Blog post: Recurring hexagrams

[hilary]

I’d been planning on writing a devastatingly insightful post about some rarefied, recondite connection you can find between readings with the Resonance Journal. Maybe the karmic significance of a repeated nuclear hexagram emerging as primary when you ask a Big Question – something deep and meaningful like that. Only when I actually started looking through my own journal, there was something much simpler calling for my attention: nine readings, on largely unrelated topics, all with the primary hexagram 38. What’s that*about?
I think anyone who’s spent a few years with Yi has had this experience: there’s a hexagram, or sometimes a line, that sticks. No matter what you ask about, it keeps coming up. It reaches the point where you cast the first couple of lines of the hexagram and are already saying, ‘Not that one*again…’
So what does this mean?
Sometimes, when you take a long look, it becomes clear that the readings with the same answer do all share a theme, even though they’re about parts of life that belong in quite different ‘boxes’.
An example from a few years ago: readings about both work and volunteering came up repeatedly with Hexagram 12. It was obvious the two situations had nothing in common: six days a week spent at home toiling over a computer keyboard; one day spent at a day centre for the elderly, mostly stacking/unstacking the dishwasher and making the tea. The 12-ness of the voluntary role was evident: I wasn’t happy with the situation (rules took precedence over people at every turn), but there was nothing I could do about it. But it wasn’t until I developed some insight into that situation in the light of the reading that I started to see the similarities with how I was running my own work. (As I said, that was some years ago – I made changes!)
So the ‘not this again’ reading can be a gift. ‘Look!’ it says, ‘See how this situation in your life is an image for that one?’ And if – as with my little volunteering role – one situation is relatively simple and clear, then it almost becomes like a ‘reading’ itself, a parable offering you a way to understand a larger story.
But there are also times when the readings don’t*share a theme. My nine 38-readings? Two about the Flow of Change*project, clearly related; three about purchase decisions, one about a productivity system, and one sort-of connected to that, I suppose, about*asking someone to become an accountability partner. And two readings cast as examples with no question in mind when trying to reproduce a bug in the journal software so I could describe it accurately for Justin to fix.
Not only are most of these not remotely important questions, some of them were barely questions at all – the software-testing readings, and one or two ‘What if…?’ questions about things I didn’t really intend to do (like buying a more expensive phone). This recurring hexagram seems to be about something other than the things I was asking about.
It’s not unlike the experience of seeing the same number everywhere – every time you look at the clock it’s 11 minutes past, your car mileage ends in 1111, your reservation is for seat 11… that kind of thing. I always think those just mean ‘Hello.’*They’re reminders that synchronicity happens, the cosmos resonates, your world is ready to talk with you – here it is, where are you?*Could recurring readings mean much the same – a simple ‘Hello’?
Perhaps. But then again, this is Yi; it has a wider vocabulary.
Here’s what I’ve found. When I start looking at these not-very-important, not-very-related readings, searching for a connection, it takes me out beyond my original questions. Those questions were answered: I had good advice when I needed it about keeping this somewhat dodgy old computer (not a robber, a marital ally!), about changing how I looked at my work, and so on. Answering questions is something Yi does. Only it also*goes beyond the questions and invites me (if I’m even half-awake) to follow along.
It’s not that I’m about to see some life-changing connection between software debugging and to-do lists. But I have spent some time mulling over ‘outsider’ status, the perspectives it opens up, the emotional triggers it activates and so on. Just the act of reviewing the readings together gets me to pay attention to something outside the ‘boxes’ of the original questions.
Yi described this process with Hexagram 13 – experiencing harmony out in the wilds, beyond the walls that circumscribe my routine daily concerns. Life-as-to-do-list turns into a series of minor battles: fix the bug on that web page, solve this customer’s Paypal problems, catch up with those emails, move onto the next thing. And Yi – even if I rarely ask about more than the next thingtodo – says, OK, put the weapons away for a moment, come up this hill and take a look around…

 

[sooo]

So are we allowed to respond to this, or are blogs to be read only? Since the thread isn't closed, I'll assume you welcome comments.

I think those long trains of repetitious readings reflect a time we are in, and since all our readings typically involved us in some way, the theme of the time is what comes through, as it involves every aspect of our lives.

Several years ago I had the longest run of my life. It was of 4. Great. But true. I truly didn't know what would happen to me or anything in my life, and I never would have imagined what came, no matter what other readings may have tried to hint. Moreover, it was important to learn the core values of not knowing: the good along with the uncomfortable uncertainty. It was a mixed bag, none of which I could have guessed or planned. Many lessons learned from that experience, which is part of 4's message too. I even bestowed the handle of meng upon me here during that time. The main message, stop knowing.

The only train I've witnessed as long as that one was an incredibly long succession of 8, unchanging and with various lines, which a friend experienced. It lasted months. I was pretty certain I understood what Yi was trying to inform her, but she was baffled by it, no matter how often I offered my interpretation. She interpreted it as holding together with me, because her mind was fixated on that notion. But for her, it was a time of 8, and 8 was sewn into every aspect of her mind and life, most of all I understood as saying to her, keep it together! Keep herself together.

I'd interpret your reading of 12 as roughly, stop trying to grow flowers in the cemetery. Though your heart and intentions were good, the garden would not grow, as in a time of 11.

 

[hilary]

Making discussion easier is the whole point of copying blog posts over here - though I keep comments open on the blog, too, and then fail utterly to keep up with both. (You would like the comments at the blog for this one.)

'Theme of the time' or 'message you need to get before you're going anywhere else' - or maybe a bit of both; maybe the distinction is just a matter of which perspective we choose.

The first long sequence of recurring hexagrams I remember was 15. I think that's made a permanent change - I can't start thinking, 'It's all down to me!' now without being amused at myself.

 

[sooo]

'Theme of the time' or 'message you need to get before you're going anywhere else' - or maybe a bit of both; maybe the distinction is just a matter of which perspective we choose.

I'd say both for the 8 readings. She was stuck in quicksand, and the only first step would have to have been getting her head together before she could move on, however she moved on only because I refused to participate any further in her obstinacy. In the case of my 4, which occurred several months later, there was no way of knowing either.

The first long sequence of recurring hexagrams I remember was 15. I think that's made a permanent change - I can't start thinking, 'It's all down to me!' now without being amused at myself.

My interpretation of this may be incorrect (imagine that after all those 4's!), but from my observer position, you were so entrenched in the works, words and experiences of other sources, it wouldn't surprise me if the Yi was trying to draw your attention to your own interpretation and authenticity. So I think "It's all down to me!" is an excellent interpretation.

I confess to not following your blog until you started posting them here. I'll go look for your original location and read the comments.

 

[sooo]

Just read it. How funny!