Rén-Yang-Yin-Yin
The yin breath draws them in and the yang does not stop it.
Things heap together.
1
Ghosts and gods are powerful by not being anything.
There is no shape to look at.
What has no form is what is at work.
2
They gather to feast and to giggle.
The pleasure runs past its own edge.
The fault is inside the laughing.
3
He puts the very old at the head of it.
That doorway is where the dead come in.
They are waiting to see whether anyone bows.
4
He leads the sheep as far as the thicket shrine and shows it.
He holds the jade and kneels on the wrong knee.
Everything is present and nothing is right.
5
Blood in the cauldron, the woodpile lit.
Nine clans standing in one accord.
Afterward there is something everyone believes.
6
He fears the ghosts and keeps the rites.
Then the fear goes past itself and he cannot see.
He is sacrificing to whatever will take it.
7
They gather at the burial mound, standing very straight.
Nobody has let go of anything.
The rite is doing what it was made for.
8
The owl settles in the wood and shoulders the rest aside.
Every bird in the trees is shouting.
The noise is what tells you what has landed.
9
Tears down the face, the nose running with them.
The whole household draws together in one place.
The time given to him has run out.
THE IMAGE
A vibrant autumnal river confluence and trading city where thousands of merchants, riverboats, craftspeople, and travelers gather under colorful festival banners, exchanging silk, spices, grain, and wisdom.
THE COMMENTARY
People, energies, memories, resources, or obligations are gathering into one place. The significance of the assembly depends on what calls everyone together and what becomes possible once they are there.
Gathering magnifies shared feeling. Celebration can become excess, grief can become solidarity, ritual can create genuine belonging, and fear can spread until the group loses its judgment. The center of the gathering therefore matters enormously.
Ask what unseen force is organizing the assembly. Sometimes the most powerful influence is not a visible leader at all, but a shared memory, belief, loss, or expectation to which everyone is responding.
This figure is one of 81 in Taixuanjing for Today, a book by Joe Perez that renders Yang Xiong’s Canon of Supreme Mystery in original verse, with expanded commentary, essays, and full instructions for casting the oracle yourself.