21, hard to understand

[dij]

Hello all, I'm new here.

Firstly, thank you for letting me joing this friendly forum. I hope to be able to contribute in some way. I am not very knowledgable about I Ching, although I have been casting since childhood. I don't cast very often and usually, the answer I receive is more or less clear. I guess I know enough to know that sometimes,it will respond to how I fell about the subject, and very often it will give me identical reading to what my thoughts are.

I am posting here because I need some help.
I have recently cast hex 21 - Biting through (all 6 lines changing) to a question "What is my art?"
I have been told on numerous occasions that I am creative and need to let that creativity express itself. Although I often feel a need to 'be creative' I never really felt that I am all 'that' creative and thats why these periodic prohpecies confuse me.
At length, I decided to consult the I Ching about what form this creative expression needs to take with me, and received the very puzzling hex 21. I just don't know what to make of it. The theme of 21 is criminal lawsuit. Either it's telling me to become a criminal or a lawyer?!

Jokes aside, I would very much appreciate it if someone could help me figure this one out. The important bit is that I didn't feel inclined to cast again, rather, I feel it's right, I just need to understand it.

Thank you!

 

[RindaR]

Dij-

I'm very new here, and not at all an expert. Since others appear to busy elsewhere, I'll risk trying to be helpful. I'm sure there will be other and better ideas about this, but here goes:

I wonder if it might be helpful to you to think about the context within which you've asked your question. Is there another problem you are dealing with that has been difficult to resolve? Perhaps Yi is indicating that you might try to come up with a solution that is "outside the box" - creative - and then follow through with it with vigo(u)r. Perhaps you might already have a creative solution in mind...?

If this suggestion resonates with you, it would seem that the problem you've been working with is a tough one and will need decisive and authoritative action, including the creativity you've asked about. Authority comes from inside one, by keeping one's behavior, thoughts, etc. appropriate.

Just a guess, and I am very interested how others will answer your question.

Rinda

 

[candid]

I think LiSe nails this answer perfectly, especially your 6 change lines. Also, 48 is your relating gua ? accessing your creativity.

21

 

[RindaR]

Dij-

Candid read your post more carefully that I did, sorry...

This is the page where you can find LiSe's readings for your cast:

http://www.anton-heyboer.org/i_ching/yi_index.html

Click on your hexagram, and after reading each changing line in the series, click on the relating hexagram. The link will be in the box with the last changing line.

Rinda

 

[cheiron]

So much here which is about ones choice or relationship with the Yi?

My experience is that when multiple lines change one has to be very careful about how to work with them?

There is a method called ?Steps of Change?
( http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/practical_I_Ching/change.html)

I would use it if I had a strong sense that the reading is moving through time? as a development? most often I read multiple moving lines not as time sequenced steps of change but as ?issues? or ?points to consider? in the movement through the time.

In your situation (all lines moving) I would more likely see it as an injunction to study the whole hexagram very carefully? the lines expressing key aspects of how the time of ?Biting Through? works in its different expressions.

Agreeing with Candid that LiSe's site is useful here...

Unless you take the criminal route and become an art dealer lol.

The resulting hexagram 48:

The important thing to recognise here is that the ?tensions? in the time are causing this time (represented by Hx 21) to flip into its absolute opposite Hx.48.

Hx.48 ? The Well. I would go with Candid here? It is an explanation, here, that creativity comes from a centre, not by effort, nor from an idea.

Your reading in a nutshell is, I think:

Bite through!

Then

Find the wellspring within you and let the water flow out to all.

If you want clarification on particular lines or whatever I am sure folk here will help? as I will too? just ask.

What translation are you using BTW? If it is the Wonderful Willhelm you might consider another translation to use as well? much work has been done since his wonderful but difficult translation.

All the best

And Welcome

--Kevin

 

[cheiron]

Or maybe - 'This is how to Bite Through which will allow you to avail of the well within which will feed your soul and hence your work.

--K

 

[cheiron]

Hi Rinda

Methinks you have skills and insights you are hiding.

