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Casting almost entirely Unchanging Hexagrams

kestrelw1ngs

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Not sure if this belongs here or in shared readings, but I wanted to discuss this phenomenon of patterns in casting, not a specific reading....
Mostly just speculation but what do you associate with a time of getting almost entirely unchanging Hexagram answers? 7 in a row over consecutive days!

This has happened this week and astrogeek in me can't help but notice it shifted along with Mars moving into Aries and general energies being more direct and potent.

Also can't help but personalize that maybe I've been a bit dense, and unchanging castings are Yi's way of THUNK - hitting the meaning over the enquirers head. Like a teacher throwing a whole book at a student who keeps asking for relevant passages :censored:

Anyways, anyone have experiences to share in this vein?
 

remod

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I personally link the number/type of moving line to how much "space" there is for the situation to change and for me to influence it.
When I get an unchanging hexagram I perceive it as if I was told: "This is it! Do what you can within the (limited) options you have".
I don't know if it's just me...
 

my_key

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Having 7 unchanging hexagrams is a row is something to take notice of. Just as much though as 7 changing hexagrams in a row.

A single unchanging hexagram, for me, signifies a time of equilibrium. In answer to my question I take notice that right now there is an element of balance in this situation across the 6 levels at which the hexagram operates.

This is a time when Young and Old Yang and Young and Old Yin are all getting along fine with each other. I ponder whether this state of harmony is in it's first flush; is in full voice or is there a sense of stagnation or imminent break up exuding from the tones of the response.

To get a better flavour of this I always pay particular attention to Yi's words in the Judgement to provide some context as to what might be going on. Further clues also may be hiding in the sequence and the pair.

Unlike remod I do not see an unchanging hexagram as being a prophecy of restricted or limited options. For me, it carries more a positive sense of focus on what is arising from the situation and that this may well remain the focus point for some time. Here I listen most intently to the words and direction conveyed in the Image. I have found this to be Yi advocating best practice to be followed as best as one can. Equally, because there is no imminent sign of change on the horizon it could well be that development or instigation of this new practice / behaviour / way of looking at the matter may need attention and focus for an indeterminant time before any true change will be effected.

Clues can also be uncovered through exploration of nuclear, shadow, ideal hexagrams, trigram interaction and more. An unchanging hexagram has richer pickings than many imagine it to have.

I'm not sure that 7 unchanging hexagrams in a row over consecutive days are Yi's way of passing on a special THUNK. Each individual reading has opportunity to pass on a THUNK in it's own right with either changing or unchanging hexagram outcomes. I have certainly been THUNK'd by a single reading on many occasions and can remember vividly when I was THUNK'd by receiving 2 consecutive unchanging 32's.

If what has happened for you as a result of this series of unchanging replies has brought some insights for you then go with it - follow the THUNK!!. After all, that is what the readings are meaning for you. It doesn't matter what this may mean for anyone else. Reflect and establish in your heart of hearts what next steps you want to take in response to this seven installment message - sent just for you. Maybe, as you say, it is a call for you to explore your denseness through the patterns of this, what seems to you, important group of doubly underlined readings.

Take Care
 
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moss elk

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The only special signifigance of an unchanging reading is:

It is the only time the main Oracle/judgement applies.

Some false ideas are out there about unchanging hex's.

The most common (and most erroneous) idea is that it means 'the situation won't change'
It does not mean that at all.

(exception to every rule? Yep: You asked something like 'is X going to last long?' Then received 32 un) :]
 
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Trojina

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Not sure if this belongs here or in shared readings, but I wanted to discuss this phenomenon of patterns in casting, not a specific reading....
Mostly just speculation but what do you associate with a time of getting almost entirely unchanging Hexagram answers? 7 in a row over consecutive days!

This has happened this week and astrogeek in me can't help but notice it shifted along with Mars moving into Aries and general energies being more direct and potent.

