To buy or not to buy a house 42.6 to 3 and 16.1 to 51

[Luna21]

Hello to everybody from Italy! I'm new and I'd like to ask for your help.
My daughter in October started the University. We live1 hour of train and about 20-30 minutes of bus from it, so for some month she travelled every day. At the end of February she started a new course that, for 3 days a week, finishes at 8 pm and the last train is at 8:30 pm and she could miss it, so we decided to rent a room.
Rental fees are expensive and she lives at 20-30 minutes from the University at the moment, so we are thinking about buying a small flat. The problem is that we don't have money and we should ask for a mortage. If it's possible we would like to buy a 2 bedrooms house, with a room to rent, or at least a bedroom big enough to share it so we can amortize part of the costs.
It would be a big sacrifice for us and, now that the cost of life is increasing, so I asked the I Ching:

- What can you tell me about buying a house? 42.6 to 3
The two exagrams seem quite positive, with a warning to be cautious: 42 says that "Let yourself imagine where you want to be, and take the first steps that commit you to going there" (Hilary Barret) and "there will be advantage in every movement which shall be undertaken, that it will be advantageous even to cross the great stream" (Legge) while 3 says "there will be great progress and success, and the advantage will come from being correct and firm. But any movement in advance should not be lightly undertaken" (Legge) and "It's far too early yet to narrow all the possibilities down to a single destination. Just as a plant sends out roots in all directions, a new ruler needs to set up a network of feudal lords" (Hilary Barret), so we need to find help? Where?
The line 42.6 doesn't seem good to me, I don't know if it is a "no, don't do it" or just another warning that it will be a big sacrifice and that we have to think well about it and have to be ready.

Then I asked:
-What can you tell me about not buying a house? 16.1 to 51
To me it seems to say that we have to wait get ready (but how?): 16 says "The energetic charge of enthusiasm can be used to set great things in motion. It is good to use it to expand and enrich your experience by extending your network of communication and support, marshalling your resources ready for future challenges" (Hilary Barret) and 51 says "When the time of movement which it indicates comes, its subject will be found looking out with apprehension: that feeling of dread leads to happiness. An yet smiling and talking cheerfully: the issue of his dread is that he adopts proper laws for his course" (Legge).
The line 16.1 I found this tread https://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/friends/index.php?threads/16-1-51.8843/ where Firehorse and Trojina say it is a warning not to overreact.

Can you give your opinions?
Thanks

 

[Liselle]

Hi Luna,

I agree the reading about buying a house isn't very encouraging. Actually neither of them are, as you've noticed.

The moving line always takes precedence over the hexagrams. The hexagrams are like a frame around the reading, or the whole map. The moving line is the picture inside the frame, or the pin in the map - exactly where you are in the bigger scene.

42 combining with 3: 42 puts a lot of energy into getting where it wants to go and improving things.

The oracle says:
"Increasing, fruitful to have a direction to go.
Fruitful to cross the great river."

You know where you want to go, and you're taking steps to get there.

and the Image wing says:
"Wind and thunder: Increasing.
A noble one sees improvement, and so she changes.
When there is excess, she corrects it."

You're trying to correct the current situation. From experience, this is an important part of 42. 42 means Blessing, but in practice it often seems to be more that an opportunity for blessing is available if you put energy into it. It's often not blessing that just lands in your lap.

3 is Sprouting. It's the relating hexagram, which is usually how it is for you, how it feels, something subjective. I often find it helpful to imagine being an actual little sprout, of a plant. You've poked yourself out of the seed, so now what? Where will you go?

Pasting this here so it's in front of me...

Oracle:
"Sprouting.
From the source, creating success, constancy bears fruit.
Don’t use this to have a direction to go,
Fruitful to establish feudal lords."

The moving line 42.6 seems to come out of that combination.
"Absolutely no increase in this,
Maybe someone strikes this one.
The heart’s foundation is not lasting.
Pitfall."

It's the 6th line of 42 - 6th lines sometimes mean that the theme of the hexagram has gone too far. In this case it's because "The heart's foundation is not lasting."

