"Aha!!" Answers - little chat, just post your favourite or encouraging results

[butterfly spider]

I keep finding butterflies
Was having a clear out of boxes (my plans changed and I had some spare time this morning)and went through a forgotten box in an attic room - full of my grandmothers possessions. Buttons hair nets old birthday cards hat pin and many handkies many with roses on - her name was Rosé. She used to have a favourite with a lovely red rose that she sidnt use but had on her dressing table. It was in this box The box has not been touched for about 6 years - it has the smell of coal tar soap aired sheets and woodsmoke -
Out popped a live red admiral butterfly which hovered around for about 5 mins - and then flew out if the window

Just so that I could remember this I took some photos on my phone
It does make me feel very warm inside!!

 

[butterfly spider]

I thought I Would write on here - I don't want to take up people's energies asking for an interpretation - I know the answer. However maybe this might help others ....
I did post a thread about something quite important to me. I do not spend my entire life casting but am finding it very useful ATM seeing how there is a definite purpose to all of this. My thread 37-40 definitely indicates that I must let go - that is clear. A post on this thread suggested I cast again specifically to do with anger. I got 38-22. Today after having very vivid dreams I had the urge to cast - very generally how I should be in the situation. I got 38 (this time with moving lines 2345) to 37 - the family.

It is as if I went full circle back to hex 37. Anger and how to deal with it in a family situation probably

It is just that perhaps I did not need to cast again - as Pocosssim suggested on my thread. I dont think I was being addictive just worried. He might have been right in that it was not helping. Almost like I Ching had already told me to let go of anger - mine as well because deep down I am angry I suppose I just don't show it.
I want things to be nice and will go to great lengths to keep the family together. I need a rethink. So although it sometimes feel as if you should cast and cast again about a situation more meditation and thought is needed at first before you cast again. It felt like being given a detention for ten minutes not really feeling remorseful and then being asked to return for an hour detention. - do you understand now are you going to listen??? It can be tempting to keep casting especially in moments of desperation. It is like a child crying if it can't get what it wants - or understand what someone has said.

Xxx

 

[butterfly spider]

Update in this. The bag and contents was not found but my ex partner and I did meet for a meal and for the first time actually thanked me for the help I had given him. So perhaps the return within 7 days and the changing hexagram of feasting was right after all

 

[butterfly spider]

An update again. I was having a clear out and sent a bag to the charity shop (it was in the paper) - but I had put my defunct gold jewellery in the seam - like broken earrings my nans broken watch an engagement ring never used etc. someone has just returned 90percent of it - ....
I returned some jewellery I found 15 years ago. Perhaps karma comes back eventually

39.1. What should I do with my daughter - just visited and same old story same old beatings. Will I never learn

 

[moss elk]

I sometimes do a reading in the morning, when my feelers are twitching,
No different than looking at a weather report. (What is coming up today?)

One day about three months ago I did this and recieved 22.2
Adorning his beard.

I had never got that line before so contemplated it for much of the day.
Later that evening at my workplace a tailor showed up and measured me for a custom suit to be paid for by the employer. When I got home I connected some dots. I thought of an older man when I thought of a beard and, how it adorns his respectableness. By that I mean: how likely others are to treat a bearded one with respect or deference without even being aware of it. Just like people often do when they encounter a person in formal or professional attire.

Adorning his Respectableness.

 

[Trojina]

In wiki Hilary says 22.2 can also be seen as a waiting period, waiting for beard to grow...getting ready to be mature. I like your example very much. Can we put it in wiki ?

You must be very distinguished for your company to pay for a custom made suit for you !

 

[moss elk]

If it is helpful, ot course.

I chose the word Respectableness instead of Respectability.
Because it is one of those odd words like Success.

 

[sooo]

 

[sooo]

ahem..

 

[Liselle]

52.3 about a misstated question - Yi knew what I meant

I asked a question about trying a combination of things to solve a problem ("What if I use one of X and one of Y?"), and then realized I'd made a mistake - the instructions for Y clearly call for two, not one, and that is what I meant.

The quantities weren't the important part - my question was really about combining X and Y, rather than using each one separately.

But once I noticed the mistake, I wasn't sure if the answer I'd received was pointing out my error (in case Yi thought I actually meant it), or if it was answering the question I intended to ask.

