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Hex w/ no moving lines

bfireman

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Can anybody shed some light on how you interpret a hex with no moving lines. I understand the "time" must be taken into account, but I am still trying to figure this out a bit, still a little blurry...

How do the nuclear hex's play into a static hex?

Does anyone look at the directions of movement within the component trigrams for particular clues?

Anything else? My questions to the yi of late have been non-specific, so it is difficult to relate back to any particulars of the question. I have just been asking, "tell me what I now need to know and understand."

Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks - Brian
 

kts

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Dear Brian,
Whenever I ask a non-specific, 'just tell me the principles behind this' kind of question, I almost always get a static hexagram in answer, since the question itself is not concerned with movement in the situation. I'm not so good at relating nuclear hexagrams to the question, except in understanding that they can be considered as a sort of 'backdrop' to the question, but the context of the situation you are asking about affects how they do relate. Other than that, I don't think there is any difference whether it is a static or a moving hexagram. Perhaps someone else will have different ideas, but anyway I hope this helps a bit.
 
C

candid

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Hi Brian and Kts.

I interpret that as being a stable condition and time concerning the question asked, whether specific or for a daily centering theme. There's not much to do about it except to be in it, and follow what council there is to make the most of it.

I've never grasped nuclear anything *watches Hilary pull her hair out!
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* and I'm not sure I'm missing much. I?m sure they work well for some but they only serve to complicate the matter for me.

For the most part, I view two trigrams and see how they interact with each other. That pretty much tells me all I need to know. To me, natural images are easier to emulate than the words it takes to metaphorize them. Wood under Earth is easier to be than processing the term: Pushing Upward, into being. Thunder over Water creates the experience of Deliverance, and so on. Why did the more ?primitive? ancient mind not struggle so much with these concepts? Because the natural images themselves did all the talking. If we are as the trigrams relate, our actions will be in accord with the way, even without redundant verifications of more complex systems. This isn?t to say this is the right way ? only the right way for me. Which is the mataphor, the mountain or the stillness? It can work either way and the effect is the same.

Candid
 

hilary

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Hi everyone,

At last I get a moment to drop in here - I've been feeling like a child outside a sweetshop of late, nose flattened against the glass, before being yanked off to work by a maternal superego. Or something.

OK... can anyone suggest a really good word for a single hexagram reading? (Apart from 'single', which is the best I can manage.) 51 alone is not exactly 'static'; 49 alone is hardly 'unchanging', and 40 alone would not seem to be precisely 'locked'...

Anyway, random thoughts on single hexagrams. It has the effect of emphasis, certainly: not 'Army drawn toward Pushing Upward', but 'ARMY!!!' Here is all you need to know, very basic, pay attention please... I've found single hexagrams come up almost every year when I ask for advice (etc) for the coming year. This year is #7: much self-discipline, much furious determination and organisation, definite results, and the occasional feeling of being frog-marched...

The objective demands and reality of the situation are not separate from your own perceptions (hopes, anxieties, desires...) and the direction they give to it. There are no pivotal points where you interact with the situation and have a 'lever' to change it. (Another way of saying: no separate relating hexagram, no changing lines.)

The nuclear hexagram seems to me (*waves cheerfully to Candid*) to come to the fore when there's no relating hexagram etc as 'distractions'. The core potential, maybe, or the core demand: the army needs to be marching on the real path, and perhaps the experience of both effort and self-acceptance will bring this need to the fore. (OK, so it seems to have taken until October, but probably most people aren't this slow...)

For reasons I've yet to work out, the nuclear hexagram can also sometimes be the easiest part of a single-hexagram reading to relate to - the instantly recognisable part, and not so much the 'hidden core'. This certainly fits with LiSe's idea of the nh as the subjective core. (At least, I think I've remembered that right. LiSe?) Time to stretch the stiff old concepts again...
 
C

candid

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Hi Hilary,

There's a Navy term which comes to mind: Under way. It means the anchor is up, everything has been secured properly, everything seems to be in sound working order, a course is set - "ship under way!" Its seems appropriate as a military term for #7 as well. Can you relate?

Warmly,
Candid
 

louise

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A good word for a single hexagram reading ? Emphatic ? An emphatic hexagram ?
 
