...life can be translucent

Menu

You Experiences With Unchanging Castings - Hexagram 0

arabella

visitor
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
1,668
Reaction score
83
As was suggested, we're creating a thread here to capture general information, experiences and findings in relation to Unchanging Castings. There are 64 threads that will follow this one detailing experience with each Hexagram in its Unchanging form. Please register any overall experience with unchanging castings here.
 

heylise

Supporter
Clarity Supporter
Joined
Sep 15, 1970
Messages
3,128
Reaction score
202
I gathered everything which has been said in the other threads about unchanging hexagrams, which was general. Is it useful to post the (very long!!) text here as one long post?
 

arabella

visitor
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
1,668
Reaction score
83
Oh absolutely! Thanks for that "housekeeping" it's a briliant idea. :)
 

heylise

Supporter
Clarity Supporter
Joined
Sep 15, 1970
Messages
3,128
Reaction score
202
From the other threads, for an overview:
Trojan:
there a numerous ways to see unchanging hexagrams

mine are

1. its a direct unequivocal answer. a simple answer. For example perhaps 42 unchanging there is pretty much a situation of increase and blessing.

2. its describing a situation you cannot really impact upon much...its how it is ...which is er pretty much the same as point 1 isn't it...hmmm

3. you can't quite access what ever the hex is about because you have no place to stand in regard to it...there is no relating hexagram so how do you relate to it ? No changing lines almost seems to mean you are outside of it...ooha again not dissimilar to points 1 and 2

4. it can be emphatic advice particularly if you read the Image which is said to be more prominent with the unchanging hexagram

Some people make out an unchanging hexagram always means this or always means that and they.... are..... wrong. The same words can be spoken in a sentence but they mean entirely different things according to context and tone. I think ones intuition has to be engaged.

Why would it repeat you ask ?...same reason people repeat what they say...seems you didn't hear them the first time ? Its the same answer

R L Wings view of the unchanging hexagrams are pretty arbitrary. Its all down to your own feeling how you see the unchanging hexagram in any particular instance I think it varies alot, can be quite different at different times.

Hilary:
Everything Trojan said, plus

3a) You haven't yet chosen where to stand in relation to this, or where you're going with it. So 46 unchanging might be 'this ladder you're climbing... what wall is it leaning on, again?'

and either 3b) or 5), not sure which,
Sometimes this can wreak havoc with the original meaning of the hexagram. 52 unchanging is just very, very still. 11 unchanging is... weird and unpredictable. As if all that energy really wants a direction. It may be from this kind of thing that someone came up with the theory that an unchanging hexagram always means the opposite of its original meaning, something like a reversed card in tarot. That's certainly not true - but maybe if you got a string of 1, 11 and 49 unchanging it could seem to be.

Short version... 'unchanging' might be a kind of punctuation. For instance:
.
!
...??
**?!*?&!!***
Arabella:
If I could revert to the general idea of an unchanging hexagram for a moment.....

The more I've thought about the unchanging hexagram phenomenon, the more it occurs to me that any hex unchanging may be a form of pure energy, which is how these stories sound in practice -- unless that's distinct to Hexagram One unchanging. Somehow I think we will find this to be generalised though.

Searching for a common thread between other experiences of unchanging hexes puts me in mind of books that I’ve read on chaos theory and scientific thought that says there is no “chaos” in the Universe – only patterns that are so broad our minds can’t grasp them.

Does it seem that, whereas, the fence-posts of changing lines give us more clues on the social or practical implications of the situation equated with a relatively known background of ancient Chinese civilisation [and more tangible imagery to work with as well as shades and nuance of tone], the unchanging hexagram would appear to present us with, as Hilary says, a disembodied and pure energy form, a primary colour and a phenomenon the Yi masters didn’t really choose to define for posterity? Can the unchanging hexagram be, literally, a purer and more forceful essence of the hexagram? It seems difficult to believe that, as a primary condition of being, the unchanging hexagram would behave more randomly than the changing lines though. Perhaps just a broader brush and bolder stroke?

