Hexagram 44

Temptation is an interesting thing. It could bring ruin, or it might bring something life giving.
Everyone needs challenges, to awaken the senses, in order to feel fully alive. And who knows what may manifest from it? What 44 represents is that which is powerfully attractive to the ego. It can be a person, an event or something you have unwittingly put into train, which takes off out of control and far beyond your plan.
When we build a structure around us to protect us from 'wrong' and 'bad', we can build a solid life. But what we lose then, is our vulnerability to be freely influenced. That means we also lose our creativity and our receptivity to life's impulses.
Gou is dangerous and seductive, but it brings the birth of the heir.

9 at 3: The buttocks without skin. One moves haltingly moreover. Danger. Without great fault. The heart enters everything new too impulsive. But the heart can also notice immediately if anything feels wrong: listen to it. If you change right in the beginning, it is still possible to make a new start and make your voyage or enterprise a prosperous one. And: For making a heir one has to take off all make-believe and stand naked. If you really want to accomplish something together, then show yourself with all your good and bad assets. That way your start will lack decorum, but it will be healthy. (Changes to hex.6)		Above 9: The heir's horn. Distress. Without fault. You are the one who has to look after your own good, so be assertive, so don't accept things too easily. Investigate thoroughly, use your common sense, don't believe too easily, tuck away your vulnerability and make it clear that nobody can walk over you. (Changes to hex.28)
9 at 2: Containing fish. Without fault. No harvest performing the Bin rite. Make sure that nobody who is not essential to you can interfere with your life and future. Your future has to be YOUR future, not a mixture of influences. Only what passes through the gates of your inner essence and is found of value may influence. (Changes to hex.33)		9 at 5: Melon enwrapped in willow. A hidden creation descended from heaven. Carry and treat the future heir with respect - Heaven made it. Every creative action or thought should be handled this way. They may look easy but creativity grows only when everything is right: the seed, the soil, the season. It needs the completeness of nature. It can not be summoned when it is absent. (Changes to hex.50)
Initial 6 : Attached to a metal chock. Determination auspicious. To proceed probing sees a pitfall. An entangled pig will surely limp. Past and future meet NOW, stay where you are and look around, feel the wind, evaluate expectations and ideas. Everything which clings to you will be part of the (your) future. If it hinders you, the future will be greatly hindered. If it accords with essences and your inner essence, the future will be essential and rich. Do not underestimate harmless little vices: they can very well ruin the rest of your life. (Changes to hex.1)		9 at 4: Not containing fish. It is the beginning of pitfalls. When one is too unapproachable one makes the arrival of creativity in life impossible. It is not for nothing that the artist seeks the seamy side of life. Too much distance causes sterility. Give everything in life a chance to be met, just examine it's value. Often a mixture of mutually incompatible things brings about creativity. (Changes to hex.57)
The Sabian Symbols for the hexagram-lines
9 at 3 corresponds to c 12: A bride with her veil snatched away They say it is a bad omen. For Lea maybe? Not for Jacob.		Above 9 corresponds to i 12: An examination of initiates
9 at 2 corresponds to a 12: A Chinese woman nursing a baby with a message In your heart grows what is important for you, treat it with wisdom and care.		9 at 5 corresponds to g 12: A student of nature lecturing
Initial 6 corresponds to _ 12: Window-shoppers		9 at 4 corresponds to e 12: An embassy ball

For the meaning of Eminent - expansion. Harvest - determination click HERE
'Woman power. No benefit of grasping the woman' might be: Woman magnificent or: The queen is a magnificent woman. See the excellent article in 'The Oracle' Vol.2, nr.11 (Sept.2000)
Line 2 and 4. Fish is also a name for fetus, and the wrapping can also be a womb. The Bin rite is the ceremony where a new wife is introduced to her husbands family and formally accepted into the household (Marshall, Mandate of Heaven). According to Marshall bao is a willow-wand fishtrap. When a fish is caught: good luck. If not: ominous.
Line 3. 'Might be the journey had an inferior start', is another translation for: One moves haltingly moreover. The character 'moreover' is an ancestral tablet or a roadside sacrifice before a journey.
Line 5. Different translations are possible: With a willow basket and melon, or: willow-wrapped melon. The wilow-wrapped melon: good conception of healthy fetus. 'Fall' or a meteorite. Composition from heaven: in Taoist myths a writing falling - a divine inspiration. In SanShan a beautiful one too: 'He uses willow branches to carry melons. He conceals his brilliant qualities. He possesses what drops to him from heaven'.
Line 6. 'Horn' can be aggressiveness or defensiveness, blowing one's horn, or a phallus-symbol. Hex.44 and 28 both mention the willow, a symbol of spring, the season of erotic awakenings.