Hierarchy of symbols or archetypes

The ultimate is Wu Ji, the great void, usually depicted as an empty circle. After that comes Tai Ji, the symbol of yang and yin turning around and eternally alternating.


Wu Ji


Tai Ji


yang

yin

small yang

big yang

big yin

small yin

mountain
son 3 

water
son 2 

thunder
son 1

heaven
father 

earth
mother 

wind
daughter 1

fire
daughter 2

lake
daughter 3
This arrangement makes sense in regard to the colors: they are split in additive and subtractive colors. The additive colors refer to light and to heaven. Together they create white (white light). The subtractive ones to pigment and to earth, together they are black. See bigpattern-connie an excellent discourse about the colors of the trigrams and their meaning/logic. The single line in each trigram decides about its color (wave-length), its place and its gender. But the two other lines/colors together create this same color!
But why the trigrams have this place in the diagram is not very clear. Maybe that small yang is yin with yang added, and the left 3 trigrams are yin with one yang line added. Same, but yang with yin,  for the other side.

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There are other arrangements possible. I have most connection with diagram 2. I think here the combination of the elements makes sense. Fire and wind belonging to heaven, water to earth. And the Chinese say that thunder comes out of the earth . . .

Diagram 2


Wu Ji


Tai Ji


yang

yin

small yang

big yang

big yin

small yin


mountain 


wind 


fire 

heaven

earth  

water


thunder 


lake 

Another arrangement: here the outer lines come from a bigram, and the middle line is added.
In this arrangement the colors have some logic. At left the 'spiritual' half of the rainbow, and at right the 'life'-half. It make also sense in regard to the old meanings. Thunder comes 'out of the earth' for the ancient Chinese. Wind belongs to heaven. Lake is receiving (receiving water), so it is yin. 
The bigrams make sense too: yang always has some yin inside and yin always some yang ('inside' is below). 

One thing is different from the Chinese view: here cool is male and warm is female. Male as the blue, thinking, side of the rainbow, and female as the red, feeling, side maybe? Heaven blue and earth green and red? And yellow!

Diagram 3


Wu Ji


Tai Ji


yang

yin


small yang


big yang

big yin

small yin

lake 

thunder 

fire 

heaven

earth  

water

wind 

mountain 
  The difference with the arrangement 1 and 2 above: not is small yang, but . Small yang and yin are reversed, but nobody knows what is small (or young) yang and yin, or. I also searched Chinese books about small yang and yin, but they do not agree. Some say is yin, others say it is yang. But according to Shao Yong (who made the Xiantian diagram), this bigram is yang, and since he is an authority, I will stick to that one.
If is small yang and is small yin (diagram 3) thunder and lake are male and belong to heaven. Reversed (diagram 1, 2) they are female and belong to earth.
  To me, the bigram being yin seems to have more logic than as yin. But looking at the colors: all warm colors on the yang side, all cool colors on the yin side!

  In diagrams  2 and 3, the tangible things are on the outside, and the more one nears the center, the more intangible the symbols are.