I ching

I Ching Hexagram 59

Huan (Dispersion)

Action: Flow

Hu Gua (hidden influence) 27 Nourishing Vision: Nurture

Zong Gua (underlying cause) 55 Abundance: Fulfill

There is a thing confusedly formed ~ life is an all or nothing equation.

There is a destiny that makes us brothers, no one goes his way alone; All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own. – Edwin Markham

Reading at a Glance: Dispersion focuses on the interdependency of life and your connection to all you see. If you are feeling isolated or cut off from others, examine the defenses or walls that make you feel uncomfortable opening up to others. When a landscape becomes hardened because of a lack of rain, dust storms scatter the soil and the winds can actually create the storms that rise up to renew the parched environment. All things are supple when alive and are only hard when dead. Dispersion is nature’s tendency toward renewal so when events appear like a storm, open your soul to the rain. In this situation there can be a hardness in thinking or response that is leading you to encounter hardness in the situations you face. We join groups because of the ways we are alike and grow uncomfortable because of our differences. But it is our differences that make us the unique creation that nature intended. There will never be anyone like you and only you know what it means to be fearlessly yourself. Dispersion is a snapshot of the way that nature finds harmony even while it honors differences. The hidden influence of Nourishing Vision asks you to take responsibility for how your outlook effects what you experience. If you want to experience union, seek to unite. If you want joy, be joyous. The underlying cause of Abundance showed a sense of recognizing your potential and shining alone, but now it is time to share who and what you are with others. If you are in a situation that appears to be dissolving, know that behind any hardness your emotions are being reinvigorated much like the rain. Don’t be afraid to allow the truth to come to light because something can only be corrected by admitting that correction or healing is needed.

Life scatters to reunite

in seeds

upon the wind.

Be lifted up

by the unknown.

“After joy, comes dispersal. Dispersion means scattering.” As a child, perhaps you played with dandelion pods, blowing their white, billowing seeds into the wind. Little did you realize the enormous complexity of a life form that harnesses the wind in its pursuit of regeneration. Scattering is a message about sharing your unique gifts and releasing any boundaries that separate you from others.

Over 100,000 species of mammals, insects and birds go about their daily routines, inadvertently transferring seeds or pollen grains from the male variety of one plant to the female variety of another. Why would nature devise such a complicated system of reproduction? If you were to view life as one giant organism, you would discover many checks and balances that seem to amount to an all or nothing equation.

The wellness of nature’s individual parts relies on the well-being of the whole. The master said: “If this was not the most divine thing on the earth, how could it do this?” The sublime complexity of nature creates communities where each species thrives in each other’s presence. Herbivores need plants; carnivores depend on herbivores, and predation keeps a natural balance. Without scavengers like bacteria, waste could not be regenerated into plants. Without the carbon consuming oceans and rainforests, the animals would be deprived of oxygen. At the same time that life is broken up, you can observe how it is regenerated through a reuniting. In the image of how life scatters to expand, “there is a thing confusedly formed.”

When you open to life’s interconnectivity, you can observe nature performing at its best. “How do we know what life wants of us? It embraces and benefits all. How do we know that it embraces all? Because it holds all in its possession and bestows all creatures with the gift of food.” Although you may take this simple benevolence for granted, it is actually quite profound. This is not a time for limitations and self imposed barriers in your thought processes.

When we observe the interdependency inherent in the natural world, we must wonder if we too, are scattered to reunite in some way that we have yet to understand. The master said: “My Way has one string which threads it all together."

“The Firm comes and does not exhaust itself; the Yielding receives and what is above is in harmony with it.” One who can appreciate nature's profound power for renewal, and would explore 'harmony in one’s greater relationship to life' will find a profound level of initiation on a pathway of environmental work. “Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” To become a steward of just one small portion of life will create a chain reaction that reverberates across the entire tapestry, which always returns to make you stronger.

“Who can be muddy and yet, settling slowly come to life? Who can be at rest and yet, stirring slowly come to life? One who holds fast to Tao.”

Undefined and yet, complex; interdependent and inspired to drive each thing to be unique, life finds harmony, even while it honors diversity. Observing this complicated chain of sustenance reveals that nature is not only your teacher, it is also your redeemer. It suggests how you must sometimes let something go in order to discover if it is real for you. Nothing real can be threatened because if it is real it will remain. Open to the ways you are connected to others and don’t be afraid to share everything you are in all of your quirkiness. Whether a hardened outlook needs to soften or a relationship has reached an impasse, when you discover and open to your profound connection to everything around you, Dispersion is the only way home.