What is the difference between 7 Unchanging and 50.5.6?

[FoxChiron]

Today I asked the oracle what I need to change in order to feel fulfilled with myself and my life. I almost asked another pointless question about the prospects of my love life before deciding this question probably struck at the heart of the matter in that aspect of my life along with all the others.
I use the Wilhelm version and received 40.3 changing to 32, a line that describes a common man trying to pretend to be a noble, and attracting scorn and possible attack as a result. I understood this to mean that something in the way that I act or the person I try to be is not in line with the Tao of who I am fundamentally.
So I asked what I am pretending to be that I am not really, and received 7 unchanging. I asked what I am really, and got 50.5.6 changing to 28.
Lately in life I have been trying to put aside childish concepts of being some grand intellectual who can unlock some secret truth, and just get a halfway decent job that I could support a family with if I ever meet the right woman. I used to want to be a psychologist, now I write on the side just so all the mental energy I have that doesn’t get used at work stops driving me crazy.
This reading is frustrating to me because I think I know what it means and I don’t like it!
I just want to be a guy who can “shut up and work” and not think too much, and it seems like the oracle is saying to me here that’s not really who I am, I have to find a way to use whatever gifts I have with humility. I can’t ignore them and I can’t let them make me think that *I* am special, I have to think of it as something bigger than me that comes through me.
I don’t know how to do that really and it’s lonely! Lol!
Thought I’d share and ask if there’s anything y’all see here that I missed.
As an aside, thanks for being such a good community too. Many of you are teacher to me without knowing it or meaning to be directly and for that I thank you.

 

[diamant]

what I need to change in order to feel fulfilled with myself and my life
40.3 > 32
I agree with your interpretation. The line cautions you to not pretend to be richer than you are, and basically advises you to behave according to your talents, your nature, your status.

what I am pretending to be that I am not really, and received 7 unchanging.
You're pretending to be a warrior, and/or an expert.

I asked what I am really, and got 50.5.6 > 28.
Either a woman has left you and you're admiring her from afar, and feel sad.
Or you've lost a good job and you feel sad.
Or you're a person who, whenever you complete a creative project, you then feel uncomfortable.

 

[FoxChiron]

what I need to change in order to feel fulfilled with myself and my life
40.3 > 32
I agree with your interpretation. The line cautions you to not pretend to be richer than you are, and basically advises you to behave according to your talents, your nature, your status.

what I am pretending to be that I am not really, and received 7 unchanging.
You're pretending to be a warrior, and/or an expert.

I asked what I am really, and got 50.5.6 > 28.
Either a woman has left you and you're admiring her from afar, and feel sad.
Or you've lost a good job and you feel sad.
Or you're a person who, whenever you complete a creative project, you then feel uncomfortable.

Well diamant, you’ve hit every nail on it’s head, in a literal and metaphorical sense. I was in the army, and in school for psychology, and I didn’t stay in either because I wasn’t willing to change and adapt to the expectations, and I didn’t fit in naturally,

I also act tougher and smarter than I am in a more general way, like I’m defending myself against the thought that I am not those things at all.

As far as your interpretation of 50.5.6 goes, “being left by a woman, losing a good job, and then doing something creative that I feel uncomfortable about” is a pattern I’ve repeated a few times over even though I don’t turn 30 until next year. I have a weird sense of having lived a thousand times over and being stunted by it at the same time as I type it out.

 

[dfreed]

Today I asked the oracle what I need to change in order to feel fulfilled with myself and my life .... I used the Wilhelm version and received 40.3 changing to 32

Wilhelm's "version" is one interpretation - I'll offer another:

With Hex. 40 you have trigrams (3-line figures) Water below with the 3rd line moving, and Thunder above. I think this describes you're desire (or even your need) to go or looking deeply (water); but perhaps fear, grief or sadness is getting in the way, so you 'act out' instead of act (thunder).

Line 40.3 is, "Being mounted, yet with loaded backs, lured the bandits down. Omen of regret." (trans. S. Field)

This describes an animal who is so weighted down (mounted and loaded) that it makes themselves and their rider vulnerable to attack. Could this perhaps be describing a 'burden' you are feeling, or carrying with you (e.g. fear, grief ....)?

The antidote (if you will) is to 'unloosen' this burden (one name for 40): learn to be gentle with yourself (32's upper trigram, Wind), and to think of this as a long-term journey, and not something you need to fix instantly (which would just be adding more burden) - and perhaps this will open new ways of seeing and understanding what it is you need to change. For me, 'being gentle' can include forgiveness and creating a place, or sense of safety for oneself - and perhaps others.

I hope that's of some use to you.
D.

 

[diamant]

Glad I could be helpful. Some further thoughts about your casts:

40.3 > 32 advises you not to pretend. We feel fulfilled usually when we accept ourselves, when we feel comfortable in our own 'skin', when we cultivate our strengths and control our weaknesses. Instead of changing, look within and find out your strengths and weaknesses.

What you are really 50.5.6 > 28 - hidden line here is 44.6. Hexagram 50 is about cooking/preparing something slowly, but you go straight into the completion of lines 5 and 6, via the aggression of the hidden line. And end up frustrated or not interested. My suggestion would be to examine and actually test if you can go about new situations more slowly. If you find out that you can't, then accept this characteristic of yours and aim for experiences which are fast-changing and dynamic.