Hexagram 47 – Lake over Water – 9/9-9/14

Kun – Oppression (Exhaustion)

Oppression – Transmutation – Transfiguration .:. Codon Ring of Alchemy

Take pause and draw your awareness within to stave off a time of adversity that can lead to exhaustion and oppression. This inner contemplation will naturally transmute the pain and misery of the dry lake back into a lush source of nourishment in time.

The image evoked by this hexagram is of a lake which has been drained by a larger body of water underground, forming a dry lake bed, or a dry well. This hexagram often comes to signify a time when adversity abounds in the outer world. It indicates the energy of pause leading to inner transformation. Adversity in the external world cannot be avoided; it is a natural element of life. To fight against this energy would not only lead to exhaustion, it would also create the feeling of doom, where life is thwarting your every action. Instead, take pause to attend to your inner needs so that you have your full energy when a more beneficial time arrives.

Oppression is the feeling that the external circumstances of life are out of your control. This happens because we are unwilling to face our inner traumas and negative karma, so it is pushed out into the world where it manifests as oppressive forces. Instead, we are counseled to draw in our awareness and use the seemingly negative experiences in our lives to shine a light on the aspects of our nature that are not fully developed. In this way, we can transmute the exhausting, oppressive forces of negativity in our lives to bring wholeness to our being through inward acceptance of responsibility for self.

Using hardship as fuel for the fires of transmutation is the keynote of a true alchemist. Use this time to practice leaning in to inner work and over time pain may be transformed into gold. Once we learn the secret ways of transforming our personal pain, it naturally leads to processing collective trauma and will eventually leave the world transfigured. This is the Codon Ring of Alchemy, and the 47th is the key for transmuting the densest matters into light. Take the insights offered by this hexagram, and the alchemist’s secret of transmutation can be yours. The hard stones that make up our path can be transfigured to gold, and everywhere we go, no matter the adversity and pain, can be a golden path of healing and light.

The calendar order of hexagrams can be organized into a geometric structure that creates many perfect layers of order and symmetry. The form it takes is of a 4x4x4 hypercube. In this structure, when each programming partner is connected, a line is drawn through the heart of the cube. This creates 32 lines all converging in a core central vortex through which all keys are unified in the heart of the transmission. The 47th hexagram is one of the eight keys that lie at the heart of this hypercube along with its programming partner the 22nd. The insights of this key are not to be bypassed. Transmuting trauma into treasure is at the heart of the transmission.

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This key is connected to the shadow of all life, the great primal fears that linger in the deep collective unconscious, and live in every cell of every being in the junk DNA. We all share deep fears of negative outcomes, and these fears drive us into so much pain, exhaustion and Oppression. This key is at the heart of Alchemy, and it is essential for the whole process of evolution. All of life exists in positive and negative charges, but when we only seek the positive and avoid the negative, life becomes out of balance. We run in circles, recreating the same patterns over and over, making it seem like life is oppressing us, while we are acting out our un-faced fears. It is this pain, fear and trauma lying deep in our subconscious that attunes us to the very source of our power. All it takes to transmute this collective karma and fear is presence. The trick is to feel it without identifying with it. The dilemma of ownership because the only way through is to own our own suffering, but once we do fully, it is not even ours to own. Own the shadow you carry, even though it’s not yours, it comes with the vehicle.

Repressive – Hopeless – collapse into overwhelm, accepting oppression & compromise.

Reactive – Dogmatic – project their oppression onto others, attempt to control environments to create security.

Transmutation is a natural process in human awareness that takes facing our weakest, most shameful and painful parts with compassion. All it takes is to feel it with an open heart and a clear mind. By feeling things deeply without distraction or avoidance, they change. Like magic, there is an alchemy of the heart, which has the power to transform all shadows, fears, and lower vibrations, into the rarified essence of the cosmos. This is the power of not letting fear stop you from trying. Surrender to the pain, to the moment and it will transform. What comes is a massive transformation of self, release of energy, and a commitment to turn toward the unknown, scary and misunderstood parts of life, and leave everything transformed.

At the highest level, the way of Alchemy leads to us being transformed into the highest refined essence or our eternal nature. We are Transfigured into gold. This is known as the rainbow body in the east, where the state of our consciousness leads to the transformation of our physical body. The Junk DNA is used in its highest capacity as a transducer of light. All of the shadows that are held collectively, when faced and Transformed become a luminous feel for Transfiguration. Humanity is at a time of great change and so like before Jesus was Transfigured on the cross, so too must our shadows and collective karma be sacrificed to make way for a new light to pour into the world. Turning to the pain and suffering of the world is the way to allow Divine Grace to illumination the whole.

Keys of the iChing .:. Jesse Chesnutt