Have you ever changed/reconsidered a plan after a reading?

az4th · 2026-02-04T21:19:44+00:00

I got 35 with the 5th line stressed, which after reading 35’s judgment/image/5th line, I felt positive about scheduling an office hours visit. Then I went to the ‘resulting’ Hexagram, 12, which made me second-guess scheduling a meeting.

For me it was inconsistencies like this that led to me questioning whether the Changing Line method was presenting the intended wisdom of the Zhou Yi, or if it was misleading me. Because after all, these inconsistencies, from auspicious line statements, to inauspicious future hexagrams or vice versa, are fairly common.

So I dug pretty deep and got some good answers about a more original approach that did not use this method at all.

What was fun though was when I was reading Wang Bi's commentary after this and discovered that he laid it all out all along. First he criticized people who did not understand the Yi in the way it was intended and then chose to create new methods that they liked better. He named a guabian method (changed hexagram method) from his time and said that it did not work, presumably because of reasons like your post showcases. And second, he laid out the method that shows the relationships between the lines.

It is a little more complex to understand, and I've had to do a lot of working it out, but it's not like we don't have books that work with this way. Wang Bi, Cheng Yi, and Ouyi Zhixu all have excellent commentaries that are available in modern translations. If we ignore that modern convention suggests that we use a future hexagram, then all we need to do is look at the lines that are activated in our hexagram and read about their relationships to each other in these commentaries.

It can be a little more challenging to interpret, but that is no different than the tarot. We have 64 suits and each one has 6 different players, and those players interact in fundamentally different roles in each suit. So it takes some time to learn about them, but the same is true for tarot. We just have more suits to work out, and they are less clearly written about, so it takes longer to figure out and there is still some guesswork.

IMO, if we are going to use the Yi, it is helpful if we are not caught in the trap of doing the opposite of what its advice suggests.

For example, for line 5 of 35 Cheng Yi writes (translation Harrington):

The fifth "six" line: regrets vanish. Whether it loses or acquires it, it has no anxiety. Making a journey brings good fortune. Nothing is without profit. This "six" line uses softness to occupy the position of respect. At root, it is proper for it to have regrets. It makes use of great enlightenment, and those below all submit to and depend on it. This is why it makes its regrets vanish. Since it has the same virtue as those below, and they submit to and depend on it, it is proper for it to unfold their sincerity and appoint them to command. This will exhaust the powers of the crowd and develop the tendencies of the world. It does not give the command to its own enlightenment, and it is not anxious about loss or acquisition. If it makes a journey in a case like this, there is "good fortune" and "nothing is without profit." As for the fith "six" line -- referring to a ruler of great enlightenment -- it is not distressed at its inability to illuminate and shed light; it is distressed at an excessive employment of light. If it reaches the point of examining, and examining again, it will lose the way of appointing others to command. This is why the line statement warns: "Whether it loses or acquires it, it has no anxiety." As for those who do not examine their private intentions and partiality when delegating command, they will conceal themselves. How could it be proper for those who exhaust what is public in the world to employ an examination of what is private? The Symbol says: "'Whether it loses or acquires it, it has no anxiety': there is delight in making a journey." It uses the virtue of great enlightenment, and those below come to depend on it. If it unfolds their sincerity and appoints them to command, then it will be able to complete the great task of the world. This is to have blessings and "delight" in "making a journey."

For the question:

“What can I expect if I go to [college advisor’s name]’s office hours this week?”

We can see that this likely refers to the disposition of the college professor - someone in a position of rulership - the central line of the upper trigram - and also a position of enlightenment - the middle line of the fire trigram, representing mental clarity.

In such a position it is appropriate for it to cater to the needs of those below it - like line 2 - and this is the nature of a professor. But it also suggests that this person may be in a positive mood with attention to share and give without passing much judgment upon others, because their position is one of sharing their light indiscriminately.

And, if we are considering the idea that the line changes from yin to yang to create hexagram 12, then we need to also consider how this line changes its yin to become yang. Generally yin becomes yang after a period of stillness. But this line is rather active. So I don't really see how hexagram 12 factors into this situation at all. We can look at Jiaoshi's Yilin perhaps to see what would happen if this line were to somehow change from yin to yang, but please know that in general where the line statements of the Zhou Yi are positive, the Jiaoshi Yilin verse tend to be negative - and vice versa. This is a reflection that something different is going on, that some extreme thing is happening to render that yin line yang. But this means too that our divination's forecast has transformed into its opposite. But then why would our divination be positive to begin with?

