Your reading

what is the opportunity in such Retreat?

Your reading resulted in the following hexagrams:

	changing to
64		4

Hexagram 64, Not Yet Across

Key Questions

How to prepare for the crossing?
How will you know when it's time?

Oracle

'Not yet across, creating success.
The small fox, almost across,
Soaks its tail:
No direction bears fruit.'

Here at the very end of the Yijing, nothing is settled or complete; everything is in flux.

A wise fox will only attempt to cross when there is solid ice on the river, and then pick his way over carefully, every sense alert. If he sets out when the conditions are not right, he won't be able to complete the crossing: he'll be shamed and stranded at best, and he may be altogether sunk. For a small fox on drifting ice in midstream, there is no useful direction.

When you are not yet across, you may be hesitating on the verge of a transition, trying to tell whether it's safe to commit yourself. It's time to use the skills of a wise fox.

Image

'Fire dwells above stream: Not Yet Across.
A noble one carefully differentiates between beings, so each finds its place.'

Sequence

Not Yet Across follows from Hexagram 63, Already Across:
'Things cannot be finished, and so Not Yet Across follows - and so the completion.'

Changing Lines

Hexagram 4, Not Knowing

Key Questions

What don't you know?
What if you didn't need to know all the answers now?
How can you learn from experience?

Oracle

'Not knowing, creating success.
I do not seek the young ignoramus, the young ignoramus seeks me.
The first consultation speaks clearly.
The second and third pollute the waters,
Polluted, and hence not speaking.
Constancy bears fruit.'

Not Knowing literally means being covered over, like a young animal hidden away in the undergrowth by its mother. So you are ignorant, and cannot see as far as you would like to – but this is not such a terrible thing while you are still so small. To be small and ignorant is a creative, harmonious way to engage with your world, and holding steadily to not knowing – and hence to learning – will bring good results.

But this flow, from 'creating success' to 'constancy bears fruit', is interrupted when the young ignoramus goes running after answers, as if it were embarrassing not to know. In his anxious persistence he shows a profound disrespect – for his teacher, and also for the answer he is seeking that he imagines can be had so quickly. So the 'I' who speaks here gives one clear answer, and then may refuse to answer – or perhaps there is just such confusion that no answers can be understood.

That speaker can be another person you're asking for a response you need. It can also be the oracle itself, or what speaks through it.

Image

'Below the mountain, spring water comes forth: Not Knowing.
A noble one nourishes character with the fruits of action.'

Sequence

Not Knowing follows from Hexagram 3, Sprouting:
'Things that are newly born must needs be ignorant, and so Not Knowing follows. Not Knowing means ignorance, and the youth of things.'

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