Gate 47: Oppression/Realization (My Art Therapy)

Cosmic weather report: We are currently moving through the gates in the quarter of duality, purpose fulfilled through bonding. Ie, there is an emphasis on relationships. 

Last week, the sun was in Gate 64, the Gate of Confusion (Before Completion). “Transition, like birth, requires a determined strength for passage through”. 

Currently, the sun is in Gate 47, the Gate of Oppression (Realization).  What is oppression? It is “A restrictive and adverse state as a result of internal weakness or external strength or both” 

When activated simultaneously, these two gates come together to define the head center to the Ajna through the Channel of Abstraction, a Design of Mental Activity Mixed with Clarity. 

This mental definition creates a pressure to make sense of the past by bombarding you with a stream of disorganized memories in no particular order, film clips from your life’s movie. Naturally, this can be challenging for the psyche. You are swirling through a kaleidoscope of past experiences, some blissful and light, some heartbreaking and dark. There’s a deeply emotional quality to this mental process and of course, a focus on relationships.

Gate 47 is under pressure to resolve questions of: what went wrong, and who’s to blame? What can I make sense of, and what is inherently senseless? It longs for the moment when the fog lifts and clarity appears. It yearns to liberate itself from the weight of this process, hoping to find light in the darkness and arrive at the realization that the human experience is truly meaningful and worthwhile.

The 64-47 is an extremely busy mind that can be terribly confusing if you’re trying to use it to make decisions about your own life, but inspiring when shared with others. The key is to refrain from trying to rush your mental process or force a premature realization, but to allow your mind to do what it does and trust that clarity will arrive in its own timing. 

I have been in a deep process this week contemplating Gate 47. Oppression/Realization.  

In R.L. Wing’s I Ching Workbook, the 47th hexagram is called Adversity. He writes: “Your major difficulty at this time is that your words will not influence others. There is a possibility, in fact, that what you have to say will not be believed. To avoid enmity and confusion, rely instead upon actions. In social situations be sparing of words. Let your deeds speak for you. Your strength of character and determination will appear through your veil of silence. Thus the truth will become evident…Since external influence is denied you, your inner development is very much the focus and major necessity of this time.”

Recently, I have been feeling oppressed by a situation I have no control over. Ie, I have been experiencing a restrictive and adverse state of being that has resulted from both internal weakness (the vulnerability of my own psyche + capacity for discipline and self-regulation) and external strength (someone else behaving in ways that disrupt my peace, hurt my heart and violate my principles + sense of justice).  

Sometimes when my emotional wave drops and I am overcome with sadness and anger, my mind begins trying to think of ways to influence the situation and make it “better”. As my wave calms, it becomes clear again that this is a futile pursuit. Any attempt to influence it will only be a power leak for me. If I want to break through the external oppression, outgrow the pattern at play and improve my position, I need to focus on cultivating greater inner strength. 

Anyways, now I would like to share my brief exploration of the lines of the Rave I’Ching. This contemplation reflects how I feel at this moment in time. I may feel differently at the time that you are reading it. 

The first line is the foundation of the hexagram, and expresses its essential nature. Line 1 here is called Taking Stock.

The exaltation reads: The ability in times of hardship to concentrate on eradicating the negative factors that have led to oppression. Realizing that negative thoughts have to be eradicated. 

In detriment: The delusion of seeing oppression as an exclusively external phenomenon with often disastrous results. The sense that the world is against you. 

This is an introspective process.  Sifting through memories searching for the ‘aha’ moment about what went wrong, in hopes that this awareness will help ensure it won’t happen again. The essence of this is about overcoming your victimhood, or not.

Was it just the negative thoughts that led to oppression? I’m creating this myself? It’s all in my mind? If it weren’t for my mind, I wouldn’t be bothered or burdened by this? Is that what this is saying? That’s the true mechanical essence of my suffering? 

Probably not entirely.

Exaltation and detriment are not “good” and “bad”, “right” and “wrong”, they simply represent a polarity. You can be correct in your expression of either one. For someone with 47.1 in detriment, it may be totally correct for you to delusionally blame the external world entirely for oppression, in a way that brings disastrous results. Maybe this is part of your purpose during this incarnation. It will actually bring you your signature because it is what you are here for. You will reflect back on a life well lived blaming others and creating disasters and die feeling peaceful and complete. Seems odd. But, maybe! 

This line in exaltation could manifest incorrectly too, decrease our ability to function and thus make the circumstances of our lives less enjoyable. This can become an obsession with positive thinking in a manner that’s unhelpful. It can become avoidant of truth. Sometimes we might gaslight ourselves by telling ourselves our struggles are entirely in our heads.

Maybe some people have success with this sort of approach. I’m not them. I tend to find that peace comes from truth- in this context, realizing the truth about who/what is to blame. What is my part in this? What role did my internal weakness play, and what role did the external strength play? Accepting truth brings relief.

How’s this working for me? This week has been a doozy, but overall, I’m doing pretty well in life. Seems the trend towards growth is overall positive. I have overcome some of the things I feel oppressed by, but not all of them. If I had overcome them all, I would not feel so compelled to write this.

Line 2: Ambition

Exaltation: The ambition and drive to overcome personal oppression in order to achieve security. Realizing that to be busy is mentally healthy. 

Detriment: An indecisiveness in times of personal oppression, whether to apply intelligence to recovery or accept its weight to take advantage of other prevailing conditions that may only be temporary. The inability to sense when and which activity is healthy.

