Gate 27 — Nourishment — The enhancement of the quality and practical value of any activity through caring

Full breakdown

Continuing our look at the sexual roles of the Sacral Center — the roles and strategies we use for forming unions — we come to hexagram 27, Nourishment, the sexual role we play in caring for others. Here's the reality: on one side there's the reproductive capacity, which lets us produce children and bring them into the world. On the other side, there's the Channel of Preservation — about nourishing, feeding, and sustaining children so they can become healthy members of their community, able to contribute to its development. In hexagram 27, just as in hexagram 59, each line represents a role.

In the first line, the role is the self-sufficient provider and the beggar — the one who can provide, and the one who is in need; the strong and the weak. (We follow the same path, line by line, going through the same process we saw with the roles of hexagram 59, watching how the development unfolds.) The role of the second line is the one who nourishes and the one who drains. One feeds, the other takes. The third line is the role of the one who forms alliances or breaks them. The consistency of the third line always shows up as trial and error, as testing and misjudging — here, that trial and error happens in the realm of caring. The fourth line — where we saw steadfastness and constancy in friendship before, the confidant or not — here it's the benefactor or the dependent. The same process, only cast in terms that apply to caring rather than sexuality. The fifth line, universalization: nourishment as distribution, giving away, or stockpiling. At this level, there are those who can put it all out there, give it all away, and those who constantly need to gather, hoard, and stockpile supplies.

And finally the sixth line, the line of transition, focused entirely on trust. Can I trust this care? Is it even worth caring at all? The crowning question of the sixth line is: is there anything here I can trust? And if there is, what is it? If it's real, prove it to me, convince me, so I can know for certain there's something here I can trust. The question at 59.6 is: can I trust this moment of love or attraction? The question at 27.6 is: can I trust that this is real care, and that it actually does some good? Can I trust this person enough to be in union with them, caring for each other? Trust is the crucial question of the sixth line. The header over the lines in the black book reads: the enhancement of the quality and practical value of any activity through caring. The quality of any activity improves through caring. Caring lies at the foundation of every process, and it forms the essence of this hexagram — improving any activity through care.