Great Possession
大有 · Dà Yǒu
元亨。
火在天上,大有。君子以遏惡揚善,順天休命。
Correspondences
The Form of the Good — Plato's Highest Form
The Idea tou Agathou (Form of the Good) occupies the summit of Plato's intelligible hierarchy as described in Republic VI (508e-509b). It is epekeina tes ousias — 'beyond being in dignity and power' — the principle that grants both truth (aletheia) to objects of knowledge and the capacity of knowing (gnosis) to the soul, as the sun grants both visibility and growth to the sensible world. The Good is not one Form among others but the condition of intelligibility for all Forms; without it, the eide would be unknowable. In the Divided Line (Republic 509d-511e), the Good stands at the unhypothetical first principle (arche anhypothetos) from which dialectic descends through the entire structure of reality.
Dà Yǒu (大有) — Great Possession
Judgment: 大 (big, great, major, complete, vast, large) · 有 (domain, dominion, possession, attainment) · 元 (most; first-rate, supreme, excellent) · 亨 (fulfilling; fulfillment, satisfaction, success) Image: 火 (fire, flame) · 在 (in, within) · 天 (heaven, the sky) · 上 (above, on high) · 大 (big) · 有 (domain) · 君 (noble, worthy, honored) · 子 (young one, heir, disciple) · 以 (accordingly, therefore, thus) · 遏 (suppresses, represses, curtails, prevents) · 惡 (evil; bad, wrongness; the repugnant, vile) · 揚 (promotes, advances, spreads, sows) · 善 (goodness, virtue, excellence; the good) · 順 (accepting, obeying, complying with) · 天 (heaven's, higher nature's, celestial) · 休 (terms, ends; sufficiencies; favor, blessings) · 命 (higher law, higher order, charges) Line 1: 無 (having, with no; denying, avoiding) · 交 (interaction, exchange, commerce, business) · 害 (with trouble, harm, injury, suffering) · 匪 (to never to be; do, have, make, no) · 咎 (in errors, wrong; mistakes; faults, flaws) · 艱 (this is difficulty, hardship; tedious) · 則 (but otherwise, beyond this; warrants) · 無 (no; without; not no is done) · 咎 (blame; mistake, error; harm) Line 2: 大 (great, big, mighty, heavy) · 車 (wagon, cart, vehicle, carriage) · 以 (is used for the purpose of; a way to) · 載 (undertake, carry, transport, haul, loading) · 有 (to have, find, taking on; if there is) · 攸 (somewhere; a place, direction, purpose) · 往 (to go, move towards; in going; ahead) · 無 (is not, no; nothing; avoids) · 咎 (mistake, error; is wrong; blame) Line 3: 公 (high noble, duke, lord, prince) · 用 (presents, makes, consecrates, dedicates) · 亨 (fulfillment, offering, sacrifice, tributes) · 于 (to, for, with respect to) · 天 (of heaven's; the imperial, celestial) · 子 (the son; heir, child) · 小 (the common, ordinary, average) · 人 (folk, people, ones) · 弗 (are not, un-, in-) · 克 (able to, capable; cannot) Line 4: 匪 (it, this is not; not being) · 其 (in one's own) · 彭 (place of dominion, domain, power, drumroll) · 無 (no; not; nothing; without, with no) · 咎 (blame; is wrong; mistake, error) Line 5: 厥 (their, his, her, your) · 孚 (trust, confidence, truths, assurances) · 交 (commerce, business, an exchange) · 如 (resemble, seem, appears to be; is, are like) · 威 (dignity; dignified, majestic, noble) · 如 (assuming; if also) · 吉 (is promising, auspicious, hopeful, fortunate) Line 6: 自 (from, out of, by, through) · 天 (heaven, the sky) · 祐 (is protection, succor, assistance, shelter) · 之 (is extended; extends, arrives, comes) · 吉 (promising, auspicious, hopeful, fortunate) · 無 (without; there is nothing) · 不 (doubt; that is not; which cannot be) · 利 (worthwhile, turned to advantageous)
Leo (♌) — Fixed Fire, The Sovereign
Leo spans 120-150 degrees as the fixed fire sign, the sole domicile of the Sun. As the Sun's own sign, Leo expresses the solar principle most directly: vitality, creative self-expression, and the will to radiate outward from a stable center. Ptolemy classifies Leo as hot and dry in the Tetrabiblos, placing it under the Sun's complete governance — no other planet shares rulership here. The Lion symbolizes sovereign authority within the zodiacal sequence, and Cafe Astrology identifies Leo's core drive as the need to create, to be seen, and to lead — with pride as its characteristic shadow when self-expression curdles into self-importance.
