Hello,

I'm in a new place (just moved), looking for work, and trying to keep my wits about me and the Yi is NOT co-operating!!!!

I need help please. I am indeed looking for work and have had one interview with a comapny that I really wanted to work for...but it didn't work out. So, now another great opportunity comes along. One that caters to all my professional strengths, and, one hell of a base salary too!!!

I'm struggling with what the Yi is telling me to do right now. I'm also extremely frustrated. It has been sooooo long since a professional opportunity came along where I felt like I really wanted to work for a company. At one point I asked the Yi "what direction should I be focusing on right now in my career?"....Hex#4...no changing lines. Ouch!??!

So, I tried a different approach. I 1st asked:

"Please speak to me about the Market Technologies job opportunity?"

Hex# 23 - Bo/To Strip, 6 at 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th changing into Hex# 13 - Tong Ren/Union of Men

Can somone PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS READING???? I think I'm too close emotionally to this situation to understand this. In my search for clarity, I then asked another question with the intent of maybe clearing this up. I felt the same way after. confused. I asked a more straight forward question:

"What is the likliehood that I'll be working at Market Technologies?" - I asked this after my 1st phone interview.

Hex# 5 - Xu/Stopped by Rain, Waiting...no changing lines.

Is Yi telling me to literally wait? That this is NOT the job for me right now?

Please, any insight into this rhese readings would be most helpful. I want to find a job that I can truly make a difference at and make a living. I'm just so depressed and frustrated right now

"I'm struggling with what the Yi is telling me to do right now."

The Yi doesn't tell you to do anything, it suggests things to you. Often if I've had a very strong gut feeling that I should be doing something, I've thought *!*@ the Yi, I'm going to do this. Please don't let the Yi replace your brain! Do what feels right.

Please don't take what I wrote insultingly, coz it's not meant like that. All I mean is I think that sometimes if you're emotionally tangled up, then using the Yi can tangle you up even more. Like anything else in life, there is a beneficial time for it, and also not . . .

Hey dere,

"Hex# 5 - Xu/Stopped by Rain, Waiting...no changing lines. Is Yi telling me to literally wait?"

Yes, that's probably actually it. Wait to hear back from them.

"That this is NOT the job for me right now? "

I'm not seeing that in there, but I guess it's a possible interpolation. You might ask that question directly IF you really want to...

BTW, the Image does suggest having a correct (relaxed) outlook while you wait so that may be part of what the Yi is telling you with 5 (and also perhaps with 4). It is true, though, that sometimes that's easier said than done.


"Hex# 23 - Bo/To Strip, 6 at 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th changing into Hex# 13 - Tong Ren/Union of Men "

That's quite a tuff one. From the overall hexagrams POV, it *could* mean a successful job interview, the interview itself being the "stripping" and the resulting 13 being a successful outcome: "union with others". But 23 is often difficult circumstances and some of these moving lines look pretty rough, so hard to say. You did get the 5th line, though, and I've had some good experiences with that one in the work context.

Best of luck + hope some others will chime in to confirm/refute as appropriate...

- Jeff

Hi Strawdogs,
I can very much relate to what you are saying here. Since I started doing the ICHING I have lost my property, my children, all my money, my car, my health and my honor in the community I lived in. The IChing has really never helped me solve a relationship problem or bring me a good job or more money. But it is uncanny how it warns me of the little things. Like when I had my car towed to a garage when the owner was a dirty cheat. The IChing let me know that it wasn't right so I had it towed to another place who fixed it perfectly for about $2000 dollars less and it turned out to be a completely different problem than the previous mechanic had stated to me. This has happened to me a lot.

The IChing has actually made me breakdown the entirely of my existence in order to rebuild it on a solid foundation with the right guiding principles. Everything in my life before I started studying the IC was based upon very unwholesome values. I feel that I am finally at the end of this devastating loss and ready to start rebuilding again. I feel very grateful to the IC but I am not going to use it to micro manage my life anymore. I did that to learn the truth of it, and I have many versions of the IC memorized in their entirety. Now, I can stand on the principles and laws of nature that the IC is so clearly teaching. I don't have to use the oracle because I know whether my actions are in accord with nature or going against the grain.

So keep going and you will lose everything that was built upon shallow and meaningless values and you will probably hit bottom like many do. But it will have been worth it in the end.
Pagan

Yes Pagan,

I REALLY can relate to you here. For myself, it has been 5 years that I've been trying to get up from being knocked down. I lost my business & filed bankruptcy, lived semi-homeless (crashing on a friends floor for 2 years...with no bed...ouch!), worked total sh*%^t jobs that were not fulfilling, and lost my fiance. I have had an extremely painful time, and lately I really feel like giving up.

By giving up I mean just not caring anymore. I'm tired Pagan. I really am having a hard time WITH WANTING to care about myself.

***This is very important:

I feel as if life has dangled 2 opportunities within the High-Technology sector (which is my professional passion) in front of me, one didn't work out and I felt my heart drop because I don't know how much more I can take. The 2nd opportunity is a much better position, and, would help me out of my IRS troubles . I'm scared man. I'm really scared. I'm afraid of being disappointed yet again. So, when I asked the Yi about this job opportunity, I was expecting the Yi to peel back the fabric of reality and my situation, and CLEARLY show me what to expect with job opportunity #2.

I'm so very tired.

The most important thing in this situation is how frustrated, depressed and tired you are. I'm glad you're asking for help here, cuz that's what you need most probably. But I'd be happier if I knew you were getting help from people connected to you face to face, and not just on the internet. In the meantime, let's talk about your Yi consultation:

"I'm in a new place (just moved), looking for work, and trying to keep my wits about me and the Yi is NOT co-operating!!!!"

