My cart is stuck, but what to do?

[sophie]

Hello again!

I have been trying to write a book for the past few months. Not my first book, nor my first fiction, but a first novel. The project started well at the end of last year, and I went ahead with necessary field research. I am passionate about the theme and setting, and my characters, and the plot I have outlined. But for the past few months, I have been stuck, and distracted. It seems I have been doing everything but write my book!

I've tried asking the Yi for help in the past, but was not in the right frame of mind even to take its advice. Now for the first time, I feel I am. So I asked two questions:

1) What is the matter with me, why have I become stuck in a project I want so much to achieve?

26, 2 >22


and 2) How should I proceed now in order to start working on my book once again?

64, 5, 6 > 6/40 overall 47.

Neither of them look particularly hopeful, although the second might give me a chance.

I read the first as a simple description of the situation. My cart's become unstuck, and I have no vehicle to proceed. That's true enough. Javary and Faure explain the cart metaphor as a metaphor for the yin and yang energies that need to be balanced and working together for anything to be created. So it seems I've become unbalanced in that department.

The second hexagram speaks of a transition that I am negotiating. 64,5 looks hopeful, and tells me that by my exercising leadership, the situation will unblock itself and my work will flow once again - but I need to confront myself, and the situation. 64, 6 seems to suggest that I should not go overboard...not quite sure what the drinking allusion means. If I can negotiate this crossing without complacency, I shall be freed from the blockage. However what concerns me is that 64,5,6 overall changes to 47. I'll exhaust myself in this transition? Or I must be prepared to face the exhaustion of coming through this transition?

This is a stressful situation for me, because I have given up a lot for this project. I would be very grateful for any help!

 

[willowfox]

"1) What is the matter with me, why have I become stuck in a project I want so much to achieve?

26, 2 >22"

Basically this says that you have writer's block and the only thing to do is to wait this period out, probably until September, so be patient. Perhaps some planet in your chart is blocking your progress for the moment, so don't worry.

"and 2) How should I proceed now in order to start working on my book once again?

64, 5, 6 > 47."

The last answer suggested that you be patient, so when the time arrives you will be able to forge ahead very successfully with your book, it is all a matter of timing. Hex 64.5,6 says that you will indeed finish your book.

Hex 47 says that all you can do is to wait for the block to melt away, and the thing is do is to carry on with life as normal because when the block finally disappears all will be well and you will successfully complete your book, so don't give in to negative thoughts, be positive because you will have success in the end, so keep persevering, and don't give up.

As for timing Hex 47 suggests October.

So be patient, your stars are blocking you, in 3/4 months all will be well again and your book will fly.

 

[sophie]

Thanks Willowfox. How do you get to those timings? If they are seasonal - I am in the Southern Hemisphere, shouldn't they be inverted? Although I shall spend mid Aug to mid Nov in the Northern Hemisphere, so maybe Sept/Oct does apply. It sounds like an awfully long time to waste!

Thing is, I am also blocked with the research - so it's not just classic "writer's block" - anything the Yi suggests here?

Another question I have is: 26,2 is about the axle of the cart being broken. Presumably cart axles don't repair themselves, so in what way can patience help? Shouldn't I be trying to repair that axle, and if so - how?

 

[Tohpol]

Thanks Willowfox. How do you get to those timings? If they are seasonal - I am in the Southern Hemisphere, shouldn't they be inverted? Although I shall spend mid Aug to mid Nov in the Northern Hemisphere, so maybe Sept/Oct does apply. It sounds like an awfully long time to waste!

Thing is, I am also blocked with the research - so it's not just classic "writer's block" - anything the Yi suggests here?

Another question I have is: 26,2 is about the axle of the cart being broken. Presumably cart axles don't repair themselves, so in what way can patience help? Shouldn't I be trying to repair that axle, and if so - how?

Hi Sophie,

As a part-time writer myself (though not fiction) the one thing that helps me become inspired is to let go and do something else - for as long as it takes. Often we don't have the luxury of always doing that, but we can take time out to clear the channels so to speak, even if that's just a small trip, a change of scene or an activity. In your case, I think you can allow yourself to stop and refresh your "well" and look deeply into it as it begins to fill up again. What do you see?

26 is pretty clear. Give yourself time to rejuvenate. The creativity will come back in due course.

There's a sense here that you want this too much too. You want to "achieve" and while this is completely understandable, you're losing the joy of this project perhaps.

Are you networking with other writers and creative types on the net or where you live? Face to face chats are always a good idea. But enjoying yourself and not thinking about it for a while could be the key, imo.

So, have as much fun as possible meantime!

Topal

 

[jimnammack]

Hey, Sophie:

My sense of things is that your situation is not bleak at all.

When you asked why you are stuck, you got Hexagram 26, The Taming Power of the Great. For this hexagram, the Judgment says, "Perseverance furthers. Not eating at home brings good fortune. It furthers one to cross the great water." In the Commentary on the Decision, it says among other things, "The firm ascends and honors the worthy."

