I started this series to show how I Ching imagery, often perceived as dense and cryptic, can help us overcome personal struggles by connecting us to an intuitive map inspired by nature’s phenomena. There is much to unravel, and if you’re new to the I Ching, you can read an introductory article here.

Japanese and Chinese culture share deep roots. The I Ching influenced local religions, including Shinto, shaping how people perceived sickness and healing. This is where Ashitaka’s story begins: by asking whether one can turn an infection upside down and resolve sickness through transformation.

A Curse and a Calling

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Oracle: My Prince, are you prepared to learn what fate the stones have foretold you?

Ashitaka: Yes. I was prepared the moment I let my arrow fly.

Oracle: The infection will spread, cause great pain and kill you.

You cannot alter your fate, my Prince.

However, you can rise to meet it, if you choose.

Look at this. This iron ball was found inside the boar’s body.

It shattered his bones and burned its way deep inside him. This is what turned him into a demon. There is evil at work in the land to the West, Ashitaka. It’s your fate to go there and see what you can see unclouded by hate.

You may find a way to lift the curse. You understand?

With these words of advice, Ashitaka is asked to leave his tribe behind. At first, Ashitaka thinks that he does understand. Soon however, as he travels westward, he encounters aggression, destruction, and bloodshed. To outsiders, Ashitaka may appear like a detached stranger from an ancient, lost tribe. But we witness how his composed demeanour falters. Within the cruelty of feudal life, his infection spreads, fed by the seeds of war.

Clouded by Hate

Although tasked with observation, Ashitaka cannot resist becoming involved. Upon discovering Lady Eboshi’s village, he struggles to hold back from killing her. The words were clear: See what you can see, not see what you can do. He wasn’t sent westward to assassinate the villain, train as a savior, and save the princess, even though he might feel inclined to do exactly all of those things. Being exposed to injustice to this degree - likely for the first time outside of his reclusive tribe - deeply troubles Ashitaka, no matter how well he might understand his task on a rational level.

Ashitaka’s motive “to see with eyes unclouded by hate” is ridiculed in a world where greed feeds greed, survival hinges on manpower and resources, and perhaps, because he fails his own authenticity. After all, he is angry as hell.

When Mononoke attacks Eboshi’s village, Ashitaka intervenes. But forcefully stepping between the two factions and pleading about how hatred is killing him doesn’t have the desired effect. Wounded and on the brink of death, he is taken back to the forest.

Ashitaka survives, this time, to shift his method. There is a deeper meaning to surface in the words so crucial to his fate.

So, what does it really mean to follow through with his task? In a world stifled by war and injustice, how does one manage to see with eyes unclouded by hate?

Hexagram 61: Inner Truth

The hexagram that captures both the dynamic and resolution of Ashitaka’s conflict is expressed in Zhong Fu: Inner Truth, the 61st hexagram of the I Ching. This hexagram features wind above and lake below. The lake symbolises joy, while the wind represents gentleness. When wind meets lake, there is a breeze that infiltrates even the most inaccessible spaces on the surface of the lake.

The dynamic described in the commentary of the hexagram aligns with that of Ashitaka’s: the situation presents people and circumstances difficult to penetrate because either party holds on to their version of the story. In such a case, force and aggression will be in vain. What prevails is soft infiltration - the ability to implore compassionate disengagement, to face and meet without being swayed. As such, there is a strong emphasis on the role of the heart in the hexagram.

At its center, the hexagram holds two broken yin lines, symbolising an empty heart or eyes ’unclouded' , surrounded by firm Yang lines. This points to a strategy that grows beyond external efforts of “peacemaking” - this strategy, as strategies generally do in the I Ching, addresses Ashitaka’s inner attitude. Therefore the name “Inner Truth”: the core idea is rooted in the empty space where the heart resides.

Interestingly, the most sacred place in Mononoke’s forest illustrates this emptiness: the heart of the forest is a tranquil collection of sacred lakes, walked by no other than the Deer God. It is a place where the buzz of life gives way to stillness and reflection. Here, where Ashitaka’s life is restored, we can see how the serenity of existence imprints on him and, in turn, teaches him how to empty his heart.

Protecting Emptiness

While in the beginning, Ashitaka seems concerned with looking for everything that’s “wrong” with the world, upset about the fact that his moral values don’t matter to people like Lady Eboshi, he experiences a world beyond values and morality in the forest. Within its grounds, demons and gods wander alike. The Deer God gives and takes life, ending strife and resentment with the effort of a breath. On multiple occasions, Ashitaka witnesses the soft and subtle power of the forest and is taken by the abudance of soul in the woods. It is not only where his body comes back to life, it is also where he falls in love. These experiences become Ashitaka’s True North, the place in his heart that knows, the place from where he navigates everything else coming his way.

Ultimately, even as the battle escalates, he remains tenacious in protecting his heart, and by extension, the heart of the forest: unswayed by hate, he prevails in compassion. He realises that without safeguarding this emptiness, this “uncloudedness,” he loses his compass for action. By releasing his rage, he uncovers the root of his disease. Similarly, by nurturing his empathy, he perceives the same cursed, destructive patterns in those around him. From this new found emptiness, without aggression or force, he is able to hold up the mirror to San: you are a human, and so am I.

Through the lens of Zhong Fu, Ashitaka’s journey becomes an allegory for transformation: finding courage in gentleness and clarity in emptiness. The forest plays an integral part in connecting Ashitaka’s heart to this Inner Truth.

Invitation: Wind above Lake

This is another invitation for you to explore. Feel free to roam your sensual memory and imagination for lakes and soft wind - in forests or elsewhere - that connect you to an absolute feeling of peace, feelgood emptiness, or silent freedom: whatever you might call what resonates with you most.

Prompts to map the 61st Hexagram: Inner Truth

• Wind above lake: How do you resonate with either? Do you have memories of breezes and soft winds near lakes? Can you recall the relief of a gentle breeze clearing a heavy afternoon, or the gratitude of a lake showing up in the landscape?

• Watch the way wind stirs water in your imagination. Let an image form—where might this place be?

• Place yourself within this phenomenon. Imagine the lake level with your heart. If the lake were your heart right now, how might it appear? Stirred or still? Clear or muddied? Are there certain events or thoughts that impact the clarity of your lake?

• Align your breath, rippling softly over the lake and echoing gently in your body.

• Feelgood emptiness: try and sketch out your version of “the heart of the forest”. Would it be in a clearing? By the river? Underneath a tree? It doesn’t matter if you’ve visited in person or not. Can you find places, real or imagined, that say “peace active” to you? Where you would come back to life?