This is about getting to work to better your circumstances in life. Instead of ruminating on how oppressed you are, focus your attention on making money. 

Sometimes when we are experiencing hardship, rest is necessary for healing. Sometimes, it’s time to gather the discipline to push through. This is about learning how to sense what the moment is calling for.  It’s not healthy to just sit around thinking all day.

Am I overcoming my oppression by focusing on my energy on writing this? Seems like an odd choice, but we’ll see. It’s all an experiment.

Ra writes, “There is an enormous difference between being middle-class 47th gate and poverty 47th gate. If you're poor and you've got the 47th gate it really hurts you.”

The 47th gate is very much concerned with the mundane material plane. If you don’t have enough money, it makes relationships a lot harder. When you have enough money, you will still have challenges in your relationships, but lack of resources is not one of them. 

If you don’t have enough money, you’re oppressed. “Enough” is subjective, of course.

Line 3: Self-oppression 

Exaltation: The conscious and well integrated being whose natural right action will eventually come to see the unfoundedness of its oppression.The eventual realization that one is really okay.

Detriment: A self-oppression so highly energized that it may prove irreversible and destructive. Extreme difficulty in realizing one's self-worth. 

The third line is about the material plane. “Right action” in Human Design means correctness. The hypothesis is, when you’re following your Strategy & Authority, your material life takes care of itself and only then you can begin to cultivate awareness. Ra says, “You cannot be aware if you’re trying to decide how to pay your bills tomorrow. It’s not possible.” 

Awareness becomes possible once you free your mind from the burden of thinking it’s responsible for making decisions in order to ensure your survival. If your mind thinks it is responsible for that, inevitably you will be very anxious because that is not your mind’s job. Anxiety is a natural byproduct of trying to do an important job you know you’re not qualified for. 

When you realize that you are okay, your mind oppresses you less and you are more productive in your efforts to break free from real and imagined forces of oppression. Through trial and error, you learn the most effective way to use your mind.

Line 4:  Repression (The constraints of external oppression.)

Exaltation: The strength of identity that even in times of the most powerful oppression can maintain its resources and to some extent ensure their survival for the benefit of others. A sense of identity that can be maintained despite external conditioning.

Detriment: When robbed of its light, the Moon is lost in darkness; barely able to nourish itself, let alone others. The identity overwhelmed by external conditioning. 

This is my personality chiron. It’s not an activation in my bodygraph, but chiron represents the wound. When I had my reading with Genoa, he told me about this and said “This is the only line that I would describe as brutal. Were you physically restrained as a child?”

Anyways- Ra says that people with this line can get so fixed on one thing they can’t make sense of, and it can drive them crazy.

The moon “robbed” of its light. Robbed means something else took it from you. But sometimes you could have prevented the robbery. Sometimes you couldn’t have.

I think about the perspective that victimhood doesn’t exist, everything is always happening for you not to you. In my own personal experimentation, I have found the approach of constantly coming back to “How is this happening for me?” to be helpful.  

But it doesn’t feel like I “believe” in the nonexistence of victimhood. Sometimes the strong take advantage of the weak in ways that the weak are incapable of rising above, it is cruel and senseless. No choice, that’s life. Maybe that’s pessimistic of me.

I think that I am probably capable of rising beyond most of the things I feel most victimized by, if I commit to the discipline of creating new neural pathways. But that is because I am very smart, beautiful and creative and I come from a privileged background. Not everyone has been so blessed in this incarnation.

It interests me that this one speaks about identity. That’s a common topic in discussions about privilege and oppression.  It also speaks about resources, and the ability to nourish and support the survival of others. This is the fourth line, the networker/opportunist as a benefactor or dependent. As we travel through the lines, the process becomes less self-absorbed and more externally focused.

Line 5: The saint: This position has special significance and there is no planet in detriment. 

Exaltation: The gift in times of oppression to maintain without hypocrisy a harmonic relationship with one's oppressors, while providing aid and succor to the oppressed. Realization at its most exalted. Acceptance of the weight of the abstract process and the grace that naturally follows. 

I’m not in the mood to deal with this line. 

Line 6- Futility: A difficult position for which there is no exaltation. 

The Sun in detriment, where the strength of will alone may find a way to adapt and survive, but without hope of ever overcoming the oppression. Life as an ordeal stripped of realization. 

Oof. It’s actually not as bad as it seems, I’ve been told. When correct, it’s about going beyond the need to make sense of things. The 6th line is always watching from above, it’s a higher awareness, not concerned with the mundane and seeking true magic. You know that some things will not make sense during this lifetime, and that’s okay.

Ra writes that the 47.6 has a hard time with complainers because it knows that complaints are futile. Yes it’s heavy, yes we can’t make sense of it, stop complaining. 

My most torturous relationship has been with a man who has the 47.6 as his design sun and his personality north node. I’ve spent nights in agony tossing and turning, traversing dizzy hellscapes on ayahuasca for endless eternity, nauseously swaying back and forth tears streaming down my face, asking God (whatever that means) “WILL THE OPPRESSION EVER END?” And the message I have received is “There is little hope of him overcoming his oppression. His life is an ordeal stripped of realization, his ego has found both adaptive and maladaptive ways for him to survive. What’s his is not yours, and your oppression will end when you fully accept who he is, release the desire for him to change, cease all attempts to control or change him, focus on yourself and set boundaries accordingly.” So, sometimes it can be like that, unfortunately.