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I-Ching Hexagram · 明夷 · Míng Yí
36. Darkening of the Light
The outer light fails. Hide your brightness, keep your inner flame — this season will pass.
Keywords
Hostile times · Inner light · Concealment
The field
Sun has gone under the earth. The outer day is hostile or simply unfit, and the lamp you trusted to read by now smokes more than it lights. This is not a season for performance. It is a season for keeping the inner flame alive while the outside refuses to recognize you. Wilhelm draws the figure of the wounded clear-seer who folds their wings and walks among ordinary people, neither shining nor extinguishing. You stay capable, you stay observant, but you do not put yourself in front of the wrong audience. Honest work continues underground. What looks like dimming from the surface is actually banking the fire so it survives the night.
Stance
Lower the wattage on what you say in public. Keep the strong opinions, the deeper read, the real assessment, but speak them only where they can be heard. Do not test your light on people committed to misunderstanding it. Protect rest, food, and the small ritual that keeps you yourself. Wait without pretending to be smaller than you are.
Shadow
The shadow either burns out trying to be seen by hostile eyes, or hides so well it forgets it had a flame. The first version argues with people who have already decided. The second version goes numb to protect itself and calls the numbness peace. Watch for both — the fight that costs you light, the silence that costs you self.
Changing lines
When lines move, the night begins to thin. You will know the turn by a small sign — one person who hears you, one room where the mood shifts. Do not throw the doors open. Trust the change incrementally. The same flame you protected in hostile time is what is now ready to lengthen into useful daylight, slowly.
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