Your Experiences With Unchanging Castings -- Hexagram 2

[arabella]

We've decided to go ahead with the discussion of Unchanging Hexagrams and our experiences with them, delineating each as a separate thread to make them easy to find in future. Anybody coming upon these discussion is encouraged to add their thoughts and experiences.

There is a separate thread in Exploring Divination for general ideas on unchanging castings entitled "Your Experiences with Unchanging Castings Hexagram 0, so please enter anything that isn't specific to a particular unchanged hexagram over there.

This is the thread for discussing your ideas on Hexagram Two Unchanging, and whatever experiences you have with casting this. I'll start with one of my own, which was in relation to casting Hex 2 UC when enquiring whether I should continue with a volunteer position in opera theatre that I hoped would lead to a career possibility -- because I couldn't afford to do it as an extremely time-consuming hobby, although I just loved everything about the opera.

Receiving Hexagram 2 Unchanging I thought that I'd have to keep going for quite a while before the situation changed, the "endurance of the mare" is the image that I had and thought that this mare had a very long way to travel. On the other hand, Hexagram 2 always gives me the feeling that endurance is an important feature of ultimate success and that remaining receptive to influence along the way is crucial; that sensing, feeling, trusting and persisting while searching the wind for new signs and shifting direction subtly, were critical features of success. So I didn't take what might have seemed the "sensible" course to research a paid job elsewhere and kept trying, dug in further and learned all that i could. In the meanwhile, the company offered a small stipend because they realised what I was doing for them was of signficance, but it was over a year before I was offered a fully paid position. However, from there, it was as though the seeds had been planted rather spectacularly and in another year, I was in charge of production -- as though out of nowhere. I went from starry-eyed volunteer to working directly for the impressario. But it wasn't really so instantaneous I realised on looking back. Everything I'd done in business leading up to the opera contributed, as did a hard year's graft in the wings, taking on every imaginable task no matter how grubby, shouldering full responsibility although essentially unpaid, simply for love of the Art form. The trust that this would be rewarded paid off.

This reminded me of a quote ascribed to the great violinist Jascha Heifetz who said, "It took me more than thirty years to become an overnight success." Something like that was the essence of Hexagram 2 Unchanging in my case.

 

[hilary]

I haven't encountered so many 2s unchanging, for some reason. But there's one very memorable personal one - already shared on the blog somewhere, I think.

After Mum's death, I received Hexagram 44 about how she kept showing up in my dreams. Thinking that the 'strong woman' was something of hers that needed to become mine, I asked, What was her strength?
Answer - 2 unchanging.

Besides being a pretty incredible reading to get about my mother, it did refer to some specific characteristics of hers. Most of all, her huge capacity for work. The full scale of this really came home to me as we cleared out her notes. Boxes and boxes and boxes packed with pages packed with her compact handwriting. MA notes. M Phil notes. Sermon notes. Home communion notes. Bible Study class notes, Biblical Ancient Greek class notes. Being-summer-school-secretary notes. Swathes of stuff for editing the parish magazine. Notes on running the Chapel at the last school where she taught. Notes on teaching my brother to read, and teaching French to me. Notes on birthday cake recipes, and sugar-free diabetic recipes she honed and refined for Dad. Notes about what had worked well in her arrangements for my seventh birthday party.

When she had something to do - be it editing a magazine or parenting a child or running a class - she was going to do it properly, and right, and to the full. It wouldn't have occurred to her to ration her strength, and I don't think 'Good enough' was in her vocabulary. She would respond to the demands of the situation and provide everything she could. She wanted to be of service, to be used.

 

[heylise]

The great image says:
The basic disposition of earth is female
The noble one carries everything with great generosity.

 

[arabella]

The word "service" really struck me Hilary in your story of your Mum. Somehow that's an operative word in Hexagram Two UC for me as well. Absolute devotion. If I hadn't started as a volunteer, which seems a fairly lowly place to be, nothing would have happened. I don't know that there's a particular line that would tell you this in the Yi -- but Two UC does unequivocally in my experience. It will take everything you've got to get there and there is no other way.

 

[hilary]

Yes... the phrase Stephen Karcher uses every time hexagram 2 comes up (as a step of change, nuclear, etc) is 'Be open and provide what is needed.' It does seem to go to the core of the thing.

