ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the processes of change and balance as reflected in the hexagrams for the contemporary reader. The hexagram pictures an exceptional time when the waters of the lake have either evaporated or been drained off into an underlying abyss. A sense of relief and even lightness may accompany this process and a feeling that, after all, it is possible to envision a way through these testing times. Another image that might be helpful in considering the relevance of this hexagram to the times is that of the iceberg, where only the smallest fraction of the whole is visible above water. We are the living link in a chain of human lives, choices, and experiences that reaches back into immeasurable time. Acknowledging exhaustion or identifying feelings of oppression is the first step in the process of recovery; indeed, at times, simply naming our feelings alters our experience of them.