Surely there is nothing “random” about the unchanging hexes; anymore than there is about a grid organised into 64 hexagrams, six interior phenomena each. Trojan was saying that the fixed double-hexagram is a more direct voice. What is it that fails to change – when we draw the double-hexagram? The amount of fluctuation appears to decrease to nothing. Randomness should be less then – not more. In any case, doesn’t it seem we are faced with an energy that is more dense and focused and whose application leaves fewer choices [thus no changing lines] and requires more faith and acquiescence? Or is that just the mood I’m in lately?
Trojan:
Well you've totally lost me...admittedly i spend a good deal of time being lost but still......

1. what on earth is a double hexagram ? You aren't referring to the appearance of the online casting tool are you...? It isn't really double you know....an unchanging hexagram is just that hexagram

2. I'm lost as to why you are discussing the unchanging hecagram being random why would it be any more random than any other answer

I haven't said it was more random but you seem to be discussing that point with someone who did say that...? I don't know who

3. why do you call the unchanging hexagram a phenomenon ? Its no more a phenomenon than any other answer.....is it ?

4. This is more nebulous...feels to me like you are looking to get something pinned down and generalised here about the unchanging hexagram. But they are all quite different in their unchanging form and as I listed above can be quite different in their manifestation. For example while I may experience hex 1 as something as yet quite unformed...but very vital...thats not something I could generalise to all instances of my receiving unchanging hexagrams...or even generalise to hex 1 unchanging

Hex 58 unchanging can be simply having a wonderful time, being open...or it might answer something very tangible ie I once, being worried, asked about an endoscopic preocedure, ie a tube being put down my throat into my stomach...Yi gave me 58...Karchers word 'open' for 58 leapt out at me and I instantly was reassured....that is without very much analysis I knew 58 was a good omen for objects to pass through openings. Why was it unchanging ?....because it was the most apt answer for me at that time...plus there was much laughter and joking with the nurses and so on...so that linked in too. It was not about an unformed or pure energy...i think in that instance it felt just a pretty physically immediate answer

Look at the 3 examples of hex 1 unchanging here....they are very very different aren't they. I suspect people have had 1 unchanging as plain practical answers too . Thats why Yi cannot be pinned down ...and why we are still talking about it

LiSe:
I got hex.1 with all lines changing once. Maybe it is a good example to see what unchanging is NOT.

I wanted something very badly, but it involved the approval of someone who didn't see any need for it. To get it done would take a lot of effort.
I think Yi told me that it was a big creative thing to do, but there was so much I had to overcome, the task was simply too big for me.
Several years later I could finally do what was not possible back then, and with good result.
LiSe:
Could it be that an unchanging hexagram is like a tarot card? They have no lines either, they give an image of a situation or time or whatever you ask.
Death does not always mean something negative, or someone dying. It can be a necessary end, or a disastrous one, or the casting off of something obsolete and lots of other meanings. Most people have no problem with those different meanings. Same way hex.1 can be an image of strength, of endurance, of cold fate, of greatness, of impossibility (something too big) for a mortal being, of gods supervising what you are doing, of something needing to be created, of the power to do that, of something which overpowers you and so on.

LiSe:
I heard once, long ago, a complaint of someone who had hex.11 unchanging as prediction for a day. That day a member of his family got a stroke, so how could that possibly be?

I know how. I know someone who had a severe stroke, and getting a light one is literally a life-saver. Without that warning you go on and the danger grows and grows until one day you get the heavy one.

So 11 unchanging was a description of that day. Just "this happens, and it is of hex.11-quality". A gift from above.

Hilary:
Trojan, I think when Arabella questioned whether an unchanging hexagram should be particularly 'random' she was picking up on what I said about the weird effects of unchangingness on a hexagram's original meaning. The idea being that the meaning 'shouldn't' be unpredictable, it 'ought to' be pure and direct essence-of-hexagram. At least, I think that's what was meant...?

Arabella:
Thanks Hilary, yes this is what I was chiming in on. A bit of talking out loud to myself -- SHOULDN'T it be this way then?? And terms like "double hex" or "phenomenon" is just me searching for synonyms or metaphors where there may not be any -- to keep from repeating the same words again and again. Don't take me literally please Trojan as i sort around for a way to describe what I'm muddling through. Interesting though, when you think of it, if the unchanging hexagram isn't the hex doubled -- why write it twice? Why not simply write an unchanging hexagram once if that's the only connotation? Again, just me thinking out loud!