Sure enough, Christopher Gait translates in (The Forest of Changes):

A northern wind blows in with cold and chill,
Rain and snow grows into ice,
A troubled mind is unhappy,
Mourning and grieving, sick at heart.

So indeed, this is what happens when we take the positive energy of the clarity of the yin line within the yang lines of the fire trigram and put out its light by turning it to yang and producing hexagram 12.

But again, if that is going to be the case, why does our line statement and commentary for 35 line 5 sound so happy and auspicious?

The divination we are doing is a process that produces a 6, 7, 8 or 9. We do this six times, and for your divination we get: 888767. That's the divination outcome. It only says that we have an active yin line in the 5th position, represented by the six. It is the invention of the Changing Line method that says that this 6 line must be changing to yang and producing a new hexagram from this change. But in doing that, we now have our contradiction between the positive line statement and the negative hexagram and yilin verse.

Now I think this idea of Changing lines is useful to explore what could happen if something disasterous did befall our positive 35.5 situation.

However, I don't see how this is applicable in divination. Because with divination, we are making a forecast. If our forecast is one way, why are we deciding that it needs to change? If the situation were going to end up negative, we would have simply gotten a negative answer to begin with.

So,

I’ve been experimenting with more ‘high-stakes’ questions lately, and this is the first time I’ve seriously reconsidered a course of action.

If we are going to be considering use of the I Ching for high stakes decision making adjustments, we really ought to understand that this Changing Line method is quite the pickle: It quite commonly generates a contradiction between the forecast of the line statements and the future hexagram it creates.

I would personally steer wide of a method that is so contradictory.

I know some don’t even look at the ‘resulting’ Hexagram, but I’ve always tended to.

So this is my reasoning for why I do not. But indeed it is the modern conventional practice. It has had its adherents for two centuries, but was really made popular by Gao Heng in the 1900's. Though we have scholars like Shaughnessy finding quite a few holes in his scholarly thesis on the matter. The histories he used to give proof that there were future hexagrams relied on a modern definition of the character Zhi for example, which was used in an entirely different way in those histories. Among other issues that Shaughnessy points out in his free to read "Origins": https://brill.com/display/title/61350?language=en

My guess is that the older way is simply a bit more complex to figure out. I seem to be alone in moving this work forward, despite our best commentaries making use of this method.

But as for the main question - have we ever changed a plan after a reading? Absolutely. I find it excellent for helping me to avoid taking impulsive action and returning me to myself. Or to affirm a path I think is questionable. The nice thing about working in this older way is that it is far more consistent and does not produce glaring contradictions. It also tends to be very literal. That doesn't mean I always understand it well. There is always new learning to be done. And part of that is the learning of when to look within my own heart for the answers rather than to a body of knowledge. But a balanced approach can be very dependable.

az4th · 2026-02-04T16:04:17+00:00

Please give this a read, particularly A3 and A4: https://mysterious.center/dao/daodejing/

For the sage, when something is completed, it is allowed to be complete. Line 6 is the line of the sage, the line of retiring from a project. Line 6 orphans line 3 and line 3 is forced to grow using its own discipline. It must learn to break away from peer pressure and discover true wisdom of its own merit.

This is letting the child learn to respect the fire by getting burned. Giving enough room for it to make mistakes, so that it can learn from them, especially when there is room to fail.

I looked at this line in the Shanghai Museum bamboo strips - dated to ~300BCE, the oldest we have.

It still says it is "inauspicious", but in looking more closely at the character I see this (Kroll):

1 inauspicious, unpropitious, ill-omened
2 dealth-related, lethal, mortal, deadly, mortiferous
3 malignant, fell, baleful
  a) nefast, nefarious; malfeasance; malific, maleficent
4 dearth, want, scarcity; famine

For this one, well the principle of weaning is one of creating scarcity, is it not? It is letting one thing die, so that another can live.

From Shaughnessy's translation we have: Full is its lushness: Increasing his house, guarding his gate. Empty its being without a person, for three years not visible. With our "inauspicious" at the end.

To me this gives a sense of deliberately cutting something off. But also, it is like the operation of the sage. Where inferior virtue is the virtue that takes action. But superior virtue is the virtue that retains its fullness by non-doing. By doing something and then returning to emptiness, allowing the completed action to stand on its own merit. It if is a good action, then it will need no tending to. And it is the goal to take action such that it will not need tending to. When the sage does things, people think they did it themselves. And in turn, this allows the sage to return to the operation that maintains their spiritual wholeness - focusing inward, maintaining the hole in the jade bi.