C

candid

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Stable describes it, I think. Ordered? Maintained? Organized? Engaged? Holding? Devoted? Still like 'stable' best, personally.
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louise

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As Hilary said can you apply those words to every hexagram though ? 'Maintained' to 49 ? Stable to 51 ? No, no I think emphatic is better - only joking...I still can't figure out the emoticons so I have to tell you that....i am smiling
 

louise

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Great I've finally just figured out how to do the emoticons.. now i can express myself..
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hilary

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Louise, you got in ahead of me there. I once read for someone (not a customer) who received Hexagram 49 unchanging. A perpetual state of revolution that never quite reached the stage of founding a new way of living. Not precisely 'stable'. But the trouble with cheerily picking holes like this in all Candid's kind suggestions is that I don't seem to be able to do any better...

Emphatic? Perpetual? Single? Unified? (I can see posible misinterpretations when I get to #38...) Atomic?? eeerrrrrrggghh...
 
C

candid

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Not giving up! Ummm steady, even, constant, firm, established, secure, singular... ok now I'm giving up.
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Louise... you go girl!
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lindsay

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I like "stable". Hexagrams are gua, figures, regardless of their individual meaning. Some (with moving lines) are in flux, about to turn into another gua. Others (with no moving lines) are momentarily . . . umm, "stable". IMHO Candid has the right idea.

Lindsay
 

lindsay

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On the other hand, I see no one has yet asked a very important question: How is it possible for hexagrams to exist at all with no moving lines? Yin-Yang theory is based on the premise that Yin is constantly changing into Yang, and Yang is constantly changing into Yin. Neither elemental force can exist long in its pure form. Thus, according to this theory, a hexagram with no moving lines should be as rare as an atom with no moving electrons. Yet we all receive them in our readings regularly. How can this be?

I believe the answer is quite simple. Being very old (at least 3,000 years), the hexagrams tire easily and require lots of rest. Chances are a hexagram with no moving lines is fast asleep!

Here?s how it works. The hexagrams live together with other archetypes, symbols, and pure ideas in a remote, but universally-accessible metaphysical location. When someone casts the Yi, one of the hexagrams is required to manifest itself in a form appropriate to the reading. This can be hard work. The same hexagram may be called to appear again and again whenever people across the world cast the same result within a short period of real time. The hexagrams are not getting any younger, and who can blame them if they occasionally doze on the job? So when we receive a hexagram with no moving lines, we have summoned a figure exhausted from its efforts to serve and now in a state of rest.

This important discovery has grave implications for the future. As the hexagrams continue to age, and as more and more people take up Yi divination, the stress on these 64 symbols will increase, and so will their need for rest. This theory is scientifically verifiable. If Yi divinations are tracked over a substantial period of time, we should detect a significant increase in the number of readings with hexagrams without moving lines. Perhaps an international organization can be persuaded to sponsor this important research. Meanwhile, we can only wonder what this disturbing trend means for the future of Yi divination.

One must respect the elderly, so I hesitate to suggest we call these hexagrams ?exhausted? or ?sleepy? or ?somnolent? or ?comatose? hexagrams, with all the needlessly negative connotations such words possess. Instead, I recommend we call hexagrams with no moving lines ?resting? hexagrams. Dignified, but accurate.

Thank you for your consideration.

Lindsay
 

binz

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Hi all,

thoughts from a beginner:

1) the 'perpetual' hex - ie no changing lines - may signify that the person asking has one path to follow in the matter in question and it is thus not time dependent as the basic approach that person takes will apply no matter how the situation changes.

2) therefore it goes on that - the 'evolving' hex suggests that the response that the asker takes will have drastically different effects if taken at different times and therefore a different response is needed for different times.

As for how can 'static' hex's exist at all without changing into different hex's? Well the words and symbology may remain unchanged - but their meaning subtly changes depending on the circumstances - i.e. we have static hex's that are in perpetual motion.

so lets call them "perpetual hex's"

Binz
 

louise

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Wow Lindsay, where did that come from ! I'm still struggling with my feeling of the Yi being live, responsive entity and now I have to consider that the hexagrams may be separate little beings too, who get tired. I'm imagining little cartoon like figures.
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Which reminds me I once saw an I Ching book where each moving line was represented by quite a basic cartoon with a caption. I was too mean to buy it and have never seen it again, does anybody know what it was ?
Though it may sound sort of silly I thought at the time it was quite an effective idea, because it gave an image without the trap of words. Most translations however good seem to limit meaning rather than expand it.

I think Hilarys explanation of the 'locked' hexagram is the most satisfactory I have ever come accross (in post above) "The objective demands and reality of the situation are not separate from your own perceptions...there are no pivotal points where you interact with a situation and have a lever to change it" Also Binz points are very lucid.