So I asked:

"Yi, I meant one of X and TWO of Y, per Y's instructions. What effect would THAT have?"

Yi answered with 52.3 > 23:

"Keeping his hips still.
Making his sacrum stiff.
Dangerous. The heart suffocates."
(Wilhelm)

That sounded pretty scary as a direct answer to my question about the combination of X and Y. But then - fortunately - I realized Yi was probably telling me it knew what I meant in the previous question, even though I said it wrong.

The line says too much rigidity suffocates the heart, likely meaning the heart or crux of my question. 23 as the relating hexagram probably meant "stripping away" what is unnecessary - in this case, disregarding a minor technicality.

 

[butterfly spider]

I have really found this site so useful in the past few months - the culmination of which was sending a lot if my unwanted thoughts and stresses into outer space - thanks to Topals wonderful thread (on Open Space). It was a catalyst for remembering to keep things in perspective....

Things have been difficult but the real breakthrough came with Hexagram 12 - I cast this and realised that I had to say NO not because I was being a dreadful human being but because I needed to for my own survival. By saying NO - and importantly - not getting anxious about it - has made an absolute shift in my thinking and approach. Hexagram 5.2 to 8 about how to approach a situation - ordinarily I would be right on in there attempting to sort things out. No. I stood back and let someone else deal with it all. I am a support but not the main beam. I asked about the relationship with my mother I actually told her how I felt without getting embroiled - No Mum I don't understand ....

I am feeling positive - in the way that walking down the street there is a slight skip in the step - I feel lighter and more centred. My daughter is being discharged from hospital tomorrow and I am staying back and leaving it to others to sort out - of course I care but it is not all my responsibility. I told my daughter that I couldn't be there - which was a good thing. Perhaps the shift away from me is what is needed. I am not being eaten from the inside with constant thoughts that I should
Be helping doing something etc.

I went for a walk and for coffee and really enjoyed myself feeling quite free in an odd kind of way - like after exams ....time for rest and enjoyment

I just got back and decided to leave the I Ching to cook for a while. Things are not going to always be stable, good or like they are today but I have done my best

I asked the I Ching what is the way forward:

Hex 5.5 to 11

I will therefore be enjoying waiting (perhaps with lots of tea and cake and ice-cream and look forward to the Peace...

Reminds me of a book about a Hippo....
Thanks everyone

 

[butterfly spider]

The gearbox on my old car has just gone - and I asked using the online reading what is the best thing to do
Hex 54. My translation reads

No direction to go
Staying at home .......

Oh dear!!

Xx

 

[Liselle]

Hi Butterfly,

I'm not sure where you specifically got the "staying at home" idea from hexagram 54?

This reading is still probably not good news for your car. Hexagram 54 often means a situation you can't control. You're in second place, like a subordinate at work or the second wife in the text. (The car is probably the one in first place here - it will break when it darn well pleases, and it won't ask your permission .)

The Image seems to apply here:

‘Above the lake, there is thunder.
The Marrying Maiden.
A noble one through ever-flowing endings
Knows what wears out.’ (Hilary Barrett's translation)

Nothing lasts forever, everything comes to an end sometime, and the best you probably can do is recognize that moment when it comes. Thunder as the upper trigram could reflect that this is often a shock - a dead car is certainly a shock.

 

[kevrem]

I got a strong character. One of my first questions was as a teenager on how I should behave to each of my friends during a weekend we'd spend in a farmhouse. I followed advice and it turned out pretty good for the most part. I only had one confrontation with a peer. I re-read and found out I had not followed advice thoroughly. After acknowledging this I changed my behavior towards him and it all turned out good.

 

[Trojina]

I got a strong character. One of my first questions was as a teenager on how I should behave to each of my friends during a weekend we'd spend in a farmhouse. I followed advice and it turned out pretty good for the most part. I only had one confrontation with a peer. I re-read and found out I had not followed advice thoroughly. After acknowledging this I changed my behavior towards him and it all turned out good.

You haven't said what the cast was ! What was your reading ?

 

[butterfly spider]

I have had to delay dealing with various admin tasks - some if them I just have not been able to face and other recent tasks due to hospitalisation last week. Whilst I am now feeling physically better - I also realise that these things I had been fearing (I got hex 29 several months ago in some of them) - are not important at all. Various other problems in my life are still there but it is the shift of my attitude towards these problems that has diminished them. Rather like the gallstone that I have - a build up of unwanted gunk ...