LiSe:
Could it be that an unchanging hexagram is like a tarot card? They have no lines either, they give an image of a situation or time or whatever you ask.
Death does not always mean something negative, or someone dying. It can be a necessary end, or a disastrous one, or the casting off of something obsolete and lots of other meanings. Most people have no problem with those different meanings. Same way hex.1 can be an image of strength, of endurance, of cold fate, of greatness, of impossibility (something too big) for a mortal being, of gods supervising what you are doing, of something needing to be created, of the power to do that, of something which overpowers you and so on.

Hilary:
That reminds me of, years ago, thinking maybe a relating hexagram was a bit like a position in a tarot spread.

LiSe:
This morning I cast for today. Something has to start and I cannot make it start. It is very much like a writers block. I got 41 to 3, but reading the stories about 3, I realized that the relating hexagram is very much like an unchanging hex. I see it as the "sea", like Hilary describes it, an image of the situation, of the question, the problem, the time. The relating hex has no changing lines.

Chingching:
I have experienced this too, also I read an old thread where Trojan mentioned using the image of the relating hex as a focal point, or it being more important, and I find this with uc hexes as well, the image is really important.

I've only once tried to read an uc hex by reading all the lines, and it didn't resonate with me. I think Bradford once wrote the lines are how you are responding to the energy of the hex at that time, and that is clear to me, so with an uc hex I tend to think of it as you are standing on the highway of this energy, where as if you have changing lines you might be about to merge onto the highway via the road and the line suggest what kind of road or vehicle you are driving.

I actually have had 3 uc once, and it was for a new project I just started and I had many grand visions for but because I was new at it I didn't really know what I was suppose to do most of the time. But I did keep going. It became bigger than I thought it would. Its almost as if it was just about setting things up well, or very well and that is the predictor of how the 'thing' can expand, the basis, its not a direction but a time to build foundations.

Angeleyes:
I like that. Foundations! That's the word i was missing!

Arabella:
Was reading through some archival entries on Unchanging Hexagrams and found this one from six years ago, written by Heylise:

For me, unchanging hexagrams have had several, often very different meanings. Sometimes that there was nothing I needed to do about a situation, or there was anyway nothing I could do.

The hexagram describes a time or the situation or the general feeling about it, and the lines are much more active. So no changing lines is "no activity", for whatever reason.

Maybe because the situation is at a dead end. Or maybe everyting is fine, and will go well all by itself. Or it will end in disaster, but there is no way stopping that. Or it is so delicate, that I better keep my fingers away from it.

I have had the opposite, hex.1 with all lines changing. I wanted something desperately, but Yi told me, that I would have to conquer so much in order to fulfil my wish, it was beyond my power. The only thing I could really do, was being like 2. Accepting things the way they were. In this case, an unchanging 1 would have made me try again, thinking I had some 1-power.

When the wind does not blow - one can only go with the flow. No use for sails then. And no use for paddles on a big sea, or in big situations.
Hex.1 with all lines changing was like being in a hurricane, also better to move along instead of trying to fight the storms.

Arabella:
Also, Martin had something to say in this same 2006 conversation involving LiSe, referring to the Unchanging hexagram and it's implied mirror image as the "second hexagram." He explains some personal experiences when replying to someone else's comments that a "static" hexagram may indicate that the Yi is "throwing your question back at you":

You wrote: "I think this idea of the static hexagram giving the question back to you is an interesting one. In this particular case, it seems to fit very well with 20 unchanging.. yes.. "what do *you* think?" But I would like to hear more about it, and about how it would apply in other situations.."

In my experience the second hexagram often seems to be a image of the question that I asked, or rather of the question that I really asked. It specifies my question.
It's like the I Ching says "Look, you may not know it, but this is in fact what you asked".
For example, if I get hex 37 as second hexagram then my question is maybe (although I'm not necessarily aware of it) in fact about role patterns - of men and women or more in general.

I'm not saying that it always works that way, but it is a possibility that I always consider. The second hexagram might be an accurate image of the question that I asked and give me more information about that question. So I will look into it from that perspective. Is this indeed what I asked?

