For hexagram 28 – Preponderance of the Great users shared with me various – sometimes dramatic – situations. What was the common denominator? In the end, how important it is to be centered even in the darkest moment, to remember oneself: “I, I, all I!”
Case Study
A user described her marriage as a dead end for several years. She had been in a long-term secret relationship, but was suffering under the weight of the double life. Last year, her son was seriously injured in an accident, and since then, she and her husband have been jointly caring for their now permanently disabled child. The secret lover has left her for good, and the marriage remains an empty shell. The user experiences her life situation as burdensome and unhappy. She has been practicing Qigong and Taiji regularly for three years.
Who am I really? – This question resonates strongly in Hexagram 28 – Preponderance of the Great, and it also resonates in the case described above. A structure is overloaded, a balance is tipping, something is about to collapse. Someone is holding on and holding out – until the whole system is on the verge of collapse. And yet, at that very moment, there is an opportunity to confront something that has long been unaddressed.
What this user is experiencing is undoubtedly dramatic. But this too speaks to the message of the hexagram: A supporting structure has become overburdened – and from this arises the need to rethink what exists, to rearrange one’s life, and perhaps to let go of old ideas. For what supports the self does not need to appear strong – it needs to be symbolically integrated. That is to say: The image I have of myself should, as far as possible, correspond to the feeling I have within myself.
This is not an easy task. For the language we use to talk about ourselves is always the language of the Other – a language made up of meanings, labels and images that we have not created (see also the psychoanalytic excursus below).
Hexagram 28 – Preponderance of the Great begins with the Sun, the wind / tree. It represents assertiveness, courage, leadership – but also the ability to set limits. It raises the question: “Where do I stand? And where do the others stand?”
This question is made even more urgent by the two inner core characters, both Qian, the heaven. Qian urges us to engage deeply with our sense of self – to feel it, to recognize it, to locate it within. Beyond all social roles and external definitions lies a deeper sense of what is truly one’s own – of who I really am. And it is this sense that needs to be reawakened. Qigong and Taiji can be wonderful pathways back to this connection.
And when we are ready – when we can once again feel the I that we are – it is time to return to the world. Dui, the lake, the upper trigram, stands for just that: exchange, interaction. For relationship and encounter are essential to our being – we are and remain social creatures.
Further Questions on Hexagram 28
- One user asks the I Ching: “Will I meet the man, who I think I can love?”
- Another user asks: “How will my professional situation develop?”
- “Will S. marry me one day?” is yet another user’s question. She has known the much older S. for several years, and the two have talked about marriage and children. So far, however, S. has made no move to implement any of this, and the two are not even in a relationship. Is S. just making her wait?
- One user asks: “How is my professional career going?”
- need to makeOne user writes: “I am currently in the midst of a real storm of change and presently have to take a decision regarding financial support and career direction. There are two options. For one of the two options, the I Ching answers me with hexagram 28 – Preponderance of the Great. For the other, with hexagram 19 – Approach.”
Excursus: I Ching and Psychoanalysis
Hexagram 28 – Preponderance of the Great
Keywords: Ego Structure and Identity Formation | Identity Crisis | Ego, Guilt, and Moral Demands
Psychoanalytic theory teaches us that the Ego is not a stable entity – we do not possess a fixed inner core. What we experience as “I” is actually a fragile construction formed in the tension between the Id, the Superego, and external reality. The Ego a delicate psychic structure that emerges through mirroring processes, symbolic integration, and social recognition – and it must continually renegotiate itself through daily interaction with reality, integrating, balancing, and processing external influences.
Within this inner structure, the Id and the Superego represent two very different poles:
- The Id is the source of unconscious drives, desires, impulses, and affects. It generates psychic energy – but also inner conflict, especially when its impulses clash with the demands of the outside world.
- The Superego, on the other hand, is the psychic instance that imposes moral demands: it judges, compares, controls. As an inner voice, it reflects the internalized norms of parental and societal authority. In a healthy form, the superego helps the Ego to take responsibility and maintain orientation.
But when this balance is disturbed, an inner overload occurs. The Superego, in its exaggerated form, can become so dominant that the subject feels alienated – caught between guilt, unrealistic expectations, and the desire for relief. The Ego loses its internal resting point. The result can be an identity crisis – a collapse of symbolic coherence, a sense of feeling alienated or unable to define who one is.
In the theory of Jacques Lacan, this kind of crisis appears as a split within the subject. For Lacan, the subject is never fully identical with itself – it does not emerge from within, but is constituted through the language of the Other: through signifiers, labels, and images that the subject itself did not choose or create. In this sense, the subject is always different from the image it has of itself – it is, as Lacan puts it, always already a subject of lack.
The crisis begins where these symbolic designations no longer hold – where the symbolic framework begins to break down. In such moments, self-image, values, and social roles begin to unravel. The internal pressure of the Superego can be just as destabilizing as an excess of unintegrated (Id-)impulses. The Ego experiences itself as inadequate, powerless, or guilty – and may respond with withdrawal, exhaustion, defensive aggression, or narcissistic wounding.
The overview page for this hexagram can be found here:
https://www.no2do.com/hexagramme_en/877778.htm
