Gate 29 — The Abysmal — Depth upon depth. Perseverance in the face of difficulty inevitably rewarded

Full breakdown

Hexagram 29 is a strange one, because it says "Yes" or "No" to life itself. It takes on the commitment — agrees to it, decides on it, resolves — to be alive in human form. At its deepest level, it's built to say "Yes." I like to joke about this: Can I have your life? Yes. Can I waste your time? Yes. Can I take all your money? Yes. Can I take advantage of you? Yes. Being alive belongs to our Sacral Center. But gate 29 is constantly reaffirming our commitment to life, our ongoing willingness to be alive. It's our commitment to living, and at the very same time, it's exactly here that the switch gets flipped when we die. It's exactly here that the words are eventually said: "Enough. I've had enough now. I'm going to say no." I always tell people with gate 29 not to say "yes" but to say "wait." Make people wait. The reality, though, is that "yes" is an inseparable part of gate 29 — and that's exactly why "no" is always there too.

The gloss over the lines reads: depth upon depth. Perseverance in the face of difficulty inevitably rewarded. That's a very funny piece of phrasing. Perseverance despite difficulty — if you say yes to life, you're saying yes to difficulty too. That's one of the running jokes of human existence — inevitably rewarded. When? Inevitably just means that at some point the reward arrives, but when? You can push through one difficulty after another, after another, keep saying yes to life, and the difficulties will just keep coming. Gate 29 conceals some of the deepest wounds and worst traumas people carry. There isn't a single line in it that talks about self-destruction or taking one's own life, but everything built into gate 29 carries a suicidal potential within it. It has the potential to say "no" to the whole process of life itself — to say no to healing, to treatment, to help, to refuse to be wanted. All of that lies hidden in its depths, always possible, and it depends on whether, early in life, gate 29 was able to accept the difficulties that life inevitably carries.