Hexagram 37The Family (The Clan)
Upper : Wind (Xun) - ☴Lower : Fire (Li) - ☲
"The family. The perseverance of the woman is advantageous."
The wind springs from the fire (heat creates air currents). Influence is exerted from the inside outwards. This is the hexagram of fundamental social order. A family (or a business, a nation) functions only if each occupies their rightful place with benevolence: the father is father, the mother is mother, the child is child. It is not a matter of patriarchal domination, but of structure. The strength of the clan rests upon constancy (the woman who tends the hearth).
"The wind emerges from the fire: the image of the family. Thus the noble man has substance in his words and duration in his way of life."
Authority does not arise from force, but from constant example. True words (fire) and enduring actions (wind).
It is the management of the "Inner Family." Your psyche is composed of numerous sub-personalities (the wounded child, the critical judge, the nurturing parent). Individuation demands that you bring order to this inner clan. If the wounded child governs your finances, or if the critical judge manages your self-esteem, chaos ensues. The Self must reclaim its place as the benevolent head of the family to harmonize everyone.
It is the concept of Local Coherence and Strong Interaction. In the nucleus of the atom, protons (bearing the same electric charge) should repel each other violently. Yet the Strong Nuclear Force acts as the cement of the "family," confining the quarks and maintaining the structure intact in the face of external chaos. Without this microscopic internal order, no matter could exist.