Hi all,

I asked the Yi 'Will i get a chance to start working anew for my former employer?'

I left my former employer with good reason, about 1.5 years ago. I had a fall out with my direct supervisor which caused the working atmosphere to change dramatically, not quite in my favor...

Since then I've been having a very hard time finding a new job. I have a temporary job for the moment, so no financial security really. One month ago, I met a former colleague of mine and she asked if i would consider returning, since i was very good at my job and they can always use good people with talent and experience.

I used to love my former job (I udes to work for a staffing company as a hr-consultant), where as right now I have a very boring, unchallenging job as an employee for a lawyer. (excuse my english, i'm dutch!) I tried to find work in the staffing sector afterwards and I did, but it didn't work out for various reasons. I recently dealt with a big depression and am ready to start living my life again.

Any thoughts, input or advice would be extremely welcome!

myladythunder said:

I asked the Yi 'Will i get a chance to start working anew for my former employer?'

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It suggests that you will be given a chance.

If you get a result which has three Yao changed, you should focus on the middle one.

The No.21, 噬嗑, indicates the environment looks like a prison: it is good to punish some one. If you only change the 4 Yao, you will get the No.27, 颐, you should find something to eat all by yourself. No.27, the upper part is mountain, the lower is thunder, what is that? Image, when you eat, the lower part of your mouth moves, yet the upper part does not. But, for No.21, it is like that there is a bone in your throat, make you cannot eat anything. You should bite it really hard to make it break.

九四：噬干胏，得金矢。利艰贞，吉。
《象》曰：利艰贞吉，未光也。

Nine Four: eat bones, and find gold arrow. Although it is a hard process, yet is good.
"Xiang" (Do you call it like this?)sais: the process is difficult, cause the situation is not clear.

For the changed No.2, the environment is all Yin(Which means, Dark). and that inform to think clear before you say something.(Better do not say anything).

To sum up, the strategy suggestion for you is you can start the job, it is difficult for the start but the result is good. And you should take care, about your talk in the new work.

Best wishes.

I asked the Yi 'Will i get a chance to start working anew for my former employer?'
21 1.4.6 changing to 2

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This seems to me to be saying that there is a lot that you can learn about the circumstances that have led you to and kept you from moving from your current employment. The way that you thought and reacted to situations were not always in your favour. Some of the things that you have come to realise about your own behaviours have been hard to swallow for you and maybe there are still some things that you do not accept about yourself that have a tendancy to hold you back. If you are not able to recognise and see what has led you to this place that you now reside in you will not be able to move forward. Be receptive to the learning of the past and use it to step into the new and all will be well.

Your comment about having recently dealt with a big depression and now being ready to start living your life again, seems to aligned wonderfully well with the reading from the IC.

Be Well
Mike

Whenever I get line 6 moving in Hexagram 21, I always ask another question, because the line says I'm not listening to the message. That's the most usual meaning of 21.6.

I would ask, "What is the message I am not listening to?"

This should be very clarifying, myladythunder. It might be surprising as well.

Please let us know what happens!!!

Hi everybody,

My sincere thanks for all of your insights! Today I got an email from my former colleague, she confirmed the company's interest in me and next month I'll get my job interview for my former job.

Willowfox, to the point as usual, and that's the way i like it, thank you!

Maverickcc, the way you bring the imagery of the Yi to me paints a very clear picture of my current situation to me. I do feel like I have been punished and in many ways my life right now feels like a prison to me. But there's is also a -recent- feeling of being cleansed, acceptance and inner peace (the golden arrow?), through hardship I gained alot of insight, I had to 'bite' through some very hard lessons about myself.
If and when my former employer will take me back I will have to be very careful in my choice of words, they'll want to know how I grew career wise after I left them and i'm afraid I don't have much to account for, since the past 1.5 years I have been to busy confronting my own inner demons. I'll have to think very clear before I speak. In doing so i'll hopefully find a constructive way to tell them my story.

