EMOTIONS!?!? vs. Yi Jing

[serchjing]

Greetings,

I have a question concerning emotions and the Yi Jing. If the person casting the hex and/or doing the reading is depressed, elated, or emotionally "charged" any other way other than calm/content, how does this affect the reading?

I've been angry a little lately and feeling somewhat depressed as well. I wonder if by me feeling these feelings, if my readings will be somewhat skewd? Has anyone reach any conclusions regarding this?


Thanks,

m

[ewald]

My experience is that the readings themselves are not skewed by emotions like anger or depression. The Yijing helps me to see through the emotional veils, to see things more clearly. I often consult the Yijing for exactly this purpose.

However, an emotional bias may make it harder to understand what the Yijing is talking about. When being angry, you may for instance be looking for things that are indignating, while in fact nothing to be taken as indignating is there in the reading or in reality.

[sparhawk]

As much as one would like to think otherwise, consulting the Yi will not make us more objective nor will discard our mood and state-of-mind. It is one of those things where the color of the glass used to see will make a difference.

This is why I wouldn't recommend to pick-up the study and use of the Yi while distressed or in need of advise. The first approach to the Yi should always come out of curiosity and a wish for learning something new and compelling, not because we are seeking answers to immediate problems and the Yi has a track record of accuracy and is easy to learn (i.e. the basic method of drawing hexagrams and then find them in a book) Really, who learns astrology or the Tarot to find answers to a present and immediate issue? :D On the other hand, the Yi Jing is an almost off-the-shelf, open-the-box-and-start-using kind of system. Mind you, it takes a lifetime to get a sense you are getting anywhere with it, but casting an hexagram, find it in a book and firing-up our synapses with the text, takes five minutes... The funny thing is that, 20 minutes after, smacked on the head by accurate associations, most think they are master interpreters... :rofl: It takes a few more years of serious study to be humbled down by the immensity of it and a whole life to really appreciate it.


When one is new to the Yi and in need, it is better to seek third party advise whereby the advise is not weighted down by subjectivity.

[serchjing]

so,

It seems as if I received two (2) opposing views on this subject...interesting. Sparhawk, are you suggesting then that I can still cast so to speak, but it would be in my best interests to still come here on the forum and post/ask for help?


m

[sparhawk]

so,

It seems as if I received two (2) opposing views on this subject...interesting. Sparhawk, are you suggesting then that I can still cast so to speak, but it would be in my best interests to still come here on the forum and post/ask for help?


m

Chuckles! :D Well, that's not surprising. For what is worth, I started writing my reply well before I saw Ewald's right above my own when I posted it. So, I wasn't contradicting him but expressing my opinion as it occurred to me.

IMO, more than anything, it depends on your experience with the Yi. It appears to me that you are not very comfortable with the results you are getting and perhaps it has to do with you general state of mind. If you feel that's the case, it would help obtaining an objective, third party opinion about a reading. However, as I expressed quite a few times in this and other forums, I don't believe in the use of public readings, where everybody and their mother will chip in with their own points of view, many times contradictory with each other. What I suggest is one-on-one consultations.

[trojan]

I agree with what Ewald said, I don't think strong emotions effect the answer but they do effect ones immediate understanding /response to the answer . I find the answer makes perfect sense a day or so later when I have calmed down from whichever tumultuous emotion ( :rant: :duh: :mad: :brickwall: ) has wracked me, lol.

Another thing I've observed is if i look back at a reading even a year or two later it seems quite obvious in hindsight what it meant - only I couldn't see it at the time because of a kind of long term prevailing mindset predisposing me to have a fixed view and not even be able to see what the Yi was talking about. I'm not sure how much others can help with that, but I think they can a little.

[ewald]

I don't think Luis and I are really contradicting each other. Luis warning for diminished objectivity when in distress isn't that much different from me mentioning emotional bias.
I was saying what I do, not necessarily what I think you should do, Luis what he recommends to someone who's new to the Yijing.

[pakua]

In my case, I find a reading will often allow me to get past my own biases and prejudices, so in that sense I think it allows more objectivity to get through. But as Trojan has said, if the mind-set is so strong in one direction, it can be difficult to make sense of the reading. But in that case, at least I have an alternate point of view to consider, and it sometimes helps me to achieve balance with any decisions I make.

Unless of course my mind-set is so strong, it twists the reading all around :)

[trojan]

the trouble is the mind set i was speaking of is 57ish in that it isn't a noticeable attitude that one knows one has but a kind of all pervasive sense of what ones life is about -and what things mean in ones life - but if you don't know you are living within this mindset you don't even know theres an alternative sometimes - sounds a bit like 34.6 maybe

Hmm perhaps that doesn't make sense but in my own experience with the Yi i realise looking back over previous answers from years ago there'd be times I was seeing everything through a kind of depressive fog including Yis answers without even knowing it -but now at a later time I might see encouraging hopeful answers where I had seen discouraging answers at the time, and the thing is I'm not sure input from others on the answers would have helped hugely, well maybe just a bit, hmm I don't know ...?