Hexagram 31Influence (Attraction)
Upper : Lake (Dui) - ☱Lower : Mountain (Gen) - ☶
"Influence. Success. Perseverance is advantageous. Taking a young woman as a wife brings fortune."
The immovable mountain is below, the joyous lake is above. The mountain is hollowed at its summit to welcome the waters of the lake. This is the hexagram par excellence of mutual attraction, courtship, and charm. The Yang (strong) humbles itself to welcome the Yin (gentle), creating a harmonious, spontaneous, and magnetic union, devoid of any constraint.
"On the mountain is a lake: the image of influence. Thus the noble man, through his openness, encourages others to approach him."
To wield influence, one must not command, but create an empty space, a benevolent listening that naturally attracts others.
Influence describes the awakening of the Eros principle. It is the irresistible attraction between your conscious ego and a new archetypal figure (the Anima/Animus) that emerges. You are charmed, inspired, in love with an idea or a person. The counsel is to be open and receptive. Allow this new current of life to permeate you, let the mountain of your certainties be bathed by the waters of emotion.
Entanglement by Resonance. Two separate systems mysteriously synchronize because the 'emptiness' of one allows it to absorb the frequency of the other. This is the law of attraction at the fundamental level: the exchange of bosons (mediating particles) between particles that fall in love at the subatomic scale, creating a single inseparable superposed state.