Gate 18 — Work on What Has Been Spoiled — Vigilance and the resolve to defend basic and fundamental human rights

Full breakdown

We move into the third potential of the Spleen center — gate 18, the Gate of Correction, where we work on what has been spoiled. It's part of the Channel of Insatiability. The key here is recognizing what's alive and what isn't: if a correction doesn't bring you real value, if there's no life in it, leave it alone. The potential of awareness here is to perfect through focus. This is the place of salt balance in the body. All the possibilities of correction, of every kind, are held here. Hexagram 18 connects to the Oedipus/Electra complex, tied to the fear built into it — a fear of authority. The first authority any of us meets is our parents. This is the natural site of the struggle with authority, the conflict between masculine and feminine, and between members of the same sex within the family structure. The challenge thrown at authority, the whole trouble between parents and children — all of it lives here, in gate 18.

The gloss over the lines reads: vigilance and the resolve to defend basic and fundamental human rights. This is my classic joke about people with gate 18 who come up to me and say, "Ra, you shouldn't smoke." I answer, "You mean that's true for absolutely everyone on this earth?" They say yes. That's a collective experience. It's collective correction. What matters with any collective gate is this: don't take it personally, don't make it about you. So many people with gate 18 — you tell them, "You did a wonderful job," and they answer, "No. I could have done it this way. I could have done it that way." It's not personal. It's just the process.