It makes sense that I would receive an unchanging hexagram for a question like that - the power that had belonged to her, that I might be able to inherit (but certainly hadn't!), so it was currently 'between people' to apply it in the world. Not sure what the 'unchangingness of 2' is for more normal readings is, though.

 

[Trojina]

Someone once said hex 2 unchanging was simply 'it is exactly how it appears' as in its laid out before you.... I agree with that...or it is an empty field for action for you to plant what you want


I often see it as the Yi equivalent to a shrug...as in 'here it is ...nothings hidden...it looks like you think it looks'

 

[arabella]

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

heylise
Senior Member Join Date: Sep 1970
Location: swamp in river delta in Holland
Posts: 2,282

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 fulfill 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.

LiSe

 

[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 infomation 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.

 

[angeleyes]

I loved your ideas about 2 UC.. Generosity, service, devotion, those are all concepts that seem to be central whenever i receive this particular hexagram.

Personally, i tend to ask a lot of "what to do" kind of questions. Sometimes, when i'm in a difficult situation, feeling tired or exhausted, 2 might come up to say "there's nothing to do here, you simply have to bare with it, hold and contain the experience until the time is right for it to beggin taking it's actual form..". It feels like some sort of an open hug, where everything has its space and its time and my job is to be that hug and allow things to work themselves out, all the time supporting and providing for what is needed..

There's another type of 2 UC experience however, depending on the context of the question. There are times when i almost hear it saying "Be female.Be a woman! Approach this like a female would..". Like it reminds me of my female nature. Needless to say, the questions in those cases usually involve the "attraction" of a special someone ...And i have to tell you, following this particular advice has never let me down..

 

[arabella]

I loved your ideas about 2 UC.. Generosity, service, devotion, those are all concepts that seem to be central whenever i receive this particular hexagram.

Personally, i tend to ask a lot of "what to do" kind of questions. Sometimes, when i'm in a difficult situation, feeling tired or exhausted, 2 might come up to say "there's nothing to do here, you simply have to bare with it, hold and contain the experience until the time is right for it to beggin taking it's actual form..". It feels like some sort of an open hug, where everything has its space and its time and my job is to be that hug and allow things to work themselves out, all the time supporting and providing for what is needed..

There's another type of 2 UC experience however, depending on the context of the question. There are times when i almost hear it saying "Be female.Be a woman! Approach this like a female would..". Like it reminds me of my female nature. Needless to say, the questions in those cases usually involve the "attraction" of a special someone ...And i have to tell you, following this particular advice has never let me down..

WOW, amazing entry!

 

[arabella]

I've noticed as these threads progress that the Hexagram 2 Unchanging thread is the least frequented -- so far anyway. Hmmm. Do we cast this one less? Is it more mysterious, harder to describe? Just wondering why it isn't so discussed as the others. Maybe no obvious reason. Perhaps an example of "It is what it is" right before our eyes!

 

[hilary]

Well, if we're using yarrow or 16 tokens, 2 would come up more often unchanging than any other hexagram!

 

[rodaki]

A long while ago I had sort of coined and used this phrase 'it is what it is' as a staple, trying to say something. The way I meant it and understood it back then -and still do- was not so much about what we usually understand as hexagram 2, the acceptance and such, but more like what I understand as an unchanging hexagram . . To be clear, there's not much literal 'unchanging' in an unchanging hexagram for me, instead it is a process of seeing something 'in itself' rather than comparing it or referencing to something other.

In a way, it is like flying on one of these airplanes that have the little screens over the seats that show you where you are at any given point. I might look up and see where I'm flying over and it might be England, or Sweden or Spain. It's not Spain that's east of Portugal, or next-to-the-ocean Spain, it's just Spain, and as such it's made of many many bits and pieces that are constantly mutating and I'm traveling thru them but it is still a thing in itself, expressing itself rather than its relation or a static view of it

To be very honest (and I hope no one takes it personally, cause it tends to happen a lot when discussing divination) I find little sense in trying to pinpoint an 'unchanging' hexagram -although I'm enjoying reading the stories people have come up with it . . I find it more open and challenging to others because it asks more of the querent -like setting a date without naming the place: you might get it but it takes way more exploration and, possibly, a view of things on a bigger scale. It's probably a more macroscopic idea than a detailed microscopic one. 'It is what it is' was my way of expressing that without setting it too much in stone

