The term ‘hexagon’ enters the depth-psychological corpus along two largely distinct trajectories. The first, and by far the more symbolically elaborated, is the hexagram of the I Ching — the six-line oracular figure composed of paired trigrams that constitutes the structural and hermeneutic unit of the Yijing tradition. Wilhelm’s translation and commentary, together with the Ritsema–Karcher rendering, treat the hexagram not as an arbitrary combinatorial device but as a living symbol encoding cosmic, moral, and psychological states: each hexagram embodies a time-situation whose ruling lines, correspondent relationships, and sequential logic reveal the dynamic interplay of yin and yang in psyche and world alike. Jung’s engagement with the I Ching through Wilhelm’s work gives these hexagrams clinical and analytical resonance, situating them as mirrors of the unconscious. The second trajectory is geometric-archetypal: the hexagon as a figure of sacred geometry, appearing in honeycomb structure, the Star of David, planetary phenomena, and DNA — invoked by Keltner’s informant as evidence of a ‘Golden Mean within us.’ Plato’s Timaeus furnishes a third, more technical thread, wherein triangular elements compose regular solids but the hexagonal figure as such remains implicit rather than named. The tension across these registers — divination, sacred geometry, cosmological mathematics — illuminates why the hexagon attracts depth-psychological attention: it stands at the intersection of natural pattern, numerical symbolism, and numinous form.
Rose-Lynn then riffs on the sacred geometry of the hexagon—it is in the Star of David, the shape of a cloud on Saturn, the Hagal rune from Nordic traditions, and our DNA.
This passage articulates the hexagon as a cross-cultural archetype of sacred geometry, unifying natural, cosmological, and spiritual domains as an occasion for awe.
, Awe The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can, 2023thesis
The close relationships between the lines are those of correspondence and of holding together. According to whether the lines attract or repel one another, good fortune or misfortune ensues.
Wilhelm establishes the structural logic governing all sixty-four hexagrams, grounding their divinatory meaning in the dynamic relational tension between constituent lines.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950thesis
it is very favorable in hexagrams 8, 9, 20, 29, 37, 42, 48, 53, 57, 59, 60, 61 and somewhat less favorable but not altogether unfavorable in hexagrams 3, 5, 39, 63.
The passage systematically maps auspiciousness and misfortune across specific hexagrams according to the positional relationship of their ruling lines, demonstrating the I Ching’s structural psychology of situation.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950thesis
the holding together of a strong, i.e., an incorrect line in the fourth place with a yielding ruler is generally unfavorable… it is favorable in certain hexagrams in which the strong fourth line is the ruler.
Wilhelm’s commentary reveals how the moral-psychological valence of any hexagram depends on whether the strength of its lines aligns with or contravenes their assigned positions.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
The hexagram of AFTER COMPLETION means that at first good fortune prevails and in the end disorder… This hexagram is the only one in which all the lines stand in their proper places.
The hexagram Chi Chi is presented as a paradox of completion — formal perfection coinciding with the onset of dissolution — illustrating the I Ching’s view of equilibrium as inherently unstable.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
This hexagram is the only one in which all the lines stand in their proper places. It is the hexagram of transition from T’ai, PEACE (11) to P’i, STANDSTILL (12).
Wilhelm identifies the singular structural completeness of hexagram 63 as simultaneously marking the moment of maximum order and the threshold of regression, a depth-psychological insight into the psychology of completion.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
Hêng, DURATION (32). This hexagram brings about firmness of character in the frame of time. It shows wind and thunder constantly together; hence there are manifold movements and experiences, from which fixed rules are derived.
The commentary links specific hexagrams to psychological character formation, reading divinatory figures as developmental processes within the self.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
The hexagram I, INCREASE (42), consists of the two trigrams Sun and Chên, both associated with wood. Sun means penetration, Chên movement. The nuclear trigrams are Kên and K’un, both associated with the earth.
Wilhelm decodes a hexagram’s inner logic through the elemental and directional associations of its component trigrams, illustrating the systematic symbolic language underlying the oracle.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
He probably took this from the hexagram of INCREASE. The primitive plow consisted of a bent pole with a pointed stick fastened on in front for scratching the earth.
This passage connects the symbolic content of the INCREASE hexagram to the mythic invention of agriculture, grounding the oracular figure in cultural and civilizational psychology.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
This hexagram describes your situation in terms of living and working with others in a common space. It emphasizes that caring for your relation with those who share this space and for the space itself is the adequate way to handle it.
Ritsema and Karcher translate a hexagram’s oracular address into an immediate second-person psychological counsel, foregrounding the divinatory figure’s function as situational self-guidance.
, I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, 1994supporting
Image of Hexagram 61. Tend-towards, YU: move toward but not reach, in the direction of; contrasts with reach(-to), HU, actually arriving.
A brief lexical gloss identifies a specific hexagram as the source image for the concept of tendency-without-arrival, illustrating how individual hexagrams function as semantic anchors in the Ritsema–Karcher system.
, I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, 1994aside
The hexagram Sun is based on the idea that the top line of the lower trigram is decreased in order to increase the top line of the upper trigram.
Wilhelm describes the structural principle of hexagram 41 (Decrease) as a transfer of energy between trigrams, grounding the oracle’s moral teaching in a precise geometrical-symbolic logic.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950aside