To digress, but also illustrate, I recently asked (repeatedly)about a new job i was due to start and constantly got 6 line 4. When I asked if I was up to even doing the job I got 6, line 4. When I asked what to do then got 33,1 and 6. Asking again and again, not understanding still what to do I got 33 again, line 3 and finally 33 locked. (After further harrassment of Yi I got 4 three times in a row)
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I went ahead and took the job and was unable to sleep last night because of the stress of it - asked whether I should still intend to stay there and got 28, locked (or stable or emphatic or perpetual). I was fired today - and I think the locked 28 was telling me that the situation was going to topple no matter what. I take the locked hexagram as the Yi's final word on a situation, where you have no 'lever' as Hilary says to change it. If only I'd listened in the first place.....
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C

candid

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Lindsay - With all due respect, I can't imagine the binary code altering from age. But I do think you're onto something with the 'resting' idea. In Tai Chi, there's always rest between a movement from Yin to Yang - Yang to Yin. Rest compliments movement. The same is true for breathing. This isn't the same as static. Static would be stagnation and decay. But rest is something we all do and must do in order to continue on in life. Its not death - not static.

Another thought on the matter: Sometimes marching orders aren't specific. "Carry on", another common military term simply means to do what one would typically do in their assigned duty. If the call to duty is say, increase generosity toward the people, as in # 7, that's the call to duty - no changes necessary. Carry on - no changes needed at this time.

Candid
 
C

candid

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Louise - Sorry about the job, though its seems things happened there as they were meant to. Locked seems ok but I also like your word for Binz's thoughts - lucid. The word implies none-linear movement, similar to how I see the hexagram without change line: Still alive but not moving in a particular linear direction. Lucid... I like it.
 

lindsay

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Sorry, folks, I forgot to put an emoticon at the end of my suggestion above:
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. For some reason I found parts of this thread rather amusing. I'm amazed Louise and Candid did not use
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in their replies, but they are far too polite for that!

My latest idea is "prime hexagram" in the sense of a prime number in math. Prime numbers can only be divided without remainder by 1 or themselves. "Prime" carries the sense of absolute integrity, without ties or reference to anything else. Unfortunately, "prime hexagram" would probably be hopelessly confusing, since it is much too close to "primary hexagram". The naming contest continues . . .

I promise not to joke around again.
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Lindsay
 

pam

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I have found over the last 35 years of readings, that a static hexagram often means the opposite of what the hexagram usually connotes. But this only holds true with some. Hex 27, Nourishment, if received as an answer to "Will I get this job" or "Is my plan a good one?" usually means NO nourishment. OR, another way of looking at it is pay attention to where you should be getting nourishment, and not become sidetracked by this. The hexagrams of 51 and 49 alone sometimes indicate the I Ching's own shock with your preposterous idea or that what you are proposing is total revolution - and something that you cannot or will not actually do (and possibly if you stop to think about it, you will realize this). I have many examples, but has anyone also noticed this tendency?

Pam
 

louise

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Hi Pam, I've not come across these ideas before, or ever noticed the tendency...So when I got 28 locked do you mean that actually means 'no excess'? Difficult concept for me to get my head round.
 

hilary

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Hi Lindsay (*still chortling*) - 'prime' I like; the similarity with 'primary' is a plus if anything, and I've been hunting round the 'indivisible' idea for a good word myself. 'Singular' has potential, also, but maybe a bit quirky.

'Perpetual' is a nice idea, too - thanks, Binz. How many of these can I use at once?

Hi Pam,

That's a very interesting thought, and not something I'd noticed at all either. (Maybe in another 30 years I might!
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) I had noticed, though, that the meaning of 'Prime' combined with the meaning of the original hexagram in 64 different ways...

Maybe at times (49?) the lack of movement or dual perspective could go against the basic meaning of the hexagram, while at others (52, 12) it would reinforce it. A revolution with no movement or change? Perhaps it's something like a perpetual (Perpetual!) adolescent rebellion, a pseudo-revolution. Hexagram 27 is a challenge at the best of times, maybe doubly so when received as an Emphatic Hexagram (
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). There's sometimes an element of 'you need to think about this and process it fully or you're not going anywhere', too - maybe that would apply a lot with say 20 or 27 'Prime'.

Very interesting - thank you for the provocative ideas!
 

heylise

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Pam?s idea of the Yi being shocked about the question was a new and very enlightening one. I loved it. It gives suddenly a whole new dimension to some questions.
(About those puzzling answers: if you get 27 when asking about a job, I think the Yi tries to make you look at what you really need. Do you need this job for sustenance, or will it make your soul starve? Something like that)

I also like Candid?s ?lucid? for a static hexagram. Lucid 51: the Yi trying to get some understanding about shocks into my dumb head. Not distracting me with lines, not allowing any sidetracking, but focussing me on the essence of shocks. Like Hilary said too: 'you need to think about this and process it fully or you're not going anywhere'.

