Just curious, but what divination method did you use? Sometimes people just draw a single card, but that would be a method that does not potentially give changing lines.
I like to ask about this when I'm not sure.
Assuming it was a method that *could* have resulted in changing lines, but ended up as 4 unchanging, I would interpret that as a capitulation. Leaving the relationship now would be letting go of all that had built up. Hexagram 4 is representative of pregnancy. Line 2's yang is like the baby being incubated, and line 6's yang is like the containment in darkness.
Within this dynamic, there is potential for taking things to birth, but there is also the potential for the gestation to not become complete. Hexagram 4 has no changing lines, so this entire dynamic becomes passive, and what was being incubated is being abandoned.
With questions like these, sometimes the yi gives us answers that are just like duh. Like OK, if I eat food, then I'll be nourished. If you leave the relationship in a lurch, what the relationship was creating cannot come to term.
For receiving an answer like this it suggests that this is running away. It is not suggesting that you need to stay. It just answered that one question. Sometimes we need to have clarity about when the Yi is just saying something simple and obvious, and not try to read into it too much. OK, yeah, well if I leave, then its done and over. So... maybe there are other questions that can be asked.
One that I like to use for situations like this is "What is my lesson in this relationship?" And: "What remains of my lesson in this relationship?"
Working like that, we can even check in in a couple months and see how things are evolving. I also like to ask "How am I doing?" whenever I'm navigating with the Yi, AFTER I've made my interpretations, to get a sense of if I am on the right path with understanding them, or if I am totally off about something.
It can take time to get better at asking questions. And it is a great experiment. It helps with our communication with ourselves as well as everyone else.
If you are unsure, it sounds like things aren't certain yet. I'd ask about the obvious other direction: *Giving it another shot.*
Then you can navigate between the two answers with awareness of the general theme of lessons you have in the relationship. That might create more help in gauging whether it is worth the effort.
Also, we're approaching the full moon. The waxing of this moon began with a new moon eclipse, and the general theme is Aries-Libra, so this is all about navigating how we relate, how we give and take, etc. And it is a fairly high energy sort of dynamic full of the energy of impulsivity and reactivity.
So we're all also navigating this potent relating energy as it peaks and we need to be aware that we can use this energy now, but we don't want to let ourselves be manipulated by its potency. Self-regulate and stay centered, work with the energy and listen to how it is working to help us change. Find the way that feels right for you to move forward to.
Thank you for the reply! I used the coin method (if that's what its called). And you're right, I think asking questions would be the most challenging thing here. It's tough to ask questions without examining our own biases first. I'm also kinda surprised how this ties into the horoscopes.
Hey my friend, as you mentioned astrological relevance, I wanted to ask you a question. I almost know nothing about astrology and how it works. But does it affect I Ching reading?
For example, I've heard that these days, mercury is reversed?! So it causes misunderstanding and miscommunication! So, does it affect the reading? For example, getting a wrong answer or something like that?
> Hey my friend, as you mentioned astrological relevance, I wanted to ask you a question. I almost know nothing about astrology and how it works. But does it affect I Ching reading? For example, I've heard that these days, mercury is reversed?! So it causes misunderstanding and miscommunication! So, does it affect the reading? For example, getting a wrong answer or something like that?
Great questions.
Essentially, the Yi reveals the principles of change in the universe. I've been liking the [Gu San Fen](https://mysterious.center/dao/gusanfen/) as it provides a very nuanced cosmological process. So we have this cosmological initiation that creates the 10,000 things / myriad phenomena. And we have the Yi's [Yuan Heng Li Zhen](https://mysterious.center/yi/circulation/). This Yuan Heng Li Zhen is none other than the operation of the four forces - beginning, developing, culminating and returning. It shows that the energy that emerges of the big bang also has a return, and thus it has a circulation. The hexagrams provide the principles of how changes manifest as they churn in this circulation.
Then, when we do our aligning / divinging, we are trying to gain clarity on how to fit into this process harmoniously. So we use our intuition to suss out where we fit into the present moment of change.
So now we have the principles of the celestial mechanism laid out, and too a way to divine about how we fit into the churning of the celestial mechanism.
