41 / 49 Reduce,

Decreasing or Concentrating [lit., & met.]
(52->41->58->31)

"SUN : lessen, make smaller; take away from; lose, damage, spoil, wound; bad luck; blame, criticize; offer up, give away. The ideogram: hand and cermonial vessel, offering sacrifice."ERANOS p453

Image :

"[With self-reflection comes retainment : Concentrating]
One uses restraint on one's desires."

In a context of self-reflection we utilise disernment.

Commentary

In hexagram 41 there is a double meaning implied, which is brought out by the term 'Reduce'. The hexagram implies, in a social context, the concentration of richness and poorness; the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. At the same time this is applied to the individual as combining selectivity with self reflection, and the act of taking a step back to reconsider something. All of this corresponds with the concepts of lessening or diminishing, since concentrating something implies lessening or diminishing something else. Contextually, we move from uniforming to standardizing and thus reduction.

This duality is perhaps seen more if we make the interpretive distinction of opposition versus cooperation.

The oppositional form gives this hexagram a reductionist flavour but in a deteriorating sense.

The cooperative form gives this hexagram a reductionst flavour but with a qualitative refinement; a distillation.

The Traditional Single Changing Line Comments:

Line 1

"When one's affairs are finished one leaves quickly. No harm in this. One reconsiders this through discussion." [The behaviour acts as a defense (facade) but is also an obstacle to progress]

Line 2

"Perseverance furthers. Rectification, in the form of lessening, leads to danger. Augmentation [is required]." [Hamming things up]

Line 3

"Three people walking together causes one to leave. One person walking results in acquiring a friend." [concentration through a withdrawal followed by concentration through an attraction (approach). Someone defers.]

Line 4

"Lessening one's afflictions. The message travels fast leading to rejoicing. No harm in this."

Line 5

"[Concentrated luck.] Nowhere is one impeded. Greatly advantageous." [Overflowing luck]

Line 6

"Nowhere lessening, concentrating. No harm in this. testing times but advantageous, especially if one has a goal or purpose in mind. One Acquires a servant(follower) but has no home." [Massing]

Extended Commentary

The raw context from which the situation derives is described by hexagram 07 Uniforming. It passes through hexagram 60 Standardizing before reaching here.

Transformative methods

By introducing this hexagram as context, you can change a state described by any other hexagram into a state described by hexagram 19. To make a state associated with another hexagram transform into this state, introduce hexagram 19 as context.

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.

Further IC+ extensions