Heng :: Constancy

Offering: auspicious: no ill omen :: Favorable for travel

恆

䷟

6 :: first

Repetitious action. Inauspicious.

Educate yourself and carefully observe those with influence before adopting a strong sense of personal discipline. Do not apply self-control prematurely.

9 :: second

Trouble disappears.

Your discipline may be applied successfully. The virtue of constancy overcomes all difficulties and regrets. It even clears away misjudgments of the past.

6 :: third

Constancy slackens. Misfortune.

Your perseverance falters. In matters requiring constancy, your vacillation, lax-ity, or slovenliness invites disaster. Promising constancy and failing to deliver it, brings disgrace.

9 :: fourth

No game in the field.

What is truly constant is the unknowable (Da). There is no omen in this line.

9 :: fifth

Constancy maintained. It is fortunate for a wife; not for a husband.

Your constancy (loyalty) is being tested. Can you maintain it? True constancy requires subordination from time to time; therefore, subordination is auspi-cious. If you find subordination humiliating you cannot maintain your personal discipline.

6 :: top

Excessive constancy. Disaster.

Excessive virtue invites disaster. The virtue of constancy lies in its naturalness and it must be practiced calmly, responsively, and with restraint. Practicing excessive constancy leads to arrogance, blindness and insensitivity.

Image

Heng is about the power of constancy--the celestial model of Nature. Heng says we can be as constant and persevering as Heaven. Favorable for travel means that constancy removes all obstacles (ill omen) to progress.

On a personal level, Heng warns us that when self-discipline, loyalty and perseverance give us great power we must avoid the trap of arrogant self-righteousness and moral rigidity. In other words, it is in the observance of what is natural that we find constancy; and that naturalness includes generosity, flexibility, and sensitivity.

Auspices

Heng is very favorable for carrying out routine work. Maintaining and practicing what is durable in life brings good fortune.

Good for marriage, adding to collections, travel, and the renewing commitments.

Bad for lawsuits, new ventures, whimsical innovation, and improvisation.

Comment

Constancy is one of the most highly regarded human virtues in the Zhouyi and plays a important part in its Confucian interpretations.' For the Zhou people a happy life was provided by the constancy of the ancestral spirits. In some sense, we are ancestors before birth, during life and after death. To recognize this continuous journey as the universal principle of Heaven is to live in the wisdom of the Zhouyi.

Heng also defines Heaven's unwavering constancy (Da) as the continuous rhythm of fate found in the arising, development and demise of all beings and things.

Other Correspondences

Business: Maintenance of accounting and sales records, fulfilling contracts, manufacturing essential products, and making bank deposits.

Disharmonies: Kidney qi deficiency, abdominal pain, and edema.

Prognosis: Good. Recovery and the maintenance of health will rely on the patient developing a balanced sense of personal discipline.