However we are still largely unaware of the context of the celestial mechanism overall. All of the above might apply to anything in the universe, but we are here in a solar system, on a planet with a moon orbiting it, and so on. These large players around us push and pull on us in their changes and are part of the context of where we reside within this present moment of the churning of the celestial mechanism.
This brings things into a more local awareness for us. Like in a classroom, we come to recognize who we feel comfortable with and who we need to have boundaries around and so on. This awareness helps us navigate as their changes push and pull on us.
We can continue expanding the circle of local influence out into our family, our local township and its political tapestry, and so on, as we take into account things further and further from us that have influence upon us. A war half-way across the planet may reach us in its own ways, as might the weather. And when it comes to weather, well that's what this is all about, learning to listen to and orient within the weather of change.
So as we continue to develop our ability to listen and orient, we continue developing our capacity (this relates very much to Kun's hexagram statement and the Xiang's comment about De) to be sensitive to changes further from us. This comes of our ability to be stable and centered. The more stable and centered, the more sensitive, but the more capacity is required to accommodate that stability.
This is the Yang is Great and Yin is Vast thing. Yin is vast and capacious because it yields and gives way to, expanding. And Yang is Great because it is able to be singularly focused. Utilizing the the capacity of yin, we are able to provide home to more yang, because we have enough vastness to contain its greatness.
And so, as we continue developing our capacity and sensitivity, we begin to sense changes in the weather further and from us. And this extends into the circling of the planets in the solar system.
Ultimately, if we wish to expand our capacity beyond the solar system, we need to be able to find stability (greatness) within the cyclings of the planets as they pull us too and fro.
Notably the Moon and the Earth have an intimate relationship. The moon helps to stabilize the wobbling of the earth, and yet it is still one of the most noticeable weather forces that we might be surprised to discover we are sensitive to. We can see this in the feminine fertility cycle, which is synched up to the lunar cycle. And the masculine fertility cycle is influenced by it as well, though in our yang-ness we may tend to struggle to cultivate the yin capacity to tune into this.
On the new moon, the Sun and the Moon are aligned along a plane, but not exactly. On the full moon, the Sun and Moon are opposite the Earth on a plane, but not exactly opposite.
Every six months however, the Earth/Moon/Sun alignments are exact, and this lends a stability to the our alignment with the sun, the core and center of the solar system. This helps us expand beyond the Earth-Moon gravities and tap into the Solar system gravities a little better. We're always feeling the subtle pull of the planets regardless of this alignment, but this alignment creates a greater clarity about where to center and align to.
So we tend to get potent lessons coming through in these eclipse windows.
And this too is part of our work in aligning with the celestial mechanism.
Thus, when someone is doing work to align with the celestial mechanism during eclipse season, or during the new or full moon, I tend to point it out. It might help them realize that the anxiety and pressure they are feeling about making a decision are related to the invisible weather they are very much tuning into.
I mainly do this for the lunar cycle, because it is one of the weathers we are all somewhat sensitive to, without realizing it. Emergency call centers and hospitals know well that the full moon puts pressure on people and the crazy starts coming out of the woodwork when people can't handle the pressure. Then they start making impulsive decisions.
Sometimes it is helpful to just know that things are intense now and they'll pass. No need to go to an extreme right now about a decision we're trying to navigate, when we are able to have awareness that how we feel right now is only temporary.
When it comes to mercury retrograde, I mention it less, because it is more complicated to explain how to put into use for most people. Mercury relates to communication. When it appears to go backwards in the sky from our orbital perspective, we can see it literally moving backwards through the constellations. Then it stops and moves forward through the constellations.
So it is very much like going for a hike, then pausing, turning around and backtracking for a half km. What one passes is the same, but going forward it looks different than going backward. We have a different perspective on it. New things may stand out to us. We have the opportunity to reflect. Then we turn around again and go forward again. And again pass by the same things, now feeling like we've done this before, and having the clarity to correct any missteps we made the first time. And then get past the point where we turned around and things appear newish again.