Anyway I had a list of tasks in a pending file - and so I started at 9.00 today in an attempt to deal with them. One I was dreading specifically. What happened? Absolutely nothing. All the fears were groundless and the electric the insurance and other things were sorted. One issue where I thought I would have to pay some money turns out that the deposit I have 5 years ago almost covers the bill anyway ... All that worry for months too! The lady who dealt with it was so helpful and kind ...

I have held back dealing with the next step in one of my daughters care there is a meeting today - it is up to her to deal with now

My other daughter and I spoke yesterday - things are shifting here and she is having professional help dealing with her issues - that are not mine (even though she says they are). She said we both needed help to solve our difficulties. She feels it an ancestral issue handed down. maybe. I cast afterwards and asked how best to move forward with her and got 35.2 to 64. We were talking on the phone about my Grandmother (maternal). Specifically 35.2 mentions ancestral help - odd

I am feeling as if I am starting out on a new path and am feeling really positive

I asked this morning what is making me feel so centred and happy - and got
Hex 24.1 2 to 7. It feels like I have been map reading and fine off course and have had to re plan the route I get the sense too of waiting and resting - of what Bradford calls waiting ...in my case taking things easy

The reading is absolutely spot on - and the hex 29 was more to do with the fear of the tasks more than the reality

 

[Juliah]

Several months ago, in 2014, I asked about the future of the company I currently work and got 41.3, the line tells about three people travelling together and reduced by one person.

In fact, the company's managing committee is represented by CEO and two shareholders who communicate with each other almost every day, constantly being in touch, and it could be hardly imagined that one of them could leave, looked pretty much incredible.

At present one of them is going to buy out, and the second shareholder is going to resign what could not be predicted at all!

 

[butterfly spider]

Hex 50.6 always causes me to pause - as on the surface it appears so auspicious and favourable. However in the past the outcome has not necessarily been so. Indeed once, in 1984, I asked about a boyfriend and got 50.6 regarding long-term togetherness. We didn't stay together for more than 6 months BUT the relationship moved my life over the following 2 years forward into new social circles and improved my confidence no end. It was an auspicious casting but not in the way I had thought at the time.

I have a decision to make this coming weekend and on the surface 50.6 indicates a positive outcome. Should I travel...a continuing problem that won't go away

However Bradford and Topal replied to a post saying that 50.6 is about timing. Bradford quotes Rumi and the notion of not taking the lid off the cauldron and letting things cook a bit longer for this line make sense.
It is easy to jump to conclusions with such am auspicious line. Jade handles - nothing that would not further - favourable with the Gods -

I always think of this line as cooking an ox heart. This takes a long time and is a slow process of letting the meat really get tender and make a delicious gravy. There is absolutely no point in rushing the cooking - and it is almost impossible to cook it badly - as long as you allow it to cook properly and make sure the heat is right and the flame constant.

Time and 50 are strange bedfellows and the resulting hexagram 32 has always felt like asking a friend to share your dinner - but only when the meal is fully cooked. Underdone ox heart is tough tasteless and chewy....

Just my take on hex 50.6 and needless to say My decision to travel at the weekend has been put on hold until the dinner is really ready

 

[Boadicea27]

I asked the i-ching if I am a psychopath because I have been feeling so detached from people lately. I don't seem to relate to anyone at the moment. It replied with 53.5 changing to 52. Although I did not resonate that much with 53.5 - Gradual Progress - I felt that 52 was the perfect response - Stilling. The text with this hexagram states that attaining this kind of stillness means firmly, even stubbornly, resisting the forces that would disrupt your equilibrium. Hold yourself still, as if in meditation. Don’t seek to ‘grasp your self ’ by hunting down your every thought; you can no more make them stop by force of will than you can make your back still by holding it with your hands. Instead of twisting and spinning in circles trying to grasp your self, keep still.In the same way, you can move freely in your rooms (or the chambers of your mind, which can be just as crowded) and simply not see the other people there, because you hold yourself still and do not resonate with them. Even if you feel as if you ‘ought’ to be constantly sensitive to their presence and needs, in a time of stilling it is no mistake to exclude all these things, and be quiet within yourself.

