timing question plus, 49.1 > 31, and also 44.5>50

[leonine]

Hi All,

So I have been going through a number of months of being figuratively stuck in the mud in a number of areas of my life particularly my professional (and thus financial) life. Quick background info, I'm a free lance photographer. A number of opportunities would pop up, and then flit away in the wind, or projects I was working on would get cancelled, etc etc etc. Some projects that aren't related to photography, same story though, things would look promising and then go nowhere. Lot's of obstacles, slowdowns, road-blocks, sometime because of other people blocking me (in one instance a family member with connections, who essentially doesn't want to see me lifted up), sometimes other people committing to a project and then backing out, sometimes because of events not aligning correctly. There's more to it of course, but that's the jist of it.
This is of course maddening and frustrating, and is leaving me depressed.

So I asked the Iching the following question:
Will I experience an opening of my path toward prosperity and the like in the next three months. Sort of a composite question.
The iching answered me thusly:
Hexagram 49.1>31

Metamorphisis/Revolution (the title of the hexagram certainly expresses what I am desperately hoping for and needing, a metamorphosis from my current state, a revolution that overthrows my current state, which frankly is terrible)
49.1: the translation that best seems to fit my current state, or perception of it, is Legge's:
The first line, dynamic, shows its subject as if he were bound with the skin of a yellow ox.
Hexagram 31, Attraction: certainly what I am hoping for, the attraction of good luck or correct circumstances that will allow me to move forward.

I am a beginner at this, and am not sure how to decipher it in terms of prediction.

I also asked a related question:
Info on my money situation and will it soon improve:
44.5 > 50
Temptation/coming to meet,
Line 5 sounds pretty auspicious
: Liu: The melon lies under the medlar tree. The glory is hidden. Something (blessing) comes down from heaven.
Sounds like something is developing, but not yet arrived (money is indeed lacking right now), and that opportunity will in the future appear.

The relating hexagram the cauldron, seems to imply a situation currently brewing

So there you go, not sure what to make of them. The first doesn't seem all that good at all, whereas the second one seems good. Any help in interpreting the results would be much appreciated, thanks all!

- Leonine

 

[khepri]

Hello, leonine.

My first impression of this reading is that the I Ching may be showing how the positive change you are looking for could come about, and not simply predicting whether it will or not.

49.1 - "Wrapped in the hide of a yellow cow."

Wilhelm's comment is "... yellow is the color of the mean, and the cow is the symbol of docility...", and that this line warns against "premature offensive." He advises restraint, being very sure before acting.

Is it possible that you sometimes act too quickly, too aggressively when you get involved in projects that later fizzle out?

49 Judgement: "On your own day, You are believed." Timing is important in Revolution. 49.1 suggests first being sure it is "your own day."

31 - Influence
" . . . the attraction of good luck or correct circumstances that will allow me to move forward. . . ." But again, perhaps not a straight -prediction-. Rather, an image of changes / circumstances that you can influence to bring about "good luck."

The Image in 31 seem to point to something a bit similar to the docility of the cow in 49.1.

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A lake on the mountain:
The image of influence.
Thus the superior man encourages people to approach him
By his readiness to receive them.

A mountain with a lake on its summit is stimulated by the moisture from the lake. It has this advantage because its summit does not jut out as a peak but is sunken. The image counsels that the mind should be kept humble and free, so that it may remain receptive to good advice. People soon give up counseling a man who thinks that he knows everything better than anyone else.
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"Readiness to receive" strikes me as contrasting to the "premature offensive" warned against in 49.1.