Hello,

I'm a new member, but have been reading the forum archives regularly as I study the IC on my own & attempt to answer my own questions -- I'm staggered by the depth of the interpretations I read here!

I'm hoping for help with the following divinations, or your thoughts as to whether I'm on the right track in my considerations, and what I might be overlooking:

Why did I stop writing? 61 unchanging

For the past two years my writing has been halted (it was grinding to a halt a year before then): I stopped work on a novel I'd been working at for five years; even stopped writing in my journal. I've been at a very demanding college teaching job instead. I become painfully conscious of this whenever I see news of writer friends who are publishing a lot. I've been trying to understand if this is just ego, or if the pain is the expression of a gift I know I have but am not using. (And if I'm not, why not??)

Part of my thinking has been that I felt the writing was 'empty' -- too focused on form, surface, and I didn't have enough insight into people & needed to develop that more before proceeding. I'm hoping that 61 might be drawing that perception back to mind. But I'm afraid it means, instead, that I stopped writing because I wasn't meant to write, or that I'm missing some quality that would lead me to success as a writer.

Second question posed: What change would be needed for me to begin writing again? 1.2.5.6 > 55.

This seems positive: ok, you do have creative power, and there's potential for abundance. (Am I being too optimistic here?) But I'm not sure how to read the advice contained in the changing lines (well, 2 and 5 anyway) in this context.

That's a long post -- I'd be so grateful for any insights.

1 is very positive
1.2 "Hence it is wise for the man who consults the
oracle and draws this line to wait in the calm strength of patience."...good advice

there is always a lull in any process, but this is when new ideas and forces are gathering so then when your steam comes back you operate at a deeper or perhaps altogether new level of activity, in your case writing

1.5 maybe going to a writing group or going into a mentor ship or a writing workshop or a talking to a writer friend you trust and admire for some advice and guidance ... etc.

1.6 don't think too big, this is a warning line "Arrogant dragon will have cause to repent." says it all really or lise's

" If man tries to lead according to his own human laws, he shuts the door on universe, and life will fail. "

remember writing with the extra element you are currently looking for (insight, empathy, wisdom) requires you to stay connected to the universe, to be a channel. You can never be its master.

Also stop reading about other's success and getting stuck on it, you cannot follow the same road as them because you are on your own

61, I admit when I get this for similar question my immediate thought is oh god I shouldn't be doing this at all. But I really don't get this with your reading, I think you've said it yourself , you felt your writing was empty, I think you want to find 61, you want to write your truth.

I love reading this when I get into creative slumps:

"There is an energy, a life force and a vitality...a quickening that's translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time this expression is unique and if you block it, it will not exist through any medium and it will be lost... the world will not have it. It's not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it true and to keep the channel open." Martha Graham

Why did I stop writing? 61 unchanging

61 (imo) is a nest. You stopped writing because you settled into a demanding but in some ways comfortable routine as a college teacher.

What change would be needed for me to begin writing again? 1.2.5.6 > 55.

Your dragon needs to take flight. That is, you need inspiration.

Lines 2 and 5 suggest contact with an exemplar in your field.

Nine in the second place means:
Dragon appearing in the field.
It furthers one to see the great man.

Nine in the fifth place means:
Flying dragon in the heavens.
It furthers one to see the great man.

Inspiration is contagious.

Nine at the top means:
Arrogant dragon will have cause to repent.

Don't fly too close to the sun. Your writing should be proportionate to your ability.

In the context of writing, the abundance of 55 is your intellectual children.

If you feel that your writing is empty, why not fill it with the substance of life here in Shared Readings and try you hand at answering questions for others? Give and you receive.

Ah! Thank you for these - contrasting but complementary versions. Sometimes I get so stuck, with the I Ching, on 'is it this or is it that?' and forget that there's room for all the above.

61 - Yes, the job is (or at least has become) nest and it has made a nest, in the sense of stable home which I didn't have before. Possibly I needed the nest first, a place to nurture the fledglings.
"The character of fu ("truth") is actually the picture of a bird's foot over a
fledgling. It suggests the idea of brooding. "

There's another line somewhere in the Yi about trying to forge upwards while ignoring your foundations, and this leading to collapse -- I used to get this regularly, but not lately. And this week I asked about finding a new love this year (with a thought in the back of my mind about whether I should be getting out and about more to meet someone) and got 37.1 ("To barricade one's home. Regrets disappear" in LiSe's) which I understood as an injunction to be in more, and to nurture what's inside. This, though on a different question, seems to work well with 61 as nest.

True, maybe, also, about 'comfortable' in a less positive sense, in that I felt a bit lost in the novel, not knowing if it was good or bad, useful, or meaningful, not getting feedback on it -- and did recognize that from teaching come the immediate rewards of seeing your work affect others positively. In other words I lacked faith in the novel, and ultimately in writing generally -- there was no such room for doubt in teaching.

Chingching, those words from Martha Graham seem especially relevant in this context.

This would also seem to lead back to the 1, it being all about having the initial spark -- it is not about gauging your effect on others, pleasing an audience, suiting the times, etc. The 2 and 5 lines DO invoke others but I think in a slightly different way -- as pocossin describes above -- seeking peers, mentoring. (Oddly, just before waking up this morning I dreamed that my old, favourite writing mentor had responded to a message on facebook, which I had sent him long ago and forgotten sending, and I was delighted.)

1.6 might tell me something about the novel as a project. (Way back when,after getting lots of praise and recognition for short work in two writing programs, I had decided I wanted to make a big splash with a novel -- that I WASN'T a poet, or a short story writer. This is amusing, looking back, since of course materially I WAS a poet and a short story writer, not a novelist.

Pocossin, I like your last suggestion, although sometimes teaching feels like so much giving that I can't stand to give more. But then, the I Ching is a personal interest and a pleasure for me, an area that I have deep curiosity about.

Thank you, thank you. This has really helped my thinking.