In the case of an unchanging hexagram the second hexagram is the same as the first, in a way. So it might be that the I Ching is giving the question back to me.
If it indeed does that (and again, I'm not saying that this is a hard rule, I don't think there are many rules in oracle land, and most are probably unspeakable anyway ) it is not just giving the question back like a dead mirror. It specifies the question for me. It may give me information that I didn't have until then, at least not consciously.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Feb 19, 2010
Messages
1,260
Reaction score
18
Unchanging hexagrams (for me so far) are simple and to the point, yet intense. It is easy to want to find more advice out of them than what they are offering. As of lately, when recieving an unchanging hexagram, at first I feel that I have a lot to sort through. Then I start narrowing down the advice and looking at the core meaning of the hexagram. I like to look on LiSe's site, and what Hilary's Wikiwing say, about the translation of just the name itself. It boils it down for me. The reading becomes like water going through a funnel.
 

heylise

Supporter
Clarity Supporter
Joined
Sep 15, 1970
Messages
3,128
Reaction score
202
I have the software of Justin Farrell, the "IChing_Journal". I can save all my readings with date and remarks and everything, and search for past readings in lots of ways. By hexagram, trigram, change pattern, only yin-changes, and so on. But not for unchanging hexagrams. So I mailed to Justin and asked if that would be possible.

He made that, sent a link, and voila!! So once again I recommend it - is there any software which simply changes when you want something extra? :D
 

arabella

visitor
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
1,668
Reaction score
83
I have the software of Justin Farrell, the "IChing_Journal". I can save all my readings with date and remarks and everything, and search for past readings in lots of ways. By hexagram, trigram, change pattern, only yin-changes, and so on. But not for unchanging hexagrams. So I mailed to Justin and asked if that would be possible.

He made that, sent a link, and voila!! So once again I recommend it - is there any software which simply changes when you want something extra? :D

This is amazing! Well done Heylise!:)
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2010
Messages
1,260
Reaction score
18
Here are some maybe's for unchanging hexagrams:

Maybe:
Unchanging readings are Yi's way of saying you need to first understand 'where you are' before you can 'go anywhere'.

The unchanging hexagram reading is saying, this is where you are at, take a look at it and understand it better.

It is Yi's way of saying, just look at the energy of 'where you are' before you move with this energy into the future.
 

mryou1

visitor
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Messages
237
Reaction score
13
It's "The Book of Changes" and when what you receive doesn't change you have to think why that is and whether that's good or not. An unchanging hexagram will show you the present persisting so you have to consider whether you like where you're at right now or not.
 

leandroscardoso

visitor
Joined
Mar 13, 2012
Messages
32
Reaction score
0
unchanging is not changing

It seems incredible but for me the changing hexagram are not changing into other hexagram! at least not compared to a "unchanging" hexagram; well is more complex then this, I will explain this in one of my videos I think in my channel search on youtube for leandro de souza cardoso http://www.youtube.com/user/Leandrosouzacardoso?feature=mhee. I have a interesting theory that the "changed" hexagram is currently incomplete and I would like to hear your opinions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp-Msq-wJQU
 

tlamb

visitor
Joined
Sep 5, 2011
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Recently, I have found that the spirits that guide me are giving me two possible responses when I receive an unchanging hexagram.

First, it may be that the situation is described by the energy movement symbolized by the hexagram, end of story. All is going as described by the hexagram's pure image, usually all is well, going as planned; or the situation is stuck - do I want to do something about it? Sometimes this is an advisement. For instance, an unchanging occurrence of Hexagram 51 was a suggestion to stir things up in the situation in question. An unchanging 29 was an invitation to jump in and do what I knew needed doing but was reluctant to start.

Second, it provides the context for a deeper exploration. This I feel is accompanied by an invitation to see more details in a further clarifying/expanding casting (asking: "Please clarify/expand."). The contextual unchanging hexagram is a reassurance or caution that, whatever misalignments may show up in the expansion of the new casting, the trajectory of the situation is shown by the first, unchanging hexagram. If I am happy with the long-term direction, I can clear what appears in the expansion/clarification. If the unchanging hexagram describes a trajectory that takes me away from the Way, I can use the clarification to remove the obstructions shown there, affecting the long-term path. I may recast after the clearing process if I want to confirm that my work is done to properly align with the Way.

