what makes ths a good first step?
Your reading resulted in the following hexagrams:
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| 33 |
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Hexagram 33, Retreat
Key Questions
What must you do to stay safe and whole?
How can you change your relationships so they support your integrity?
Oracle
'Retreat, creating success.
Constancy yields a small harvest.'
The old Chinese character for 'retreat' shows a pig and footsteps on the road; perhaps this pig is running away so as not to be eaten.
Retreat means withdrawing from what can harm you, or what might swallow you up: it is a way to keep yourself whole. So retreating creates success: it is not defeat, but the way to avoid defeat, like an army that falls back and stays intact. When you retreat, you hide yourself away – you might disappear into the landscape altogether – so that you will not lose yourself.
Retreat moves away from threats, and towards wholeness and integrity. It is a way to be constant to principle, and to yourself, by paying less attention to immediate results. The army that is loyal to a longer-term objective will retreat in good order rather than linger to gather spoils. The hermit, constant to the truth he perceives, withdraws from society into an inner space; he is not interested in claiming tangible rewards. Such constancy, offering no resistance and creating no friction, bears fruit in small, inconspicuous ways.
Image
'Below heaven is the mountain: Retreat.
A noble one keeps small people at a distance,
Not with hatred, but through respect.'
Sequence
Retreat follows from Hexagram 32, Lasting:
'They cannot last long in the place where they settle, and so retreat follows. Retreat means withdrawing.'
Pair
Retreat forms a pair with Hexagram 34, Great Vigour:
'Great Vigour means stopping, Retreat means withdrawing.'
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