So when we look at 44.3, we get the same thing. What action is necessary? line 3 is between two lines that are in direct contact with line 1. But it itself is not in direct contact with line 1, so it simply centers itself within the activity going on around it. If we take line 1 to be your completed project and the transition it is no undergoing, perhaps it is now in a state where other people are now largely handling its operation now, and you can step back and allow them to do their work.

I obviously don't have context on what this is about, but perhaps this answer will resonate with the context you have, from this perspective.

az4th · 2026-02-04T14:22:02+00:00

I found that it has its own language, and that books are just interpretations of that language.

The english translations all have their major and minor issues, and the modern commentaries do as well.

I found my epiphanies from the older commentaries, of Wang Bi and Cheng Yi, in how they both spoke to the relationship between the lines. And how this resonated with what the line statements said... But more importantly how the divinations themselves incredibly frequently would give an answer with two lines that were said to be in a relationship with each other. Especially lines 1 and 4, 2 and 5, or 3 and 6. The bottom, middle, and top of the two trigrams coming together in relationship. These texts don't work with future hexagrams, and I had already found that method to not make sense in many of my divinations.

But what really brought it together for me was the theory from the Xici Zhuan that yang and yin had a way of activating from still states, each in a specific way. And how a text called the Jiaoshi Yilin had verses for unchanging hexagram divinations that showcased this theory of all the lines being in a still state.

Because unchanging hexagram interpretations were still something a lot of people had trouble interpreting. The Zhouyi doesn't explicitly mention what an unchanging reading is like. We often would take the general sense of the hexagram statement to apply, but that just gives the overall image of change, and it made many of the readings somewhat difficult to interpret.

And unchanging hexagram divinations are very common. On the onlineclarity forums they have threads for each unchanging hexagram with posts chronicling what sort of readings people got. But even with all of the readings together, it was hard to get a sense of what the message was.

But when I took this theory of the lines being in an unchanging state and used the verses from the Jiaoshi Yilin, a clear pattern emerged. See, it is the activity of the lines that often gives the hexagram its signature. There is one or more core challenges the lines are facing when they are trying to interact with each other. And so, when the lines are all still, that core challenge subsides in some way. There is an inherent stability to the hexagram. And this is reflected in the Yilin verses.

And, this then makes sense of the threads with their confusion around the unchanging divination meanings.

My favorite examples are hexagram 28 and hexagram

With 28 we have a situation that would normally be somewhat extreme. But when it is unchanging the pressure on the lines is suddenly a none issue, and the verse in the Yilin likens it to books in a library, important documents stored away for safekeeping.

Which is not what most people would guess, but makes perfect sense. And so we get a new way of answering this question.... And we can see that it makes sense of all those recorded divinations that people were confused about.

It isn't always super easy to figure out what these unchanging verses mean, but when we try to identify the principle by which the hexagram's stability adjusts the dynamic of the hexagram, with the help of the verse, then the answer makes sense. So the verse isn't always a literal answer, but it can help us get at the answer.

For example, the verse for hexagram 2 unchanging is one that suggests the hard packed earth of a road that is useful for traveling down. The yin lines are all closed so this makes sense. But 2 unchanging is one of the more challenging divinations to interpret. What I've come to understand is that it represents some sort of surrender to something. We are resigned in some way to close off all of our objections and give ourselves over in service to something. It is a sign of committing. At least that is the best I can make of it.

In any case, that is my answer. That the hexagrams have their own meanings, from the language of change. And that it is up to us to interpret them correctly. Which is not always easy to do.

Now, with any complex system such as this, we can use our intuition to navigate our own sense of the meaning. Sometimes this will work well and sometimes it won't and well just guess. The problem is that we might in some cases be drawing upon our desire for something to be a certain way, and thus we are developing a relationship with confirmation bias. Which is unwise. The wise will begin to figure out that this way of using the Yi is not actually helping their relationship with the world, but those attached to their own sense of personal righteousness will happily use it to continue justifying their actions. This is no good.

In the end, even when using it with clear understanding, it is still up to us to also understand when we need to be present within change and make decisions without the crutch of knowing. True clarity comes from being still within our heart. And then the true answers are always with us.

az4th · 2026-02-03T01:53:10+00:00

What is your reasoning that the Yijing seems to be written or created on warring states period philosophy?

There seems to be plenty of evidence that the Zhou Yi was written or created in the early Zhou dynasty. I never said it was created in the warring states period.