Prime is not bad either: prime 4 (not always a slap on your fingers, it might be an indication that you are learning in the right way, the way it should be done: without any preconceptions or preconditioning. Open and ignorant, ready to receive the truth).

LiSe
YiJing, Book of the Moon
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lindsay

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This is my last entry in the contest, but it could win the 8-ft. stuffed pink panda bear. What about "integral hexagram"? Granted, "integral" isn't exactlty a household word, but it does convey the sense of something that is itself and nothing else. One big plus is that "integral" does not suggest any assumptions about interpretation, so Pam and Hilary and Kts and everyone can use it without feeling cramped.

"Integral" seems like a winner, but right now I'd bet that "static" takes the prize since many of us already use the term.

By the way, do we have a good name for a hexagram WITH moving lines? Hmmm.

Lindsay
 

heylise

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A beautiful one too. I never use static, I dislike the word.
A prime, lucid, integral hexagram. Why bother with all those lines - this sounds grand.
LiSe
 

dave

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Hi everybody.

Having only started my relationship with the I Ching a couple of months ago I have benefited greatly from the wisdom of this website and of its "friends". So I tentatively offer my own insights here.

Referring back to Brian, I rarely ask the I Ching a non-specific question. I'm not saying such questions are invalid, merely that you have the additional challenge of figuring out what "implied" question is being answered on top of understanding the advice given. The few times I have asked something non-specific or even no question at all before casting a hexagram I have found it works best if I have some situation that is seriously bothering me at that time. I seem to live too troubled an existence to use this approach very often! Also, the time spent working out a good, concise and unambiguous question often produces additional insights into my situation and helps keep me focused when I then consult the oracle.

On receiving a non-changing primary hex (for want of a better word, as I see from your posts!) I still draw on a wealth of information from the hidden possibilities of the nuclear hex; the opposite of the situation (in Taoism when a situation reaches its extreme limits it next turns into its opposite) described by the opposing/complementary hex; the contrasting hex which, as Hilary has said "provide a context that helps to define the primary hexagram, often as part of a larger unit of meaning"; and the hexagram of sequence (when it differs from the complementary hex) which can show how you got into your current situation. Alas, by this point I frequently experience information overload!

I agree with what Hilary and LiSe said. I like to think of the I Ching as a wise mentor who knows the limits of my understanding even when I do not. A non-changing primary hex says I need to reflect on my situation further. Only by better understanding myself and my current circumstances can I affect the changes I need to make. I have to understand where I am right now before I can know where to go from here and how to get there. When I have done this I can consult the I Ching again and if I am ready I will receive the guidance I need.

Dave.
 

hilary

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Ok, where did I put that 8-ft panda? Amazing how hard it can be to find these things...

Tom - known as Pocossin in these parts - has drawn the attention of the Midaughter I Ching group at Yahoo to this thread. I foresee interesting times as we try to keep each group informed about the ideas of the other!

Anyway, Tom says (to summarise him, hope he won't mind) that an Integral Hexagram (!) does change: it just changes into itself. So you actually have a reading which you can treat as having a cast and secondary hexagram as usual (present and future, or description and diagnosis, in Tom's book), only the two happen to be the same.

I'd also say that a Lucid Hexagram (is there any reason to use the same term twice in succession?) is changing, but on the simpler premise that all lines are changing all the time - it's just that the 'young' lines aren't going to make the transition to their opposite any time soon, so we label them 'unchanging'.

I'll be back in a minute with a URL for the Midaughter list...
 

bfireman

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Well damn,

Returning from a short-but-sweet vacation, this naming seems to have gotten interesting. So, I'll throw a few more intot he pot...

floating, hanging, balanced, uniform, enduring ...

-Brian
 

willow

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hmmm.....


au·ton·o·mous

ADJECTIVE: 1. Not controlled by others or by outside forces; independent: an autonomous judiciary; an autonomous division of a corporate conglomerate. 2. Independent in mind or judgment; self-directed. 3a. Independent of the laws of another state or government; self-governing. b. Of or relating to a self-governing entity: an autonomous legislature. c. Self-governing with respect to local or internal affairs: an autonomous region of a country. 4. Autonomic.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek autonomos : auto-, auto- + nomos, law
 

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