Hey Everyone, I'm new to the community. Eager to see what this is all about!

Tonight I did a reading after hearing back from a major publishing company that rejected my second memoir; they published my first. They said the book was well written, amazing like the first, a really glowing review, but they said it would be too hard to sell a memoir right now. They said they would be interested in other projects. I wrote back pitching a few other projects, both of which are easily more mass marketable but not quite as close to my heart as memoir--the editor seems interested. In the meantime I might be looking to shop my rejected memoir elsewhere--perhaps a small publishing company. Everything feels up in the air, and I obviously feel very humbled by the entire thing. Who am I without the next achievement in my life? I feel thankful for the perspective offered, and so the reading tonight made sense in the first hexagram: 20--the perspective of the watchtower. I sighed and felt warm inside.

Then I got hexagram 6 second--conflict. I'm not sure what to make of this part of the reading. I'm thinking about conflict, possibly, between my old agent and someone new..a conflict within about what to do? Maybe (and this is lame) my girlfriend won't like me as much when she sees that my new book was rejected? My pride hurts at the moment, but it also feels like a pressure is off me somehow...so the second part of the reading confuses me...

Any thoughts would be welcome!

Oh, and the lines that change are the second and the fourth. The in between line reads observe the leader first hand to determine the worthiness of his cause.

Thanks! --nightwriter

Welcome to Clarity, Nightwriter. Your casting may be described as 20.2.4 > 6. Was your question, " How should I respond to the rejection?"

thank you!

My question was, "what is the nature of this moment or the teaching I should absorb from this moment?"

Thank you--any insight would be great!

What is the nature of this moment or the teaching I should absorb from this moment?
20.2.4 > 6

Tower and Conflict suggest observing a conflict from a distance -- 'above the fray', so to speak. Might be a title of a memoir , but it could suggest another project, or the attitude that would do you good now. Don't worry about the girlfriend. Sympathy is close to love, so she may be more supportive than before. Hexagram 20 is the hexagram of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar -- September approximately and harvest time in the traditional almanac. Falling leaves suggest to me that the time is right for you to write more.

Since you are a writer, I'd like to mention R.G.H. Siu's The Man of Many Qualities -- an adaptation exemplified by quotes from world literature. It is a neglected masterpiece. Siu was opposed to fortunetelling and deliberately designed his book to make fortunetelling difficult, so it didn't sell. Lines are unnumbered (I penciled them in) and hexagrams are from the bottom up. To me it is a treaure. It is the only version of the Yi of which I bought extra copies to give to friends, though little good it did them, I think. 20.4 in Siu quotes the story of Mohammed-bin-Nasir. I would never have seen it were it not for Siu. It would be my deserted island Yi.

Thank you!

Thank you--sorry its taken me a while to get back on here. In the past week I've done a lot of thinking, and a burst of writing energy is coming through. Hard to explain, but I feel pretty liberated without the pressure of the big company--for the moment I feel the interpretation as you suggested is spot on--a harvest time. Do you recommend any books for a novice iching/taoism student like myself? thanks--nightwriter

humboyhum said:

. . . a burst of writing energy is coming through.

Click to expand...

I am so glad I said, ". . . the time is right for you to write more."