Hello Friends
I have recently consulted Clarity's I-Ching repeatedly about this question. I am a musician at heart, but pull a 9-5 to pay the rent. I really want to live and work as an artist, but due to lots of things in the past, my confidence and esteem is quite low. I am now at the point where it is NOW or NEVER - or so I feel. I believe and feel that if I can get my act together and go out there with my music, I will have a good reception and I hope I'll be able to make a reasonable living with it.

I asked Yi this morning again about this issue, and receive Primary Hex. 22, moving lines 1, 3 & 4, changing to Hex 35. Hex. 35 keeps coming up whenever I ask about this issue.

I'm really a novice at interpreting Yi's answers, so I'd be grateful if anyone or all would jump in and give me some pointers.

Thanks so much.
Laura

Hi Lauram,

I feel its safe to say that in your case 22 could well be referring to the packaging of your music and performance. 22 is partly about pleasing appearances, and a pleasing sounds finds it way to receptive ears. Line 1 implies taking a long road, as its much harder to walk than accept an easy ride. This means work and strong effort. Line 3 advises not to become drunk or deluded in your visualization of this undertaking. Line 4 suggests a decision to return to simplicity, regardless of whether your music is recognized or not. (I imagine you know what this means better than I.)

35 is the picture of success, which you've imagined. Much of what we imagine becomes a vision if persevered in. A vision has the ability to manifest into form if persevered in. Use the arrows in your quiver to manifest your vision.

I don't see any of this saying you either will or will not acquire the kind of success you imagine. It neither encourages or discourages. Perhaps that's because more substance and content needs to be developed so that the package has something great inside of it.

Don't brood over this work as though its a chore. Just continue to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. The rest will take care of itself. Keep the vision big and stay limber with people. Without them, there are no ears to hear you.

An artist?s obligation is to their art. An entertainer?s obligation is to their audience. Its well to know one?s destination before setting out on a journey. But always be open to the unexpected when it happens. Then a white horse comes as if on wings. (Even better than a carriage!)

Enjoy the ride!
Candid

There are two older I Chings than the one we know, and there are also older copies than the received text.
One of the older copies is the Mawangdui Yi Jing, and it has many hexagram names, which are different from the ones we know.

In the MaWangDui I Ching hexagram 22 has as name: Fan. This is Artemisia Stelleriana. The Artemisia family is big, and all members are important as healing herbs. Among many other effects they restore energy. Of tired feet: put it in your shoe, and you will not need a carriage: line 1. It is a white plant: line 4 and 6. It is grown in gardens, line 5.
A cone of finely pulverized Artemisia leaves, moxa, was lit on the acupuncture places needing activating to drive out illness. Especially against rheumatism and urinary infections. The powder burns without a flame, but the heat spreads inward and the room fills with its strong aromatic smell. (Source: China, empire of living symbols, by Cecilia Lindqvist)

An older version of the Yi Jing, ascribed to the Shang, is the GuiCang. Here this hexagram is called yínghuò. Yíng is light of a torch, shine, glare, blind, dazzle, delude. Etymologically yíng is the same word as yíng 'glow-worm'.
Huo is confuse, delude, mislead, doubt, suspect, cloud the mind, fumes, befog. Religion: spirit of fire.

Glowing fumes ..

I don?t think anymore that hex.22 is only about beauty, even if it is the beauty of the inner truth shining through. It is also about the health and energy of the beauty one finds in nature.

As an answer about music, it might very well mean that your music is health- and life bringing to others and/or to yourself.

LiSe

A picture of Artemisia and information about the characters here:
http://www.anton-heyboer.org/i_ching/hex_17-32/21-22.htm

LiSe

Dear Candid & LiSe
Thank you sooooo much for your input on my question. You both have raised some very accurate and surprising aspects of my situation around this matter. This is VERY DEEP, and I need to reflect on it for a while. I am greatly encouraged about the healing aspect which came up - which is something I sense my art is all about. I feel I might want to ask a second question about this - but don't know how to word it. I don't want to treat this flippantly, but somehow I still need to know (be doubly assured) if I'm on the right track, and how I can go about loosening up my creativity and getting out of the rut of fear and trepidation that has frozen me into complete inactivity and self-criticism that's not getting me anywhere. What must I do to free/liberate this artistic/healing aspect of myself.
The part about not getting drunk on the visualisation or dream is also very pertinent and I seem to be stuck in the dreaming of it, and not the doing.
Can I ask if or how this will change, or how I can make it change, or am I going around in circles?
As difficult as this issue is for me - I sometimes wonder if I'm concentrating on a redundant idea/dream and whether I'm staring at something right under my nose without recognising an alternative path.
Do you think it is a good idea to ask more questions about this, and if so, could you help me to formulate the right wording?
Thank you again for your most valuable insights and Clarity. This is absolutely marvelous!
Laura

Hi again, Laura,

I'm glad you received something of value from our interpretations. You seem to have an open and receptive spirit, and that means you will find the guidance through these changes, if not from me, LiSe or others here, from the source of all answers directly.