I do not generally read any hexagram as "negative", but as an advisory statement of how the energy is moving in the moment, also suggesting and augmenting an alchemical transformation. It's all good!

I would love to hear if any of this rings true for anyone else.

Cheers,
Terry
 

meng

(deceased)
Joined
Jun 3, 2010
Messages
1,257
Reaction score
94
Hi Terry

Your main points I agree with, but spirit guides.. I dunno. I think there's an awful lot about ourselves we don't know. It's like investigating outer space without first understanding our own oceans.

I don't think there is an unmoving hexagram, even when it has no change lines added. I see this as similar to your "energy movement" idea, but I don't think there's an on/off switch, other than to our own mind. The hexagram itself is dynamic and moving, even when things are decaying or splitting apart.
 

el_2

visitor
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
147
Reaction score
5
Looking back at some past readings of mine I came across a string of unchanging hexagrams I got from the Yi about a single situation.

About a month ago I had arranged to go to an art exhibition. I knew friends and acquaintances would be there. So I called up a couple of friends of mine to arrange to meet beforehand to go to the exhibition together.

One was going to go earlier than I could but I'd meet him there. The other was not sure she could make it and said that she'd call me later that day to tell me.

And I got into a silly mood, not wanting to go alone and thought that perhaps I could explore other options, e.g. make it so that I could leave earlier so that I'd meet with the first friend, call up other people, also go alone if need be - really silly as I knew I'd meet people I knew there.

So I started asking the Yi and got a series of unchanging hexagrams that made no sense to me.

As it turned out, the second friend called me and told me she would be able to make it and we arranged to meet and go together. All along, when asking the Yi, I knew that that was a possibility, in which case all these questions would have been in vain.

So now I'm thinking that I got all these unchanging hexagrams because there was no need to ask these questions.

Just a thought.
 

meng

(deceased)
Joined
Jun 3, 2010
Messages
1,257
Reaction score
94
Maybe your message went to 'hold until further notice.'

Really, I'm at a loss to understand why a reading with no change lines is any different from one with change lines, other than there are fewer details and considerations. Isn't there such thing as a simple answer?

I think we as a species have such lust for drama and significance that we're not satisfied unless we get more of Yi's (or the universe's) attention than one meager hexagram.

el-2, I do like your point of, to paraphrase: What does Yi say when there's no way to answer your question, beside 4? It might throw something entirely irrelevant to you, the way a Zen master might separate your experience from reality, with a clap of his hand upon your forehead. Wake up!
 

el_2

visitor
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
147
Reaction score
5
Well, actually I was sort of expecting a 4 but I wasn't getting one so I kept on cheekily. I think your last paragraph about the Yi throwing someting entirely irrelevant to me sums up how I felt it to be.

Actually, at some point I got a 21.6 and I thought that it was probably me who wasn't listening but I kept on with a couple of more questions and I still didn't get a 4 so I figured I could get away with it.

Well, the last question before the phone rang was something along the lines of "OK, last question, what do I need to know?" Answer: 40.4 - in the next couple of minutes the phone rang and it was my friend calling to tell me that she could actually make it to the exhibition.

Maybe I got the unchanging hexagrams for an entirely different reason, perhaps they were meaningful and I just can't understand them. I'm not precluding this possibility. But what attracted my attention was that the couple of answers with changing lines that I got actually made so much sense.

21.6: you are not getting it, are you? (Well, I knew I wasn't.)
40.4: set the oracle aside, your friend will call you in about 5 minutes - or, as soon as you decide to stop consulting, your friend will call you. (I think this last one was funny.)

el_2

Come to think of it, Yi as the "big toe"... interesting...
 
Last edited:

meng

(deceased)
Joined
Jun 3, 2010
Messages
1,257
Reaction score
94
Maybe the Yi put in its ear plugs.


21.6 LaLaLa I can't hear you!
8b4d6b10efb300649a89139586475f11.jpg


:D
 

meng

(deceased)
Joined
Jun 3, 2010
Messages
1,257
Reaction score
94
21.6: you are not getting it, are you? (Well, I knew I wasn't.)
40.4: set the oracle aside, your friend will call you in about 5 minutes - or, as soon as you decide to stop consulting, your friend will call you. (I think this last one was funny.)

el_2

Come to think of it, Yi as the "big toe"... interesting...

