{"id":3419,"date":"2019-08-01T17:50:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T15:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.no2do.com\/synopse\/?p=3419"},"modified":"2025-04-18T14:51:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T12:51:48","slug":"29-the-abysmal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.no2do.com\/synopse\/en\/archives\/3419","title":{"rendered":"29 – the abysmal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hexagram<\/a> 29 – the Abysmal<\/em> is composed of the trigram<\/a> Kan, the water<\/a><\/em>, doubled. In many traditional I Ching<\/a> commentaries this double water is read almost exclusively as a sign of imminent danger, fear, or collapse. Elsewhere I argue<\/a> for a broader view, one that also acknowledges Kan<\/em>‘s positive potential – and, by extension, the creative aspects of our own unconscious, with all its unruly currents. Kan<\/em> does not refer unilaterally to threatening torrents or perilous depths: it can just as well be understood as a symbol of life-giving depth, hidden resources, intuitive adaptability, and the ability to overcome obstacles through creative fluidity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The psychoanalytic excursus that follows, however, adopts a primarily problem-oriented perspective on the unconscious forces for which Kan<\/em> stands. The reason is simple: psychoanalysis is a therapeutic enterprise; it encounters the unconscious primarily at the point where it generates suffering and must therefore focus on those impulses that disturb or endanger conscious life. It would be wrong to conclude from this that the unconscious is intrinsically, or even predominantly, negative. It only becomes problematic only when its impulses do not find symbolic expression, when we split them off, repress them, or refuse to integrate them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if we are willing to register these impulses (the lower trigram Kan turns into the first core character<\/a>, Zhen, the thunder<\/a><\/em>: an inner impulse rises), to give them language or artistic form (Zhen<\/em> then becomes Gen, the mountain<\/a><\/em>: something has touched me within and I give it a perceivable form to it), and to weave them into our self-understanding, the unconscious can reveal itself as an extraordinarily creative and animating source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admittedly, this requires sustained work and sometimes considerable courage; not everyone is willing or able to take on the task. But where the willingness exists, Kan<\/em> – and in its duplication hexagram 29 – the Abysmal<\/em> – marks the entrance to inner resources that can make life richer, more flexible, and ultimately more free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case Studies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I have received two situational reports in response to Hexagram 29 – the Abysmal<\/em> which vividly illustrate just how burdensome the impulses from our unconscious layers can become:<\/p>\n\n\n\n