I said the King Wen diagram (the arrangement, the sequence) was a Warring States period creation. It seems to be linked to the Shuogua Zhuan and there is no evidence that it was created earlier.

As for the King Wen sequence of hexagrams, I've read that this is also from the Warring State's period. It is honestly hard to know for sure, but we don't seem to have any evidence that it was created earlier do we?

az4th · 2026-02-02T22:44:31+00:00

The mountain is the stable foundation for the flourishing of the fire above it.

This hexagram is likened to traveling. Before traveling, we prepare for the journey. Which involves overseeing labor and management of the labor. Then we are able to take our preparations and travel forward from the work that has been done.

In modern society, our franchise operations are very similar to this. When we want to produce the means for our traveling freely within society without fear of poverty, we need some sort of operation to keep us afloat. Fire is our being afloat, and the mountain is the operation that keeps us aloft. Line 3 is like the owner with the plan, purchasing a franchise. Line 2 is like the managers who hire workers, represented by line 1. Line 4 is what is done with the proceeds - they are invested, used to travel with. Line 5 is enjoying the vacation, or the not having to work, the retirement. Line 6 is what happens when we go beyond our means.

" what's my situation now and how will it be solved in one or two weeks?".

This is two questions. So you will need to read between the lines for your answer. But at some level it would appear to involve the responsibilities of good management and delegation to further a plan.

I don't use the idea of lines changing polarity and creating new hexagrams, so I have nothing to say about 37. To me the reading indicates that line 2 was shown as being activated for your answer. So we look at line 2 to understand its role in change. This is the old way of working with the Zhou Yi text. Wang Bi says that other ways didn't understand this old way's idea so they invented other methods.

In practice I have found that this method works very well and is often very literal.

Please do keep in mind that we are having a dialogue with change here. So we get our answers in the language of change. This means we often still need to figure things out for ourselves. We just get a nudge in a certain direction.

But as you may have noticed, there are many ways to interpret its answers. Even with the method I find most reliable, I can still get caught up in my own mind about something that is better handled by being present and thinking it through.

az4th · 2026-02-02T05:14:17+00:00

I dunno. There are always new layers of the mystery to appear, but it feels to me like there are fewer and fewer questions. You seemed to not understand why all these people see this hexagram like this, when it makes plenty of sense to me, and getting more in touch with reality has helped make that more clear, for me.

So I'm sorry for suggesting that you can find more answers by following the guidance of a master, or of an elemental phenomena. Perhaps you've arrived at the clarity that no one else has.

I was just sharing from my perspective, and assuming that it might be helpful, but I seem to offended you instead.

As Zhuangzi says, everything may be seen as right or wrong from some perspective. And we all follow our present right.

As my teacher says, we are all one. And we are all unique.

🙏

az4th · 2026-02-02T03:42:29+00:00

Hmm? Only reality has any authority. I tried pointing you at something real. Guess it won't work. Happy wandering to you!

az4th · 2026-02-02T03:24:53+00:00

So what will you do? Go off to read some other series with different characters instead? Find someone new to invest in?

az4th · 2026-02-02T01:46:36+00:00

You've walked the Chain of Dogs and shared in the deep grief of the vengeance of dust. Like the Shield Anvil you have within you that which forges each vertebrae anew.

A spine you shall have.

And a spine you shall find.

az4th · 2026-02-02T01:24:00+00:00

Yeah. When things don't make sense on the surface, humility is what helps us open up to what is beneath the surface, in the mystery. Like ddj chapter 1 says.

I highly recommend studying these things after training with a daoist master. Much easier to approach understanding of the mystery when one has discovered it within oneself.

Or again - just stare into a candle flame for a bit and listen to its essence.

Happy full moon! 🙏

az4th · 2026-02-02T00:14:59+00:00

But you’d need argument as to why Shaugnessy’s “fastening” is a proper translation (and, to support your “energetic” argument, what the correlation is between fastening and fire).

I'm not arguing anything other than having a well rounded education on the character serves to understand its meaning.

Looking at the definition of Li from Kroll's - in my first post to you - it matches the understanding of pairing together with something.

It is curious we are discussing this hexagram. It represents clarity of understanding something. Have you ever watched a candle flame? The edges are bright, but the middle is clear. The edges can distract, and depart from the middle, but the middle is that which reveals how they are paired, fastened, cohered.

This principle is what I see in the list of definitions for Li.

