54.1 Is it a contradiction?

[emiliana2010]

Hi everybody,
sometimes I see that Hex and lines give a contradictory answer.

Example: today I asked “How to overcome the present lack of money?” and got 54.1.6 changing into 64

- 54 seems to tell that initiating action will lead to misfortune
- Initial six says that undertakings brings good fortune
- Top nine seems to say something like not to act under false pretenses

The difference between the meaning of the Hex and that of the first line is quite stark. How can this be? And how to read it?

Thanks for your advice.

 

[pocossin]

I first consider the hexagrams as wholes and then consider judgments for more details. For example, hexagram 54 is that of a person in an inferior position, in your case, lacking a job. 64 is a hexagram of movement and transition. The little fox is crossing the water but needs to be cautious. This suggests that you can find employment in your specialty elsewhere in your country or overseas.

Hexagram 54 in inauspicious. It is better not to lose one's job. Line 1 (the beginning of unemployment) is auspicious. Loss of a job and having to take a job below your previous level is the situations of millions nowadays and is not inauspicious. It is just the way things are. Line 6 is inauspicous. That is, the situation has been persisted in too long.

 

[emiliana2010]

Hi pocossin,

thank you so much for answering and for your explanation :bows:. The thing is that I'm not understanding (I'm thick!). You see, I asked the Yi how I can overcome the present situation and was expecting to receive an answer like: "You can overcome it in this way", or "You can overcome it by doing or not doing this."

I remember noticing how relaxed I was feeling while tossing the coins because I was asking a "How" question, so I didn't need to worry about receiving an auspicious or inauspicious hex. Whatever the answer, it would just tell me "how" to get out of this untenable position.

But all that I feel now is just confusion. 54 is a non-action hex and in Wilhelm's translation line 1 says "Undertakings bring good fortune", and this really messes my understanding up.
In LiSe translation, her comment for line 1 says "... Striving for more than comes naturally causes stress, failure and contention. Not every promotion should be accepted..." Well, the thing is that right now nothing is coming at all. Does it mean I should do nothing?

Do you know how to deal with these seemingly contradictory information?

 

[pocossin]

The non-action of 54 is like being in an air raid shelter while the bombs are falling. There is nothing to do but sit tight and wait for the situation to end, but it should not be endured beyond its time. Probably you were shock and dismayed and depressed when you were laid off, but you have been in your situation for some time, so it's time to open the hatch and see what can be done. Line 1 (imo) is about taking a protective position. Line 6 is staying in the shelter too long. Hexagram 64 is as important as hexagram 54 and suggests cautious travel as the means to overcoming the present situation.

 

[emiliana2010]

Thank you heaps pocossin. :bows:

Still I didn't get how to deal with the confusion I feel when interpreting the Yi. Yeah, I must be really thick. I know that there is no fixed recipe to understand the Changes, but it bothers me to see how limited is my understanding of this gift. Also, the seemingly difference in the translation of the same text throws me off balance. It seems that the more I read the Yi, the less I understand it.

 

[pocossin]

Would it help you if you considered the interpretation of the Yi as a problem in design? I look for the relevance of the hexagrams to the situation before moving on to other details.

 

[emiliana2010]

Thank you again pocossin for your answer.:bows:

Recently I started to feel that the Yi is really a mystery. For instance, I began doing daily readings and a few days ago I received 30.1.3.6.>16

What would you say it means?

I took it to mean to watch out about wasting energy doing this and that in a disorderly manner or to take care not to stumble, to concentrate on finishing things and have a clear communication with others.

What happened is that my sister called me saying that while walking barefoot in her garden she stepped on a hornet. It was not harmed but stung her under the sole of her foot before getting away. She had to be rushed to the emergency after her foot became as big as a soccer ball.
By the evening her foot had slowly returned to a regular size and the pain was gone. When talking with me about it, she never blamed the "poor hornet".

I checked my journal and was astounded! I felt that my relationship with it has been just superficial. My approach up to now has been rational, I read as many translations as I manage to put my hands on, I check the Archives, I read anything concerned the hex received with the result that I get lost on seemingly contradicting lines.

I know now that there has to be something different in my approach, something springing from me, something more, a kind of x factor that makes me feel in tune with the Yi.

Right now, when I read it, I just feel swamped by an ocean of images and contradictory information, but maybe it's a good sing, maybe is what can spur me on and keep me going till I reach the clarity I long for.

 

[sooo]

It's quite common, and natural, that a change line points to a different or even an opposite implication than the hexagram image. That's why it's a change line.

The most explicit example of this, for me, is hex 55, with its imagery of the sun shining at midday, yet most of its change lines refer to the sun being obscured, and for the better. As a desert dweller, I've learned that during the abundance of the midday summer sun, shade is a treasured friend.

Even though 54's "judgment" advises that undertakings bring misfortune in general, change line 1 demonstrates that even in a most lowly position, where outspokenness and asserting ones strong will is ill advised, joy need not be oppressed by thunder (note trigrams). Treading (even if impaired) implies movement with a mind set on eternal values and purposes. So, in the bigger picture, there is no real contradiction.

 

[sooo]

What happened is that my sister called me saying that while walking barefoot in her garden she stepped on a hornet. It was not harmed but stung her under the sole of her foot before getting away. She had to be rushed to the emergency after her foot became as big as a soccer ball.
By the evening her foot had slowly returned to a regular size and the pain was gone. When talking with me about it, she never blamed the "poor hornet".

I just noticed this, as I was focusing only on your general question and discussion. Ow! Your poor sister! How literal your reading was, including the resulting hexagram... which is sometimes referred to as a 'relating hex', but it's not limited to that definition. Sometimes it is literally the result, which in your sister's case was deliverance, or relief and recovery of the lame or impaired foot. She could do nothing about the fact that she had been stung, but she could and did do something to move beyond the effects of the sting. She may even find relief/deliverance from feeling sorry for the poor hornet, since it too survived the incident. One could even apply the reading to the hornet!

 

[emiliana2010]

Thank you sooo.

In your post you seem to be talking about hex 40, Deliverance. Is it so? Actually the relating hex was 16, Enthusiasm, where one has to install helpers and set armies marching. I imagine that that was pretty much what happened around my sister that day.

If you were not intending hex 40, in what way is 16 related to deliverance? I ask because I want to learn.:bows:

 

[pocossin]

Emiliana, how did you see your sister walking in a garden and being stung by a hornet in 30.1.3.6.>16 ?

 

[emiliana2010]

:bows:ah! pocossin, I get what you mean.
In the case of my sister I could see it in retrospective, which is much simpler than forecast it. But I get what you mean. Thanks:bows:

 

[sooo]

Thank you sooo.

In your post you seem to be talking about hex 40, Deliverance. Is it so? Actually the relating hex was 16, Enthusiasm, where one has to install helpers and set armies marching. I imagine that that was pretty much what happened around my sister that day.

If you were not intending hex 40, in what way is 16 related to deliverance? I ask because I want to learn.:bows:

Oh, my misunderstanding. I thought your first reading was 54.1, which changes to 40, but I guess you were only referring to line 1 as an example of what appears as a contradiction to the text?

 

[emiliana2010]

Yes sooo.
Thank you so much for your insight :bows: and thanks a lot to pocossin too. :bows: