Naturally, lately, I’ve wanted to ask the oracle about my Mum’s prognosis. I’ve done so a couple of times, and on each occasion I’ve received an unchanging hexagram that gave me a very straight, short-term answer.
But although there are times when uncertainty and the need to know just overwhelms everything else, I do know that it’s better – simply more useful – to ask questions that relate to what I do or how I am myself. This seems a more straightforward way of questioning, asking more directly for what I truly want to receive from the divination. ‘What’s going to happen?’ seems straightforward – but in fact it’s something I ask because I want to know how to prepare myself, now – and what to concentrate on, now, what to think about and what not to think about, and so on.
(By the way, I think this approach to questioning is a keeper. If you want a prediction, ask yourself why: why is it important for you to know this; what’s the immediate need that you want the prediction to fill? In other people’s questioning, too, as well as my own, there often seems to be a deeper ‘how to be, now?’ hidden behind ‘what’s going to happen next?’)
Once I’d realised this, I asked, ‘How can I best prepare myself now for whatever is to come?’
Yi answered with Hexagram 45, Gathering, changing to Hexagram 17, Following.
It was more than obvious that I needed to ‘gather’ myself – to be a lot less scattered, to be ‘in the temple’ and in touch with the divine, to be able to give of my best, to find good guidance. I really needed to know how – and the moving line walked me through this, step by step.
‘There is sincerity and confidence, no completion.
Hence disarray, hence gathering.
Like a call, one clasp of the hands brings about laughter.
No doubts.
Going on, not a mistake.’
I could recognise at once that there was sincerity, that I was ‘present’ to the moment, but lacking in ‘completion’, not knowing where things were going or what to do with myself. ‘Hence disarray’ – no, really! I don’t think I’d ever felt so scattered and at sea. ‘Hence gathering’ – at least, hence the need for gathering, getting myself together. The burning question was still ‘how’.
‘Like a call, one clasp of the hands brings about laughter.’
What a very, very simple answer. It’s not about ‘what to do with myself’, not what to plan for nor even what to expect. It’s about human relationships in the present moment. And again, there’s no planning to be done, or wondering what to talk about, it’s just a matter of spontaneously Following immediate impulses to connect. No doubts or cares, and no more second-guessing myself.
Holding this in mind makes a tremendous difference for me. I’m experiencing first-hand how this line is the foundation of Gathering. It turns out that what I need isn’t ‘completion’, having all the loose ends tied, knowing what to expect and what to do: in the presence of sincerity and trust and a simple clasp of hands – just enjoying Mum’s company – I can do very well without it.
Dear Hilary
First of all, I want to tell you that I’m praying for your family. I wish you the better in this dificult situation.
Just in case the comment could be useful: don’t forget the image of 45 (even if it seems to be reiterative: “How can I best prepare myself now for whatever is to come?’… the noble prepares for whatever is to come….)
Maybe you could find useful to see the “Path of Yinn and Yang” in your answer
PATH OF YINN (Facts)
1.- In the close past… 45.1 + 18.1
2.- Right now 46.6 + 43.6
3.- In the close future 19.4 + 53.4
4.- Tendecy of outcome 20.3 + 54.3
PATH OF YANG (Recomendations)
1.- 17.1 + 26.1
2.- 48.6 + 25.6
3.- 54.4 + 33.4
4.- 53.3 + 34.3
From this, I could say 3 words:
a) You have no control of the external facts (this is in concordance with the unchanging hexagrams you got earlier)
b) There is no fault in you. It seems this is an important mesaage for you, since it is given several times in this aproach. It seems this kind of questions are behind the question “am I acting right?, am i doing everything I can?”. There is no fault.
c) Seems this dificult time is making you experience strong inner changes (could it be some kind of reconciliation? with your history? with your family?) have patience, don’t fight those changes, and don’t follow blind impulses to resist tjos changes.. from now, find your secure tree (54.3), later you could evaluate and decide the next steps (20.3)
I hope I didn’t write anything that can make feel you bad.
Best wishes
You are spot on, especially with ‘c’, and thank you. By the way, my weekly reading – for the same week when I had this 45.1 answer – was 20 moving to 15.
Have you written an account somewhere of how you work out the ‘path of yang’ and ‘path of yin’, and how you interpret them? If you have, could you post a link? And if you haven’t, I would really love to have a new article for the ‘advanced interpretation’ section 🙂
Hi Hilary
This one (how to find out the path of yinn and yang, and how to interpret it) was one of the topics I should retire from greatvessel forum, some weeks ago. Let hope in further “Times” (I mean, macrocosmical times) I could be allowed to publish it again.
Here I posted the lines derivated from this tool, first to show that my conclusions wasn’t came out of nothing; but mostly, because I guess your intuition could get more insight reading directly the combinations than my personal conclusions
Yinn is the facts, the manifestations. Point 1 is the closest past; numer 2 is the present facts; point 3 is the closest near development; and 4 is a tendency of outcome (I should repeat again, is just a tendency, the “future” is never wrote in unchangable stone)
Yang is the recomendations, and some actitudes to develop. In this case, the 4 recomendations are in the present.
The point is to get a “gestalt image” from the combination of lines. Not just lika: ah, I have a and I have b… but, what kind of image brings from ab
I’m not allowed to explain in further detail (at least in this time)
best wishes
While I agree with what you say about examining your reasons for wanting a prediction, sometimes the question ‘Is he/she about to die?’ is the simplest question in the world. Once I asked the I Ching whether my dad was going to die now, after receiving some bad news. I got ‘persistently ill, still does not die’ (16/5). I found that very helpful that particular night. I think he died a month or so later, but that was a different time and a different state of mind. Sometimes, when we aren’t nearby, for instance, the timing of a death, hence a prediction, becomes more than idle curiosity, and so a proper question for an oracle.
Dear Hilary,
Very interesting reading indeed…
Thank you for sharing this personal, human
reading with us. I also hope things will work
ot and that she will grow, as your web page is making
me grow and accept. I hope this works out for you, I really do.
Pat
Steve – yes, good point.
Pat – thanks. I want to talk more about the deep human effect of divination, and this has got to mean sharing more from my own experience. I’m very glad it’s helpful.
I had no idea Hilary that you have been going through such a trying time. I would like to pray for you and your mother if thats ok with you.
Rgds – Archana