Hex 24, lines 5 and 6 to 42

[anita]

Hello Fellow seekers,

I have a couple of times drawn hex 24 lines 5 and 6 in answer to whether I will reunite with my boyfriend who's in Germany right now. I'm confused because line 5 is positive but line 6 isn't. And 42 is of course positive too. So what do I make of it? That he will return soon or miss his chance to return because he's confused and then he'd have to wait out a whole cycle of time?

Best for your Quest

Anita

 

[louise]

Hi Anita, you've really got it bad for this guy have'nt you. This isn't really any I Ching advice, but whats puzzling me is he really seems to have left you hanging on here and I imagine its driving you crazy. It doesn't seem very kind of him to not communicate with you and let you know where you stand. Surely the agitation you're feeling must be distracting you quite alot from your spiritual path.
It may be 24 here is urging you to get back to your own self, because it seems to me it is not good for you to be left waiting and wondering all the time - doing this you may lose yourself - perhaps this is what line 6 refers to. I have been in a similar position myself and looking back
I remember it being a truly excrutiating experience - like being addicted to a person who won't give you your 'fix'. I don't understand why he can't communicate directly with you ? If he loves you, surely he can afford to give you a little reassurance ? It does seem hard on you, and a strain on you I think to be left in doubt like this, it seems to put you at the mercy of his whims. I think you deserve better treatment than this Anita, you'll be fine with or without him - maybe its time to return to your inner source of strength, this involvment may be depleting you.

 

[candid]

Hi Anita,

After reading your posts concerning this, I am in agreement with Louise's assesment. I hear Yi saying repeatedly, return to your Tao.

"Thus the kings of antiquity closed the passes at the time of solstice. Merchants and strangers did not go about, and the ruler did not travel through the provinces."

This a returning to your peace, not of placing your hopes and happiness upon an external relationship. There's potential here of increasing your strength and deepening your understanding, but it will take a renunciation on your part and a willingness to accept your fate receptively, with him or without him. If you decide to act thusly, you will indeed be increased one way or the other. But its a decision you will need to make in order to actually experience this increase. A Nobel hearted return to The Way. It requires greatness of spirit and an act of your will.

I apologize if this sounds a bit chastising but this is how I'm reading it.

Wishing you wholeness and wellness.

Namaste,
Candid

 

[anita]

Hello Louise and Candid,

Sure I have it bad for this guy. I've known him for over a year and he has already made two expensive trips (and he's only a student)to India just to be with me. He is very confused at the moment about this whole relationship because I believe he has got the message from the temple quite wrong -- We are taught that when there is a major obstacle in the path of our dreams, we must 'accept' it so that changes the situation and gets rid of the obstacle. I never doubted his love for me and never will. I am not resentful because he doesn't write to me directly. We both believe that as long as we follow this great spiritual path together, we will be together. He is being very stern about it of course, but I know of his intentions to return. The Guruji told him to focus on his studies now as he himself was rather anxious about his coming PhD and research on the Grand Unification Theory -- however, she did not mean that he ought to stop writing to me. That was his take-out of the situation.

As for digressing from my spiritual path, that is just not possible for I am more and more involved with the temple and more responsibilities have accrued to me as a result. So I doubt the I Ching is speaking to me concerning that as I have never strayed from the Path. I can only think that it implies his return to India as it is about returning. Well, only time will tell. Even my choosing him is linked to my spiritual path because he follows it and loves it. That is very rare to find.

Thanks for your insights that make my own clearer!

Best for your Quest

Anita

 

[hilary]

Dear Anita,

I'm making up for a lot of lost time here, and I started looking through all the readings you've posted here about this complicated relationship of yours. I'm afraid this makes for a rather l-o-n-g post...

Before I start rambling through, though, I hope you won't mind if I say that I don't think you're using the I Ching to its full potential. You want to know what's happening and what will happen, which is absolutely understandable! But you never ask for advice...

I can appreciate that you already have one spiritual authority in your life; adding another source of counsel might seem out of place. But perhaps you could overcome this by sharing and discussing such divination with people at the temple?

Going back to the first reading you mentioned: about your future, and marriage. 22, line 4 is about courtship and indicates an honest suitor. So at the least, his intentions are good. Then you asked again on the same subject, and received hexagram 54, unchanging. This shows you are drawn into the relationship and the new levels it takes you to, utterly regardless of your choices and outside your control. This hexagram is also about coming second

Actually, #54 might apply to both you and him - you are drawn towards him, but his studies still come before being with you; he is drawn to you, but your desire to stay in India still comes before being with him. And you are both prepared to put spiritual instruction before your desire and need to communicate with one another. So both of you find you 'come second' in a less-than-ideal situation, one you can't control or direct without disaster. It's not a great situation to be stuck in...

