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23.2.3.6 to 46 - How to deal with a seemingly "negative" reading when things seem auspicious. Am I seeing the two hexagrams too chronologically?

steveday

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I've got a reading that I think might be negative/very cautionary, but I'm wondering if I am just reading things a bit too binary (good/bad). I think this binary thinking may be based on my fear ("should i do the thing I am scared of or not") and could be clouding my reading here.
As well I'd like some help to pick apart the relating hexagram, how to read it-- chronologically, otherwise?

Anyway, let's get to it. Thanks in advance for reading and mulling :)

About 3 weeks ago, I got the amazing and very validating news that I received a decent-sized grant to rework a play I made a few years back. It was my first major push of effort at writing and performing something from my own heart, and I performed it at a couple of small, ramshackle festivals in 2018.

In 2019, on advice of Yi (which consistently gave me readings which I viewed as negative/instructing to hold back), I chose not to push forward with new festivals in 2019. Instead, I wrote grants for the first time, including lots of wild imagining of sets and puppets and residencies, and reaching out to new contacts, and people who I thought "oh they would never work with me."

So, finally grant from the Canada Council for the Arts came through just a few weeks ago, enough to rework the play and get a bunch of help, making puppets, robotics, tech, script rewrites, a director...

I was ecstatic, and then started to feel dread about the thing, the massive organizational and managerial and planning work that would need to be done over the coming year, the risk of it not going well, spoiling some of these good contacts I had made. Why make art anyway? Do I really integrally care about this stupid play, which has been on the shelf for a year and a half? Lots of unhelpful self-chat and handwringing, which is completely par for the course for me in my creative endeavours.

So, I asked Yi:

what is a lay of the land for the canada council grant work? how might it go? what can I expect of others, of myself?

And received:
23.2.3.6 - 46
Splitting apart > Pushing upward

I'd like to know if you all, outside the immediacy, see this as quite so automatically negative as I do. At worst, I think this looks like "let it go, refuse the grant, back out, back out..." but that could just be because I'm scared and therefore reducing the situation to "do it or retreat."

Immediately I feel some doom! It's hard not to fixate on line 2: "The bed is split at the edge. Those who persevere are destroyed. Misfortune."
Even line 6, which seems more auspicious, says "A large fruit not eaten. The superior man acquires a carriage. The inferior man's house falls apart."
I suppose this could mean something to do with maturing and taking a more proper seat at the table, letting some of the past work/fruits go. What could that "large fruit" be? Maybe I should continue, but use this for research and creation, rather than pushing the play as far as it can go, to larger festivals, etc?

As I am seeking some reassurance in these tender hooks times of finally making some creative work happen in my life, here is a reading which automatically I react to with negativity and fear. Should I refuse the grant? Am I just pursuing some egoic crap?

Last year, I received what I thought were negative readings, and stopped myself from pushing forward with the play. Should I be doing that again? I think perhaps my thought is too much within the binary of good/bad...

If I take the two hexagrams chronologically i.e. 23 is now, 46 is what's coming-- could mean a whole lot of disintegration, followed by some delayed harmonious goodness.

The chronological way is a bit conventional/constipated, innit? It's maybe a different outlook if I see the hexagrams as interlayed one over the other, presenting one integral situation's dynamics (which as I understand, is more how Hilary tends to encourage us to think about relating hexagrams?). In this case, the reading would feel like "plenty of disintegration is happening, while simultaneously the auspicious situation is rising." Which... sounds like it could be positive?

Thanks for any thoughts you might have.
 
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Lavalamp

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what is a lay of the land for the canada council grant work? how might it go? what can I expect of others, of myself?
23.2.3.6 - 46
I have some reservations about this reading, because you asked 3 questions rather than one. If you want a clear answer, that's not the way to get one. But I'll take a shot at it.

46 - Pushing Upward - The context is about successful organic growth, and seeing authorities as being helpful for that. Maybe a coach? Mentor, teacher?

23.2 - This line indicates describes a situation of not having allies, so cautions you to remember who you are. Do not lose the framework of your self, of what is foundational to your personal identity.

23.3 - This line cautions you, you will be surrounded by inferior persons. Keep your connection with really good people (maybe a mentor or teacher), and make a distinction between yourself and negative people.

23.6 - "Wilhelm/Baynes: He is carried by the people. "The house of the inferior man is split apart": he ends up as useless." This indicates I think, your work will stand on what good people and/or the public think. People that oppose you - perhaps critics - are not able to do what you can.
Perhaps it suggests exposing your work so more good folks can see it would be helpful.

- LL
 
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Freedda

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So, I asked Yi: what is a lay of the land for the canada council grant work? how might it go? what can I expect of others, of myself?
SteveDay, I am a bit fuzzy about what it is you're asking, and to help me better respond, I hope you can clarify this. What I'm assuming you are asking is something like:

'How will things go as I continue working on my play'?

