Degrees
Each trigram sector is divided into eight divisions. Each trigram has a special relationship to itself and to each of the other trigrams. In each arc of solid and broken lines, the dark or broken lines will predominate or hold to the side of the arc closest to the greatest darkness.
In this drawing the eight divisions of each half-season or trigram combine to make a circle of sixty-four divisions. The sequence and order of these trigrams are the same as the Fu Hsi sequence of earlier heaven.
There are 384 lines in the I Ching circle, and there are 360 degrees in the zodiac circle, but they are the same circle. These eight divisions are the same in both circles.
In the middle of each season where the inner trigrams change, one can see (as marked on the diagram) that the outer trigrams on each side of this division will be three solid or three broken. In fact one side will be three broken and one side will be three solid. This is the only place in the entire sequence where this phenomena occurs. Let us suppose these three solid lines join with and neutralize the three broken lines beside them at this mid-season point. Twenty-four lines in the hexagrams will be neutralized at very specific points around the wheel. This leaves us with 360 active lines which will correspond to the 360 degrees of the zodiac.
Here we can see the zodiac correspondence to the I Ching hexagrams. There are five hexagrams in the first and last sign of each season (cardinal and mutable signs) and six hexagrams in the middle sign (fixed signs). This is because of the 24 neutral lines, which could be considered as not being active in the degrees of the zodiac. (It could also be seen as if the two hexagrams on each side of the midpoint line overlap each other and in this six degree phase there will be one line of each hexagram in the same degree, a sharing or overlapping within these degrees.) The fixed signs are fixed because they are composed of both cardinal and mutable energies. The change from cardinal to mutable happens in the fixed signs. In the eight-fold zodiac there would be no fixed signs.
This is a drawing that shows all the hexagrams draw in around the circle and in the correct sequence. The sequence is the same as the sequence of earlier heaven. Opposites are opposite each other. One line on one side of the circle will be solid and the other line exactly opposite it will be a broken line. This is true of the whole cycle. Every line is balanced or neutralized by its opposite. The whole system is neutral, but if stimulated, it can encompass all situations on earth!