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Interpreting hexagrams

Comments on whole hexagrams, individual lines and so on

Hexagram 42 and thanks

Happy Thanksgiving! – and thank you for being here. What could be a hexagram for the day? How about 42 – Blessing, Increase? Here’s the vessel overflowing with good things (or maybe with good things pouring in) – “My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all… Read more »Hexagram 42 and thanks

Hexagram 31 – making space

My reading for last week was Hexagram 31, Influence. And yesterday afternoon, at the final rehearsal before that evening’s concert, the conductor asked the orchestra to ‘make space’ for the solo violinist. ‘Above the mountain is a lake. Influence. Noble one accepts people with emptiness.’ Being part of an orchestra… Read more »Hexagram 31 – making space

Mountain, keeping still

Have you noticed how the same ideas cluster together in different cultures? Here’s the name of Hexagram 52, Keeping Still (mountain): – a human figure, standing. And here is the mountain pose.

Perseverance furthers

A reader emailed me to ask for some comments on ‘perseverance furthers’ and what it meant in the context of the Yijing. So I thought the best response might be to provide an excerpt from the Yijing course, where I talk about yuan heng li zhen. Li is ‘furthers’, in… Read more »Perseverance furthers

Care of the cow

Happy Diwali! I wondered what hexagram to write about for today… then learned from Wikipedia that ‘Diwali’ actually means ‘line of lights’ and that in Nepal, the first day of celebrations are marked by thank-offerings to the cow. So it had to be Hexagram 30. ‘Clarity. Harvest in constancy. Creating… Read more »Care of the cow

Not grasping your self

This week I received Hexagram 52: ‘Keeping your back still, Not grasping your self. Moving in your rooms, Not seeing your people. Not a mistake.’ And I read in John O’Donohue’s Anam Cara: “There is no direct, permanent or public access to the divine. Each destiny has a unique curvature… Read more »Not grasping your self

More Hexagram 2

Yi has been giving me hexagram 2 as relating hexagram for three weeks in succession now – ever since I asked what Mum’s ‘power’ was, and received 2 with no changing lines. (Prior to that, I’d asked why she kept showing up in my dreams with work for me to… Read more »More Hexagram 2