In the text that follows, it speaks of "daily renewal." It also speaks of "keeping still and collecting oneself." And "holding fast and keeping still." And "holding fast and nurturing." These comments make me think of a daily meditation exercise that might be good for you. The one I would recommend is sitting still in a comfortable chair for fifteen or twenty minutes every day, concentrating only on your breathing. The purpose of the exercise would be to quiet your mind. When you quiet your mind, you speed up the vibrational frequency of your life. This results in your attracting to yourself more positive and worthwhile things. And it helps in problem solving. I would encourage you to do a divination about this, and see if doing this 15 to 20 minute meditation every day would not be just the ticket for you, and if this is not what the I Ching is referring to. This meditation thing popped in my mind when I read your post, so I hope you do a divination about it before accepting or rejecting the idea.

According to the text, not eating at home refers to entering public service, and crossing the great water means doing something risky or dangerous. The Image says to acquaint yourself with the many saying of antiquity and many deeds of the past.

This means that the solution to your getting out of your rut will involve your doing something bold and audacious, something that you might not be able to envision at the moment. For you, entering public service might mean that you get your new insight or direction from watching a movie at the cinema, or at a social function of some kind, or while doing a favor for someone, or something like that. The Image means that your solution could also have something to do with the past.

One of the problems I have with the Wilhelm translation is that there is so much explanation about the meanings of the hexagrams that some of the explanations are going to have more relevence than others, and some explanations are going to have only minimal relevence to a particular question.

The second moving line says that for the moment you definitely have a broken axle. Big help, right?

All that transforms into Hexagram 22, Grace. In the context of the information offered by Hexagram 26, the Commentary of the Decision says, "If the forms of men are contemplated, one can shape the world." And in the text explaining The Image, it says that one should not depend on normal or usual ways of dealing with extraordinary matters.

In conclusion, I would encourage you to start doing your daily meditation right away (if your follow-up I Ching reading confirms that you should), and that a very surprising solution will make itself known to you as a result.

That sounds like pretty good news to me.

When you asked for specific direction, you got Hexagram 64, which, in a nutshell, tells you that you are not quite there yet. Sometimes, in actual practice, it means that you are not even on the right track. Basically, it means that a big change of some kind is called for. So, in other words, you are being told to make a big change of some kind. That is the direction you should take.

Line 5 assures you that there definitely is a solution to your problem, and for you to hang in there, no matter what.

Line 6 is explained in the text as meaning that your situation is open for new new beginnings and new formations.

All these pieces of information are quite consistent with each other.

I feel that you are being told in The Oppression that you are in this rut because you are out of sorts with your true identity. You have reached a point in your life where you need to get more deeply in touch with yourself to successfully continue. This hexagram encourages you also to stake your life on following your will. Don't give up, in other words.

Look for a breakthrough on March 4, your time. I don't know what kind of a breakthrough it will be, or whether is will be big or small, but there will be a breakthrough of sorts.

Jim

 

[sophie]

Hi Topal and Jim, thank you for your generous replies!

26 is pretty clear. Give yourself time to rejuvenate. The creativity will come back in due course.

There's a sense here that you want this too much too. You want to "achieve" and while this is completely understandable, you're losing the joy of this project perhaps.

I think you might be right. Things seized up when I started to do some more academic book research after the field research (which I thoroughly enjoyed) - nothing like some of those leaden tomes to chase joy away! It's a problem though, because I do need to do it if I'm to write a halfway credible book. I think I might have to introduce some joy back into the project one way or the other, or I shan't get over this dry period.

Are you networking with other writers and creative types on the net or where you live? Face to face chats are always a good idea. But enjoying yourself and not thinking about it for a while could be the key, imo.

I'm doing all of that. What I am not doing is working with joy. See my answer above.

So, have as much fun as possible meantime!

Thanks, I will . I am going to the Indian Ocean coast soon for a few weeks, very refreshing and rejunvenating!

When you asked why you are stuck, you got Hexagram 26, The Taming Power of the Great. For this hexagram, the Judgment says, "Perseverance furthers. Not eating at home brings good fortune. It furthers one to cross the great water." In the Commentary on the Decision, it says among other things, "The firm ascends and honors the worthy."

In the text that follows, it speaks of "daily renewal." It also speaks of "keeping still and collecting oneself." And "holding fast and keeping still." And "holding fast and nurturing." These comments make me think of a daily meditation exercise that might be good for you. The one I would recommend is sitting still in a comfortable chair for fifteen or twenty minutes every day, concentrating only on your breathing. The purpose of the exercise would be to quiet your mind. When you quiet your mind, you speed up the vibrational frequency of your life. This results in your attracting to yourself more positive and worthwhile things. And it helps in problem solving. I would encourage you to do a divination about this, and see if doing this 15 to 20 minute meditation every day would not be just the ticket for you, and if this is not what the I Ching is referring to. This meditation thing popped in my mind when I read your post, so I hope you do a divination about it before accepting or rejecting the idea.