Also can't help but personalize that maybe I've been a bit dense, and unchanging castings are Yi's way of THUNK - hitting the meaning over the enquirers head. Like a teacher throwing a whole book at a student who keeps asking for relevant passages :censored:

Anyways, anyone have experiences to share in this vein?
There's a thread here, preceding the UC threads, on people's general ideas about uc hexagrams

There's a link to Hilary's blog on it


...though it's quite old, I think she has written more since in another blog where she talks more about there being 'no place to stand' with an uc hexagram. I will see if I can find it.

The relating hexagram often shows how the person is experiencing the situation. Very often these days I see the relating hexagram clearly depicted in what a person says about their situation. For example recently someone had 26 as relating hexagram and they talked a great deal about all the expertise and knowledge they planned to call on. So the relating was almost describing what was already their orientation to the issue. If there is no relating hexagram it might be, as Hilary suggests, one doesn't have an orientation or a stance to the issue.....yet.

The question that receives an unchanging hexagram in response might be asking, in effect, ‘Why?’ or ‘What is behind this?’ There’s an underlying desire to know and be in touch with the guiding principle at work: to connect with whatever it is that you’re enacting, manifesting or serving.

This questioner has no relating hexagram (yet). They have no place to stand from which to relate to this; they don’t have a way or place for it to ‘fit in’. There’s no answer (yet) to the question, ‘Where is this all taking me?’ or ‘how is this unfolding?’

So they enter the reading with Hexagram 2, and to carry on and move through it, they need to bring this into balance with Hexagram 1. That’s a balance of being in service and willing to lend support (to a person, to an ideal, to an idea…), with their own personal creativity. It could be as simple as uncovering who they want to be or what they want to do in and of themselves, from their own intrinsic creative drive, that is not a function of anything or anyone else.

2 as yang pattern might feel a bit like being presented with something as it is, not being required to feel anything/do anything about it. This is however going to be a very different experience with each hexagram and it's not possible to generalise too much. I always get the sense of a full stop when receiving uc hexagrams. 5uc Wait. Nothing much more to add to that, it doesn't require me to do anything other than to accept that and take on board the wisdom of that hexagram. It would be quite another thing to receive 49uc for example and that's partly why we have threads for people's own experiences with uc hexagrams.

If you get many uc hexagrams in a week it would feel like you're being asked to come to terms with what is as it is perhaps? Well maybe not even 'come to terms' - it's not like come to terms with a cloud it's just 'cloud' . The earth doesn't have to come to terms with anything on it it just absorbs it or holds it.
 

my_key

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I'm not sure if this thread is now going a bit tangential to the original post aimed by @kestrelw1ngs that was seeking insight into the meaning around casting 7 unchanging hexagrams over 7 days in a row. Aspects of my post #3 and post #5 seem to be speaking at times more directly to the qualities that can be experienced in an unchanging hexagram rather than the probabilities of consecutive unchanging outcomes.

My direction in this post is more towards discussion of the qualities that have been outlined in post #5. When reading this post I did find because some of the concepts difficult to follow and not quite aligned with views I hold. So my intent here is to write largely for my renewed clarity on this matter. (I'll leave it to the moderators to decide if this is enough of a 'hijacking' of a thread to warrant the starting of a new thread. I think it probably is, especially if others want to contribute afterwards.)

Change Patterns are an interesting modern perspective emanating from the work of Stephen Karcher. References can be found in The I Ching, Plain and Simple and Total I Ching, Myths for Change
There are two types (places of power) of Change Operators which act totally independently of the hexagram identified in the consultation. So that means all unchanging hexagrams will have the same Operators.

1) YIN OPERATOR (Context Operator)
In the place of the changing lines in the Primary figure, irrespective of whether they are yin or yang, there is positioned a yin line and to balance the equation stable, unchanging lines are replaced by a yang line.

The Yin Operator, created in this manner, which Karcher calls the Context Operator "describes the place where Change occurs and its inner transformative aspects. It offers an inner stance or strategy towards the inner world."

For all unchanging hexagrams the Yin / Inner Operator is Hexagram 1.