Gold (☉ Sol)
Gold is the perfected metal, the telos of the seven planetary metals — incorruptible, immune to rust and tarnish, radiant with solar virtue. In the alchemical metal-planet correspondence catalogued by the Alchemy Website's study of sevenfold affinities, gold belongs to Sol (☉), the king of the planets. Jabir ibn Hayyan's sulfur-mercury theory holds that gold results from the most perfect balance of Sulfur and Mercury achievable in nature. Every other metal is gold in an unfinished state; the Art merely accelerates what nature would accomplish given sufficient time.
Tin (♃ Jupiter)
Tin is the metal of Jupiter (♃), the planet of expansion, benevolence, and magnanimity. In the sevenfold metal-planet system described by Kollerstrom, tin's malleable, silvery character and its remarkable willingness to alloy with other metals reflect Jupiter's generosity and amplifying influence. Tin lowers the melting point of copper to form bronze, an alloy far stronger than either constituent — a material enactment of Jupiter's capacity to elevate through combination. Among the seven metals, tin stands closest to silver in appearance, suggesting its position as a near-noble substance requiring only modest refinement.
Horus (𓅃) — Sky, Kingship, the Rightful Heir
Heru (Horus) is the falcon-headed neter of the sky, whose right eye is the sun and left eye is the moon — the restored Wadjet eye becoming one of Egypt's most potent symbols of wholeness and healing. The Contendings of Horus and Set recount his eighty-year struggle to claim the throne of his father Osiris, a conflict resolved by the tribunal of the Ennead at Heliopolis. Every living pharaoh was identified as 'the living Horus,' bearing the Horus name as the first of the royal titulary, making kingship itself a manifestation of this neter's sovereignty. The Pyramid Texts describe him as 'Horus who is in Osiris' — the son who redeems the father, the rightful heir whose claim restores ma'at to the Two Lands.
Fehu (ᚠ) — Cattle, Wealth, Abundance
Fehu (ᚠ) stands first in the Elder Futhark, opening Freyr's ætt with the primal force of mobile wealth — fé, cattle and gold that must pass from hand to hand. The Old Norwegian Rune Poem warns: 'Fé vældr frænda róge' — wealth is a source of discord among kinsmen. As the initial rune of the entire sequence, Fehu establishes the principle that all abundance is transactional: livestock circulate, hoarded gold breeds conflict, and generosity alone transforms possession into power.
Lakshmi — Abundance, Prosperity, Radiant Fortune
Lakshmi is Shri, the goddess of sampatti (prosperity), saubhagya (good fortune), and the luminous radiance that attends dharmic order. Born from the Samudra Manthana (churning of the cosmic ocean) as told in the Vishnu Purana, she chose Vishnu as her eternal consort — she is his shakti, inseparable from the preserving function. Her ashta-svarupas (eight forms) — Adi-Lakshmi, Dhana-Lakshmi, Dhanya-Lakshmi, Gaja-Lakshmi, Santana-Lakshmi, Veera-Lakshmi, Vijaya-Lakshmi, and Vidya-Lakshmi — encompass every dimension of abundance, from material wealth to spiritual victory.
Heaven (☰) — Creative
One of the eight fundamental trigrams. Heaven (☰) represents Creative — the initiating, strong, active force. Three unbroken yang lines symbolize pure creative power, the sky, the father, and untiring forward motion.