I found this particularly useful as it means I am detached from these people because I am stilling my inner self and that this is proper and appropriate. I dont have to feel like a monster by excluding them and being quiet within myself

 

[butterfly spider]

5.5 to 11 food and nourishment

Just asking how to deal with my son and issues that are popping up to do with parties socialising and things associated with this...

I spoke with him last night - and thought the best way forward is to provide support and food and nourishment in help and so forth rather than outright battles of will ..

I cast this morning and got 5.5 to 11 nourishment food and waiting not argueing
Hex 11 seems pertinent too

I was actually thinking if 16 year olds and alcoholic drink but perhaps that is not what the I Ching is saying!!

X

 

[Hujambo]

I like to write, mostly poetry, but I've been a bit "stuck" lately whilst going through some changes in my life. Wrote a poem today but felt it was a bit too dreary and far-removed from the everyday. So I did a quick casting to move things along with the intention of rediscovering the joy I usually get from writing...

51.1 > 16

Within 10 minutes of this reading, I had written a humorous poem about quite a serious subject. It seemed to come out of nowhere. No mucking around, it flowed as fast as I could type. More importantly, it is undoubtedly coming straight from my heart. As a friend mentioned, I can distinctly hear your voice in every line. Thanks Yi!

 

[Liselle]

41.5 as Yi's comment on itself

I was just reviewing my annual reading from 2009, which was 23.1 > 27.

23.1 (Hilary's translation)
‘Stripping away the bed, by way of its supports.
To disregard constancy: pitfall.’

Noting the fan yao, 27.1 ("Giving up your own spirit tortoise, Gazing at me with jaws hanging down. Pitfall."), I had concluded Yi was fussing at me for divining instead of doing more important things, and this (I thought) would have 23.1-ish consequences.

Several hours later, I came back with the following:

Q: "Okay, Yi, I've done everything I can think of that had to be done right now. Please give me my reading for the year? The *real* reading for the year?"

A: 41.5 > 61

41.5
‘Maybe increased by ten paired tortoise shells,
Nothing is capable of going against this.
From the source, good fortune.’

I probably felt much better at that moment. Apparently something nice would happen that year!

Well, no. Subsequent notes indicate the 23.1 > 17 reading most likely had been warning me about a physical object which would literally break during the year (damage which could have been prevented had I not buried my head in the sand about the causative problem, stupidly feeling I was powerless to fix it - 27.1).

So, 41.5? It meant my first reading had been my real reading - so real that ten tortoiseshell divinations would agree without equivocation. It had been authentic advice "from the source" - not a subject change. (And notice the relating hexagram - inner truth, sincerity...something which is on topic?)

The key to understanding this might have been that my second question was about divination ("please give me my real reading now?"), and 41.5 can also be about divination (in ancient times tortoise shells were heated until they cracked, and the pattern of the cracks was the message). Maybe from that I could have grasped the self-reference? "Yi's answering a question about divination with a reference to divination...hmm..."

 

[sooo]

56.3-35 quantum hut

Today I was looking at an upgrade to my primitive recording system. I asked 'about this upgrade?' and got 56.3-35. It made sense, especially after watching online demos of the software package that comes with the interface. I was thinking, this is way overkill for what I want to do. It creates tracks, lots of virtual studio features. The reason I got and like the simple Trio pedal is so I can spontaneously jam with it while creating some backing changes. I threw down a basic rocking progression, plugged my guitar into my favorite amp along with all my analog pedals and was on fire for an hour or so. I went from 100 to dead stop in real time, total silence after that crazy shitt. I just smiled big and nodded to myself, thinking, I ain't burning that hut down; that's were my young servants still serve. I don't know if I'll find a way to record it, but it's like a wave that isn't being observed, so it doesn't collapse.

 

[rosada]

I asked what is a baby prepared for when it comes into this world? I received 55.1 - 62.
55. Abundance is about leaving the past behind (the womb?) finally arriving at the right place (Welcome to planet Earth, you deserve to be here)1 and line one is about being with good people, one's equals. for a limited but enjoyable amount of time (family?). Hexagram 62. says the person has a voice that deserves to be heard. (Does that mean each soul comes with a message - of just that every baby is equipt with a loud wake-Mommy-at-two-a.m. -wail?) Anyway, I thought the response was apt!