Pulling this together you might say that the terms under which any unchanging hexagram can be fully understood resides at a place of inner transformation and will manifest through the auspice of Hexagram 1 - Inspiring Force / Dragon.

2) YANG OPERATOR (Energy Operator)

In the place of the changing lines in the Primary figure, irrespective of whether they are yin or yang, there is positioned a yang line and to balance the equation stable, unchanging lines are replaced by a yin line.

The Yang Operator, created in this manner, which Karcher calls the Energy Operator "describes the actions through which Change occurs and its outer transformative aspects. It offers an outer stance or strategy towards the outer world."

For all unchanging hexagrams the Yang / Outer Operator is Hexagram 2.

Pulling this together you might say that when receiving an unchanging hexagram the energy to be employed in your strategy towards the outer world resides in actions that will manifest through the auspice of Hexagram 2 - Field / Yielding.

While there is nothing about this which says it is any more true than what was written within post #5 I do feel like I've arrived at the first point where a bone is sticking in my throat.
This questioner has no relating hexagram (yet). They have no place to stand from which to relate to this; they don’t have a way or place for it to ‘fit in’. There’s no answer (yet) to the question,
I agree, for the questioner, there is 'no relating hexagram (yet)' and partially with 'no answer (yet)' but they do have 'places to stand from which to relate'. A relating hexagram is not required: all is unchanging. The 'yet' does not exist here and will only apply to another time and place and not to the time and place of this question. In this time and in this place, for the querent asking this question, a relating hexagram would only bring a false perspective which in addition would be delivered too early.

In the realm of unchanging hexagrams, if having received one then be assured there are 2 places that exist from where you can stand to build relationship to the response. They are the positions inhabited by the Context and the Energy Operator.

Taking a sideways step into the Laws of Physics rather than standing in the world of metaphysics we can easily bump into the quality of Entropy. Entropy is the driving force for Change in the Universe. The second law of thermodynamics says that entropy always increases with time and with the increase there comes a transformation from fixed solidity to a higher entropic level of disorder or chaos.

Imagine this law applied to Unchanging Hexagrams. Consider an Unchanging Hexagram as if it were an unlit campfire. Left of its own devices there will be a natural decay (change) based on the context of its surroundings. However, suppose if into this context walks a tiny dragon who takes on the role of a Context Operator - an agent of change. It breaths an Inspiring Force into the deep inner context of the campfire. Through adding new vigour and vitality unceasingly (Hex1) the inside of the campfire begins to burn.

As the solid wood burns the natural actions manifest as the formation of ash, smoke, warmth and gases. There is a spread of transfigured energy outwards from the centre - the Energy Operator has replaced the dragon-like Context Operator - and more easily than the solid wood ever could, the campfire rejoices in having potential for a greater and higher beauty. A beauty that is now more easily embracing of a new order of things. There is an unpredictable element in the luminous impact of the Energy Operator, however, at its core is the essential quality that enriches virtue and sustains all things (Hex 2).

Bearing all this in mind, the next bone that took up irritating residence was found in this piece.
So if you receive an unchanging hexagram, you entered into your reading through Hexagram 2, Earth. You arrive at your question like the mare: free-roaming, full of energy and spirit, and paying the closest attention to cues and guidance. You have a ‘direction to go’, a sense of purpose – often a very coherent one with great power and momentum of its own – but you are still in search of a ‘master’, a sense of how it might unfold. There is a confusion of possibilities, and you are waiting for a single beacon to emerge from it all.
I think what I find confusing here is the swapping of perspectives of receiving an unchanging hexagram; entering into your reading and arriving at your question. The sequence for me would be
(i) arrive at the question you are going to ask;
(ii) make the cast;
(iii) receive an unchanging hexagram in response;
(iv) from an inner stance invoking the dragon of inner transformation (yin operator (hex1));
(v) strategically yield to the subsequent, natural actions and the way of things decaying (yang operator (hex 2)).

