I did a reading for a friend who has a difficult relationship at the moment and since I am a beginner I don't want to relate my answers without some more input.

She has a strange on-and-off relationship with a guy and to get to the heart of it i asked what his true feelings were for her. Answer was 64.3.6 to 32

Her true feelings for him are 33.6 to 31

What course of action she should take with him was 60.5 to 19.

33.6>31

Sarah Dening's translation says of 33.6: "You are absolutely clear in your own mind that you must now withdraw from the situation. Because you have no doubts about your course of action, you can quite happily go your own way. Doing so will bring you great success." The young woman is mostly drawn to him by physical attraction or through her senses.

For the young man, he has the goal of marriage, but he started in an odd way (64), and of 64.3 the Karcher translation says: "This is not an appropriate situation." Another translation of 64.3 reads: "Cut your losses and start over again," so that sounds like it was pretty bad for him. 64.6 is about drinking liquor and being free of the past. Perhaps this will be how he celebrates when he learns that this difficult relationship is over.

The course of action she should take is to approach him (19) and tell him in a nice way what she really feels and thinks. Hexagram 60, besides meaning Self-Control, also means Articulating, in the sense that we verbally mark off or discriminate things, the way the year is divided into months and the musical scale is divided into notes. It implies speaking at the right time.

These hexagrams seem to indicate that they both will be relieved when she talks with him about ending this relationship. She can already see how this relationship is going to end up if she allows it to go on, so it is up to her to speak up and tell him nicely what she really feels. That's hard to do, but she's a strong woman, and she can do it.

Looks to me her question to you was a sort of displacement activity. I think she clearly intends to leave him, will leave him (33.6) shes just doing that talk about it thing before actually doing it.

I am going to go back and see if I can erase my previous comments. I'm feeling like the energy around these two is very "sticky", that it's hard to resist chattering about them, but they really haven't asked for my advice - In fact, tess didn't even ask for any advice!- so I'm erasing it. I wonder if that's an omen of how they experience themselves? That they don't have any reason to be together but they can't help going back for one more round? Oops, see, I wasn't going to talk about them at all and I got drawn in again!

On behalf of another

It's always tricky, when we take it upon ourselves to consult the I Ching on behalf of another person. As I understand your question, you threw the coins for your friend. Personally, I wouldn't do that, unless it was for a child or for a literally incompetent person . . .

Hilary advises that we ask the other person to buy their own copy of the I Ching and learn to throw the coins themselves. This makes a big difference. It means she would be taking responsibility and asking on her own behalf, which is the best way. Otherwise you are serving as a medium rather than as a diviner. I thought you asked really good questions, by the way. :bows::bows:

Thank you barbra, trojan and rosada for your input. I had my friend just read this instead of me interpreting it for her and she found all of you very accurate in your interpretations. He does speak of marriage but neither she nor I believe him from looking at his past relationships and the way he behaves in general. The relationship, as my friend has said, is based on romantic attraction and she hasn't broken it off because she "can't help going back for one more round" as rosada has unwillingly said. "Sticky" is a good word for this situation and yes it is definitely not an appropriate situation. That is why I did a reading for her. Like trojan has said, "I think she clearly intends to leave him, will leave him (33.6) shes just doing that talk about it thing before actually doing it." It was my idea to do the reading because it helps her in situations like this to have someone else affirm what shes feeling even if she already knows it. Its hard to ignore or deny something if its spelled out for you in plain English by someone else. I felt like I needed to encourage her to do something about this now in order to save people's feelings and I know that she doesn't want it to continue either.
Thanks again for your help. You guys really know your stuff.

I thought you asked really good questions, by the way.

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Thanks barbra. I figured it was best to get to the heart of this and keep it simple since it felt like a time for action not analysis. Figure out where they stand with each other and then find out how to move forward from there.