Not long ago, I received the phone call I was in the process of asking Yi about. I don't recall the answer but it was unchanging, and funny. I think the big toe is usually a little too much concern over or given to the matter. It could also be a stall or procrastination.

I think 21.6 can sometimes be literal, not always implying a stubborn temperament, but for one reason or another, literally unable to hear something. Not that it's always permanent, but for a time... hopefully. The penalty aspect remains, however..... like when you desperately want to hear so bad, and all the noise makes you deaf: kind of John Lennon's 'Life is what happens while you're making other plans' kind of thing. It changes to 25.
 
Last edited:

Liselle

Supporter
Clarity Supporter
Joined
Sep 20, 1970
Messages
12,850
Reaction score
2,388
Second, it provides the context for a deeper exploration. This I feel is accompanied by an invitation to see more details in a further clarifying/expanding casting

Yes...maybe another possibility for unchanging hexagrams could be to think of them as the first word on a topic, an introduction, preface, headline, blurb, etc., such as you'd find in a book or article?

Maybe that will be all you need or are interested in, or maybe you'll want to read further (invest more thinking time, ask more questions).

A reading of mine in the 43uc thread might serve as an example, unflattering and inelegant as it is. (Starts in this post.) I was asking about the fate of a tree, and Yi answered with 43 unchanging. I could think of several decision-related things it could have meant, which to me, in that moment, was not really an answer. I was quite irritated :eek:, although after a series of questions I did come to the correct interpretation (I'm...pretty sure, lol).

By saying just "43", maybe Yi was providing a headline or introductory sentence: "This is about a decision..." If I was still interested, I could continue, either in my own head, or by asking follow-up questions, or both. (In this particular case, I think I could have come up with what I think turned out to be the correct answer on my own, and then confirmed it with Yi - two questions. Or I could have just stopped and decided I didn't care to read the whole article, so to speak.)
 
Last edited:
V

veavea

Guest
Today I had a run of unchanging hexagrams, almost a Royal Flush!

The context: I had job interviews yesterday and today. The second one went better than the first. Shortly after the second interview ended I got a long-delayed text from a love interest that I thought had gone cold. Then I got an email saying I hadn't got the first job which worried me as I'd hoped to be offered both so I could choose!! Then felt discouraged that I probably wouldn't get either one!

Over the period of a couple of hours, after leaving the second interview - I got the following castings, for different questions (but all applying either to the job situations or how to respond to the man - sometimes the question was unclear as I was mentally confused and overwhelmed by all of the things going on):

43uc
10uc
37.4.6 > 49
27uc
28uc
29uc

Now at this stage I was expecting to get 30 uc, so I asked 'what do i do next in the light of x,y and z happening?! Will you give me 30uc now?!!'

31.3 > 45

So, no 30uc (yet), my royal flush broken. However, I now realise I get this line a lot - DeKorne says of 31.3:

"If we were to receive this image in a dream it might take the blatantly sexual form of the pelvic thrusting associated with male dogs. When seen in this way the idea behind this line becomes clear... The image suggests a mindless and compulsive urge to influence the situation."

I'd be interested to know what any of you think about sequences like this. I haven't properly processed it - suffice to say I haven't replied to the man, I've let it be for now... I think letting it be - the job situation and the man - is the answer behind the string of uc generally. I suppose if I *had* had 30uc, that would show what I'm seeking and currently lacking... clarity!!
 
D

deflatormouse

Guest
I'm wondering - Why do we call it an "unchanging" hexagram anyway, and how does this influcne the way we think about readings? To me, this implies that the zhi gua is the "future hexagram". It's not like we refer to the zhi gua or "relating"(?) hexagram as the "changed" hexagram.

In any case, I find this can potentially get a little slippery with certain readings: "seasonal change unchanging," anyone?