Since every increase is followed by a decrease, and vice versa, asking Yi any sort of finality question isn't likely to yield the answer you're now looking for. Others here may disagree, but that's my position on it.

I believe you've hit on perhaps a key issue concerning your quest: how to unlock the creative potential from within and how to manifest it without. This would be a productive question to ask of Yi.

The biggest block to creative expression is inhibition. You had mentioned your inner critic. The critic will attempt to persuade you that there's really nothing "in there" worth expressing. The self-talk this encourages is the greatest enemy of truly free artistic expression. Furthering this trend, we can be led to believe that no one else will really see anything of value in our art either, which is true only so long as we believe the inner critic.

Art is done for its own sake. But you are correct, its only art when its being done, not when its only dreamed about or when we look to the end result. A book called, Artist's Way, may provide you with some excellent secrets to developing your artistic ability. Its a workbook which one follows. It speaks of something the author calls, Morning Pages. The daily exercise focuses us entirely upon the doing and not upon winning the support or approval of others (or our inner critic). You might wish to check it out.

You might be surprised to know how many great artists were and are actually introverts. To these people, art isn't something to acquire fame, but rather, to active the creative within themselves. Their art expresses itself of its own accord. They simply must quietly go about the process of creation and leave what comes of it to their agents. They rarely, if ever, read their own press. One I know never even listens to his own recordings, so as not to awaken the inner critic.

You'll never regret releasing creativity. Especially if intent is pure. Even if others never recognize it. The much bigger challenge is - if they do!

Wishing you the best,
Candid

Hi Candid

WOW....... (digesting, digesting!)
I came across the Artist's Way in about 1995, and worked it right up to week 12 (I think). Perhaps it is time for I to do it again. I'd forgotten about the morning pages! (though I still do journal quite regularly, as a result of that experience).
Candid, your words are very wise and appropriate for my situation. I guess I know a lot of these things on an intellectual level, but don't "feel it in my bones". Am stuck in some kind of vicious and miserable mental block - and a cycle of self-sabotage : completely out of tune! It is re-assuring though, to hear that many artists go through the same thing. So I'm not alone, as with many other things in life. I did not realise this before.
I'm going to pose the next question how to unlock the creative potential from within and how to manifest it without - and post a message after - no doubt I might struggle with the interpretation of the result....
Thank you again for your time and great wisdom and advice, Candid. I'm so glad I discovered this "friends area".
Laura

Laura, I hope you let us know how the next reading pans out for you.

Hello everyone, esp. Candid who has been having most of this conversation with me, but also LiSe, and everyone else.

Well, I asked a new question - once yesterday, and because I could not make any sense of the answer, again today, and you know what - I got the same primary hex on both occassions!! I-Ching is really trying to tell me something, of this, I am sure! If only I can figure it out (once and for all!)

My question was "Please tell me how I can unlock the creative potential (music) from within and how to manifest it without.

On both occasions I got Hex 6, Conflict (?). On the first casting only line 6 was a moving line - the secondary hex was 47, Oppression/exhaustion.

On the second casting, Hex 6, lines 5 & 6, changing to Hex 40, deliverance.

My Gosh! I don't know where to start or how to even begin to make sense of this one! Plus, at first glance, they actually seem quite negative and discouraging? How is that line 6 - the leather belt being conferred by a sovereign only to be revoked three times in one day!!!!?

Of course - the first thing I think about when I think of conflict - is the conflict between my artistic needs and my need to have a job, a steady income and to pay the rent. But surely, it cannot be that obvious? Also, the conflict between what I want and what my parents, family, society would expect from me...... I feel like I'm completely off the mark.

What do you all think? I'd be very grateful for your expert input and perspective!

Until then.
Thank you and warm regards
Laura

I have this view on hexagrams, with which almost nobody agrees with, that no hexagram is only positive or only negative. The 64 of them are supposed to encompass all-that-is, so I think they all cover a certain field. One can do wrong things or good things, but the two of them may happen in the same field.
Hexagram 6 is about fighting for what you need. It is a pair with hex.5: waiting for what you need. So I think in your situation 6 is quite easy to understand: if you want to unfold your potential, then fight for it. This means not only you ?have to fight?, it also is about how to fight, or maybe even: how not to fight. I think the last one is the most important. Very often one can grasp something at the moment one stops to fight for it. Not by resignation but by becoming oneself, and through that acquiring what is part of oneself.
That is also the message of line 6: what one fights for, is temporarily. If one just is what one really is, one acquires the lasting things. Line 6 is about the spirit. So: acquire the right spirit, instead of trying to acquire things, results, whatever.
It changes to 47, and there line 6 says: if you are tied to the wrong things, you will be paralyzed in your real moving. If you break those ties, you will find good fortune.

