Bronze Cauldron Ting
Hexagram 50 The Caldron Ting
Hexagram 50 The Caldron denotes a powerful time to continue or nuture noble causes. In the case of working on what is out of balance or static, the counsel is to create an open space for the Higher Self to do the work. Creating an open space by clearing the mind of ego driven anxiety, fear and plotting action. Clearing the mind is not easy. One will benefit greatly by sitting in silence in meditation. Most newbies to meditation will experience a mind filled with neurotic thoughts the first 15,20,30 times in the practice of meditation. This is a sign of progress. It is remarkable how busy our minds can be. We may experience as many as 12,000 thoughts in an average day. Some have theorized the number may be as high as 50,000 thoughts per day. Meditation is designed precisely to better understand the mind so that one is equiped with the tools to organize and manage the mind.
The Cauldron is often pictured as a sacrificial vessel on 3 legs and two ears (as pictured in this blog’s featured image). Sacrificial vessel is the transformative vision of this reading.
The Cauldron
Short Interpretation: Service equipment and avoid major accidents. Material and spiritual success surround you. Maintain this harmony to enable new projects to progress well.
Confucius/Legge: The image of the Sacrificial Vessel shows us wood entering a fire, which suggests the idea of cooking. The sages cooked their sacrifices to God and nourished their able ministers with feasts. We have the trigrams of Flexible Obedience and Quick Intelligence, with the magnetic line advanced to the ruler’s place and responded to by her dynamic correlate below. All these things give the auspice of successful progress.
Legge: The written Chinese character for Sacrificial Vessel represents a cauldron with three feet and two “ears” used for cooking and preparing food for both the table and the altar. The hexagram pictures this vessel — the divided first line represents the feet, the three undivided lines above represent the body, the divided fifth line shows the ears (or carrying rings), and the top line is the handle by which the container is carried or suspended from a hook.
The lesson of the hexagram is that the nourishing of men of talent and virtue intimates great progress and success. The K’ang-hsi editors point out that the distinction between hexagram number forty-eight, The Well, and this one is the difference between the nourishment of the people in general and the specific nourishing of worthy men. They add that the reality of sacrifice is nourishing in this regard.