Like Louise, I have to be optimistic about what happens on your birthday. Hexagram 44, line 5 is lovely. Something of beauty comes to you from heaven - if not his physical presence, surely something that brings joy.

But then the readings start getting stickier. 47, line 3 is a very depressing picture: surrounded by rocks, grasping thorns, not seeing his wife. Again, the I Ching is flexible about gender roles, and it does seem that this line could apply to either of you. You're isolated from one another, no words pass between you, and the tension and pressure, the sense that this is it, mount steadily.

This reading sounds as though the rules about not writing to one another have outlived their usefulness. The person in the line sounds confused - it could be that the partner is there waiting for him/her, but s/he's lost the presence of mind necessary to see this, and looks for support in exactly the wrong places. Think of 'clutching at straws' - then 'clutching at thorns'...

Finally, this reading about reuniting - 24 changing to 42. As you say, the lines are contradictory; I think they are alternative outcomes. It's hard to see how they could both happen!

The key feature of Return which you are missing is its sense of ease, relaxation and naturalness. 'Coming in, going out, without affliction...' - the ability to let people and energies come and go according to the quality of the time, and to turn around and change your own direction with the same ease. The gist seems to be that when you walk your own path quietly and without anxiety, partners come and walk it with you. But the first requirement is to tend to your own inner light. In the Image (that Candid quotes), there's the need to accept times for introspection and rest, without communication with others.

This comes in the context of 42, which Wu Jing Nuan calls a 'flowering of spiritual growth'. Energy and spirit pour in - you fill up with purpose, you are more than ever ready to commit yourself to him, to your spiritual life, or maybe even to celibacy! Does this support that quiet, relaxed, natural return? Perhaps. The spirit of generosity, a willingness to change course without dwelling on the past - this points to hexagram 3, a slow but powerfully creative beginning, and it is good!

But line 6 is pure cataclysm. The disaster begins with delusion - blinded, perhaps, by your own urgent needs? Then the more energy you invest, the worse it gets. If I were in your shoes (and yes, I do know that I'm not!) I'd be asking myself, or my friends, or the oracle, what this line is referring to and what I could do about it.

I hope something in that lot will be helpful!

 

[anita]

Hello Hilary,

How nice to hear from you and your great insight into this complicated relationship. And to add to it all, yesterday I learn that it's okay if I'm not celibate with him -- as long as I'm faithful to him and this really releases tension. I was wondering how we could remain lovers in the complete sense of the word if I were to forgo a sexual relationship!

You see, to be able to take the Great Oath next year, I am expected to be faithful to one and that is very understandable and a very healing thing for me with all the boyfriends I've had in the past.

You're right about 54. We both must cultivate ourselves spiritually if we are to have any success together. That always comes first. This means practising the Way (being vegetarian, etc). And as my birthday approaches, instead of getting more anxious, I get surer for some reason. Perhaps it's because I pray every day and this brings serenity and success-- although I don't seem to be serene at all in the sense that I?ve asked the I Ching about this relationship in so many ways and so often! As an enlightened soul said (I read somewhere while researching I Ching resources) ? if a favourable augury is received, it is not wise to ask again. So I should have stopped at 22!

Karma in the end is at the bottom of it all. There is absolutely no effect without a cause which I have seen for myself. Even the fact that he's not been writing has I'm sure been created by me. But despite everything, I still believe we'll be together very soon. I must ask the I Ching about line 6 of 24 though and what I can do to avoid that sort of outcome. You're right, I haven't used the I Ching to its full potential and thank you for showing me the way as I also thank others like Louise.

Today I got myself a book -- Ling Ch' I Ching -- which is also based on the yin and yang interaction and is said to be invented by an unknown Chinese scholar who attempted to present the world with a 'more accessible' oracle than the 'arcane' I Ching. I've yet to experience it, but I find it's far more negative than the I Ching. I think the I Ching will always be my preferred form of divination.

By the way ? by now I have asked the I Ching about what is meant by line 6 of 24 when I asked about my relationship ? and I received with the coins first ? 55 line 4 to 36 and with yarrow hex 20, line 6 to hexagram 8. They both seem very positive to me and hexagram 8 somehow harks back to 24 ? Friends come.

Those in the temple have learned about the oracle only through me, so asking them about what hexagrams mean is not possible. In fact, I?ve been casting for them when they need to ask questions and I must say I have not been unsuccessful.

Thank you for your wonderful site and for opening up a whole new world of learning for me.

Best for your Quest