Hi, I asked the i ching how my business would go and got hexagram 5 with 5 changing lines to 23. I am new to the business (I'm a psychologist) and have a lot of clients at the moment but am finding it exhausting. I am applying for jobs so I can try to get out. Can you help me with the interpretation please? What do you think splitting apart is likely to mean in this context. It says in lises page that if you are noble internally, it can mean improvement.

"Lay bare what is in or behind things. It is dangerous when on the outside it seems all quiet and fine, and one does not know the inside. And when things do not work the way they should, then find out if there is something rotten behind the scene.
And also: the outside of things decays some day, but if there is a strong and true inside, this will survive and find a new form. The ripe fruit of the top line is not eaten, it will rot away. If there is a noble inside - the seeds - it is an improvement or progress. If there is no good inside - the small man, no seeds - it falls apart and nothing remains."

Or is it likely to mean the failure of my business or finding a new job. Or just that I will continue to find it exhausting. Any thoughts will be helpful and appreciated. Thank you.

If you are asking about your current business then it suggests a need to wait for an alternative choice to materialize.

Hex 23 suggests that the time is not ripe for any chances, therefore you need to just struggle on for a while longer and continue to help those in need of your services.

Thanks willowfox. What do you mean by the time is not ripe for chances? Do you mean chance to find a new job or something else

Or do you mean for taking chances?

barbaloot said:

Or do you mean for taking chances?

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Sorry I meant changes. I have no idea why I said chances?

"Lay bare what is in or behind things. It is dangerous when on the outside it seems all quiet and fine, and one does not know the inside. And when things do not work the way they should, then find out if there is something rotten behind the scene.
And also: the outside of things decays some day, but if there is a strong and true inside, this will survive and find a new form. The ripe fruit of the top line is not eaten, it will rot away. If there is a noble inside - the seeds - it is an improvement or progress. If there is no good inside - the small man, no seeds - it falls apart and nothing remains."

Hello There, Barbaloot. I hope I excerpted properly the quote above as I'm not entirely sure how the features of this site work. Anyway, I believe what you are quoting is referring to the type of work that you do, rather than actual business prospects in their most obvious form.

You say you are a psychologist and I have some experience of working in the healing professions, which are a huge load to carry for therapists -- emotionally, physically, and every other possible way.

I believe you are being advised that it is a shocking event to discover what is inside some people and their lives and to come face to face with the idea that some can be helped where there is "something strong and true inside." In others, the "decay" prevails and what is "rotten behind the scenes" is unendurable to witness at times.

As a psychologist you will have to learn not to take the lives of your clients personally, not to take to heart in such entirety their suffering. It's something like having a switch that you flip and, while still letting your professional mind and instincts operate, you shut off the patient's open-ended emotional access to you; access that you might allow in a normal social situation, but can't afford to have in a healer-patient scenario.

You can only help if you yourself aren't inexorably dragged into the mire. To do that you have to establish a professional distance and leave work at work and be sure to enjoy and play on your time away from the office. I think to be "noble internally" means that clients with nobility inside will get well with your expert assistance and, also, that you must be "noble internally" to remain above the turmoil that you witness day to day and realise that your ability to stay professionally aloof from human struggles is your safeguard and the means of protecting and benefitting all those clients to come, as well as your present ones.

I would suggest to you that human struggles are a means of learning on this planet Earth. No one is exempt because this is the classroom where we all grow and play. It is the nature of life and no one can or should avoid the difficulties of being fully engaged. A teacher of mine used to say with great glee to the frowns of his Chemistry students, "Are you totally confused yet? GOOD, you are learning!" Psychology patients are also learning from their confusion in life.

Bon chance with this Barbaloot. Take care of you first and foremost and don't let yourself be drained as it seems you are the source of hope for many. Which would indicate that you are very valuable at what you do. But as you mention leaving because you are "exhausted" -- Maybe what the IChing is saying is that in order stay in "business" you have to be more "business-like," and realistic and self protective?