Question on interpretation: 33 changing to 16

[hitchhiker]

Hi, I asked the Yi what I might expect at a dinner meeting on Dec 7 and received 33 changing to 16.

33 is Retreat. Is the Yi asking me to retreat or telling me that someone/something will retreat? My instinct is that it's advising me to retreat. But I don't know if I'm being advised not to attend altogether?

Am I trying to get at this too literally/logically? Should I ask a more specific question? Still learning, comments appreciated. Thanks.

hh

 

[willow]

Hi Hitchhiker. The retreat of Retreat is the kind that prepares you better to meet another day. It isn't just running away, it's a successful retreat achieved by attending to small details. And your 33 changes to 16, Enthusiasm, which is very much about having gotten enough right about the image you carry of the future that it is inspiring not only to you but to others.

What are you preserving when you retreat? Your integrity, your sense of being responsible for your own life, not giving your power over to others. In some ways, a dinner party is a classic modern test of this. Each person must "present" themselves according to a strange kalidescope of (often unstated) rules, where some rules are in conflict with each other, and opportunities often arise for expressing both the best and the worst of individualism and of group feeling.

Often there is much judgement in the room, and your task is to retain your connection to your own vitality while you are coping with this atmosphere - remembering that you live to sing another day not only by withstanding judgement, and also not by the approval you gain from going along with the expectations of others, but instead by staying in touch with your own heart. Retreat reminds you that both fighting hard on all fronts and also running away can cause you to loose touch with yourself. If instead you pick and choose where and how you act, you strengthen your sense of self by staying in constant gentle communication with yourself as you go. Let this point pass. Make a stand on this other one.

The changing line at 3 really suggests a dinner party:

Wilhelm:
A halted retreat
Is nerve-wracking and dangerous.
To retain people as men - and maid servants
Brings good fortune.

Karcher:
Tied retiring's adversity. Possessing afflicting weariness indeed.
Accumulating servants and concubines, auspicious.
Not permitting great affairs indeed.

The idea, it seems is that, to all appearances, there is no retreat from a dinner party. You just make the best of it. This dinner party isn't a time for Great Affairs. The suggestion is that if you "do battle" with those who hold you there, you'll lose, and you'll equally lose if you simply isolate yourself. You can retain your integrity only by participating as if everyone there is capable of serving your integrity in some way. Karcher says, "Entangled in a web of difficulties, duties and connections, you can't get out of this alone. Let others help you: servants (who carry out orders) and concubines (who create a pleasant mood). Then you can begin to put it all at a distance." And LiSe captures the mood (of extricating oneself from the trap of judgement without leaving the scene) with: "One can only retreat if one feels free and strong. One retreats to one's own value. So untie yourself from everything which pulls you down and make yourself the highest point of your life. With pride and grandeur."

The changing 6th line suggests that your attitude toward this retreat is already healthy, and whatever you choose to do, your attitude will enable it all to turn out right.

 

[bfireman]

Damn Willow, that was real good and juicy... helped me out a bunch. Only reason I will try to add anything here is because I have in the past received these two hex's in the same order, as well as receiving either one or both many times within a few week period. I learned to view retreat as suggesting a retreat in attitude, as the sage telling me to just stop thinking about the question altogether... I think mulling over the question, the various fantasies and stories and endings I had self-created prompted all the multiple hex 33's. In hindsight, it really did help to just stop thinking about, although that is much easier said than done! Also, 16 has always puzzled me at times, because sometimes it is hard to tell if the enthusiasm one feels is really rooted in a calm, centered space or a chaotic and hectic one. In relationship issues, often I have received this hex to mean the enthusiasm is self-created and not necessarily "real" in relation to the question. I think hex 16 sometimes suggests one needs to ponder and be honest with oneself to figure out the truth of the enthusiasm.

Namaste - Brian

 

[hitchhiker]

Willow - WOW. What can I say? You've given me a lot to think about and will be doing that from now to Dec 7. Thank you!

hh

 

[hitchhiker]

Willow and Brian

Hi just wanted to say that the dinner party went ok and that I actually enjoyed myself without being too self-conscious, as I usually am with the group. Usually I'm too isolated or too gregarious (it's complicated

) but that day I managed to achieve a nice middle. "Retreating" into myself definitely helped.

Many thanks.

hh