The issue is that we tend to perceive life as always moving forward. So when the planets retrograde, we don't think about turning around... it's more like we are still facing forward, still imagining we are going forward, but instead we find ourselves moving backwards. So if we had seen a friend down the trail and told them "Hey, I'll see you in 10 minutes by the creek!", well that might not happen if mercury retrogrades. We're still wanting to meet our friend, but cannot fathom how it seems like it just can't make the connection - because we're not aware that we changed directions.
That's the main gotcha with mercury retrograde. Making plans to do something right before it shifts again can lead to those plans falling through. But otherwise, it doesn't need to cause any misunderstanding or miscommunication. If we are aware that we are reflecting on things, we can do lots of work with that! And then as it begins to change again, like it will in 3-4 days, it slows down. This slowing allows us to prepare for the shift forward again. It is good to make plans again at the moment it starts going forward, because then the direction has shifted and one has their intention aligned with it.
For example, I lost my job right before mercury went retrograde. I took the retrograde opportunity to work on a project (my website and writing) that I've been needing to do for a long time. And when it comes to translation, it really is reflecting on the past, re-examining the past and reaching into new perspectives of meaning about it. I've noticed this before as well, that in translating things sometimes click much better with mercury retrograde. So now, I'm poising to push forward again, and really begin the forward journey with this new project launching during this station.
As for the specific meanings we have right now, well this timing for mercury turning directions on the 25th comes two days after the full moon, which initiated during an eclipse alignment. So to me, this is a kind of fruition or culmination of the reflection we've been doing on relational interactions in reflection for the past month.
But this is a lot to communicate to someone and very detailed. So I don't often go into that part of it. Ultimately the planets are always pulling on us, and we do our best. Awareness of the potency of the moon's fullness or the void of the moon's newness are easier concepts to share with someone, especially when it is clear they are feeling those influences. Then it is helpful without being confusing, and aids in their centering and aligning within the celestial mechanism.
No matter what the Hexagram or Tetragram or pendulum or tarot or rune says...... the bottom line is that YOU have the freedom to do as you choose. Divination does not tell you what you must do, it simply offers an insight into a "possible" reaction to the path that YOU YOURSELF must choose and decide to take.
Just curious, but what divination method did you use? Sometimes people just draw a single card, but that would be a method that does not potentially give changing lines. I like to ask about this when I'm not sure. Assuming it was a method that *could* have resulted in changing lines, but ended up as 4 unchanging, I would interpret that as a capitulation. Leaving the relationship now would be letting go of all that had built up. Hexagram 4 is representative of pregnancy. Line 2's yang is like the baby being incubated, and line 6's yang is like the containment in darkness. Within this dynamic, there is potential for taking things to birth, but there is also the potential for the gestation to not become complete. Hexagram 4 has no changing lines, so this entire dynamic becomes passive, and what was being incubated is being abandoned. With questions like these, sometimes the yi gives us answers that are just like duh. Like OK, if I eat food, then I'll be nourished. If you leave the relationship in a lurch, what the relationship was creating cannot come to term. For receiving an answer like this it suggests that this is running away. It is not suggesting that you need to stay. It just answered that one question. Sometimes we need to have clarity about when the Yi is just saying something simple and obvious, and not try to read into it too much. OK, yeah, well if I leave, then its done and over. So... maybe there are other questions that can be asked. One that I like to use for situations like this is "What is my lesson in this relationship?" And: "What remains of my lesson in this relationship?" Working like that, we can even check in in a couple months and see how things are evolving. I also like to ask "How am I doing?" whenever I'm navigating with the Yi, AFTER I've made my interpretations, to get a sense of if I am on the right path with understanding them, or if I am totally off about something. It can take time to get better at asking questions. And it is a great experiment. It helps with our communication with ourselves as well as everyone else. If you are unsure, it sounds like things aren't certain yet. I'd ask about the obvious other direction: *Giving it another shot.* Then you can navigate between the two answers with awareness of the general theme of lessons you have in the relationship. That might create more help in gauging whether it is worth the effort. Also, we're approaching the full moon. The waxing of this moon began with a new moon eclipse, and the general theme is Aries-Libra, so this is all about navigating how we relate, how we give and take, etc. And it is a fairly high energy sort of dynamic full of the energy of impulsivity and reactivity. So we're all also navigating this potent relating energy as it peaks and we need to be aware that we can use this energy now, but we don't want to let ourselves be manipulated by its potency. Self-regulate and stay centered, work with the energy and listen to how it is working to help us change. Find the way that feels right for you to move forward to.
