Hi there,

I know I recently posted under midlife crisis but I have had the above hexagram come up over and over again (well at least 4 times) usually to the question what do I need to know in relation to having a family and moving job.

I now plan to have a massive life change - where I am unsure and do what I dont know. I have been in a rut and bored for quite a while so am looking for a new start and do something different.

I understand what 56 is saying but 62 judgement is unclear.

The Judgement
Preponderance of the Small. Success.
Perseverance furthers.
Small things may be done; great things should not be done.
The flying bird brings the message:
It is not well to strive upward,
It is well to remain below.
Great good fortune

Does it mean that I should not try to be a leader but a follower instead and accept my job as I could do exactly that where I am at present.

Many thanks

On 62-
The name of Hex 15 is often poorly translated as Humility. In fact this much more closely describes the message of 62. I would focus on being grounded and quietly occupying a place of learning with regard to where to go next.
On 56.1 -
As regards making sense of the confusion of footracks that led up to where you stand today, this is my favorite story illustrating this predicament:

Fatima the Spinner and the Tent

As retold by Idries Shah in Tales of the Dervishes, p. 74
Version attributed to Sheikh Mohamed Jamaludin, d. 1750

Once in a city in the Farthest West there lived a girl called Fatima. She was the daughter of a prosperous spinner. One day her father said to her: ?Come daughter; we are going on a journey, for I have business in the islands of the Middle Sea. Perhaps you may find some handsome youth in a good situation whom you could take as a husband.?
They set off and travelled from island to island, the father doing his trading while Fatima dreamt of the husband who might soon be hers. One day, however, they were on their way to Crete when a storm blew up, and the ship was wrecked. Fatima, only half-conscious, was cast up on the seashore near Alexandria. Her father was dead, and she was utterly destitute.
She could only remember dimly her life until then, for her experience of the shipwreck, and her exposure in the sea, had utterly exhausted her.
While she was wandering on the sands, a family of cloth-makers found her. Although they were poor, they took her into their humble home and taught her their craft. Thus it was that she made a second life for herself, and within a year or two she was happy and reconciled to her lot.. But one day, when she was on the seashore for some reason, a band of slave-traders landed and carried her, along with other captives, away with them.
Although she bitterly lamented her lot, Fatima found no sympathy from the slavers, who took her to Istanbul and sold her as a slave.
Her world had collapsed for the second time. Now it chanced that there were few buyers at the market. One of them was a man who was looking for slaves to work in his woodyard, where he made masts for ships. When he saw the dejection of the unfortunate Fatima, he decided to buy her, thinking that in this way, at least, he might be able to give her a slightly better life than if she were bought by someone else.
He took Fatima to his home, intending to make her a serving maid for his wife. When he arrived at the house, however, he found he had lost all his money in a cargo which had been captured by pirates. He could not afford workers, so he, Fatima and his wife were left alone to work at the heavy labor of making masts.
Fatima, grateful to her employer for rescuing her, worked so hard and so well that he gave her her freedom, and she became his trusted helper. Thus it was that she became comparatively happy in her third career.
One day he said to her: ?Fatima, I want you to go with a cargo of ships? masts to Java, as my agent, and be sure that you sell them at a profit.?
She set off, but when the ship was off the coast of China a typhoon wrecked it, and Fatima found herself again cast up on the seashore of a strange land. Once again she wept bitterly, for she felt nothing in her life was working in accordance with expectation. Whenever things seemed to be going well, something came and destroyed all her hopes.
?Why is it?? she cried out for the third time, ?that whenever I try to do something it comes to grief? Why should so many unfortunate things happen to me?? But there was no answer. So she picked herself up from the sand, and started to walk inland.
Now it so happened that nobody in China had heard of Fatima, or knew anything about her troubles. But there was a legend that a certain stranger, a woman, would one day arrive there, and that she would be able to make a tent for the Emperor. And, since there was as yet nobody in China who could make tents, everyone looked upon the fulfillment of this prediction with the greatest anticipation.
In order to make sure that this stranger, when she arrived, would not be missed, successive Emperors of China had followed the custom of sending heralds, once a year, to all the towns and villages of the land, asking for any foreign woman to be produced at Court.
When Fatima stumbled into a town by the Chinese seashore, it was one such occasion. The people spoke to her through an interpreter, and explained that she would have to go to see the Emperor.
?Lady,? said the Emperor, when Fatima was brought before him, ?can you make a tent??
?I think so,? said Fatima.
She asked for rope, but there was none to be had. So, remembering her time as a spinner, she collected flax and made ropes. Then she asked for stout cloth, but the Chinese had none of the kind which she needed. So, drawing on her experience with the weavers of Alexandria, she made some stout tentcloth. Then she found that she needed tent-poles. But there were none in China. So Fatima, remembering how she had been trained by the wood-fashioner of Istanbul, cunningly made stout tent-poles. When these were ready, she racked her brains for the memory of all the tents she had seen in her travels: and lo, a tent was made.
When this wonder was revealed to the Emperor of China, he offered Fatima the fulfillment of any wish she cared to name. She chose to settle in China, where she married a handsome prince, and where she remained in happiness surrounded by her children, until the end of her days.
It was through these adventures that Fatima realized that what had appeared to be an unpleasant experience at the time, turned out to be an essential part of the making of her ultimate happiness..