That's a very good idea. I am aware of perseverance helping, but when one's axle is broken, the question I have is - perseverance in what? But I enjoy meditating, and should take it up again. It's been a couple of months since I last meditated.

I drew a hexagram asking how meditation would help me overcome my block, and drew 1, 1,2 > 33. I read this as building up creative energy through retreat - which could be one way of seeing meditation. That seems to be a yes. I'm also advised to go an see a wise person, which could be a meditation experience, the Yi itself or a real human person.

According to the text, not eating at home refers to entering public service, and crossing the great water means doing something risky or dangerous. The Image says to acquaint yourself with the many saying of antiquity and many deeds of the past.

This means that the solution to your getting out of your rut will involve your doing something bold and audacious, something that you might not be able to envision at the moment. For you, entering public service might mean that you get your new insight or direction from watching a movie at the cinema, or at a social function of some kind, or while doing a favor for someone, or something like that. The Image means that your solution could also have something to do with the past.

Now all that together makes sense. You see, the story I want to tell in my book came to me as I was engaging in some rather dangerous public service in the past (I was a humanitarian in war zones for many years). At the time, I had no time to tell it, but now I do. It's not about humanitarian service but was inspired by a country in which I lived, and its people and history.

The second moving line says that for the moment you definitely have a broken axle. Big help, right?

LOL. But the Yi has a habit of saying it as it is

All that transforms into Hexagram 22, Grace. In the context of the information offered by Hexagram 26, the Commentary of the Decision says, "If the forms of men are contemplated, one can shape the world." And in the text explaining The Image, it says that one should not depend on normal or usual ways of dealing with extraordinary matters.

The text of the Judgement also reminds me not to be too ambitious at the moment, but to have a goal.

When you asked for specific direction, you got Hexagram 64, which, in a nutshell, tells you that you are not quite there yet. Sometimes, in actual practice, it means that you are not even on the right track. Basically, it means that a big change of some kind is called for. So, in other words, you are being told to make a big change of some kind. That is the direction you should take.

I think it is saying I need to change tack when it comes to the academic research - to mix it in with more joyful creative work.

I feel that you are being told in The Oppression that you are in this rut because you are out of sorts with your true identity. You have reached a point in your life where you need to get more deeply in touch with yourself to successfully continue. This hexagram encourages you also to stake your life on following your will. Don't give up, in other words.

I think I have allowed by creativity to be drowned in too much dry research, resulting in total standstill of the whole project.

Look for a breakthrough on March 4, your time. I don't know what kind of a breakthrough it will be, or whether is will be big or small, but there will be a breakthrough of sorts.

Well, that's the day after my birthday, so pretty auspicious - a first draft, perhaps?

How do you get your timings? I only know about the seasonal hexagrams, and they aren't that precise.

Thanks for your insight, guys!

 

[jimnammack]

Hey, Sophie:

It appears from the divination you did that the I Ching was not referring to doing meditations. Your divination seems to be a mixed message, and I would have to study the hexagrams and moving lines to figure out what it is saying. That is, I feel, a problem with the Wilhelm translation: it takes so much damn work to figure out what it means sometimes. Perhaps the positive second moving line means that a meditation exercise would be good for you, but is not the intended message of your original I Ching divination.

I do a lot of divinations about how to divine, and I get a lot of nifty insights into things that way. It was through these divinations that I happened upon this timing thing. It is a very recent innovation of mine, and I have used it for myself so far with really nice results. Off course, until I test it out more thoroughly, the good results so far might be attributable more to chance or good luck. If July 4 is indeed an auspicious day for your writing endeavors, please let me know. Hmmmm. I see in your post that you have referred to March 4, not July 4. I meant to type July 4, not March 4. My bad. In other words, your breakthough comes in a few days, not next year.

Jim

 

[sophie]

I don't often use the Wilhelm, except for reference.

July the 4th makes absolute sense, Jim, because I am going away for five and a half weeks by the Indian Ocean for a change of scenery. I can't wait!

I tend to see hexagram 1 as gathering and slow deploying of creative energy. Lines 1 & 2 show the passage from stillness to slow action - nothing precipitate. It is commensurate with meditation used to build up energy before a day's work. A friend of mine said I needed to do grounding exercises (she was reading tarot, not Yi Jing), and that too makes sense.

But I'll let it sink in. The Yi could be saying something else. I was encouraged to get the Creative Hexagram, though

 

[jimnammack]

The breakthough of July 4 might refer to an insight of yours, or to an inspired new idea of yours. It does not necessarily refer to something that physically happens, although it could refer to that.

We will have to wait and see.

Jim