 

[Tim K]

55 comes after 54 (marriage), representing birth (leaving the womb), yes it fits here.

But the baby isn't very well adapted to the physical world: the spirit is all-knowing, has many plans but the body has just been made, it is in mint condition

62 small details, go low.
Using Richmond's approach: lines 3 and 4 represent physical world - are inactive.
The baby can't even walk, only crawl But there is a promise of finding a balance in 63.

 

[Endless]

62. 6 > one day the baby leaves the maternal care and becomes a life traveller ? (And finds a balance 63 )
My daily meditation

 

[Tim K]

The bird flies out of it's nest, across the river it goes.

 

[Liselle]

17.3 and dividing a task into parts

I buy a certain consumable supply in bulk. It's an infrequent chore, but when it comes up it is quite daunting - the store is relatively far away, the units are heavy and dirty, etc.

Once when another errand would take me halfway there, it made sense to also pick up this supply. But my schedule that day was quite full, and I felt overwhelmed. I asked Yi, "What should be my attitude towards [doing this task] today?"

Yi answered with 17.3 > 49

17.3 (Hilary's translation)
‘Bound to the mature man,
Letting the small child go.
Following, there is quest and gain.
Settling with constancy bears fruit.’

At first, I merely felt lectured: "You're a grown-up; do your errands and stop complaining." Okay. (Sigh.)

But on my way to the store, I saw it differently. Yi was showing me how it could be easier - I could "settle for" (be content with) doing the main, first part of the job; the smaller finishing parts could wait. There could be "following" (hexagram 17 - as Hilary explains it, "events unfolding in accordance with their own schedule") and I could "radically change" (relating hexagram 49) my usual procedure.

So that day I bought the units, unloaded them into my garage, and let them stay there. On a couple of later dates (partly when I needed more, partly when I was more energetic and had more time) I washed and dried them and wrangled their heavy selves into my apartment. I've done it this way ever since.

(How this occurred to me was just a light-bulb moment as I was driving, not by "figuring it out," although then I could see how it made sense with the reading.)

 

[butterfly spider]

Has anyone found that they are attracted to responding to threads that have some connection with what is going on in our own lives? This can happen in several ways I have found:

Casting the coins and then looking at shared threads of the same casting - often the same people pop up - it is as if someone out there is mirroring your dilemma. Even when the questions are diverse - the same person has at sometime had this problem

Secondly some threads seem to resonate more than others. Some almost leap out of my iPhone and say - yes I can help with this. Others leave me with no insight to share. Often it is the same person asking for advise - although not visible initially

Thirdly and this happened today. I have been drawn to respond to a thread. Usually because I have had the casting or because I feel familiar with a particular hexagram. Days or weeks later I will cast the exact hexagram and having thought about it for someone else and looked at how they should best use the answer - I am more able to help myself. This happened today. I am slightly nervous responding to threads where the person is extremely knowledgable but I did yesterday and thought a lot about what was posted. My posting just confirmed my own experience with the casting and I generally get an image in my head of the meaning.
It helps me to visualise castings. What was even more important was the reverse reading was discussed (it was all changing lines).

Today I cast the coins for a question and got the reverse reading - and having meditates on the thread and had a visualisation I was able to understand the reading beautifully

The thread was 46.123456 to 25 by Ashteroid
My casting was 25.123456 to 46

A beautiful red cactus flower on top of a tall spikey stem - once every 5 years!!

Xx

 

[Tim K]

I agree with your feelings Butterfly spider.
One wise psychology consultant said to his pupils that when you practice you attract people according to your level of knowledge, that you can help right now.
Moreover they tend to have the same problems that you are trying to solve. They teach you and you teach them.



After doing meditation I decided to ask Yi just for fun, what's this vibration in my chest/stomach area that comes during meditation and stays with me for a while?

50.1.2.3.4.5 - 42
Increasing the level of energy in one's body [container]!


Transitional hexes 14 30 21 27 just tell a story of overturning the ting, emptying out old energy, receiving new light from above just by keeping still.
Suddenly I saw a new meaning in 27.5!

27.5 → 42 (Increasing), Wilhelm:
Turning away from the path.
To remain persevering brings good fortune.
One should not cross the great water.
Like literally turning away from the path! By standing still - to remain persevering!