Help with interpreting 44 Unchanging

[Paula R]

Hi! I'm a mild to severe asthma sufferer. I've been through a bad patch not long ago (coughing fits every other day or so) but now I haven't had one for twenty days today. So I asked Yi "Divining on my asthma remaining this stable", to which I got 44 uc.

THE JUDGMENT

COMING TO MEET. The maiden is powerful.
One should not marry such a maiden.

I took it as 'evil forces (coughing fits) are lurking. Beware! (The maiden is powerful. One should not marry such a maiden.)

On a negative note, fits are lurking (how couldn't they, asthma has no cure!)
On a positive side if I don't marry the woman, i.e. stop paying attention to her/it, I may prevent coughing fits to manifest.

PS: I'm out of medication except for a daily antihistamine. Inhalers and preventives had the contrary effect on me. I manage it with breathing exercises and meditation. Allowed by my pulmo!

Someone has a different interpretation, am I misled? I will appreciate any input, be it positive or negative.

 

[Trojina]

Yes 44 indicates that which you cannot own or marry, that which pushes you around way out of your own comfort zone. It isn't a manageable thing and so I think it may be a good idea to do what the Image suggests and spread the word that you need your medication. The Image says

'Below heaven is the wind. Coupling.
The crown prince gives out orders to command the four corners of the earth.'

One mistake in 44 is to imagine you can control this - you can't. Perhaps the Image shows the idea of spreading this out, not aiming to contain it on your own. It's too big for you. That's why you need available help.

On a positive side if I don't marry the woman, i.e. stop paying attention to her/it, I may prevent coughing fits to manifest.

No, I don't think that fits here I think it's warning you not to underestimate how much this can derail you. It doesn't hurt to have the medication to hand does it, you don't have to use it if you don't need it do you but don't get too easy with this state of affairs of things being okay as they are now, that would be marrying the unruly force of asthma, trusting it. I'm not saying you won't be okay it's just with this reading I don't think you can afford to be complacent. It's a disruptive force here so be wary.

I don't usually notice the next hexagram in the sequence but here the 45 jumps out. 45 is where you keep supplies in readiness in case of misfortune and while you didn't cast 45, 45 can be seen as a sort of antidote for 44.

44 can work creatively at times in some readings - and maybe even on some level your asthma has worked as some kind of catalyst for change in your lifestyle - but still you don't want to share your life with it on a permanent basis!

 

[Liselle]

44 can be a big disruptive force (someone on the forum once got it for jump-starting a car), and also can be small things that undermine you. That's what some authors say about the single yin line creeping up on the 5 yang. E.g. Balkin:

the first elements of corruption are just beginning to enter the picture, and one must be resolved to eliminate them before they have a chance to grow large

and

the evil is small but will prove surprisingly powerful if nothing is done

I've had it that way for use of time, for instance, If I keep saying to myself, "I'll just do this one little thing before I get on with the important stuff," hours can disappear, either because one little thing turns into 10 (after all there's never a shortage of little things), or because the one little thing ends up not being so little. The point is not to let it in in the first place, don't entertain it. (Which actually is line 2, isn't it: "Not fruitful to entertain guests." )

How to apply that to asthma, I have no idea. Asthma can be hard to control, though, can't it, which is 44-ish.


Edit: but also you can't always just ignore the little things, that won't work either in the long run. Don't know what I'm trying to say, I guess. And no idea how to apply it to asthma.

 

[Trojina]

44 can be invasion, intrusion and I say that not only because of this thread

Possible War Scenario — 44 UC

Hello, I’ve been learning from this forum for years and it’s a first time I decided to ask for help. I’m Ukrainian and recently me and my partner decided that it’s better be safe than sorry and left the country in case there’s going to be some real invasion from Russia as it is reported by...

www.onlineclarity.co.uk

...but general experience. The scale of that intrusion obviously varies vastly according to the question. A visit from the inlaws to Mass Murderer Putin's invasion.

But intrusion of an outer force can sometimes be creative like with the car jump start example. You wouldn't want to marry the method of jump starting your car every time you got in the car but in some circumstances 'she' can be useful.

If I get 44 in any kind of relationship question and for 'relationship' I mean all relationships not just the limited use of the word to mean romance - then I'd be on guard for signs of manipulation/be clear about being made to do things and these can even be nice things like your friend wants you to go to the cinema and you don't want to go but find yourself going. Occasionally being drawn out away from your own road is okay as an inspiration - like 'I'd never normally see that movie but I'm glad I did' but you wouldn't want to marry into that way of being, always doing what someone else suggested.

I do feel with a question about asthma remaining stable or not one would have an eye to it destabilising one. Asthma is a big intrusive force don't allow it room, keep it under control, don't underestimate it.

 

[Liselle]

I wrote the part below the line before Trojina posted just now, so it'll sound out of kilter.

these can even be nice things like your friend wants you to go to the cinema and you don't want to go but find yourself going

Yes! Good example.

be on guard for signs of manipulation

Also yes! Naturally everyone with a token trys to manipulate the king into doing what they want, vs. what everyone else wants. King has to be smart enough to recognize / tell the difference. Also decisive about how to handle it.

---

Trojina sees a connection to 45 (which I'd love to hear more about if you can, Trojina, pretty please? ). There's also a connection to 43, decisiveness or declaration.

