Yin

Oracle of Love Hexagram 2

The hexagrams of the Oracle are constructed from the two building blocks of Yang and Yin, as represented by the solid and broken lines of which they are composed. This hexagram contains only broken lines, and so epitomises the qualities of Yin.

Yin’s primary quality is receptivity to Yang. Yang energetically conceives a stream of initiatives to which Yin responds by providing perfectly complementary opposites to receive every initiative, thereby letting them happen and giving them meaning.

Yin's receptivity is irresistibly attractive to Yang.

Yin’s reception is not without character. Yin has the privilege of choosing the enthusiasm with which it receives each initiative, thereby shaping the initiative’s outcome. Yin gives shape to Yang’s raw energy.

At one extreme, Yin's enthusiasm may be so muted as to stifle the initiative, but at the other Yin may be so enthusiastic that the initiative takes on a life of its own. The Oracle has a great regard for these requited initiatives. They are the heart of its conception of Love.

Yin also has the qualities of yieldingness, ordinariness and emptiness to complement Yang’s qualities of strength, importance and fullness.

The meaning of the hexagram is in being receptive to another’s overtures, in choosing the enthusiasm with which one responds to them, and in the greatness that may come from responding unreservedly.

This hexagram represents one of twelve stages in the cycle of development and decline, an important principle for the Oracle. It describes the stage at the start of a new cycle and at the end of an old one, a state of pure emptiness from which a development commences or into which a decline concludes.

The Oracle is likely encouraging you to be receptive, or is acknowledging current receptive behaviour.

Behaving receptively means accommodating another’s overtures while allowing your own character to shape the compliance.

Attract others by promising fulfilment of their desires. Take interest and respond to opportunities on offer, but refrain from making offers yourself. Allow things to happen where it is in your power to do so.

Respond wholeheartedly to offers of Love.

No gender is associated with Yin. Both male and female organisms are capable of being receptive.

A more detailed description of the dynamics of the Yin-Yang relationship is provided in the section The Notion of Yin and Yang, or you may like to compare hexagram YANG.