Archetype 27: Nourishment
As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.
And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.
—Mark 6:34–43
The Reading
This reading describes the Feeding of the Five Thousand. This is the only miracle described in all four of the gospels. Jesus is offering the people two types of nourishment: spiritual and physical. His disciples are happy to offer spiritual nourishment (Jesus is, after all, doing all the work), but when it comes to offering physical nourishment, this sounds too much like real effort. We don’t have enough, they say. We can’t afford to feed them, they whine. Send them away to find their own food, they plead. Jesus replies emphatically, “You give them something to eat!” This reading is not denigrating spiritual nourishment. It is only pointing out that giving people spiritual food is not helpful if they are physically starving. Both spiritual food and physical food are necessary for people to thrive.
The Hexagram
This hexagram is composed of Stillness above and Word below. When Stillness is stacked above Word, the resulting hexagram looks like an open mouth, with the solid upper and lower lines representing the lips.
The Archetype
There is a time...
- To provide nourishment to others, both to their bodies and to their souls.
- To choose carefully the people who are to be nourished. If one cares for those who will care for others, one’s care is magnified.
- To offer only that which is truly nourishing and only as much as is really needed.
- To remember that one can only nourish others if one also nourishes oneself.
- To observe how people care for themselves and others and thus learn how to best nourish their inner nature.
- To not confuse nourishment with indulgence.
Now is that time.
Moving Lines
Other interpretations of Archetype 27:
- Tom Christensen's interpretation [click here]
- Cafe Au Soul's interpretation [click here]
- LiSe's interpretation [click here]
- Richard Wilhelm's interpretation [click here]
Internal Links:
- Return to the Hexagram Index Table [click here].
- Return to Consulting the Christian I Ching [click here].
- Purchase a printed copy of Wisdom's Way; The Christian I Ching [click here].
- Learn about our Online Christian I Ching Workshop [click here].
- Find out about personal consultations [click here].
Reproduced with permission from Wisdom's Way; The Christian I Ching copyright (c) 2015 Roger Sessions.