Hexagram 41 Decrease
General Meaning: Increase and decrease are part of the natural cycle of life. As another good book puts it, "To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." Like a reservoir that is being used to irrigate the fields, learning to accept a decrease in position or material possessions is part of preparing for increase in the future.
We may live in materialistic times, but there is no disgrace in material decrease, particularly if it represents an investment in future gain - even if that gain be in the form of learning or the development of personal character. Likewise, the inner strength that comes from bearing loss can be balanced by a corresponding increase in inner strength and insight. When letting go of material desires leads to a greater simplicity in daily life, good fortune often comes calling.
In nature, the lake evaporates to form the clouds that drop the rain which nurtures the surrounding forest. As the forest grows thick, more rain is captured for the lake. Similarly, an "evaporation" or decrease in one area of your life, may give rise to an eventual increase. A loss of responsibility at work can mean more free time; more free time may generate more career options. A decrease in material possessions can free the spirit and fill the soul.
Be mindful of the lesson of young lovers: even with a minimum of possessions, feelings of the heart can bring an unsurpassed richness to life. The smallest of actions, if sincere, have value. So remain confident, for a time of decrease may actually bode good fortune. Especially if you remain open to that possibility.
Let go of frustration, resistance and regret over whatever may be decreasing at this time. Accept the cycle.
Gemini
You may have vacation travel on your mind with the Moon in your 9th House of Journeys and yet your current yearnings won't be resolved by a quick visit to a nearby friend or neighbor. You should be thinking about going the distance; a trip to a foreign land or an exotic place is a good idea. But don't worry if it doesn't come to fruition. What's most important now is that you allow yourself to go there in your mind.
The Moon
General Meaning: What has traditionally been known as the Moon card refers to a deep state of sensitivity and imaginative impressionability, developed within a womb of deep relaxation. Here we dream and go into trance, have visions and receive insights, wash in and out with the psychic tides, and experience deep mystical and/or terrifying realities beyond our ordinary senses. The full moon and/or eclipse cycle charted by the Magi (as in some of the earliest Moon card images) exemplify this as a mechanism that Nature uses to expand consciousness.
The variants of the courtly lovers (representing skillful use of the sex force) or the man sleeping it off under the tree (use of drugs to alter consciousness) are also traditional avenues for tapping this primal force. Human interest in higher states propels us to the frontiers of consciousness, where we cannot always control what happens. The Moon card represents the ultimate test of a soul's integrity, where the membrane between self and the Unknown is removed, and the drop of individuality reenters the Ocean of Being. What transpires next is between a soul and its Maker.
There. While waiting to take my next antibiotic I've nearly translated [preliminary, but still!] three poems from Spanish to English. "...go there in your mind..." Yes. yes.