Interpreting a "double negative"

[willow]

With my interest in astrology, I've been using the current Mercury Retrograde (4/26 - 5/20) as a period of reassessment and laying the groundwork for changes I'm going to have the opportunity to make in the near future. In the trickster spirit of these things, it's all been going very well and hilariously badly at the same time.

Now, looking toward the final days of this interval, I've done a reading and somehow backed myself into a very confusing place. First, I asked a "What to do?" question. Then I asked a "What not to do?" question and basically got a double negative answer -- refrain from being careful not to do such and such. Ack!

Here's the whole thing for context, but what I'm really interested in interpreting is the changing first line in the second reading. (#63==>#39, ch 1) Thanks, all.

Q1) What can I do, either hard or easy, that will help me bring the healthiest adjustments/revisions out of this Mercury Retrograde?
A1) #13 (Concording/Fellowship/Union) ==>#3 (Sprouting/Spark of Life/Difficult Beginning) ch 3,4,6

Q2) What best I refrain from doing?
A2) #63 (After Completion/Already Across) ==> #39 (Obstruction/Limping/Cold Feet) ch 1

 

[heylise]

In Shaughnessy I fond two different translations for 13 lines 3 and 4:
13.3 Crouching belligerents in the weeds: Ascending its high ridge. For three years they do not arise.

13.4 Riding its wall, you cannot be attacked: auspicious.


What not to do: 63.1 to 39

An old name for hex.63 is ?Spider?. I think it has to do with a perfect web, everything is arranged, in your control, you feel the slightest touch. But the whole thing can extremely easy be ruined. For this question: do not sit in your web and wait, like a spider.
If you are too careful, you will make the crossing too, but with some trouble. I think it tells you not to be too careful or too slow. The corresponding line of 39 says, you should not go on from out your past, experience, the things you know, but to look ahead, feel the wind and decide every step anew.
As answer on what to do, it would be to pull back, and then to go on with expectation (feeling your way instead of proceeding/rushing on from-out your experience). But as answer on what NOT to do: NOT to pull back and then to go on with expectation (feeling your way instead of proceeding/walking slowly from-out your experience).

LiSe

 

[willow]

Thanks LiSe. The image of the spider is wonderful. Still not sure about the double negative part, but maybe part of the point is not being sure, and not fixating on the unsureness - be aware of wobbles in the equilibrium, but don't put a lot of energy into actions trying to address it - that will lead to acting in a context of "limping" instead of a context of growing. The root (in #3) that finds its way around an obstruction simply continues to grow.

Watching the eclipse last night, ascended a high ridge, crouched in weeds. A gathering of people at a roadside turnout with a lot of bushy trees to the southeast. Most everyone looking not quite the right direction, waiting for the eclipsed moon to rise. Then, hanging in the horizon haze, right in the middle of a gap between two trees, there was a reddish sliver of moon. The milling people moved into a long narrow line looking through this slot. It was truly a "field altar."

 

[candid]

Hi Willow,

I'm exactly sure what to respond to or what the question is, other than 39:1 and maybe 63:1.

63:1? Uh, I'd call it, "watch your ass." Fox gets a surprise on his last leap over the ice. You used the word trickster for the mercury retrograde. A fox is a trickster. Watch that the retrograde doesn't boot yer bumm, or you're in deep river.

In 39:1, Let's throw down some Wilhelm.

Going leads to obstructions,
coming meets with praise.

When one encounters an obstruction, the important thing is to reflect on how best to deal with it. When threatened with danger, one shouldn't strive blindly to go ahead, for this only leads to complications. The correct thing is, on the contrary, to retreat for the time being, not in order to give up the struggle but to await the right moment for action.

I see this as: so you fell in the river. Now what? Or, perhaps you actually did brake your wheels in time and didn't fall in the river, but you?re on thin ice. Rather than forge ahead, retreat carefully and prepare for another crossing.

I?m finding the retrograde full of tension. A definite hex 3 for me. My ally is peace and stillness. The power and energy needed comes of its own. I know that for me during this time, that is my answer for what to do. What not to do is, to allow the high pressure to get inside of me, ruining all the hard work already accomplished. My own personal answer to this question was 52:6. And this is what I return to. When something is required, its just provided somehow within me. The energy is there when called upon. When not, return to 52:6. Movement and stillness. Its by now seeing the fruit of those efforts that I know Yi?s council was perfect for me. (As if it wouldn?t be?)

Tai,
Candid

P.S. I'm a Gemini so I'm definately watching cause and affect during this retrograde. Facinating.

 

[candid]

oops, meant to say - Not exactly sure what to respond to.

Had a chance to read LiSe's interpretation on the reading. Very similar, I think. I like the spider/web image very much. Subtle. Very Yin.

 

[anita]

Hi Hilary,

So you DO look at the corresponding changing line in the relating hexagram -- 63 line 1 changing to hex 39 and then you also look at 39 line 1. But Karcher in his mail to me said that it doesn't make sense to do that. Any explanation for your way of doing it?

Thanks

Best for your Quest

Anita

 

[hilary]

Hi Anita,

Who, me? I think you mean LiSe. Maybe it just doesn't make sense to Stephen, but it does make sense to her.

For whatever its worth, I think that the corresponding line might reflect your personal perspective or 'take' on events. Not part of the answer - not advice to follow - but something that might help you understand the answer. But the operative word there is 'might', as I don't often look at that corresponding line.

By the way, it would have to be the corresponding line in the 'step of change'/ 'zhi gua' hexagram. For instance, if you had hexagram 1 with lines 1 and 5 changing, you'd look first at #44 (line 1), then at #14 (line 5). Not that there aren't other ways of doing it...

 

[heylise]

I usually look at the corresponding line in the relating hexagram because it very often explains the first line. Sometimes there is very little text in a line, there is even one line which only says ?no regret?.

Hex.63 line 1 tells you to pull back the wheels. And 39.1 that ?to go? (proceed, moving on as you are used, departing from the past, from experience) brings limping, but to ?come? brings praise. The character ?come? also means future, it is moving with your eyes and intentions turned to the future. Full of expectation, or making plans.

This corresponding line adds this idea, of being directed to a new way to do things, to the pulling back of the wheels. So this is not a pulling back out of fear, and not an advice which has to be followed. It is pulling back because you are ?feeling your path?, finding out where the river is shallow enough, not trusting how you think it will be, or acting according to habits which proved good in the past, but probing, finding new roads.

LiSe

 

[kts]

The corresponding lines in the second hexagram sometimes mean more to me at first than the actual moving lines. A recent question was concerned with whether I could really afford a certain piece of expenditure. The answer was #13 with moving line 4, leading to #37. Who was preparing to attack, but deciding not to (13.4)? 37 line 4 in the version I was using at the time talked about managing domestic accounts wisely!- spot on! Perhaps the moving line in 13 was talking about the bank!?

 

[gene]

Sometimes that moving line in the relating hexagram speaks to me, sometimes it does not. But I find it is useful, not necessarily as a divination tool, but just a little additional insight into the meaning of the reading as a whole.

Gene