36 unchanging for an artist's life

[thisispeace]

Hello everyone,

This last two years I became a freelance writer, doing work in decorating houses to fund myself. I needed to make this move for years - it has been a long held passionate wish of mine to have more time to write. I have, as part of this period, published my first poetry collection, and am having more poems published at the moment periodically online. I've just recently started to promote them on social media and am getting a small, but steady flow of responses. For the first time ever, I feel visible as a writer.

But it's a slow, difficult learning process. I was reminded by an email in response to some draft work of mine today that even at 39 I am in so many ways only just emerging from apprenticeship. Every decent poem, every mature piece of work, has to be earned 40 times over. I've been 20 years working at it and I'm just starting to get there. And yet each new decent thing, good poem or publication, feels earned and real.

I have to accept that recognition is a halting process, two steps forward, one back. There has been no big breakthrough, just an incremental process (at least, in the public eye - privately there have been many writing breakthroughs, sudden shifts and revelations).

So here I am in the middle of my life and I've chosen this hard, lonely, rewarding, authentic-feeling path.

I asked the Yi, 'Am I on the right track?'

My reply: 36 unchanging.

I asked: 'Am i going toreceive recognition as a writer?'

My reply: 64 unchanging.

Unchanging hexes always feel so emphatic to me, and they almost confirm one's dealing with the archetypes at the core of one's life.

The funny thing is, I feel in some ways I am just leaving behind my unpublished days of total obscurity. I am emerging from darkness. 36.... OK. I can see it. But it describes a long exile, and am I still in that, I wonder?

64 - it sounds like the cards are all up in the air. I am between states and lives.

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated. Thank you!

 

[radiofreewill]

Hi thisispeace,

'Am I on the right track?'
36uc ~ You are close to freeing your creative vision.

'Am I going to receive recognition as a writer?'
64uc ~ When you publish an anthology you will be praised.

When I get unchanging Hexagrams, I assume that there is a happy resonance going on with the Nuclear Hexagram?

In the case of 36, the nuclear is 40, Liberation ~ you are actively germinal and moving in the right direction.

And, the nuclear of 64 is 63, Completion ~ at the end of the Path there is Completion.

It looks positive to me? It feels like you are being drawn towards the fulfillment of your true self?

Good luck and I hope this helps!

 

[bologna_tendra]

36 appears to say you are on the right track - perhaps the darkening of the light relates also to a deepening in your poetry which is common in writers of your age passing into a new stage of consciousness. You need to maintain what's inside you that is the source of the poetry. 64 is generally positive - you are the little fox crossing the ice, but it mentions you should make sure not to get your tail wet in the water. Also 36 speaks of a need to veil the light and keep something inside, so it seems there are some small warnings here in these two hexagrams. Maybe take care like the fox on the ice with what you say on social media etc, too easy for a writer to get "cancelled" these days.

Good luck

 

[rosada]

36. Being isolated.
Choice before you:
Continue to maintain your silent observation of the crazy world around you or move on to be part of the crazy world, become one with the crazies?

64. You haven't yet decided which path to take.
Choice before you:
How much recognition do you want?

 

[Olga Super Star]

In 36 you are not being appreciated. Your value can’t come up.
I had this once when asking how to work in the movie industry (I was an actress). I was definitely not being seen. I also thought it could mean “behind the scenes” So I shifted from front to back. I did something.
So you could be on the right track but it’s dangerous outside and you need to hide your real truth. Not let others see your real nature. Which makes me think it’s not the proper time for recognition.
64, not yet across. Still work to do.

 

[thisispeace]

Thank you very much for these! They do indeed seem to capture some of the contradictions I found in the lines; they are just so filled with ambiguity.
I wondered if I was indeed being overoptimistic and asked the Yi: 'Should I continue on this path or leave it?'

Answer: hex. 19.1 changing to 7

Here we go again. The keynote of my current path is its solitariness, though it is also slowly bringing new relationships into my life through poetry, editors, other poets, etc. But day to day I'm alone. So is it telling me to leave and do something cooperative or persist in a disciplined way? Oh god...

 

[Matali]

19.1 is encouraging to continue. You're talking about editors and other people... this line also speaks of good associations with men of value... 36 may mean that fame isn't for now ... But 64 you're on the right path I think

 

[bologna_tendra]

Day to day there is perhaps no need for you to be alone in order to write poetry. Frank O'Hara had a bustling social life and wrote his poetry on the fly on his lunch hour (his "lunch poems"). Someone like Robert Lax was solitary, but for every poet like that there are several who are not. Pablo Neruda had a life full of romances and worked as an ambassador. Byron slept with thousands of women. At the end of his life T.S. Eliot admitted he had sacrificed too much for his poetry. Your latest question presupposes it's either/or - maintain this path or abandon it. What about modifying the path, integrating poetry in your life in a new way, keeping your vocation to poetry but letting other things enter also which may in turn nourish the poetry.

All the best

 

[rosada]

Hexagram 19 Approach is advice on how to go about sharing one's experience.

When you've gone through an ordeal and survived there is a strong desire to share the knowledge you've gained and so after 18 and learning how to Work on What Has been Spoiled, the impulse is to now reach out to others so they can benefit from what you've experienced. which leads to..

19. Approach

Image:
The superior man is inexhaustible in his will to teach and without limits in his tolerance and protection of the people.

The Judgement:
Perseverance furthers.
When the eighth month comes there will be misfortune.

In sum:
It's right to teach/share your poems and stories
So stay on the path your on
And don't give up or expect too much too soon. (The misfortune of the 8th month is something happening prematurely.)

The line, 19.1 "Joint Approach" means that when starting out it is good to be surrounded by others on a similar path. This seems to be a direct response to your feelings of isolation and it strongly recommends you organize or connect with some sort of 7. Support Group. Perhaps you have friends who are also writers and you might meet regularly to share your latest works?