Fire (☲) — Clinging
One of the eight fundamental trigrams. Fire (☲) represents Clinging — clarity, illumination, and dependence on fuel. A yin line held between two yang lines, the second daughter, the light that reveals by attaching to what it illuminates.
Obara is the seventh Olódù, the Odù of ọlá (wealth) and àbùn (generosity) in their inseparable relationship. According to the ese Ifá documented by Bascom, Obara teaches that àṣẹ accumulated as material wealth must circulate through acts of ọwọ́ (giving) and communal obligation — hoarded ọlá loses its spiritual potency and becomes a source of àìsàn (illness). The Odù's verses prescribe ẹbọ of redistribution, echoing the Yoruba proverb 'Ọwọ́ kan kò gbé ẹrù d'órí' (one hand does not lift a load onto the head), affirming that abundance is sustained only through reciprocity within the community.
Chesed (Mercy) — חסד
Chesed is the fourth Sefirah, the first emanation below the Supernal Triad, seated atop the Pillar of Mercy. It embodies the divine attribute of unbounded lovingkindness — the Zohar calls it Gedulah (Greatness), the overflowing beneficence of the Creator that sustains all worlds without discrimination. In the liturgical framework, Chesed corresponds to the patriarch Avraham, whose tent was open on all four sides. As the first of the seven lower Sefirot (the Middot), Chesed initiates the process by which divine grace descends toward manifestation, requiring Gevurah's counterbalance lest its abundance overwhelm the vessels.
Pillar of Mercy (Right)
The Amud ha-Chesed (Pillar of Mercy) is the right-hand column of the Etz Chayyim, comprising Chokmah, Chesed, and Netzach. It embodies the principle of Hashpaah — boundless divine outflow — the expansive, generative force that the Zohar associates with the attribute of Chesed Olam (cosmic lovingkindness). In Kabbalistic theosophy, this pillar represents the divine impulse to give without limit, which must be balanced by the Pillar of Severity lest it overwhelm the kelim (vessels) that contain it.
Jupiter (♃) — Expansion, Wisdom, Fortune
Jupiter is the planet of expansion, wisdom, faith, and abundance, with its domiciles in Sagittarius and Pisces and its exaltation in Cancer. In the Hellenistic tradition, Jupiter is the greater benefic — the most fortunate planetary influence — and governs the diurnal sect alongside the Sun. Astrodienst describes Jupiter as the principle of growth and meaning-making: the drive to understand the larger pattern and to trust that existence is fundamentally benevolent. Cafe Astrology identifies Jupiter as the significator of where and how the native experiences luck, generosity, and philosophical or spiritual expansion — the place in the chart where life gives more than is strictly earned.
Traditions
Marginalia — Cross-References
References
- Form of the Good — Wikipedia
- Theory of forms — Wikipedia
- Plato's Ethics — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- I-Ching, Hexagram 14 — Wikipedia
- The I-Ching or Book of Changes — Wilhelm/Baynes, Princeton University Press
- Leo (astrology) — Wikipedia
- Zodiac — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Signs of the Zodiac — Cafe Astrology
- Alchemical symbol — Wikipedia
- The Metal-Planet Affinities — Alchemy Website
- Alchemy — Britannica
- Horus — Wikipedia
- Horus — Britannica
- Horus — World History Encyclopedia
- Fehu — Wikipedia
- Elder Futhark — Wikipedia
- Lakshmi — Wikipedia
- Lakshmi — Britannica
- Samudra manthan — Wikipedia
- Bagua — Wikipedia
- Odù Ifá — Wikipedia
- Ifá — Wikipedia
- Yoruba religion — Britannica
- Chesed (Kabbalah) — Wikipedia
- Sefirot — Wikipedia
- Tree of Life (Kabbalah) — Wikipedia
- Kabbalah: An Overview — Jewish Virtual Library
- Planets in astrology — Wikipedia
- Jupiter in Astrology — Cafe Astrology
- A Brief Introduction to Astrology: the Planets — Astrodienst