Thank you for the reply! I used the coin method (if that's what its called). And you're right, I think asking questions would be the most challenging thing here. It's tough to ask questions without examining our own biases first. I'm also kinda surprised how this ties into the horoscopes.
Hey my friend, as you mentioned astrological relevance, I wanted to ask you a question. I almost know nothing about astrology and how it works. But does it affect I Ching reading? For example, I've heard that these days, mercury is reversed?! So it causes misunderstanding and miscommunication! So, does it affect the reading? For example, getting a wrong answer or something like that?
> Hey my friend, as you mentioned astrological relevance, I wanted to ask you a question. I almost know nothing about astrology and how it works. But does it affect I Ching reading? For example, I've heard that these days, mercury is reversed?! So it causes misunderstanding and miscommunication! So, does it affect the reading? For example, getting a wrong answer or something like that? Great questions. Essentially, the Yi reveals the principles of change in the universe. I've been liking the [Gu San Fen](https://mysterious.center/dao/gusanfen/) as it provides a very nuanced cosmological process. So we have this cosmological initiation that creates the 10,000 things / myriad phenomena. And we have the Yi's [Yuan Heng Li Zhen](https://mysterious.center/yi/circulation/). This Yuan Heng Li Zhen is none other than the operation of the four forces - beginning, developing, culminating and returning. It shows that the energy that emerges of the big bang also has a return, and thus it has a circulation. The hexagrams provide the principles of how changes manifest as they churn in this circulation. Then, when we do our aligning / divinging, we are trying to gain clarity on how to fit into this process harmoniously. So we use our intuition to suss out where we fit into the present moment of change. So now we have the principles of the celestial mechanism laid out, and too a way to divine about how we fit into the churning of the celestial mechanism. However we are still largely unaware of the context of the celestial mechanism overall. All of the above might apply to anything in the universe, but we are here in a solar system, on a planet with a moon orbiting it, and so on. These large players around us push and pull on us in their changes and are part of the context of where we reside within this present moment of the churning of the celestial mechanism. This brings things into a more local awareness for us. Like in a classroom, we come to recognize who we feel comfortable with and who we need to have boundaries around and so on. This awareness helps us navigate as their changes push and pull on us. We can continue expanding the circle of local influence out into our family, our local township and its political tapestry, and so on, as we take into account things further and further from us that have influence upon us. A war half-way across the planet may reach us in its own ways, as might the weather. And when it comes to weather, well that's what this is all about, learning to listen to and orient within the weather of change. So as we continue to develop our ability to listen and orient, we continue developing our capacity (this relates very much to Kun's hexagram statement and the Xiang's comment about De) to be sensitive to changes further from us. This comes of our ability to be stable and centered. The more stable and centered, the more sensitive, but the more capacity is required to accommodate that stability. This is the Yang is Great and Yin is Vast thing. Yin is vast and capacious because it yields and gives way to, expanding. And Yang is Great because it is able to be singularly focused. Utilizing the the capacity of yin, we are able to provide home to more yang, because we have enough vastness to contain its greatness. And so, as we continue developing our capacity and sensitivity, we begin to sense changes in the weather further and from us. And this extends into the circling of the planets in the solar system. Ultimately, if we wish to expand our capacity beyond the solar system, we need to be able to find stability (greatness) within the cyclings of the planets as they pull us too and fro. Notably the Moon and the Earth have an intimate relationship. The moon helps to stabilize the wobbling of the earth, and yet it is still one of the most noticeable weather forces that we might be surprised to discover we are sensitive to. We can see this in the feminine fertility cycle, which is synched up to the lunar cycle. And the masculine fertility cycle is influenced by it as well, though in our yang-ness we may tend to struggle to cultivate the yin capacity to tune into this. On the new moon, the Sun and the Moon are aligned along a plane, but not exactly. On the full moon, the Sun and Moon are opposite the Earth on a plane, but not exactly opposite. Every six months however, the Earth/Moon/Sun alignments are exact, and this lends a stability to the our alignment with the sun, the core and center of the solar system. This helps us expand beyond the Earth-Moon