If the relationship between primary and relating hexagrams is characterized by zhi, wouldn't the absence of a zhi gua instead indicate the absence of a grammatical 'object' that is posessed, received or modified? For that reason, I am most sympathetic to the understanding of "unchanging" hexagrams as suggestive of a punctuation mark (which was suggested early on in this thread, I think by Hilary)- a period (full stop) or otherwise, rather than "static". Not "gua unchanging" but "Gua." Or "Gua!", "Gua??" etc.

Even in this case, it's being defined by an absence. It's a hexagram-without-a-something. Why not the other way around? Why not call the readings with moving lines hexagram-belonging-to-something-else?

To me, it also implies an urgency in tone or delivery. If divination is a conversation, one doesn't string lots of fancy words together when there is something urgent to convey. "Help!" is a complete sentence. And suggests other circumstances when we use respond with only a word or two.
"Uh-huh...", "Excuse me-" etc.
 
Last edited:

Liselle

Supporter
Clarity Supporter
Joined
Sep 20, 1970
Messages
12,850
Reaction score
2,388
Couple of things...
  • (Speculative) In the 10uc thread, Tubinluv shared a sad story about her father's death. Trojina responded that it's the kind of reading we may never understand well, but that it might have shown "him treading a very perilous path, it's dangerous, life itself in the balance here in this case."

    Wondered if maybe at the time of casting the outcome truly had been unknowable? Then wondered if some number of unchanging readings might be like that (unknowable).

    Unchanging means no relating hexagram and no active lines. Hexagrams (e.g. 10) tend to have lines where things go well, and others where things don't. Maybe "unknowable" can sometimes be thought of as "can't know right now which lines to activate." Am imagining the lines and zhi guas sort of hanging in abeyance.

    And then, maybe at times the "simple answer" sort, where the outcome agrees with the Judgement or Image, might be unknowable-when-cast situations which happen to turn out in line with that. See for instance Mulberry's 10uc experience with a hurricane that missed her, starting here. "Does not bite people" (at least not Mulberry), but 10uc was the best Yi had for her at the time.

    (Added: Not trying to imply readings can be reverse-engineered, though. Getting 10uc for a situation in progress surely doesn't mean you'd necessarily get 10 with moving lines if you ask about it afterwards, or that you can retroactively pick out the lines of 10 that "would have" applied.)

  • Also, heard Hilary say on one of her recordings that we know the I Ching is "change" by nature - readings mean here's how the change will happen for what's asked about - so an unchanging reading could mean change will happen with just the pure single-hexagram force, no other influence. (Paraphrasing from memory so that won't be exactly right.)

    That's the "simple answer" idea, but I liked this way of saying it.

(Contrary to both of those, though, I got a 10uc reading myself recently which I'm pretty sure means I'll always have to tiptoe around the thing in question for fear of being eaten. What I asked about is fundamental enough that I can't see how change is possible: unchanging in that way. This one's easy to sense, though; it doesn't feel like an interpretation dilemma. I'd asked, "How can I deal with this better?" "Just the way it is, sorry, nothing to do about it," I think Yi's telling me.)
 
Last edited:

Liselle

Supporter
Clarity Supporter
Joined
Sep 20, 1970
Messages
12,850
Reaction score
2,388
Another way of expressing unchangingness, from Hilary. Hilary's said this many times before (here, for instance), but sometimes slightly different ways of putting things land differently, and besides, I have a new example.
there's a question-mark hovering over the reading
(That's from a Reading Circle thread: Reading Circle is one part of Change Circle - it's like Shared Readings, only private for members and hidden from Google-bots.)

This seems like a good way to understand unchanging readings that seem like a negation of the hexagram: it's not really what's happening. The hexagram is very much present - it's the answer - but the question mark over it might seem like a "not" sometimes.

Example: 57uc meaning not internalizing things. I didn't really take in something someone told me, so I seemed really stupid farther along in the conversation. "What happened there, Yi?," I asked in humiliation.

"Not internalizing" might be what we'd say in everyday language. But from an I Ching perspective, it really doesn't mean not 57; it means 57 but with a big question mark over it.

P.S. Every unchanging reading isn't like this, of course. As said earlier in this thread plus many other places, an unchanging reading can easily be just the pure essence of the hexagram. That's all Yi communicates because it's all you need to know - the simple one-word-answer sort. But there are others where it's not that simple and there is a question mark.
 
Last edited:

Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom

Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).

Top