 

[Trojina]

I so liked this post of Rosada's on her Aha moment with hex 2. I think it's a helpful story to have in mind when we receive 2 uc

I was rearranging the furniture today, taking down Christmas ornaments, clearing out clutter and had an Ah-ha Moment when I paused and surveyed the newly blank walls and empty space. I had originally assumed the corner would look bare and boring when I took out the tree but instead it became a focal point of interest, like the calm in the eye of the storm or a zen rock garden. This lead me to think about the meaning of hexagram 2 as the mate to The Creative, hexagram 1. In the past I've thought of 2 as being similar to an audience who passively sits and watches, or a male chauvinists idea of the perfect woman - some unimaginative type who meekly follows another. Today I got a sense of how compelling the 2 can be - like if hexagram 1 is the desire to expand and explore then 2 is The Great Unknown that pulls the light to it, the emptiness causing, inspiring new thoughts. Just as my empty living room caused me to stop and consider alternative possibilities - Why bring the chairs back in around the coffee table? Why not create an exercise room or set up my sewing machine and do crafts? - hexagram 2 can be a seen as describing not just a neutral space but a call to consider that anything is possible.

 

[Tim K]

My friend was going to be a father, and out of curiosity I've asked about the baby's sex - Hex 2uc.
Wow, that was a very clear answer. ( 5th of September, 2013).

The girl was born in the beginning of February 2014. :bows:

 

[andrea]

I've just been through a couple of frustrating weeks during which I couldn't make sense of a single reading. Everything I gotl seemed unintelligible and occasionally downright contradictory. I was worried and exasperated. I eventually asked why I'd been so confused by recent readings, and got...2 unchanging!

Assuming it's really "exactly how it appears", I guess I'm just failing to see the nose in front of my face.

 

[Trojina]

In your case it sounds as if you need to stop trying to impose order/understanding/direction, on things and allow yourself to be led by the circumstances that arise.

However if I try to interpret what it means for you here we are really in SR territory. You are asking a question aren't you.

 

[knotxx]

More and more lately I am finding that "At first: confusion. Later: gains a lord" is the center of 2uc for me. Usually when I ask the question, I am completely confused about what I am supposed to be doing in order to achieve [whatever]. And 2uc makes me understand that it's okay, I'm supposed to be confused right now, but pretty soon a direction will emerge. It's incredibly calming that way.

(This is basically what trojan just said! just adding my experience.)

 

[charly]

Hi, Andrea:

A literal translation may apport some issues. Some sequences of H.2 say:

«... First crazy, later getting guidance (a lamp with ligth atop) ... Peaceful omen lucky.»
Say, those things happen, nobody´s perfect. Be tranquil.

Another parts are more obscure like the omen of a She-Horse or directions for finding or losing friends which at first glance look prettry sexual. But that´s another story.

If you want the chinese to english literal translation I can post it. But it has little warranty.

Yours,

Charly

P.D.

Maybe the same said by Trojina and Knot, don´t look for the lost order, it will appear by itself. But I don´t like too much «getting a Lord», new lords often apport only more confusion. To be comanded is not always the best even if you translate «master» or «husband» instead of «Lord». I prefer «leader» or «leading» ► «guidance».

Ch.

 

[andrea]

I wasn't exactly asking a question, Troj; more just musing (and amused).

But I suppose the distinction is muddy. And I do appreciate everyone's insights.

 

[charly]

I wasn't exactly asking a question, Troj; more just musing (and amused).
...

Hi, Andrea:

Only for amusement (or for musing):

坤
kūn
earth
FEMALE / WIDE HEARTED
Men are concerned mainly with women.
Women are concerned with whole families, men and women, adults and children, spirits, animals, flowers, plants, of course, they need a wider heart.

元亨
yuán hēng
MAIN FEAST
First celebration.
Our main concern is the celebration of women.

利牝馬之貞
lì pìn mǎ zhī zhēn
PROFITABLE SHE HORSE´S OMEN
Omens related with female animals are profitable.
(Don´t expect too much from males).

