Hexagram 15Humility
Upper : Earth (Kun) - ☷Lower : Mountain (Gen) - ☶
"Humility brings success. The noble man brings the matter to a good end."
A mountain concealed beneath the earth symbolizes true humility. It is not false modesty or servile self-effacement, but a colossal force (the mountain) that does not need to display itself to exist. The law of the universe is to empty what is full and fill what is empty. He who lowers himself shall be exalted, he who exalts himself shall be humbled. Humility ensures enduring success as it neither attracts the jealousy of men nor the resistance of the elements.
"Within the earth lies a mountain: the image of humility. Thus the noble man diminishes what is excessive and augments what is insufficient. He weighs things and renders them equal."
This is the constant pursuit of equilibrium. Reduce the inflated ego, nurture confidence where it is lacking.
Humility is the absolute antidote to ego inflation. Jung emphasized that when the ego identifies with a powerful archetype (the Savior, the Sage), it becomes blind and rushes towards its downfall (neurosis). Humility is the grounding to the Earth: acknowledging one's own smallness in the face of the vastness of the Unconscious and the cosmos. Paradoxically, it is this grounding that grants you an unshakeable psychic strength.
It is the force of Gravity. Unlike electromagnetism or the strong nuclear force, which are very "visible" (light, explosions), gravity is the weakest of the fundamental forces, silent and invisible. Yet, it is this force (humility) that structures the entire universe on a grand scale, bending space-time without ever emitting the slightest photon.