As you may know, I consult Yi once a week without a specific question – just to touch base and remagnetise the inner compass. The way these readings help changes from week to week: sometimes I’ll find I’ve been given very specific advice for a situation that arises days later; sometimes it’s a message that will subsequently come at me from all sides in the course of the week until I ‘get it’; sometimes it simply orients me, shows me the mindset or stance that will carry me through.
This last week (I do each week’s reading on Sunday) has been all about Hexagram 54, line 1. Hexagram 54 is the Marrying Maiden, or maybe we should say ‘the maiden being married’. She’s the girl who is married into a new home as second wife – no experience, no control, no status, yet suddenly plunked into the middle of a bigger world, where the possibilities are on a different scale to what she’s known before.
Moving into Hexagram 54 always comes as a jolt. 53 is Gradual Development, a steady evolution into greater union, inner and outer. Gradual Development seems to me to be led and guided by inner change, that gradually finds or creates its right place outwardly. The geese find their way home, the tree on the mountain puts down roots and creates its own small ecosystem.
Hexagram 54 is literally the opposite of all this – that is, it’s the result of changing every line of 53 to its opposite. But it’s also just another way of looking at the same landscape – that is, if you turn hexagram 53 upside down (or imagine walking round to look at it from the other end), you find 54. Perhaps, no matter how gradual and measured our journey home, there is always going to be a moment of finding the world is bigger than we are, and we’re out of our depth.
I’ve actually come to associate 54 with the death of parents. No relationship now is a ‘given’ in quite the same way, and there’s no one else to be ‘the grown up’ – so you must be it. Welcome to the big people’s world.
So what’s a 54.1 week all about?
It’s about being in a situation I didn’t exactly choose, not being able to control things around me (from the paperwork required after a death to the assorted technical palaver involved in preparing a certain sale for Friends). But also it is 54’s 40, the Marrying Maiden’s Release:
‘Maiden marries as a younger sister.
Limping, can still walk.
Setting out to bring order: good fortune.’
The Release comes from setting out to do what is possible, and not tying myself in knots with what isn’t. I love this line! It’s an antidote to my usual perfectionism: you can get moving even when you’re not the embodiment of grace.
This week has been one of ‘two steps forward, one and a half back’. I find that program b is designed to integrate with program a, so I don’t need to work out how to do it from scratch after all. Then I find out that this integration doesn’t work. Then the helpful people at program a fix it for me. Then I find out that their fix doesn’t work. I have an email from them now saying they’ve solved the problem, and need to go check whether this time, they have. And so on – I won’t waste electrons with more of this.
The pattern of 54.1 seems to be ‘think you’ve made a breakthrough – find you haven’t – start again…’. And something similar is happening on an emotional level, though with fewer support tickets involved. But the end result, after all the to and fro and frustration, is that I find myself a good few steps further along.
Fantastic!
I got 54.1 myself and I could not make any sense of it. Your explanation fits perfectly with my situation. What can I say? Thank you!
My father died almost 30 years ago. Several years later I was out canvassing for a local election in the area where my family and I have lived for many years. I was William’s dad, Bernard’s son, Leslie’s nephew, Jane’s husband and even Will’s grandson. I still wonder years later if I have ever found myself, established my identity. Perhaps it does not matter – I am a very social and outgoing person with lots of friends and a relatively successful professional life. Or is that gregariousness my search for reassurance? An assurance I do not feel inside. I have just watched a programme about Spike Milligan which quotes him as saying, if I remember correctly, that the journey into your own self is difficult and you do not know when you will come out. I often feel as though I cannot live up to my father’s example. So perhaps we do not need to have ‘one leg’ or not have a dowry, our ‘shortcomings’ may be quite minor but nonetheless real; especially to ourdelves.
i was that 54 maiden virgin but as soon as the marriage fell apart i threw them all out husband mother in law brotherin law the whole lot servants valets cooks butlers maids.I then took the whole lot ,house, cars , gold, jewellery. crockery.cutlery.crystal,,paintings,artifacts,antiques from burma (MING DY)but the most precious was my daughter who just came with me that was the best thing. i hated all the goods. i just wanted my daughter i then sold everyhing and gave it to all the homes for girls abanded by their parents i am so happy ,now i have my daughter and i am so happy,i dont anything more
It’s odd how often Hexagram 54 strikes chords with people…
Chris, I think a big part of ‘the point’ of 54,1 is that you don’t have to wait until you’re wholly secure, wholly confident on your two good legs, before you can get going and start making at least some progress. For me, realising that is the Release.
Linda… wow! (from hexagram 54 to 55?)
I’ve just asked Yi for what I need to do to create a very longed-for situation. I got 54.1.4.6 > 4 Oh dear!
I can completely see 54.1 – just get going and make progress as Hilary says. And I, too, am experiencing the ‘two steps forward and one and a half back’ that you are Hilary. But then there are the other lines – line 6 seems to say ‘don’t bother!’.
Oh well, limp on and see if the basket is, indeed, empty.
Lines 4 and 6 make me think –
Is it possible that what you are longing for is actually not quite the situation itself, but something you expect and hope to receive from it? (Like the idea that I don’t really long for the cheesecake in the fridge, but for the experience of a sugar rush – it’s just the cheesecake I’m focussed on.) And if so, then is it also possible that there might be other ways of receiving what you long for?
Hello Hilary
That is such a perceptive comment – wouldn’t expect any less from you of course! I will ponder on that. Thank you.
Enjoy the cheesecake ;o)
Haha, the Yi is so funny. Yesterday night I stepped into broken glass and cut my foot. This morning I casted 54.1.
“Limping, can still walk.”
Ouch! And yes, Yi is funny in its own way. With 54.1, I’d suggest you look after your foot really well – focus on helping it to heal, don’t just leave it to sort itself out. 54.1 nowadays seems to me to be saying, ‘You’re at a disadvantage, this is not a good place to start, but if you really concentrate on sorting this out it will go well.’
Thank you, Hilary. You were absolutely right. Normally I leave things like that to sort itself out, but my foot got infected a bit two days ago and now I use desinfection stuff and so on.
P.S: and it was like you wrote “The pattern of 54.1 seems to be ‘think you’ve made a breakthrough – find you haven’t – start again”.
First it seemed to be fine, than it started to become inflamed.
finally fully recovered 🙂
Hooray! 🙂
Thanks for your concern, dear Hilary. Have a great new year!
Great article! I just received 54.1>40 after asking “What about another chance at a promotion in the coming year?” I had a chance to go from part-time to full-time at work earlier this year, but decided against it to allow the presumed candidate (a younger fellow raising a family) the opportunity. He got the position, for sure, but he’s turned out to be a disaster and now they’re acting like the whole mess is my fault. I feel like a fool now – wish I’d said to hell with being nice and just applied for it. But as far as my question, it does seem to indicate some change is coming. Would you agree?