You're trying to make improvements (primary hexagram, the objective situation) as a sprout. A new sprout doesn't have experience to tell it what improvements would be good, right? You don't have the right foundation for making improvements, in some way, and that's why there's "pitfall."

The line 42.6 doesn't seem good to me, I don't know if it is a "no, don't do it" or just another warning that it will be a big sacrifice and that we have to think well about it and have to be ready.

I don't know, either, exactly. One question I have is have you talked to any banks about mortgages? Do you know whether you could get one?


The companion reading about not buying a house doesn't sound encouraging, either. Enthusiasm's Shock... in this case Enthusiasm might be that you're generally enthusiastic about solving this problem.

Moving line...
16.1
"Enthusiasm calling out,
Pitfall."

Don't overreact like you saw in the other thread, yes. 16 is Enthusiasm, 51 is Shock or Arousal - you really want to get going, and you're "calling out" on that basis. Bradford Hatcher translates it as "Proclaiming readiness, Disappointing."

The two readings seem pretty similar, don't they? The general impression I get is that you're all gung-ho to solve this, and it's just too soon for it, you're not ready.

That might not seem reasonable - in a way, this has been going on for months, plus if you take a lot more time over it, her 8 p.m. course will be over. But it's what Yi's telling you.

I think if it was me, I'd ask a more general question, leaving any specific solutions out of it for the moment. Something like, "Yi, guidance about this situation?" or "How can we best solve this problem?" or "What is best to do about X's housing situation?," something like that. Take some time to think about various questions until you find one that seems right to you.

 

[my_key]

- What can you tell me about buying a house? 42.6 to 3

The context of your situation surrounds you with a sense of not quite being able to move from where you are currently situated (3). What you are considering to undertake is creditable however you are being asked to look carefully into the matter to ensure all is based on a solid foundation. You are guided towards a best practice of following what is good in your picture of the future but being wary of and clearly and actively changing your approach when you see pitfalls. Ignoring them would be disastrous for you.

42.6 - You have reached the culmination point of Increase and Yi warns you to be on the look out of the dangers that may be lurking just around the corner and below the surface of your plans.

Then I asked:
-What can you tell me about not buying a house? 16.1 to 51

Not buying a house at the moment could well be a blessing in disguise (51) and through following this path you will be taken to a more joyful place (16). This path if followed offers you an outcome with a chance to really look at changing how you see yourself and your world. Hex 16 guides you towards activities that will make your heart sing and build your feelings of worth and grow your character.

16.1 - This line looks at the reality of your situation and directs its message towards thinking about what is right for you and your needs.

...or it might mean nothing like this for you.

Good Luck

 

[rosada]

16.1 could be saying it's too soon to assume not buying is the solution so maybe buying is a good idea but you haven't found the right house yet?

 

[Luna21]

Liselle, My_key and Rosada, thanks for your help.

The general impression I get is that you're all gung-ho to solve this, and it's just too soon for it, you're not ready.

Yes, I think I'm gung-ho to solve it (I didn't know this expression, and I love it). Actually in the past we had some luck in the real estate market, with the house we were living in that we refurbished and re-selled at a good price and that helped us in a moment of a very bad financial situation. And I love refurbishing and decorating. So looking for a house itself is something that I like, and of course we want to give the opportunity to our daughter to fully live the University experience after 2 years of sacrifice and of online lessons in the high school (she could have had online courses at the University and it would have been the cheapest solution), but she needed to build up relationship with other students.

One question I have is have you talked to any banks about mortgages? Do you know whether you could get one?

Yes, my husband asked to the bank and, even if they told him that we have very little money on the account, we both have a stable job, so it won't be a problem to obtain it, just my husband wants to repay the mortgage in 10 years, so the monthly payment could be high.

16.1 - This line looks at the reality of your situation and directs its message towards thinking about what is right for you and your needs.

Our needs, easy question... or not? We would like to make an investment, since our daughter have 2 more years of University, 4 if she decides to continue, and we have a second daughter that in 2 years will finish the high school and presumably will go to the University after. So we'll have to spend money anyway and the house will be there for them if they decide to stay in the city after finishing the university, or we can sell it or rent it.