My_key, I'll head your words, and I think it's a great way to prepare for the upcoming job-interview. I think what got me into all this trouble in the first place was my general attitude towards life. I used to live on a whim, very impulsive and not living truly conscious, in the now. Also all of my life I have been afraid of failure, of being a failure. Which is i think, why I used to live so impulsive, never caring for the consequences of my actions. I know I still have a long way to go, but I believe I'm finally on the right path.

Ginnie, I took your advice and asked "What is the message I am not listening to?" and the Yi answered:
Hex 33 3.6 changing to 45.
I believe the message here is there has been stress and dissapointment and the Yi is advising me to retreat for now, take some time to myself and get my motivation for getting back to my old job straight. Ask myself; Why am I doing this? Why do i want this? Do I really need this? If i become centered once again I will attract the right job/situation naturally.

Any advice would be much appreciated, as always! :bows:

Warmest regards,
Myladythunder

myladythunder said:

Ginnie, I took your advice and asked "What is the message I am not listening to?" and the Yi answered:
Hex 33 3.6 changing to 45.

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You have been seriously held back because you have had someone to take care of? Responsibilities you cannot or could not abandon? But, becoming terribly sensitized to your situation, you need or needed to find a good way to retreat from it -- for the sake of your own health and well-being?

You would need to figure out what point you're at. Are you at the point where you cannot abandon the person or people you feel responsible for? Or, rather, are you at the point at which you're free to leave? Often the 'leaving' simply means to retreat within ourselves.

Sometimes when we get H21 we feel someone else is the culprit and needs to be punished. We feel someone is interfering with our hopes, plans, and dreams.

Getting line 21.4 -- it really does not indicate instant success. The implication is that you'll need to chew and chew and chew on that nasty old bone of contention.

You'll eventually succeed. Knowing that can be a huge relief. This line does not promise any shortcuts.

ginnie said:

You have been seriously held back because you have had someone to take care of? Responsibilities you cannot or could not abandon? But, becoming terribly sensitized to your situation, you need or needed to find a good way to retreat from it -- for the sake of your own health and well-being?

You would need to figure out what point you're at. Are you at the point where you cannot abandon the person or people you feel responsible for? Or, rather, are you at the point at which you're free to leave? Often the 'leaving' simply means to retreat within ourselves.

Sometimes when we get H21 we feel someone else is the culprit and needs to be punished. We feel someone is interfering with our hopes, plans, and dreams.

Getting line 21.4 -- it really does not indicate instant success. The implication is that you'll need to chew and chew and chew on that nasty old bone of contention.

You'll eventually succeed. Knowing that can be a huge relief. This line does not promise any shortcuts.

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Hi Ginnie

That's odd. The situation you are describing does apply to my life, just not in the area my question was about. But you sure hit the sore spot regarding my love-life.

Me and my partner recently dealt with a crisis in our relationship, because we both felt that we were holding each other back. I came very close to ending our relationship because i couldn't accept him for who he was.
The situation in short:
I'm a very private person and i need my space and time to be alone in order to be happy, while my partner is a very much a group person, he needs lots of social contact to feel happy. I started to obsess over the situation and completely blocked him out emotionally. I blamed him for my current unhappiness and he threw the same accusations to me. In response my partner also blocked and we became two very unhappy people, me on the verge of a breakdown and my partner just stayed away, unable to deal with me or the rising tension.
We resolved the crisis together, but not before I decided to leave for a couple of days. I went to my mother and cried my heart out, when I came back the tension had dissolved and we were able to talk things over.
We're still working on our differences and it's never easy, but we're getting there, with baby-steps

I don't see how this relates to my question however.

myladythunder said:

we both felt that we were holding each other back. I came very close to ending our relationship because i couldn't accept him for who he was....I don't see how this relates to my question however.

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Yes, isn't that odd, the way the I Ching sees us. It doesn't see us as divided into the fragments 'love' and 'work.' We are just one person. Hexagram 21 is about ridding ourselves of interferences, no matter what part of our lives they are originating from -- and whether from other people or from ourselves.

I am wondering if you'd be working for the same direct supervisor if you went back to that job, Myladythunder. Could it be that the same dynamic that was hampering you in your personal life could also afflict you on the job?

That is, it might have been difficult for you to 'agree to disagree.' Rather you might have felt most strongly that the supervisor was wrong and had to change in order for you to feel comfortable and do your work?

