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A

ann

Guest
Hello everyone. You were all so kind last time I posted a question that I thought I would try again. I have been getting on a little better with the I Ching recently - but yesterday and today I got rather suprising readings. The same hexagram has appeared twice as the primary.

My question was 'please give me a picture of my situation with (name)' yesterday

I got 44

Today my question was 'What is happening here?' (about the same person) I got 44 with a change at line 3, creating 6

Now, the person in question has been a colleague for many years. He and I are friends and colleagues and there is no romantic involvement of any kind. He has just left the company we both worked for (I left long ago) and we have been talking about working together - which we do very well indeed.

My question here is - is the I Ching warning me of something? I'd be grateful for your opinions particularly as 44 has come up twice in two days. He has other irons in the fire - which he is very open about - and wants to involve me in whatever he does. This has always been a very friendly and trusting relationship and I wasn't worried when I asked, I was more thinking about workload and life directions.

Many thanks
 
C

candid

Guest
Hi Ann,

It would be really helpful to know what translation you are reading, or if you've not read from a reference at all and are looking solely to Clarity for the answer. At any rate, it would help to add to what understanding you already have of the reading.
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This can be a tricky one to interoperate. My personal experience with it is that, its just as often an inner condition than an external circumstance that 44 speaks to. Keep in mind that the answer itself, takes time to unfold for you, some of which hasn't arrived yet.

Nine in the third place means:
There's no skin on his thighs,
And walking comes hard.
If one is mindful of the danger,
No great mistake is made.

It appears as if there is indecision concerning moving in a direction that is blocked to you. You wish to press ahead, but can not. Yi says, its a good thing that you can not.

This is further supported by your relating hexagram, 6. In fact, I might reverse it and say that 44 is about the conflict you are experiencing. (See, Hilary.. I do learn from you
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)

Whatever the conflict is, its not something you should persist in. Coming to terms with the conflict is achieved in the Image of 44 Coming To Meet.

Under heaven, wind:
The image of COMING TO MEET.
Thus does the prince act when disseminating his commands and proclaiming them to the four quarters of heaven.

"It's necessary for elements predestined to be joined and mutually dependent to come to meet one another halfway. But the coming together must be free of dishonest ulterior motives, otherwise harm will result." ~Wilhelm

This is a matter of making your decisions (commands) from the high position within your self. Take the high road and let it be known to all, including all within your self.

On a more "arm around the shoulder Uncle Candid manner," I'd softly say: Let him come to you. Whether it be from heaven or from your associate, let him come to you.
 
A

ann

Guest
Candid, thank you. I had used the Wilhelm translation at Clarity, and found the images very hard to relate to. (I find this quite often!) "There's no skin on his thighs" - well... I just couldn't get my head round that at all.

Also I looked at Sarah Dening's commentary (which I find more down to earth. This talks about feeling uneasy about a situation and says: "There is a real danger that you could compromise your personal dignity and integrity. The way to avoid this is to be determined not to allow anybody else to have power over you." And "Hidden dangers lurk in an apparently agreeable situation." Which was the very last thing I'd ever have thought of.

The conflict I think is inside me. Being a mum/professional person. Being a student/consultant. I have so much on my plate. I enjoy it all - but sometimes it seems an awful lot.

And finally Sarah Dening says: "This applies equally to negative ways of thinking. Unless you control such thoughts as soon as they arise, they can begin to colour your entire outlook"

I think you are right - just carry on quietly and let it come to me.

Thank you again.

Ann
 

hilary

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Hello Ann and Candid,

What is left to say? (Dear Uncle Candid, what would we do without you?
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)

You were thinking about working together, you say, when you received 44? So perhaps the reading starts out with the professional side of things, and suggests that this could be a massively productive ?coupling? but not a long-lasting, stable partnership? It sounds more like joint brainstorming sessions, inspiring one another, rather than signing contracts. (But if contracts are a possibility, you might want to ask about that separately, in case this answer is about something else altogether?)

I also wonder whether there might be more to the connection with this man that meets the eye, or than meets the conscious mind. I did hear what you said about no romantic involvement at all, which leaves me wondering what the relationship between you might represent - some possibility for tremendous change?

Whatever approaches in Hexagram 44 has the potential to transform the status quo completely - the question is whether you want it transformed. Receiving #44 twice for what is more-or-less the same question seems a fair indication that Yi is not kidding?

Would I be right in guessing that with your second, ?what is happening here?? question there was a hint of ?what do you mean, 44?? behind it? It would make the answer very direct and natural. Here you are approaching the arrival of the new-unpredictable-uncontrollable-unknown in a spirit of Arguing - not just between the various roles you juggle so deftly, but more between enjoying it all and finding it all a bit much.

The general rule with Hexagram 6 is that the state of conflict is a reasonable way to seize the moment and change things, but not the way to carry anything through to completion, nor yet a fit basis for committing to new projects. It?s resolved by finding a higher perspective (the ?great person?) rather than fighting to the bitter end.

So here you are, finding the juggling hard work and perhaps part of you wondering why you have to do all this. And then comes the new opportunity with your friend.

?Buttocks with no skin. Walking is hard going??
It would be, wouldn?t it? Ouch. This is (Candid will be pleased to hear!) probably another reference to Yu the Great, the hero who laboured long and hard to control the flood waters, so hard that he was left in this unfortunate state. Modern matchbox psychology would definitely say he was ?over-committed? (and obsessive) - ancient China just thought he was a hero who accepted what had to be done. An image for someone working very hard at what looks like a never-ending task - maybe also for someone who shifts uncomfortably between things, constantly on the move. (Sitting down wouldn?t be easy, either?)
?Danger. Without great mistakes.?
?Danger? is one of those loaded key Yi words. There are hidden risks, but this doesn?t necessarily mean you shouldn?t go ahead. The risk could be of some old pattern repeating itself - an unexorcised ghost that needs attention, maybe - perhaps that inner conflict. But with attention and awareness, the danger can be negotiated without any great disaster. (Yu did conquer the floods!)