16.1 could be saying it's too soon to assume not buying is the solution so maybe buying is a good idea but you haven't found the right house yet?

We have already seen 15-20 houses, some would have been perfect, if they were in another (safer) neighborhood. There was one that could have been a good solution, but we decided too late to make an offer and it had already been sold.
Now we keep looking for it, but at the moment I guess we have seen almost everything.

 

[Liselle]

What do you think "The heart's foundation is not lasting" could mean?

"Absolutely no increase in this,
Maybe someone strikes this one.
The heart’s foundation is not lasting.
Pitfall."

What foundation? What isn't built, so to speak, what necessary prerequisites or relationships don't exist? It sounds like you've thought through things, and yet this is what Yi's telling you.

The only thing I can think of is financial. You talked about renting part of it out - do you mean your daughter would find a friend to do that?

 

[Luna21]

Yes, I guess it could be money, because at the moment it is the main problem and if we had a higher budget, we would have already found something.

You talked about renting part of it out - do you mean your daughter would find a friend to do that?

There are many students looking for a place to stay, a friend would be better, she could find one, but it is not hard to find someone anyway. At the moment she is living with 2 girls she didn't know before and she is happy.

 

[Luna21]

I tried to ask "What can we do to make the hearts foundation last?"
7.5 to29
Here I don't have any ideas, I had 7 in a couple of occasions in which it was need to behave as a leader, take one own responsibilities, but here I don't know which responsibilities.
Maybe that we have to gather more supplies before we can buy a house?
We also have a small farmland that we could sell in case of need, but my husband at the moment doesn't want to and actually this wouldn't be the best moment for selling
LiSe speaks of being flexible, to take chances when they appear. This is what we are trying to do, but it is not easy, as I said, there could have been some good houses, speaking of dimensions (one had 3 bedrooms!)/price ratio, but the neighborhood wasn't good and this is somenthing we are not really willing to be flexible at.
And 29 speaks of danger.

 

[my_key]

I tried to ask "What can we do to make the hearts foundation last?"
7.5 to29

To make your hearts foundation last Yi portrays a meaning for you of Grieving (7) through The Chasm Below (29). Your best guidance in this situation is to foster greater care and attention towards what is lurking below the surface in order that you may accumulate support for what is above. This could be the way to fend off the dangers you see in 29. Your challenge in making the hearts foundation last is trusting in not doing anything outside of your comfort zone at the moment (nuclear 24) and perhaps just allowing things to unfold for a while and then follow ways that are not be your normal approach.

7.5 - points you towards allowing a real purpose to unfold that is based in a taking of responsibility and clear action rather than following the corpses in the cart. The latter is certainly not the way forward here.

... or it might mean nothing like this for you.

Good Luck

 

[Liselle]

I'm going to assume Yi wouldn't advise you to house your daughter in an unsafe neighborhood. That's not from your readings, just my idea of general principle.

7.5 - I don't have a good feel for this line. But what it reminds me most of out of what you said is how you missed out on one:

There was one that could have been a good solution, but we decided too late to make an offer and it had already been sold.

Things like that will happen, but you wouldn't want it to happen twice.

Here's how Bradford Hatcher translates 7.5 (you can download his pdf for free here, if you don't already have it):
"The hunt takes captives
Worthwhile to manage the talking
Avoid error
The elder son captains the militia
The younger son transports fatalities
Constancy is inauspicious"

"Worthwhile to manage the talking" - it's a big decision and you do have to talk it over, but also it seems you have to be quick or you lose it. Talk, but not too much. (Buying a house sounds very stressful!)

I don't know - I'm making things up that you've probably already done - maybe figure it all out ahead of time, what you want, what you don't want, what the gray areas might be and how you might handle them (?). Then when you see a possible house, mabye you can decide really fast. You don't want to have to do a lot of talking then. You don't want to have to reinvent the decision from scratch every time, which might (not sure) be 29, Chasms, where you go over and over things repetitively.