Hex.6 line 5 says, to contend is very auspicious. And the line of 64 it changes into, explains that a little more: the light of the noble one is true. If your fight is a good one, true and sincere, then it is good. Hexagram 64 is about the things which have no form yet, and I think it has a lot to do with art. Art can only grow when the rules give it the space to grow. So do not have rules, no predefined goal. Embrace all possibilities.

Lines 5 and 6 combined change to hex.40: remove the horns. Horns have many meanings, blow one?s horn, aggressivity, sexuality, tackle things. All have something to do with ego.
I read a story once about someone who was alone in a strange country, without money or anything, and did not know how to get back home. He found a jojo on the road and started walking, all the time concentrated on the tumbling of that jojo. He hardly noticed how everything simply happened the way it should happen. Back in America he walked home, still with the jojo. I think hex.40 tells you to do things without trying to do them.

LiSe

LiSe, what is a jojo ?

Hi Laura,

I think you're tracking the changes just fine.

I find LiSe's examples and explanations very broadening concerning your last inquiry. And, I happen to share her views on non-positive / non-negative meanings for every hexagram. We in the west can't resist measuring, weighing, judging, comparing and analyzing everything. We have a difficult time simply accepting what is as neither good nor bad. 6 is a great example of this, and line 6, even more so. Remember that Wilhelm was Germanic, not Tibetan. The mores of his culture were based on fundamental Judeo - Christian core values and beliefs. There was also a strong Confucian influence in his translation.

Isn't the very nature of your question about your inner conflict over manifesting creative energy and influence, and what is in the way of exercising your creativity?

40 washes things clean, a new slate. Jesus said, you can't put new wine in old wineskins. I think that's an appropriate metaphor. Rather than building upon your preconceived ideas of how this releasing should happen, forget it. This reminds me of something my first serious music teacher told me. He said, practice when its time to practice. When its time to play, forget everything! Just play! I love you, Mr. Cappiello, wherever you are.

Just play, Laura. End the conflict of how and for what reason.

Candid

Hi Laura,

The reading might be asking you to reconsider, or at least deepen, your understanding of when there is and is not a conflict between your art and your life. There is a sense in which your truest and greatest art is yourself, your own life, and your most fundamental choice isn't really between particular forms of art or life. There is a famous woodcarving by Albrecht Durer - praying hands. Apparently the model for the hands was his older brother, and the story is that Durer felt his brother was even a finer woodcarver than he was. The difference was that the older brother, who supported the family always had to do paying work, and never got the chance to be a "pure" artist. This is who Albrecht chose for a model in tribute.

Should have used the dictionary: in English jojo is written yo-yo. Originally a piece of rope between two sticks, and balancing on the rope the yo-yo: narrow in the middle and wide at the sides, so it stayed on the rope. By holding one stick higher, it rolled to the other side, and vv.
Nowadays they are made of plastic, with one end of the rope fastened in the middle of the yo-yo, and it rolls up and down by making it jump. The one in the story was a cheap red plastic toy.

He found it on the dusty road after leaving an ashram, where everything was make-believe-enlightenment. So he was stuck in the middle of India, with nothing.

LiSe

Aha, yo-yo, I see. I always liked them, very calming - nice story- maybe if i buy myself a yo-yo.....

Hello everyone - I'm sorry I did not respond and thank you all immediately since May 28th. Have been away from my PC for a while, but not before printing this thread and considering everything long and hard. This has been the most valuable and insightful exercise for me. There is a lot to absorb and I clearly have to change my attitude, behaviour & expectations around this issue. What has come through is that I have "objectified" the whole thing, and have forgotten to just be myself in the process. I think its going to take me quite a while to re-discover and just love and enjoy the actual journey, and not be looking to the outcome, outcome, outcome, all the time. I have much food for thought now, and will be quiet for a while - I don't think I have exhausted Yi, but I also don't seem to think its necessary to continue asking and asking anymore. What lies ahead is a bit of work on my head, and my heart, and the music itself. I will keep you posted, and continue to read the other threads with great interest and delight. (I'm learning sooooo much!)
Thank you again, to every single one of you who have assisted me and clarified the many truly value aspects of Yi's answers. This is a great community, and I'm grateful to have discovered it, and to be able to participate. I hope to also be able to put back something in due course.
I'll be back!
Please take care, until next time!
Laura