So? sounds like the connection with this man is more opportunity than threat, but opportunity in the first instance to accept a major task, and to overcome dangers (and conflict) through awareness. I think. But certainly expect the unexpected - Hexagram 44 is not usually something that will just slot into normal life?
 
A

ann

Guest
Well, I'm very nearly speechless. Thank you so much Hilary. 'Expect the unexpected' indeed is quite right. I hadn't expected any of this. When I asked the second time it was because he had just told me of a couple of calls he'd made on contacts - which have yielded enormous possibilities for him on the face of it (since they are his contacts and he is a very talented and very intelligent person). But he has been quite clear that he wants me to be involved in whatever happens and I'm feeling quite stunned by this, and by the potential enormity of one of the opportunities. It's something that I would never even have dreamed of, and I would just love to be involved in it. However, I suppose if I have any doubts it's 'Will they really want me?' and that was probably at the back of my mind when I asked the question. Thank you again Hilary. I need to get better at reading 'into' what the I Ching says. I tend to take words like 'danger' at face value, then get into a flap!
 
A

ann

Guest
I should also say that I had tried to interpret this reading myself and simply couldn't, which is why I asked for help. And thank you both again :)
 

willow

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Hi Ann,

I had to look at #44 quite a bit recently, and one of the things I discovered was that it challenges you to realize that passion is far bigger than the usual romantic drive we associate it with. As you say, "there is no romantic involvement here," and that may well be true. But there certainly is a creative productiveness -- you have made wonderful things together, and are on the threshold of making more. I think we often discount these great productive nonromantic relationships, or mistakenly fear/imagine they must actually secretly fit into the romantic mold, and we're just not admitting it. It seems to me that #44 challenges you to *not* discount what is going on, and also to *not* toss it into the "romantic passion" category.

Wilhelm is sort of 'fraidy and doom-and-gloom in the first few paragraphs of his interpretation, but even he gets around to: "The time of COMING TO MEET is important in yet another way. Although as a general rule, the weak should not come to meet the strong, there are times when this has great significance. When heaven and earth come to meet each other, all creatures prosper; when a prince and his official come to meet each other, the world is put in order. It is necessary for elements predestined to be joined and mutually dependent to come to meet one another halfway. But the coming together must be free of dishonest ulterior motives, otherwise harm will result."

To me, that "freedom from ulterior motives" means daring to be fully engaged in and passionate about creative collaborations in terms of their present-time magic and their fruits, the benefits they yield to all, not just the rewards the creators could accrue to themselves by attempting to make the collaboration permanent ("marrying").

#44 is also associated with June/July - right now - because it is associated with the turning of the wheel at the solstice. As the longest day of the year passes, and the dark begins to return, it is not a "bad" time for plants, it is just the time when they turn their energy from growing structures to setting seeds. To creating something that they ultimately release from themselves that can start the new cycle.

I've been such a fan of LiSe recently, and her website is a great online antidote/complement to Wilhelm. It's http://www.anton-heyboer.org/i_ching/yi_index.html

Here is what she says about #44, which she calls "Make an heir."

"No creativity can emerge without a marriage of opposites. In most cultures there are myths of the first hierosgamos, creating the world in the beginning, and always renewing itself in order to renew life. Opposites are contrary to one another, but they are of the same kind. God and goddess, man and woman, thought and action, energy and matter, yin and yang. If the mind is too straight to conceive of opposites, one can never be an artist, nor a sage."

Given her interpretation, I would see #44 as also encouraging you to concieve of the opposites mum/professional, student/consultant as poles of the same collaborative creative team (you!) instead of elements in a conflict that has to be resolved.

Hope this helps too!
 
A

ann

Guest
Willow, that is quite astonishing! One of the things that my friend and I share is a passion for certain elements of our work. There's no other word for it than 'passion'. We're certainly very different characters from each other, but we 'come to meet' at a particular point in our work and when we work together it's a bit like Astaire and Rogers or Torville and Dean if you see what I mean.

Also, he is full of 'opposites' in different ways from me but the opposites are certainly there. And I do feel that this could be an extraordinarily productive partnership.

I shall certainly visit that website.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write. I look at the questions on this site and often don't feel there is anything I can bring to the party. I really do appreciate what people have done for me here, and thank you again.

I shall be away for a few days, so if anyone posts and I don't reply it's because I won't have access to the internet.

Thank you.
 
C

candid

Guest
I completely agree with Willow?s assessment of LiSe?s translation and its compatibility with Wilhelm?s translation. Its rare now for me not to reference it in addition to my primary, which is still Wilhelm. I especially appreciate the historical symbols, which seems at times to belly up closer to originality. My assessment is that LiSe?s work is a perfect compliment to the more authoritarian work of Wilhelm-Banes.
 
A

ann

Guest
Thank you again Candid

I've been pondering the readings in the light of all your (and Hilary's and Willow's) comments, and decided that 44 is telling me that this is indeed a terrific opportunity but there will be unexpected twists and turns (which are already happening!). So I'm adopting a 'laissez faire' approach, letting it all happen and just addding what I can where I can. And I'm trying not to worry or think negatively. Thank you for the help.
 

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