Please be noisy!

I like reading your thoughts.

Warmly

--Kevin

 

[dij]

Wow! You guys are great! so many wonderful responses and so quickly!

I cannot thank you enough. I'll go and ruminate on this further. Then, I may take you up on the offer of checking the changing lines.

Funny thing is, I did one of those crazy tests to find out what my ultimate career should be and it came up with forensics. ha.

Btw, thanks for the welcome Kevin, I was using Wilheim and checking out Candid's suggestion for LiSe was very interesting. Actually, everyone said something to make me think, starting with Rinda's note that authority comes from inside.

I know that the answer is not always directly to the question I 'think' I asked. And maybe this answer is really just about the fact that I cannot find out what I'm meant to do until I clean out the closets of my inner self.

My hartfelt thanks again...

 

[martin]

Hi Dij,

If 21 denotes an art form it would probably be something like a martial art that expresses itself on the level of mind/intellect. Debating, for instance, playing chess or bridge, or anything that requires a 'sharp' alert mind and a fighting mentality.
Yes, even your idea of becoming a lawyer, although it was a joke, fits quite well!

What 21 suggests to me is a lot of physical energy that wants (needs?) to manifest on a more subtle level (the level might also be physical, but then it would be a light sport like tennis rather than soccer).
And 48 hints at a hidden potential, a talent perhaps. Both hexagrams indicate - I think - that it will take time and effort to develop that talent.

Does this make sense?

 

[dij]

Thanks Martin,

it make a whole lot of sense

I think you may onto something with this hideen talent thing..I just wonder what that is heh

 

[dij]

well

I asked "What is my secret/special talent"

and I received 15 (Modesty)with 2 to 46 and 5 to 39 thus changing into 48.

Am I right in thinking it's telling me that my special talent is to be a loser?

eek

 

[candid]

Dij, I see no loser in your reading. I don't use the "Steps of Change" method, too elaborate and potentially confusing. 15 gets things done, brings to completion. Line 2 makes no fuss about the work that is accomplished. Line 5 expresses modesty through doing. 48 is where your opportunity and talent comes from.

If anything, you seem to underestimate yourself.

 

[willow]

Welcome Dij,
My first hit on the answer 21, all changing was:
Q: What is my art?
A: You are.

That's one way to interpret what Candid says right off too. A shaman's art form begins in their every participation with the world.

What does someone in forensics do? They notice the one thing that doesn't fit and "bite through" to the implications.

With 15==>48 (note 48 is resulting hex in both your readings), one possibility is that your hidden/special talent is not getting in the way of your own knowing. When you notice something, when you bite through, you move straight through to the creative source of it. The great benefit of this is that, should you wish to be, with this ability, you can be creatively collaborative. Perhaps your hidden talent is to be able to be a part of a creative team ? no small thing!

 

[dij]

aww thanks

But you know, without wanting to sound difficult - the answers you guys are offering is what I have been hearing in one form or another, and I have actually had people laugh at me because they realized I do not know what this means while it seems obvious to everyone else. (if this makes any sense)

I guess I cannot give up on trying to [bite through] this obstacle of not-knowing what this thing is that I should be doing.

I'm so grateful to everyone who attempts to help me clarify.

Thank you Candid and Willow ..hah Candid Willow - what a great combo!

Everyone is extremely correct. candid - what you said sounds like me at work, and Willow - you made the right points about both hex' ending in 48 - the 48 is the well, it's boundless source of refreshment, except..I just feel like a thirsty person who is unable to drink
:\

*sigh*

So nice of you to come hang out though

..so hows your life been?

 

[willow]

Try an art form. See what happens.

Make a drawing. Write a poem. Sing a song. Dance a dance. Cook a meal. Tell a story.
Plant a plant. Call a friend. Build a toy.
At work, do your work for 30 minutes as if you were a Fine Artist - a master at (fill in the blank...answering telephones, dunning clients, filling out forms in triplicate, laying pipe, whatever).