So in this sequence the yin operator (hex1) becomes the gateway into the unchanging hexagram and the yang operator (hex 2) becomes the gateway out of the unchanging hexagram. I can't see how you can 'enter into your reading through Hexagram 2', it looks more like a point of exit for me. As always I am happy for someone to shed a different viewpoint on this.

Another differing perspective lies in these words from trojina.
2 as yang pattern might feel a bit like being presented with something as it is, not being required to feel anything/do anything about it. This is however going to be a very different experience with each hexagram and it's not possible to generalise too much. I always get the sense of a full stop when receiving uc hexagrams. 5uc Wait. Nothing much more to add to that, it doesn't require me to do anything other than to accept that and take on board the wisdom of that hexagram. It would be quite another thing to receive 49uc for example and that's partly why we have threads for people's own experiences with uc hexagrams.
Change Operators, always act independently of the hexagram identified, they are the power sources within with direct connection to the original source (hex 1 and 2). Unchanging hexagrams signify that the means of change is not yet ready to manifest itself. While an Unchanging hexagram may be accompanied by a full stop it could well be that those pesky Change Operators are still hard at work doing some Secret Squirrel work in the darker avenues and alleyways.

The Change Operators need time to bubble away in the cauldron of the unchanging hexagram, instigating decay in all that is solid and fixed and then . I would suggest that, the yang pattern (i.e. operator) is something other than that which is unfelt or requires nothing to be done. It is deeply felt in the recesses of our being and requires, to my mind, an action of yielding, or as you say 'to accept and take on board the wisdom of the hexagram'.

In the world you describe of relating hexagrams, in your experience, people increasingly are saying how the qualities of the relating hexagram have begun to manifest in their world. Maybe in a world without a relating hexagram, perhaps, people are only able to integrate the qualities of the Change Operators as the nucleus of an outer strategy that grows simply as a 'felt sense' i.e. unspoken.

Maybe, the beginning of change forms in the unchanging hexagram as an inspiration for decay of all that is solid, firm and fixed in and around the question of the querent. Then a transfiguration held within the deeper, darker avenues and alleyways brings about a far-reaching spread of warmth that in time, and at the right time, may just begin the cross over into the physical realm.
 

Olga Super Star

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I personally link the number/type of moving line to how much "space" there is for the situation to change and for me to influence it.
Interesting, I never thought about that.
Meaning that if you get line 1 you have much influence over something, if you get line 5 or 6 you have less?

When I get an unchanging hexagram I perceive it as if I was told: "This is it! Do what you can within the (limited) options you have".
"Do what you can" as in "do all you want" or "you have limited influence on the subject"?
 

remod

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Hi Olga.
I meant that, when I get many changing lines, I perceive the situation to be in a "fluid" state.
It may be because the situation can evolve in multiple directions depending on my actions (or lack of);
or it may be because I have many opportunities to influence its evolution. Also, this might signal that there are a lot of factors I should take into account to really understand what's going on.

When I get no moving lines, it seems to me that the current situation is pretty "static" (since I have no secondary hexagram that could shed a different light on possible evolutions).
It may be because the situation is already set and it will progress according its "natural" direction, or it may be because I have little (or no) influence on how it will develop.

Another possibility is when the answer is "obvious". I got some unchanging hexagram when I asked about something whose answer I knew already but wasn't willing to accept. In that case, the oracle reminded me that I should have already known what the situation (and the proper course of action) was; the unchanging hexagram was there to remind me that there were no changes just because of my wishful thinking.

As I said, this is a way of thinking I developed over the years, no claim about its general applicability. The actual meaning, of course, will depend on the hexagram I'll receive and on the question I posed.
 

Olga Super Star

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When I get no moving lines, it seems to me that the current situation is pretty "static" (since I have no secondary hexagram that could shed a different light on possible evolutions).
It may be because the situation is already set and it will progress according its "natural" direction, or it may be because I have little (or no) influence on how it will develop.
One year I had an unchanging hex as my yearly cast, 12 UN exactly :mischief:
I casted for each month of that year and most of the casts were unchanging hexagrams.
It was definitely a static year.
 

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