君子有攸往
jūn zi yǒu yōu wàng
NOBLE-KIDS HAVE FAR TO GO
Cubs of Noble must move far away.
Gentlemen, go home, this is a place for common people
(interested in common affairs).

先迷後得主
xiān mí hòu dé zhǔ
FIRST CRAZY, LATER GETTING GUIDANCE. (1)
The sooner we realize our confusion, the sooner we will get help.

利西南得朋
lì xī nán dé péng
PROFITABLE SOUTH-WEST (FOR)GETTING FRIENDS
Being open to life and future we will get friends.
(Or will get sexual intercourse)

東北喪朋
dōng běi sāng péng
NORTH-EAST (FOR) MOURNING FRIENDS
Worrying for death and past we will lose even our friends.
(No partners for what matters)

安貞吉
ān zhēn jí
PEACEFUL OMEN LUCKY
Having a woman under our roof,
it´s previsible that we will get peace. (2)
(at least at the end).
​

______________
(1) For the character 主 zhǔ Whilhelm/Baynes says GUIDANCE, which I like too much. It depicts a lamp with a light atop, meaning master (often said of husbands), host, lord, leader (who leads or give guidance)

(2) The character 安 ān: PEACE depicts a naked woman under a roof, the character for FAMILY depicts a swine, of course also naked, under the same roof. It is said that family has to do with economy and production. What has to do PEACE with?

yours,

Charly

 

[butterfly spider]

Had 2Uc today regarding returning to dance teaching. I am a fully-trained Dance teacher and have been asked by someone I just attend a class with to take over her classes and also join her with children and adult classes as a business

2UC

Perhaps just plod (or dance) along ...

 

[Seeker0970]

My experience with Hex 2 unchanging is usually like looking at potting soil and thinking, "I don't know what to do with this." It's just there. Of course this is infinite potential within the realm of what can grow in soil, but it does tend to just sit there for me.

 

[Lana73123]

Today I asked -- what would be the result if I turned in my resignation? I got 2UC. At first I was perplexed by this hexagram's message but after reading more and more (some with examples) I understand it better. I am taking it to mean just go with the flow. it is what it is. just receive my feminine energy and let it guide the way!
short back story - I took a second job as a part time night manager at a new restaurant. The owner, who I met at my real day job, asked me to join his team. So, we have been open for a little more than two months. things are going great with the actual business. However, the man's wife has taken a more active role in the business than he wanted and they fight all the time. they contradict each other constantly and always go behind each other - undoing what the other has done. it has gotten to the point of complete chaos for the managers because you can never please either one at this point. While the extra money is nice and needed for my household, it is not worth the mental stress and hassle anymore. so I took the casting to mean that other opportunities will arise - just go with the flow. don't try to get in the middle of the owners fight by being the voice of reason - they don't care.

 

[Lana73123]

Today I asked -- what would be the result if I turned in my resignation? I got 2UC. At first I was perplexed by this hexagram's message but after reading more and more (some with examples) I understand it better. I am taking it to mean just go with the flow. it is what it is. just receive my feminine energy and let it guide the way!
short back story - I took a second job as a part time night manager at a new restaurant. The owner, who I met at my real day job, asked me to join his team. So, we have been open for a little more than two months. things are going great with the actual business. However, the man's wife has taken a more active role in the business than he wanted and they fight all the time. they contradict each other constantly and always go behind each other - undoing what the other has done. it has gotten to the point of complete chaos for the managers because you can never please either one at this point. While the extra money is nice and needed for my household, it is not worth the mental stress and hassle anymore. so I took the casting to mean that other opportunities will arise - just go with the flow. don't try to get in the middle of the owners fight by being the voice of reason - they don't care.

 

[toblindfoldher]

What if I go to the gym tonight?
2uc, my initial thought was, "well, it's open..."
It was closed due to an emergency two days before, so when I arrived and saw the signage light was off, I thought for a moment it might be closed, but it was actually open, and almost empty.

 

[EmMacha]

I received 2uc today...
Just another day (since the new year plan to sort out the stuff that constantly trips me up & halve my stuff) of persevering through decluttering, dealing with errands, paperwork etc.
I'm quite tired today and somewhat emotional, melancholic, sentimental, but somehow detached about it too - not fired up or reactive.
Seems to me with 2uc that Yi could be saying:
Let the emotions flow, let them flow over the earth and into the receptive places .