But that's just an assumption on my part - and of course this includes different aspects and specifics, including the requirements of the grant, working with others, etc. Is this about right, or do you have something else in mind?

Best, D.
 
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steveday

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Yes, hmm, I see what you mean, @Querent777 and @Freedda... I feel more clear about what I want to know, but maybe the question wasn't externalized clearly enough.

I am asking this reading so I can understand how to position myself towards the project and the people who will work on it with me, and if there are some blind spots (or arrogances) that will end up harming progress/my relations with others as the project unfolds. At the centre of it is the question of how to work with others when the piece is so personal, and has been gestating so long.

Is that clearer?

I am also looking for reassurance that this won't blow up in my face... which is maybe not the answer I can expect to get with Yi...


@Querent777 there is a lot in here about being surrounded by "inferior persons", not having allies. Line 2 also cautions "Extreme caution is necessary in this isolation... Stubborn perseverance in maintaining one's standpoint would lead to downfall."
I suppose this is central to my question. How to walk the line between my own standpoint, the play i have written, and the advice that my collaborators are giving me.

Perhaps this question requires a follow-up, "how can I tell who to work with? Do i need to graciously cut someone from the team, and seek a new collaborator, or undertake more of the work by myself?" or some such (set of 3) question(s).
:)
 

steveday

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Yes, hmm, I see what you mean, @Querent777 and @Freedda... I feel more clear about what I want to know, but maybe the question wasn't externalized clearly enough.

I am asking this reading so I can understand how to position myself towards the project and the people who will work on it with me, and if there are some blind spots (or arrogances) that will end up harming progress/my relations with others as the project unfolds. At the centre of it is the question of how to work with others when the piece is so personal, and has been gestating so long.

Is that clearer?

I am also looking for reassurance that this won't blow up in my face... which is maybe not the answer I can expect to get with Yi...


@Querent777 there is a lot in here about being surrounded by "inferior persons", not having allies. Line 2 also cautions "Extreme caution is necessary in this isolation... Stubborn perseverance in maintaining one's standpoint would lead to downfall."
I suppose this is central to my question. How to walk the line between my own standpoint, the play i have written, and the advice that my collaborators are giving me.

Perhaps this question requires a follow-up, "how can I tell who to work with? Do i need to graciously cut someone from the team, and seek a new collaborator, or undertake more of the work by myself?" or some such (set of 3) question(s).
:)
 
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Freedda

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Steveday, I'm still a bit baffled, but no worries - I'll just approach this as a sort of overall reading about your project - and I'll look at the Yi's imagery, and less so at the text.

Based on what you've shared, it seems that a lot of what you're facing here are your fears -- for example, you've been working on, and planning, and thinking about this project for a long time, but now that you've been given a grant - and I assume a big boost towards your efforts - all of a sudden you seem paralized with fear! So much so, you've conjured up the existential fears of all artists: should I even be doing this? Do I have anything at all to say, really?

So, is all of this confusion really about you not knowing what to do, or, is it just how your fears are manifesting right now. I'd place my bets on the latter.

Looking at the imagery of the Yi's response, with 23, it feels like you've replaced actual doing (or even planning), with worrying about the details, and it has you stuck, frozen.

And the 'antidote'? With Hexgram 46, the advice may be to consider this project in terms of many smaller manageable, do-able parts, instead of one massive, fear-inducing blob! And you can start by picking one of these, and in the words of the old Nike motto, 'just do it': take one task (maybe it's brainstorming, or thinking about how to make the puppets work, or ....), and work on that for a while and see where it leads you ....

Another image associated with 46 is that of a tree establishing itself. It starts by sending its roots down into the earth and new growth up about the earth. And there's a two-way communication happening: the roots and shoots are learning about their environment and are sending information back to the plant to help it grow. And the more it does this, the more defined the plant becomes. So it's in the doing, that the plant establishes itself, and starts to take form and gain definition.

The text of 46 seems to be a reminder that this is your project (it doesn't belong to the grantors nor your collaborators), and you have permission to be 'the mature human being': it's okay for you to pick a direction (or directions) and to make decisions - that "to go boldly southward is promising!"

So, maybe there's some advice here - or an approach - that you can apply to your project?

All the best, D

PS - if you're interested, you might want to look at this stick thread (in Exploring Divination) about positive and negative hexagrams:

 
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Lavalamp

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Steve based on your reading I think the advice is find a mentor outside what you are doing, trust in that and your own opinion, and that of how audiences respond. But that you are better than your collaborators, and they may not have your best interests at heart. Don't fall into their bad habits, sleep in your own bed.

- LL
 
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Freedda

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I think the advice is find a mentor outside what you are doing, trust in that and your own opinion,
I agree. I imagine that to be 'productive to encounter a mature human being' can mean to look for that person both within or outside of ourselves, or to do both.
 
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