Oops-
Sorry if that story or its relation to 56.1 is no clearer than mud. I was thinking of it as an illustration of Line 30.1, which is the Fan Yao of 56.1 and has a sort of inverse relationship to it. The connection is this: That the things we are currently going through are often just tiny or trivial parts of the bigger picture, even though they seem all important and comprehensive at the time. To the extent that we have a lot farther to go in life (as Wanderers), it's important to keep the larger perspective or big picture in view, and keep the local happenings in their proper place. This also relates to 56.6, the other changing line you would need to go to 62. Not blowing ourselves out of proportion, but keeping humble and attentive in our contexts.

Bravo Brad! I love how you weave in the referances to varous hexagrams.
Tell us more!

Fluffy, I don't think the I Ching is telling you to stay or go, lead or follow, but rather, I think the I Ching may be refering to your visualizing "massive change" and suggesting you think in terms of smaller changes...taking things one day at a time?..which ultimately add up to "massive change."

My2cents,
R

56.1 does not change into 62. 56.6 does.

From the generic level 56 and 62 are about issues of loyalty.

62 is unconditional.
56 is conditional.

The skeletal form of 62 is described by analogy to 30. (issues of guidance, direction setting)
The skeletal form of 56 is described by analogy to 55. (issues of abundance)

62 thus covers use of traditions, their exaggeration etc to keep the collective together even if past its best times.

56 covers maintaining loyalty in 'distant' places/amongst many other loyalies.

62 gets its energy, its nourishment from a 'well' described by analogy to 47 where the focus is on issues of enclosure and so forcing roots to go deep.

56 gets its energy, its nourishment from a 'well' described by analogy to 06 where the focus is on issues of compromise.

etc etc

Thanks Bradford, Rosada, light of darkness for your replies.

Hi Bradford,

I enjoyed your story and feel it expressed how big changes really work!

Light of darkness,

you are correct it should be 56.6 not 56.1. which from all replies means i guess humility. which I would be doing by staying in my job.


So, In reading all your replies again I realised that taking the redundancy and moving home is not the answer in fact the repercussions could have a negative impact. However, I do want badly to leave, although I could eat humble pie, compromise and stay but I have been there nearly 7 years and think there is more to life. So with this in mind I asked the I ching how should I proceed? and 56.6 came up again!!

Judgement
Itinerant
Small expansion
A determination about wandering is auspicious

I just guess I am determined to wander......... but still sitting on the fence.