What you are looking for is not the result. No judgement. You are looking for how it makes you feel. You are looking for the feeling of wetness somewhere. Or what your teeth tell your heart when they bite.

 

[RindaR]

Dij-

I'm wondering if Yi is saying that the particular art form is not important right now, that what is important is growing spiritually - finding the well... ?

An exercise - take a walk. As you walk, notice that as you walk, you can see that you are moving through your environment. In order to notice the various manifestations of creation that you are moving through, there must be a still place within you for contrast. In that place within yourself you know yourself to be the same person you were at 16 years old... Now pay attention, pay attention to what is outside yourself and to the still place within you. Some locate it physically between and behind their eyes. If you can do this, you may be able to switch your perspective so that as you walk through your environment, you feel as if your environment is moving past you... This works best if you are a visually oriented person.

If you are kinesthetic, you might be able to access this still place by dancing- noting the place at your center that does not move, that is effortless...

If you are auditorially oriented try it with sound and silence... Without silence there can be no sound. Sound is superimposed on silence, on that quiet place that always is... Once you establish and can maintain contact with your well, then wait within this silence, this stillness, this void, for the answer to your question. At this point everything one does becomes art, becomes creative...

Rinda

 

[willow]

Rinda slipped - very nice.

One more thing: the place of the art form or link with creativity in your life maybe does not have to be exalted or central. Even more than not having to be skilled at it, maybe it doesn't even have to be in any way important. Just a little crack somewhere where the things Rinda talks about can come in and go out...

 

[RindaR]

 

[dij]

how did she slip?

 

[dij]

ah..thats very interesting Willow (about little crack and Rinda things going in and out)..that happens anyways, I just figured it'll be something nice that I can earn money from as well!

 

[jte]

"Am I right in thinking it's telling me that my special talent is to be a loser? "

Hee hee! 15 is *positive*, silly. If you happen to follow American TV - that Rupert guy on Survivor is, IMHO, like Mr. Humility himself and he just won a million $ for it.

Apply yourself.

- Jeff

PS. Gotta love that profile...

 

[tashij]

well, my crack at the 21 to 48 is that you are a writer.

 

[tashij]

sharp teeth and an ink well. make a good writer.

 

[tashij]

15 --> 48 is: 'keep guessing'
youre a writer.

 

[dij]

interesting, thank you, Jte and Tashij

wow, I have learned so much about Yi interpretation just in a few days since coming here. This place is fantastic!

Jte, about the US TV Show Survivor, I haven't seen that so sadly cannot compare your perception of humility with my perception of 'that guy'.
Thank you for illuminating me about 15 being positive though, as a newby I wouldn't have understood it that way. Oh, and thanks for loving the profile

Tashij, another fellow *j* person! eh
Thanks for your input. I am still not sure about the writing. I like telling stories, that's true, but the actual writing business is so much more than that. You've got all sorts of different words for things to consider, just for start. Maybe my writing will develop in the wings and on the quiet, and one day I'll wake up and be a published author (bestselling published author, that is) and all will be well throughout the lands.


Say, I divined about moving house and got Standstill and Retreat. Is it telling me to not move or what? (now I'm thinking there is a special Yi way of looking at things where no is yes and vice versa? eek

 

[willow]

>how did she slip?
just that we were composing posts at the same time, so when I was writing, hers was not there, but when I submitted mine, it was.

>I just figured it'll be something nice that I can earn money from as well
sometimes a block to perceiving one's art(s) is looking through the lens of money and livlihood...or maybe that should be through too narrow a view of these. Only one person here (Hilary) earns money from the art of divination, but that doesn't mean that there aren't many here for whom it is one of their "arts". And who's to say what rewards come to each for their generosity. A storyteller who tells a lifetime of bedtime stories and back-porch ramblings is no less an artist, and may be no less rewarded, than one who gets them published.

I wouldn't exactly say no is yes, but do look deeper at what qualities go into making up such a time. And what approaches go into the wisest possible engagement with that time. How would a "Chin-tzu" (someone who tries to find the way through that best aligns their ongoing process of being with that of the universe) do it?