People stand in front of the king brandishing tokens to get the king's attention, making declarations (43). This is disruptive to the king (44), but he can't always just make it all go away. So how can he respond? Maybe by making some quick (44, the jump-starting sense of quick and powerful) decision (43) about the matter itself, or delegating it to someone else (44's Image), or deciding (43) whether or not it's important (43's Image, "...dwells in power and virtue, and also shuns things), and so on.

He does have to be kingly (43) and/or queenly (44). He has to make decisions and not "marry" each and every thing equally, or he'd be overwhelmed.

 

[Liselle]

Could a fast-acting inhaler be a jump-starting kind of thing? I don't have asthma or know anyone with it, but I've at least heard of them casually, and now that we mention it maybe they're 44-ish.

Are there other kinds of medicine that are meant to stop it from getting started in the first place (/ stop the yin line before creeps farther in, like Balkin says)?

 

[isacosmo]

Go to homeopathy! Allergies are the best for homeopathy. Don't meditate, go to see a doctor.

 

[Trojina]

I had asthma as a child and also had a childhood friend die of it. There's mild asthma and there's more serious asthma. The querent said

! I'm a mild to severe asthma sufferer. I've been through a bad patch not long ago

...and she gets 44uc - I think it is better to err on the side of caution and have medications to hand. Why wouldn't you - if you're okay you don't need to use them. Of course you know best and if you have other better ways to manage it it's up to you.

It's quite a blunt reading really, I don't see it as terribly complicated. If I had suffered fairly severe asthma and got 44uc I'd make sure I had whatever I might need medically to hand.

Trojina sees a connection to 45 (which I'd love to hear more about if you can, Trojina, pretty please?

I just pointed out 45 was next in the sequence, I just noticed that. There isn't much more to say. In 45 one 'gathers weapons against the unseen' which here just seemed to tie in a bit.

Not sure where you are getting kings and queens from. There's a prince in the Image, that's all I see. Maybe you mean the general place of authority in the Image?

 

[Liselle]

I just pointed out 45 was next in the sequence

Well yes, and I see what you're saying about supplies. Maybe in unchanging readings there's some natural pull towards the following hexagram? There's no relating hexagram to exert any pull.

Wonder if the actual sequence text might help, or more to the point Hilary's commentary since (I say jealously lol) she always manages to get something out of nothing with the sequence.

‘They meet one another, then they assemble, and so Gathering follows. Gathering means assembling.’

The gathering expands to encompass everything that meets together. Even the untameable, unpredictable forces of change that arrived in Hexagram 44 are integrated here.

So 44's nature means "then they assemble/gather." Or the other way around, such a big gathering/assembly/effort is because of 44's nature, which makes sense. 45 wouldn't follow from a trivial matter.

Not sure where you are getting kings and queens from.

43's Oracle: "Deciding, tell it in the king’s chambers"
44: The powerful woman is a queen. At least, Margaret Pearson (US, UK) says so, and it seems perfectly logical to me.

Prince in 44's Image - more delegation? I'd originally thought in terms of the pair: king receives declarations in 43, then "sends out mandates and commands to the four corners" in 44 (delegates to feudal lords or something). But maybe the king first delegates to a prince: "Here, Prince, handle this for your father..."

 

[Liselle]

Just looked at a few random Sequence texts, and some of them do seem to be like 45's.

"The one before, then this one, so this one follows."

45: "They meet one another, then they assemble, and so Gathering follows."
26: "Being Without Entanglement, hence capable of Taming, and so Great Taming follows."
37: "Injury on the outside naturally means turning back towards the home, and so People in the Home follows."

So in isolation (vs. in an unconstrained real reading) maybe there is some looking ahead.

 

[Trojina]

Opinions vary don't they whether those sequence texts (wing 10?) do mean anything or if they are just a memory device. I like the bit of Hilary's commentary you quoted.

I don't like hanging on them too much but sometimes it seems helpful in readings, especially unchanging ones. I have heard Hilary says she always notices the next in the sequence but not the previous one.

 

[Liselle]

Hilary disagrees with all of it, now that I look it up (link for Change Circle members).

The Sequence does not tell the future; looking at the hexagram following does not show you what's next.

This actually doesn't mean that the Sequence takes on a special role in unchanging readings,

I still like your point about the supplies.

Maybe it's reasonable to do both? Keep up the breathing exercises and meditation because they seem to help and certainly can't hurt. Keep medicine on hand, too, just in case. As Trojina said (talking to Paula now), you don't have to use it, but if you need it you'd have it.

 

[Trojina]

I wasn't exactly referring to 45 as telling the future simply noting it was next just on this occasion. I wasn't making any kind of principle out of it.

Also Hilary can think what she wants it doesn't mean she's right, it's not the final word in anything. It's not like Hilary said it's not this so it's not this. If someone finds the sequence does have special impact with unchanging hexagrams then why wouldn't they use it. The danger is always taking advice from hexagrams not cast so the advice here is 44 not 45. Nonetheless in this instance 45 stood out to me so I mentioned it. I wouldn't always and every time notice 45 in a 44uc reading, in fact I never do but I did here.

 

[Liselle]

Okay, understood, all of that. No argument .

(Or at least not much argument. Will keep one or two of the dove's feathers out .)