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Understanding the "transitional hexagrams" sequence

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Freedda

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Working with Transitional Hexagrams (aka hidden lines)

From Bradford Hatcher's I Ching, Vol. 1, pg 44, he describes a sequence for reading which is called "transitional hexagrams" by Mondo Secter (I've also heard it called 'hidden lines', but not the same as 'line pathways').
Bradford gives an example sequence based on the cast, Hex 4.3.6 > 46:

4
4.3 (read line text only)
18 (zhi gua of 4.3)
18.6 (again, read line text only; I believe the line number is from the cast's next changing line, 6)
49 (zhi qua of 18.6 and resultant (or 'relating') hexagram from the cast.

All well and good, but it seems that this sequence competely by-passes the other changing line from the cast, 4.6?

And what would it look like with three or more changing lines? For 4.2.3.6 > 15, would it be:

Gua 4
4.2 (read line text only; first changing line)
23 (zhi gua of 4.2)
23.3 (line text only; taking line number from next changing line, 3)
52 (zhi qua of 23.3)
52.6 (line text only; taking line number from next changing line, 6.)
15 (zhi qua for 52.6 and also resultant ('relating') hexagram from the original cast.

... so, doing it this way you'd by-pass two of the original changing lines. 4.3 and 4.6, which makes me think something is missing here???

Any thoughts, directions, etc?

Best, David
 

bradford

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That's correct. Something would be missing. But when I'm working with transitional hexagrams, I do that in addition to reading it the conventional way (reading all changing lines in the Ben or original Gua). It's just a way of getting more information, and not intended as a replacement of the tradition.
 
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Freedda

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Thanks so much Bradford. And to clarify, I'd just do it starting at the lowest (most near the bottom) changing line (as the example in your book) but I don't do it (again) with other changing lines further up the hexagram, correct?
 

bradford

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Thanks so much Bradford. And to clarify, I'd just do it starting at the lowest (most near the bottom) changing line (as the example in your book) but I don't do it (again) with other changing lines further up the hexagram, correct?

Not correct. You do the same thing all the way up, changing one line at a time, until you reach the same Zhi Gua that you would have reached the old way. So you might read changing lines from a few different Hexagrams.
 
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Nevermind

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There are some alternative ways to working with more then one changing line and still use the text from Zhouyi . Here for example:
https://www.biroco.com/yijing/basics.htm

However it is interesting to mention, that some schools just make the hexagram in such ways that it will have only one changing line. Mei Hua(Plum Blossom Divination) for example.
That solves problems with the text there as well, since in Zhouyi there is text only for one changing line, although it is also interesting to mention that they rarely use the text, since Mei Hua is based on work with the Trigrams.
However in Mei Hua the hexagrams are made by very specific calculations, usually based on hour of asking or any other group of numbers the person can see, or events around them etc.

That can be complicated, because we have to know the numbers in the earlier heaven arrangement(one of the places it's used in the Five Arts is for this transition, from events to hexagram, the other is in the combinations between elements and there are more), also to know the directions each element shows and other stuff, if we want to make hexagram based on events.

But based on numbers/current time is somewhat easier. Had the formula somewhere around, but I don't practice it, because I don't like to have only 1 changing line. If someone needs a way to handle the problems with text that comes with the changing lines that can be good workaround as well I guess.
When it comes to that it can never be perfect in my view. So if we learn at least the basic meaning of the elements/trigrams we will be a lot less dependent on the text. That is Mei Hua too actually, but very useful part of it. : )
 

bradford

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It should be remembered that the transitional hexagram method is new, at least to my knowledge, even though it follows the very old structural rules of the original Zhouyi. The method was first published (as far as we know) back in 1976, by three people simultaneously and independently - Mondo Secter, Bruce Hammerslough, and myself. It should, therefore, be treated as an ongoing experiment, at least for the next thousand years or so, until it earns a place or not.
 
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Freedda

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It should, therefore, be treated as an ongoing experiment, at least for the next thousand years or so, until it earns a place or not.
Thanks Bradford. Let's check in then to see how things shake out! Best, David.:rolleyes:
 

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