Your reading

in terms of the loss of lives and livlihoods

Your reading resulted in the following hexagrams:

39

Hexagram 39, Limping

Key Questions

Where can you find help?
How could you see the obstacles differently?
Can you imagine going a different way?

Oracle

'Limping. Fruitful in the southwest,
Not fruitful in the northeast.
Fruitful to see great people.
Constancy, good fortune.'

When life has become an uphill struggle, it's wise to fall back to the southwest. The 'southwest' represents a realm of friendly allies and sun-warmed fields; the 'northeast' is dark and mountainous, the way of calling and adventure.

So this is a time to take a step back from the struggle and connect with people more than with ideals. (Even if the responsibility is yours alone, the work need not be.) Really facing a problem means being prepared to tackle it in a different way, not just trudging doggedly onwards until the path peters out beneath your feet.

Seeing great people helps you to keep travelling towards your long-term vision despite the obstacles and course corrections. You may literally find a 'great person' with the experience and wisdom to reorient you; you may be guided by an inner vision of human potential.

Yu the Great, the hero who conquered the floods, toiled for years to build dykes and dredge rivers, and was left with a limp. But he succeeded in the end because of what he did differently: enlisting the help of people and spirits, and honouring the flow of the water.

Image

'Above the mountain, there is water: Limping.
A noble one turns himself around to renew his character.'

Sequence

Limping follows from Hexagram 38, Opposition:
'Turning away naturally means hardship, and so Limping follows.'

Pair

Limping forms a pair with Release, Hexagram 40:
'Release means letting things take their time; Limping means hardship.'

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