Returning
or riding the horse of the moment
Today’s inquiry felt very tender. The awareness of so many emotions arising as we spend time with family and friends and the question of when to “go with the flow” and when to step in, speak up, give voice to your experience. I think it is pretty safe to say there is no easy answer to this question. But in the I Ching, the counsel we received was very explicit and not unfamiliar. Our inquiry went like this:
Guidance for how to let things unfold this week and how to know when to speak up or say something
We received:
Hexagram 52 - Gèn - Stilling, Bound, Mountain
Changing Lines: 1, 3 & 6
Becoming Hexagram - 24 - Fù - Returning
Being Still, Hexagram 52, is not about holding still. It is about finding the stillness within your experience, knowing the stillpoint in your own awareness. From Burnt Norton by T.S. Eliot:
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
The dance of stillness and movement is within you. Can you ride the horse of your own awareness, sitting awake, alive and present in the saddle, even as the world turns around you? This is not selfishness or self-absorption, but rather the willingness to ally yourself with things as they are, as you are, in the moment. In the moment as it is, there is no past and no future, only what is. And yet, even as you rest, things are changing.
The changes ask that you continue to be yourself, continue to be honest and transparent, allowing yourself to feel all that is arising, fully, willingly. The way to get thrown or get stuck is to resist and refuse the feelings, the emotions, the movements within you. Being still does not mean abandoning your feelings. Most of us like to imagine a place where we could go where nothing would bother us and where everybody would be quiet. But that doesn’t exist. And in the context of the hexagrams, the moment depicted here is an instruction to find that stillness in yourself, not necessarily to find it in the world. It’s not about going somewhere where the world is still. It’s about being still inside yourself.
What does it mean to be still inside yourself? It means that you’ve made the connection and you rest there. You rest there, you don’t sleep there. The difference between sleep and rest is that in rest we are conscious, awake and choosing to stay awake, that’s rest. Sleep means you are not staying engaged, connected with yourself. Hexagram 52 is about how we rest with ourselves.
Silence, often the companion to stillness, does not negate sound. Nor does it negate movement . Instead, the sound and the silence, the movement and the stillness coexist. Your job at this point in your evolution from the I Ching’s point of view, is to find a way to rest in both movement and stillness. Bound, one of the translations for Gèn, refers to the connection you have with your core, with your essence. Here in the Gèn, mountain over mountain, you are strong enough to stay with yourself through stressful impact, to stay on track with your own essence. [Read more on Hexagram 52 in this post from April 2025.]
Now to the changing lines. With three changing lines this week, you can expect choice points to show up frequently at the beginning, middle and end of the week. The guidance from these changing lines is quite precise. Line 1 says hold back, don’t allow impulsive action to takeover. In fact, Richard Rudd calls the Gift of Hexgram 52, Restraint. Again this does not mean repression. Holding back here means consider your choices while keeping your feet on the ground. Be brave but not foolish, independent but not insensitive.
In changing Line 3, again, you may face a moment where you could repress your own desires, smother your own heart. This is a moment where it is especially important to remain open to your own heart, to “hear” yourself fully and honestly. Don’t let the smoke of confusion blind you to your true desire. This doesn’t mean it is time to pursue such desires, but it is time to honor their reality, not to split off from your own knowing.
Changing Line 6 portrays a moment where you remain fully, wholly, in your own integrity, generous with your presence but contained and autonomous. What do you really need? This is the question at such a moment. Are you complete within? At peace? Then why do you want to engage, why not return to oneself, savor your own integrity and completeness?
These changing lines bring us to our becoming hexagram, Hexagram 24 - Fù - Returning. This is a beautiful moment of potency and promise, a moment when we find ourselves at home within our own confines, not needy or desirous but instead content and complete. This is the moment when you come back to yourself, like a shaking from within the earth and a beginning of a new cycle of life. Strangely, it is also a moment when you may realize that you lost your way with yourself, simultaneously realizing you are already back.
In returning you find your way into your own heart, your true connection to yourself. You might be testing that connection by moving away or by showing yourself to the world, coming and going and acknowledging what is beginning to grow in you, what you want to relinquish, what you regret, or what you might wish to carry no longer. In order to return to yourself, you might have to be willing to keep still, to accept this moment when you can do nothing more than return to yourself. Something is growing in you but you cannot act on it yet at all. You can only return, caring for your simple needs and for those you encounter with gentleness and presence.
Returning this week is supported by the very gentle and special essential oil of Carrot Seed. Carrot seed is an unusual fragrance that lingers, allowing you to find completion, especially with things that have lingered in your life. And nourishing our blood, Carrot seed enriches your connection to your inner vision, the creative force that arises from stillness within the heart/mind. A bit spicy and a bit sweet, this essential oil will regulate your system, allowing you to harmonize and energize your creative impulses. Ultimately balancing and supporting a quiet steady alliance with your own energy as you interact with the world.
Have a great week and please join us on Wednesday, December 31, 2025 at 12:30 p.m. Eastern for a special edition of Divine Time inquiring about the coming year. Here’s the link to register. I won’t add you to any list but registration will mean you get the recording if you can’t attend live. All live group sessions are free. Hope you can join us!