Gathering Together
The King at the Temple
Lake over earth: water collecting on the ground, and people massing about a leader and a common devotion.
Gathering Together places Dui, The Joyous, Lake, above Kun, The Receptive, Earth, so that water is collected on the earth, and the figure is read as a massing of people. The Judgment has the king approach his temple, holds that it furthers one to see the great man, and calls for great offerings, the gathering being held together by a centre and a shared reverence rather than by numbers alone. The Image has the superior man renew his weapons to meet the unforeseen, for wherever crowds collect, discord and mischance collect with them, and water massed on the earth may break its banks.
Light
Signifies union, congregation and collective strength, the drawing of many towards one centre, and the shared observance that gives a gathering its coherence.
Shadow
Can represent crowds without order, faction and mob feeling, or assembly around an unworthy centre; pressure that accumulates unnoticed until it bursts.
