Hi Everyone,

Iams Girl was so helpful with my last post, that I thought I'd try again with another question with multiple changing lines (which confuse me a lot).

Here's my situation. When life is discouraging and seems an uphill battle with inspiring reality, I tend to go all Walter Mitty, i.e. indulge in unrealistic daydreaming (although to the outside world I probably appear more Mrs. Mitty). I'm wondering if this is healthy. So I asked the Yi: What is the result of me continuing to let myself be mittyesque? I received the answer 21.1.2.3.5>44.

I then asked the Yi: What would be the result if I tried to stop myself from being mittyesque (I probably can't totally stop but really lessen how much I do this)? I received the answer 23.1.2.5>61

I should probably phrase my questions differently so I don't get so many changing lines but here goes my attempt at an interpretation.

21. Biting Through - Yup that feels like what I'm doing.

21.1 "His feet are fastened in the stocks, So that his toes disappear.No blame." - A fairly harmless activity unless I let it go to far.
21.2 "Bites through tender meat, So that his nose disappears. No blame." - Doing this too much is not good.
21.3 "Bites on old dried meat And strikes on something poisonous. Slight humiliation. No blame." - I have absolutely no idea.
21.5 Bites on dried lean meat. Receives yellow gold. Perseveringly aware of danger. No blame." - again, I have no idea.

44. Coming to Meet. This hexagram scares and confuses me a bit. If I'm not careful these unrealistic daydreams may take over my realistic expectations.

Okay, So here's my interpretation of my follow-up question:

23. Splitting Apart. Another hexagram that scares and confuses me (I think it's that all feeling like being flayed bit). To me this might mean a very big hard internal adjustment.

23.1 "The leg of the bed is split. Those who persevere are destroyed. Misfortune." - I'm not sure what this means except misfortune is bad...So keep being Mitty.
23.2 "The bed is split at the edge. Those who persevere are destroyed. Misfortune." - Again I'm confused, but understand misfortune is bad...keep being Mitty.
23.5 "A shoal of fishes. Favor comes through the court ladies. Everything acts to further." - Now, I'm really confused. Does this mean stop being Mitty.

61 Inner Truth "Pigs and fishes. Good fortune. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Perseverance furthers" I'm as dense as a pig or fish. This sounds good, but I don't like the misfortune part that comes before it.

I'm sure I've probably completely misinterpreted everything, so any help you send my way would be great.

If you've never read "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber, it's really quite excellent (and short). Here's a link: http://bnrg.cs.berkeley.edu/~randy/mitty.html

Thanks for any help.
Chibi-chan

I don't know about all your moving lines but it was great to read the short story. Thanks for the link.

Hi Chibi Chan

I'm new to the forum and as you I have been lurking around for a while. If you don't mind I've a say about your questions and the I Ching answers to them. My view is not so expert like that of the senior members but I saw something interesting and I want to share it with you.

The sequence is 21, 44, 23 and 61. I undestand that 21 is about behavior, 44 about to face something, 23 is about everything going down, 61 is inner true. I see a path here. The person in this situation is involved in a routine behavior (problaby bad mostly) then have to face an obstacle (from the outside or not). This cause everything to fall apart and the person have to find inner truth. I don't think this path is bad because is a "to grow" path. To grow is about to face obstacles and to find answers and the forecast is very good, IMO, if you change (or try to) your behavior:

61.1 Being prepared brings good fortune.
If there are secret designs, it is disquieting.

61.2 A crane calling in the shade.
Its young answers it.
I have a good goblet.
I will share it with you.

61.5 He possesses truth, which links together.
No blame.

If you have a creative job come to abandon daydream can be bad because it is a way to stay connect with the universal ideas. So 61.1 asks if you believe you are prepared for this or for something still invisible in this situation that you can be unaware of it. But you can find something (or someone) who will be helpful or to compensate the effort. And is possible to find a balance, not to much daydream not too much reality (can be very hard sometimes).

I hope you find useful these thoughts and apologize for any inconvenience.

Best wishes

Mamibunny

The renowned Alfred Huang, author of The Complete I Ching, put forth a method of interpreting hexagrams with multiple moving lines:

1. If there are two moving lines -- one yin and the other yang -- consult only the yin moving line.

2. If the two moving lines are both yin or both yang, consult the lower one.

3. If there are three moving lines, consult only the middle one.

4. If there are four moving lines, consult only the upper of the two nonmoving lines.

5. If there are five moving lines, consult only the other, nonmoving line.

6. If six lines are all moving, consult the Decision of the new gua, the approached gua.

7. Since there is a seventh invisible line in the first and second gua, Qian and Kun, for these gua consult the seventh Yao Text, called All Nines or All Sixes.

Your reading was 21.1.2.3.5> 44, so you have four moving lines. According to these guidelines, you would consult only the upper of the two nonmoving lines, which in this case would be 21.6.

I take the meaning to be that the result of being mittyesque is that someone is not hearing clearly; is deaf. It is true that Walter Mitty was lost in a fantasy world and not in touch with "reality" as it is known through our five senses. That seems to be a good answer, don't you think?

ginnie
i hope you don't mind me questioning this, but how did huang arrived to this method?
what do other authors do?
it sound a bit aleatory...

The method is said to have been "handed down by Master Yin." Sorry, I don't know what other authors do, and usually they don't say. It maybe a gamble, as you said, but I intend to try it out for a little while and see how it works, as I have great respect for the work of Alfred Huang.

I missed all these posts....What a moron (I am)

Thank you Ginnie, Thank you Mamibuny. Wow, things must be going to my spam box.

I haven't logged on in a long time, although I had been lurking.

Okay...so maybe I didn't add something to my safe senders list.

Thank you again for all you input....BTW, I'm still being Walter Mitty and probably out of touch with reality because at the moment reality is a little grim (or just totally uninspiring).

Thank you again...