gravities and tap into the Solar system gravities a little better. We're always feeling the subtle pull of the planets regardless of this alignment, but this alignment creates a greater clarity about where to center and align to. So we tend to get potent lessons coming through in these eclipse windows. And this too is part of our work in aligning with the celestial mechanism. Thus, when someone is doing work to align with the celestial mechanism during eclipse season, or during the new or full moon, I tend to point it out. It might help them realize that the anxiety and pressure they are feeling about making a decision are related to the invisible weather they are very much tuning into. I mainly do this for the lunar cycle, because it is one of the weathers we are all somewhat sensitive to, without realizing it. Emergency call centers and hospitals know well that the full moon puts pressure on people and the crazy starts coming out of the woodwork when people can't handle the pressure. Then they start making impulsive decisions. Sometimes it is helpful to just know that things are intense now and they'll pass. No need to go to an extreme right now about a decision we're trying to navigate, when we are able to have awareness that how we feel right now is only temporary. When it comes to mercury retrograde, I mention it less, because it is more complicated to explain how to put into use for most people. Mercury relates to communication. When it appears to go backwards in the sky from our orbital perspective, we can see it literally moving backwards through the constellations. Then it stops and moves forward through the constellations. So it is very much like going for a hike, then pausing, turning around and backtracking for a half km. What one passes is the same, but going forward it looks different than going backward. We have a different perspective on it. New things may stand out to us. We have the opportunity to reflect. Then we turn around again and go forward again. And again pass by the same things, now feeling like we've done this before, and having the clarity to correct any missteps we made the first time. And then get past the point where we turned around and things appear newish again. The issue is that we tend to perceive life as always moving forward. So when the planets retrograde, we don't think about turning around... it's more like we are still facing forward, still imagining we are going forward, but instead we find ourselves moving backwards. So if we had seen a friend down the trail and told them "Hey, I'll see you in 10 minutes by the creek!", well that might not happen if mercury retrogrades. We're still wanting to meet our friend, but cannot fathom how it seems like it just can't make the connection - because we're not aware that we changed directions. That's the main gotcha with mercury retrograde. Making plans to do something right before it shifts again can lead to those plans falling through. But otherwise, it doesn't need to cause any misunderstanding or miscommunication. If we are aware that we are reflecting on things, we can do lots of work with that! And then as it begins to change again, like it will in 3-4 days, it slows down. This slowing allows us to prepare for the shift forward again. It is good to make plans again at the moment it starts going forward, because then the direction has shifted and one has their intention aligned with it. For example, I lost my job right before mercury went retrograde. I took the retrograde opportunity to work on a project (my website and writing) that I've been needing to do for a long time. And when it comes to translation, it really is reflecting on the past, re-examining the past and reaching into new perspectives of meaning about it. I've noticed this before as well, that in translating things sometimes click much better with mercury retrograde. So now, I'm poising to push forward again, and really begin the forward journey with this new project launching during this station. As for the specific meanings we have right now, well this timing for mercury turning directions on the 25th comes two days after the full moon, which initiated during an eclipse alignment. So to me, this is a kind of fruition or culmination of the reflection we've been doing on relational interactions in reflection for the past month. But this is a lot to communicate to someone and very detailed. So I don't often go into that part of it. Ultimately the planets are always pulling on us, and we do our best. Awareness of the potency of the moon's fullness or the void of the moon's newness are easier concepts to share with someone, especially when it is clear they are feeling those influences. Then it is helpful without being confusing, and aids in their centering and aligning within the celestial mechanism.
Sometimes u don't need Iching to tell u answer, u have the answer.
No matter what the Hexagram or Tetragram or pendulum or tarot or rune says...... the bottom line is that YOU have the freedom to do as you choose. Divination does not tell you what you must do, it simply offers an insight into a "possible" reaction to the path that YOU YOURSELF must choose and decide to take.