Decluttering, re-organising your home can be a very emotional process, especially when you get to those 'clots' or clutter places!

But I am persevering, I can't bear to ignore the stagnancy of all this old stuff, and I am trying to clear the way for the renewal of my college course.

I am also creating space for new opportunities in my life... friendships, time for creative project, time for fun without the house falling apart, more time and structure for my children, time & space for a romantic relationship, and most of all time for me!

2uc seems to describe this situation exactly for me - broadening my understanding also, not to get into the pit (29) with the emotions stirred up. I feel reassurance reading this thread, that the earth, the ground or background (2uc being also the relating hexagram) of my actions and attitude are deep, the receptive land is drinking it in.

There is a sense of vast open steppes, images of a white mare running across the grass plain, wild and free.

This got me thinking about the mare in 2uc, and her link with the land in Celtic mythology also - In Irish myth, the white mare is symbolic of not just the land, but also sovereignty and sacred kingship (where the king 'marries' the land, is devoted to it, in service to it. He belongs to the land, rather than the land to him).
This concept fits quite well with 2uc to me - Being in service, devoted and perseverent to the receptive land, to the wild open plains of possibility, of trusting universal laws, letting go of attachment to outcomes can set you free of mental limitations. Acceptance and submission, following rather pushing brings one to self sovereignty.

It reminded me also of this card:

 

[EmMacha]

Another thing about my decluttering and sorting process, kind of overarching, is that I have felt such a lack of motivation, commitment, purpose in the last few months. No inspiration lasting, becoming a purpose. My attention is frittered
away constantly, or I am feeling tired, overwhelmed, caught in emotional loops.

The college course I am doing part time is a 'start your own business' / entrepreneurial course.
I haven't felt enough motivation for my own ideas, haven't had that 'bolt from the blue' great idea yet. I am clearing, re-arrranging, changing the flow of my home, getting prepared, clearing the soil for this course, for a business idea that I can be enthusiastic about, passionate enough about to find a team, to research, built, network etc.
I am trying to slowly but steadily remove, resolve or diffuse anything that has blocked or interfered or drained me in the previous semester.

2uc is such a big dose of encouragement for me, a great boost from Yi re this process I have undertaken. A lot of it is stuff that needs to be done anyway, but being led by these things and making them my purpose has actually transformed me. (Also 2uc to me, be fallow, be receptive, don't be in front, be behind). I feel empowered by the situation now: Yi in action, centering in tao indeed! ;-)

To me, this is the "lord" or "master" in Hexagram 2; unchanging tells me to persevere, run across the plains like the constant mare; siege knows how to run, knows that her destination will appear as she gallops.

 

[WinterStar]

2 UC and second context..Approach this like a female would.

I loved your ideas about 2 UC.. Generosity, service, devotion, those are all concepts that seem to be central whenever i receive this particular hexagram. Personally, i tend to ask a lot of "what to do" kind of questions. Sometimes, when i'm in a difficult situation, feeling tired or exhausted, 2 might come up to say "there's nothing to do here, you simply have to bare with it, hold and contain the experience until the time is right for it to beggin taking it's actual form..". It feels like some sort of an open hug, where everything has its space and its time and my job is to be that hug and allow things to work themselves out, all the time supporting and providing for what is needed.. There's another type of 2 UC experience however, depending on the context of the question. There are times when i almost hear it saying "Be female.Be a woman! Approach this like a female would..". Like it reminds me of my female nature. Needless to say, the questions in those cases usually involve the "attraction" of a special someone ...And i have to tell you, following this particular advice has never let me down..

Hello. Great entry. I am a woman but am having trouble being a woman.. perhaps. It’s not something I learned from my mother and I’ve been trying to learn but I still don’t quite have power in this way. Could you elaborate just a wee bit more. Yes in relation to the “attraction to a special someone.”Also, I am trying to hold that both of your “scenarios” are possible guidance at the same time. I am confused, though, so perhaps I can’t see straight!!Thank you for the thoughtful discussion.

 

[WinterStar]

* I wonder if the I Ching can help be a guide to my transformation in this realm. Why not! I hope I can make the jump. (Tried to Edit post but wasn’t successful.)