(As I said, I have a feeling you've already done all this, so please ignore me if so.)

On the other hand, you might have to be prepared to abandon your carefully thought-out plans and ideas if they don't quite fit with what you're seeing in real life. Still, maybe the more you work out ahead of time, the better your basis will be.

Not sure I'm explaining this well. It sort of reminds me of what I've come to think about lists of pros and cons. It's not that you're going to just count them, and if the number of pros is bigger than the number of cons, do the thing. That's too superficial. It's more that making the lists means you're doing a lot of thinking, and that's what's important, not the list itself.

"Corpses" - here's part of what Hilary says about them, from her commentary about corpses in WikiWing for 7.3, which is also about corpses. (You won't be able to access that page unless you join WikiWing, which is why I'm quoting part of it):

The historical reference (from SJ Marshall [1]), is from Wu marching into battle against the Shang and actually carrying the corpse of his father in order to have his spiritual presence. This worked for Wu - but it doesn't for us.

A 'corpse' - anything that was once full of great vitality and spiritual power, but has been emptied of it and become dead weight.

That's what I meant by think it out as well as possible ahead of time, but also be prepared to abandon it in the heat of battle - but that doesn't mean it was useless. The corpse provides spiritual power, but if it's actually carried into battle it could slow everyone down. If that happens, time to abandon it. Hopefully you can keep the spiritual power without keeping the corpse itself.

Or the famous military saying, "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." Probably true - but that doesn't mean planning was a waste of time. It gives everyone a good foundation, makes it easier to be flexible.

Inadvertently used the word "foundation"...

 

[Luna21]

"Worthwhile to manage the talking" - it's a big decision and you do have to talk it over, but also it seems you have to be quick or you lose it. Talk, but not too much. (Buying a house sounds very stressful!)

I guess this is a good advice, of course me and my husband have talked a lot, but maybe not in the right way and of course sometimes we can have a slightly different idea on the houses we visit. In the case of the famous house we made the decision too late, I immediately wanted to make an offer, but my husband wasn't convinced and wanted to see more options (it was one of the first ones we visited) and 15 houses later it still was the best option.
On the other hand, maybe there could have been other options, but I was late in calling to fix an appointment (this is my task) because at one point I was asking myself if we could afford it, and when I called, they were gone.
Maybe the corpses are the fears of not being able to cope it on the financial side that block us and to sit down and have a good talk could help us to face them and decide what we really want to do.

Your challenge in making the hearts foundation last is trusting in not doing anything outside of your comfort zone at the moment (nuclear 24) and perhaps just allowing things to unfold for a while and then follow ways that are not be your normal approach.

Yesterday I was reflecting on the house issue and suddenly I realized what these ways that are not my normal approach could be: another option we are considering, even if I'm the one with more resistance (corpses?), are bankruptcy auctions. Sometimes you can find interesting options, but you always have to be careful and take all the info needed to have no bad surprises.
At the moment we have identified a possible auction, a house right in front of the University (actually there's a river in between), 2 bedrooms, very low starting price, it could be an excellent investment, but it needs almost a total makeover. My husband wrote an email asking to have an appointment to visit it and we are waiting for an answer.

And speaking of foundations, a house always needs good foundations...

Thanks again for your insights.

 

[Luna21]

A quick update: today they called for an appointment for the auction house, they should call back on Monday to say when it is possible to visit it.
Yesterday I asked the I Ching:
-What do you think about us participating in the auction? 49.1.3.5 to 16
The reading doesn't seem bad, line 3 speaks of danger, but also that we need to talk it over (the 7.5 of the previous reading?) and in this way we can maybe find a solution, but it doesn't seem this is the moment.
Me and my husband have talked over the financial issues, made all the calculations needed and, even if we still think it would be a good investment (if the house was sold at the starting price, which I doubt) and like the idea (the Enthusiasm of 16?), the house needs too many repairs and we have decided to drop it because at the moment we can't afford it. The auction is at the end of April, but I doubt we can find a solution before.
I think talking have been useful and it saved us from investing more in terms of emotions and time (going to visit it).