houston we have a problem
Your reading resulted in the following hexagrams:
changing to | ||
4 | 23 |
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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.'
Changing Lines
Line 2
'Embracing the ignoramus, good fortune.
Receiving the woman, good fortune.
The child governs the home.'
Hexagram 23, Stripping Away
Key Questions
What has worn out?
Is there a less painful way to let this go?
What is underneath the surface?
Oracle
'Stripping away.
Fruitless to have a direction to go.'
The surfaces are cut and sliced away; the old and unviable is stripped back to expose the living core. This inevitable, natural process often feels like a flaying: the more you have invested of yourself in these old things, the more painful it will be.
It's no good, at such times, to imagine the future and make plans. You need to bring your energy back to the centre and honour the process: this is a time to be transformed, not to act. Moreover, until the old is so utterly stripped from you that you have no choice but to think in new ways, you will only be able to re-create the old patterns.
Image
'Mountain rests on the earth: Stripping Away.
The heights are generous, and there are tranquil homes below.'
Sequence
Stripping Away follows from Hexagram 22, Beauty:
'Involved in brightening the appearance; this means success will be truly exhausted, and so Stripping Away follows.'
Pair
Stripping Away forms a pair with Hexagram 24, Returning:
'Stripping away: rotten. Returning: turnaround.'
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