is on EXPRESSIONS OF ENERGY where we have here recruited the whole of the I Ching as a source of analogy to describe the differences within the sameness of the 'general return to the 'true'' expressed in hexagram 24. As such the matrix converted to a single string of 64 hexagrams reflects a temperature gauge or thermostat control; we can go 'up' or 'down' with phase transitions from static expression to dynamic expression etc. There is thus a sense of reversibility throughout.
As a complement to this energy level mapping, there is also a general temporal, CYCLIC, mapping which zooms-in on the dynamic and, being cyclic, focus is directed to what is NOT reversible, only repeatable. This sequence seems to reflect the Root Vertical Binary but stems from the RVB of hexagram 01, re-ordered to put 24 at the root position (bottom row, right). This re-ordering retains the single direction quality (expand, to go outwards/onwards) reflected in hexagram 01. This mapping is covered in the Internal Cycle
By introducing the characteristics of hexagram 24 as context, you can change a state described by any other hexagram into a state described by hexagram 27, Hungering. To make a state associated with another hexagram transform into this state, introduce hexagram 27 as context.
The introduction of 24, of returning, gives you the sense of direction, and temptations to avoid, required in hexagram 27, Hungering. By introducing the 'right' temptations you install a sense of hunger. Reciprocally, the introduction of 27 as context forces the emergence of 24 where we actively look for temptations; 24 emphasises the general avoidence of distractions, stick to the pure path.
It is important to remember that, when using transformative methods, the more lines requiring change, the more energy required when attempting to introduce a different context. It may therefore be of benefit to work on existing changing lines and achieve your goal in steps rather than attempt, for example, a six-line change all at once.
To 'go with the flow', any hexagram that is changing into hexagram 16 reflects an influence of 24 on that hexagram in that the 'flow' is in hexagram 24 and as such this reflects the need to adapt to that flow and so take-on the properties and methods of 24.
