Coping with a gloomy reading

Bill asked about his dating prospects, and received – of all things – the sixth line of Hexagram 24, Returning… changing to …which is exactly no-one’s favourite line. So how do you respond when Yi’s answer is all doom and gloom, and really not what you hoped to hear? You explore… so we did. Bill kindly interviewed me for his blog afterwards: here’s his article.

A listener’s reading for this month’s podcast: Ann asked, ‘How do I integrate myself as an artist with everyday life?’ And Yi answered with Hexagram 14, Great Possession, changing at lines 1 and 3 to 64, Not Yet Crossing. changing to (If you enjoy this, please share it!)

That’s something I asked Yi recently, and it answered with Hexagram 23, Stripping Away, changing at lines 1 and 6 to 24, Returning – changing to I think this is a lovely, fascinating, satisfying reading, so I’m sharing a few thoughts on it with you for this episode of the podcast. I hope you enjoy it! (If you’d like to have a free reading on the podcast, you’re very welcome to book one here.) An update… Just after publishing this episode, I was sorting through some foraged chestnuts when I found the one whose photograph you can see above. I didn’t roast it; I’m going to take it with me on my next foraging walk to the local woods and tuck it into the leaf litter.

Brian asked, “Why am I compelled to leave my job and join Greenpeace?” and Yi responded with Hexagram 18, ‘Work on what has been spoiled’ in the Wilhelm/Baynes translation he was consulting. This was in 1982: we’re revisiting the reading and learning from it, 43 years on. Things we mention… The ‘entangled pair’ – both inverse and complementary – of hexagrams 17 and 18: paired with And the nuclear story of Hexagram 18, passing through hexagrams 28, 54 and 27, which you can build from all its component trigrams: And not least the I Ching Foundations Class – starting soon, see www.onlineClarity.co.uk/class !

In this episode, Natalia is asking a wide-open question: where is she to go next? And Yi’s answer combines focus with openness: Hexagram 7, the Army, changing at line 2 to Hexagram 2, Earth: changing to (You may notice something different at the beginning and end of this episode. The music is the same – the Allemande from Bach’s first suite for ‘cello – but since there’s some ambiguity about the public domain status of the recording I’ve been using in previous episodes, I’ve switched to a lovely, eloquent performance by Colin Carr, published by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and available here in full under this Creative Commons licence.)

(Just one reading, sorry, not a universal formula.) Paloma asked what to do about her worrying pension-less state, and cast Hexagram 5, Waiting, changing at lines 4 and 5 to 34, Great Vigour – changing to So we talked about patience, and self-care, and standing firm, and also not standing firm at the bottom of a hole… If you have a reading you’d like to share on the podcast, please book yourself a slot here!

Charlie asked ‘How to navigate?’ and cast Hexagram 27, Nourishment – or Jaws – changing at line 1 to 23, Stripping Away: changing to What followed was a strongly resonant conversation between his inner imagery and the imagery of the Yi – and also the ancient Chinese motif of being in the jaws of the tiger. The featured image above this post shows a detail from the handle of the Houmuwu vessel, where you can just see the human face between the tigers’ open mouths. (The original photo is by Mlogic, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.) Here’s another example, from the 11th century BC:

How does the Yi help in an impossibly painful situation? It’s hard to describe – deep recognition, being recognised, a sense of reconnection. Dominique’s reading for this episode: “What is the lesson that I must learn through the pain of losing my marriage and our future?” And Yi’s answer: Dispersing – Hexagram 59, with no changing lines. It’s a beautiful response – I hope you enjoy listening Transcript, for Change Circle members

Ludimila had graduated in psychology and opened her doors as a therapist a few years previously, but wondered whether she was being prompted to hold onto her secure, old work as a teacher and translator. So she asked, ‘What should I focus on professionally?’ and cast Hexagram 3, Sprouting, with no changing lines. It’s a beautifully simple answer, and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring it together. Those explorations touched on the nuclear story, at which point I came up with a highly sophisticated visual aid… (This may come in useful towards the end of the episode if you’re not familiar with nuclear trigrams and hexagrams!) You can learn more about Ludimila and her work here – she does sessions in both Portugese and English.

That was Nathaniel’s question for this podcast episode. Here’s the reading he cast – changing to – Hexagram 26, Great Tending, changing at line 1 to Hexagram 18, Corruption. As you might imagine, the moving line gave us pause for thought! Nathaniel mentioned a previous episode, the one about Family Constellations work, that also featured Hexagram 18, and also Benebell Wen’s interesting new translation; I mentioned Margaret Pearson‘s. (If you’d like to share a reading of your own on the podcast, you can book that here!) https://livingchange.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/episode53.mp3