The Yi doesn't co-operate; that's not its function. The yi informs and illuminates and advises. Then it's *your* responsibility to co-operate with the Yi's advice or not. (You're confusing the roles if you expect the Yi to co-operate with your conscious, personal agenda.) But your mental state hasn't allowed you to see what the Yi's saying. No surprise there - you don't see things clearly when you're upset - simple.

"At one point I asked the Yi "what direction should I be focusing on right now in my career?"....Hex#4...no changing lines. Ouch!??!"

Why 'ouch'? Why not 'thank you'? The Yi answered your question. It said that in regards to your career, you need to go into learning mode - that's what Hex 4 is all about. Maybe you think you know what you need to know in your career, but the Yi's telling you otherwise. Hex 4 is a very auspicious and pleasant situation actually. If you like learning, that is. In terms of career, Hex 4 probably translates as something like training or higher qualifications or an apprenticeship of some sort. It might even be something as prosaic as doing research into the company(s) you're applying to so that you handle any job interview better.

Of course, a *big* part of Hex 4 is accepting the temporary state of ignorance that you're in, and *not* pushing the river, not rushing the process. Learning takes time. That's why the Hex 4 text counsels against consulting the Yi too many times and looking for answers before the time is right. But you asked a bunch more questions anyway, and then didn't get anything out of it. Again, no surprise. But I'll tackle one of those questions anyway:

"What is the likliehood that I'll be working at Market Technologies?" - I asked this after my 1st phone interview.

Hex# 5 - Xu/Stopped by Rain, Waiting...no changing lines.

Is Yi telling me to literally wait? That this is NOT the job for me right now?"

That's how I'd read it, yes. And this dovetails exactly with the Yi's earlier advice to focus on learning at this point. If you're as depressed as you sound (and you sound really down right now), then it's entirely possible that you need to deal with that before you take on a new job.

Finally, I want to return to what I said at the beginning of this post. You're so upset and down now, that time spent with a counsellor is at least as high a priority as a high-paying job right now. Take care of the inner, and the outer will take care of itself.

I wish you the very best of luck with this one. Interestingly, I think the very best of luck doesn't mean you get the high-paying job; I think it means you relax your assumptions to the point where you can allow life to bring you something else.

Hi Strawdogs,
My heart goes out to you. I got to the point that I only felt like listening to the Sage (the IC) and not to other people. As a result, I became more and more isolated from people that could help me. I agree with Dobro very much when he says he hopes that you will find some face to face support people to help you once again feel the special experience of being loved unconditionally, just for who you are.

I think that there is an invisible string in your consciousness that is linking your self worth to some outer world success. You may be silently in hate with yourself. Since these kinds of feelings hide below the surface of our waking consciousness, they are often hard to grasp and deal with.

Two more things; first, my son was striving to become something that he always wanted to be and ran into a brick wall due to something that happened in his past. He hit bottom because he was so close and then no bazooka. But as a result of this, he went to work for his step father who has fallen on hard times also. His ability to help his step father, and heal some gaping wounds from the past has actually turned out to be so rewarding to him that he is amazed. He told me that the satisfaction he is getting by helping his step father rebuild his business has made him completely forget that his other wish did not come true (yet). I hope there is some information in this anecdote for you.

Second, I thought I had finally bounced back, having just landed a job that would help me rebuild my financial base. One week after I got the job I was fired. I just couldn't believe it. My life looked like it was heading right where I wanted it to go and then whack! It can make you feel that life, or the Sage, or God is just downright cruel. The company had a valid reason for firing me; I had lied on my application. I wanted the job soooooo bad that I did something that went against the grain of who I am and who I want to be. Now I have a new perspective of it. I really don't want to be encumbered 40 hours a week with that job, which was already becoming monotonous after one week. I moved here to a large city (San Diego) because it provided the population base that would support my being an astrologer; which is the thing that I am most brilliant at doing and the thing which I think is the most valuable service I have to offer others. So my son sat down and brain stormed with me just how to get started after so many years out of the loop. Now I have decided I am going to do those things, come hell or high water, succeed or fail. If I don't do them and keep saying "it won't work, I can't succeed" then I will surely not succeed. So I am going to take the leap of faith and try to accomplish my heart's desire now.

Good luck to you, and I know that it will be allright. Perhaps it would be better for you not to do the oracle for awhile and just go after what you want without being jaundiced about it.

Instead of the IC, maybe you could find someone who you really respect and get their advice and feedback. You may be shocked to find that there aren't any people around you that you really do respect. If so, then I would hunt some down.

Strawdogs, I can see why you picked your name. You've probably been feeling like one for some time now. FWIW, you have my sympathies for your difficult situation.

One piece of advice I'd venture to give on:

"when I asked the Yi about this job opportunity, I was expecting the Yi to peel back the fabric of reality and my situation, and CLEARLY show me what to expect ..."

It's been my experience that using the Yi to *predict* outcomes is very tricky. It's led me to many ambiguous readings that were hard to interpret. I've found the Yi's strength to be more in helping me to find the right outlook/attitude, to *prepare for* the future, rather than predicting it.

That distinction between predicting and preparing for the future is a subtle one, but for me it's been important in understanding what the Yi is communicating.

I think your phrasing is right on - in a very real way, the Yi can seem to "peel back the fabric of reality". So, you've seen some of what it can do. Even so, generally I've found what I just wrote above to be true anyway.

Again, wishing you the best of luck,

- Jeff