Since there are three moving lines, I'll take them one by one:

21.1 > 35 Hampered. Make progress by letting all come into view ...
21.4 > 27 Bite through to what's causing the interference to your earning your livelihood ...
21.6 > 51 Repeated upsets? Arguments? Yelling? Not listening to the message that you need to retreat sometimes ...

Whenever we work together, we must tame our egos in order to serve a greater purpose. Is there a sense of mission or good purpose at that job you're thinking of going back to?

The relating hexagram 2 suggests that at first you will head in the wrong direction, but later people will come to help you.

Hi Ginnie,

Since I contacted my former employer there has been some development on the matter. I got the confirmation that I would be called to set a date for the job interview. During august I would hear something from them. Where almost at the end of the month and still no sign. This is weird, because I know that this company never takes this long to contact a good candidate, they are even known for there fast reaction when it comes to selecting strong candidates for a job. I tried contacting my ex-colleague through email but I haven't had any response whatsoever.

So yes, I feel hampered and I'm waiting for the big picture to reveal itself. Biting through a feeling of disappointment right now. Maybe I should have just let it be and retreat from the whole thing.

Concerning my supervisor I should give you the whole story, (the short version) I never really had a fall out wit her, I just didn't find the right words in English when I posed my question so I might have put it out there more aggressive then I intended.

Long story short: I used to have a great 'click' with my supervisor, who taught me the job and the tricks. Together we formed a great team, until there came a new project that we where assigned to. At that point we had become good friends, also after work hours and we didn't communicate on an 'employee - boss' level.
All that changed when we started the new project. A newbie had to take over my job and I was instructed to focus only on the new project and let the newbie make her own faults without any backup or help from me. This was not normal procedure + it went against my own judgment. I felt unhappy because I wasn't allowed to help and teach, a part of my job I always loved. This partly created the 'negative atmosphere' I referred to earlier, another part of was caused by my supervisor.
My boss' attitude towards me suddenly changed, where we used to communicate on a level of -almost- equals I now was her employee rather then a trusted right hand. I think now maybe she had something to proof towards her superiors. Anyway, while the tension grew the project grew to and we got positive feedback. However, when i started the new project agreements/ promises where made that I would get a company car and a raise if the project went as planned. After the first evaluation I was told (by my supervisor) all the promises where revised and I got another target. Iaw I had to start from zero, again. For the first time since I started to work there I felt reluctant to go to work. I carried on like this for 6 more months, I became depressed and closed up to colleagues at work. My motivation dropped and when my second evaluation was due, I blurted it all out and I ended up agreeing to leave the company. It all happened really fast but there where big consequences for my impulsive decision.

My ex supervisor no longer works there. For the moment I need time again, to think things over; I'm haven serious second thoughts on returning. I will look out for the people com,ing to help me.

Warm regards

Myladythunder

myladythunder said:

Where almost at the end of the month and still no sign.

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They're probably all away on vacation. August is a big month for vacations.

myladythunder said:

I felt unhappy because I wasn't allowed to help and teach, a part of my job I always loved.

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I totally sympathize, Myladythunder. Sounds like the company underwent a big change of policy at the upper levels of management ...

ginnie said:

They're probably all away on vacation. August is a big month for vacations.



I totally sympathize, Myladythunder. Sounds like the company underwent a big change of policy at the upper levels of management ...

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You where right on both accounts, Ginnie,

1.they contacted me last week and the delay was indeed because of the holidays. I had the job-interview 2 days ago. I still have my doubts about actually going back, but decided to go with an open mind. If nothing comes of this interview, then maybe I'll find some closure about the whole affair.

2. The company completely changed at the upper levels and so the company policy with it, which was also part of the reason for the delay.

It was a challenge for me to do the interview, I felt very anxcious about the whole thing. It was an intense interview, but at the same with a pleasant undertone.
I'm now waiting for a call from their HR resource manager for the final round. I'm wondering if this is my big opportunity to get back in business... My heart say NO, but the voice of reason inside me says GO!

Que sera sera...

How did this turn out???? Im in a very similar situation!