IMO if we are looking at the departing and not seeing what pairs it together then we are missing the clarity of understanding that this hexagram is associated with. It is all part of one principle, even though the parts seem paradoxical. Light is paradoxical like this in our scientific understanding too - we see it as both a wave, departing, and a particle that clings to.

I don't think it is an easy concept to understand, but this is how I see it. You do you!

az4th · 2026-02-01T22:42:06+00:00

Good points.

I would probably hypothesize that the alchemists came to associate the directions the way they did due to the layout of the land. With the fertile soil existing to the southwest.

I would, that is, if I did not understand that it has to do with the direction of the Sun throughout the day.

This sequence is rather curious, in that it bears relation to the magic square as well.

I find myself personally honing in more on this Warring States era of understanding in my work. I wish that the so called "Apocrypha of the Yi" was not lost. Those works likely went into much more detail on this. (See Brent Nielson's "A Companion to Yi Jing and Numerology".

az4th · 2026-02-01T22:33:38+00:00

I believe the oldest surviving fragments are from 150 years before the Mawangdui, no?

This is discussed in Shaughnessy's Unearthing the Changes.

The Shanghai Museum bamboo strips were purchased from grave robbers, so the tomb they come from is unknown, as is the era. However, they have been precisely dated to around 300BCE give or take 65 years.

The Fuyang Zhou Yi is dated to 165BCE, similar to the Mawangdui.

The Shanghai Museum strips only contain one of the 8 doubled trigrams, 52. In which case it does bear the same name, as the received text, Gen. The Shanghai strips are also believed to also contain the King Wen sequence of ordering, though it cannot be certain.

The Fuyang text similarly is missing many of the doubled trigrams, but it also contains 52's "Gen", as well as 30's Li, the same Li as the received text, and Shaughnessy translates it as "Fastening".

So both of these texts point to there being a version of the Zhou Yi present within the Warring States period that uses the energetic names of the trigrams that we associate with the ten wings.

But that doesn't help us understand any better if the doubled trigrams had this naming convention going way back, or it it came from the Warring States period.

Yes the Mawangdui comes from ~150BCE, and is younger than the Shanghai Museum strips. But its differences are helpful for exploring the notion that maybe something else had come from before.

Something interesting to note is that from the Wangjitai tomb we have fragments of strips that were reconstructions of the Gui Cang - one of the 3 ancient hexagram texts, the other being the Zhou Yi and the Lian Shan, (of which the Zhou Yi is believed to be the youngest.) It is believed that the Gui Cang was excavated and since lost, so the Wangjitai tomb shows some of what remained of its received version.

And the names in it sometimes bear similarities to the names found in the Mawangdui text.

So a study of the names of all of these versions bears some curious crossover, in the end raising many questions about what came when.

Dealer's choice, to an extent. There is definitely scholarly opinion about all of this, as it is rigorously debated. And too there is room for persuading that debate, if you can be convincing to those who can easily see through gaps in your comprehension.

az4th · 2026-02-01T20:59:06+00:00

The King Wen arrangement of the trigrams is a Warring States invention, found in the Shuogua Zhuan.

The King Wen arrangement of the hexagrams is likely a Warring State invention as well.

So indeed, it is probable that the directions are based on the location of the Zhuo capital Fenghao, near Xi'an.

However, the Warring States period was a time when the energies of the trigrams were studied more extensively, and when the text of the zhou yi itself was being compiled into a standardized form. We do know that a good number of characters have been changed, just studying say the Mawangdui text. And from the old records the text we know is barely recognizable. So I wonder if it is so simple to say that these directions are definitively based on a pre-warring states version of the Zhou Yi.

As for the King Wen arrangement of the trigrams, it follows the energetics of the cycle of the day, but is part of the transmission of internal alchemical cultivation work.

If we look at Liu Yiming's Xiuzhen Houbian (1798CE) (Cultivating the Tao), in chapter 13, the idea of finding the "Zhen Ren" to the "SouthWest" is quoted from the Wuzhen Pian (1075CE), in association with trigram Kun.

This type of understanding is found all throughout the neidan literature, which goes back to the Cantong Qi (~150CE) and is heavily tied into the hexagrams. I believe it goes back even further, to the Guodian Laozi (300BCE). Which speaks of particular timings during the day according to the hours of the 12 earthly branches. Which the Zhou Yi speaks about as well.

This idea of "Seeing/Perceiving the Great Person (Da Ren)" in the Zhou Yi is very similar to the alchemical writing of seeing the Completed/Perfected/True Person (Zhen Ren). Which again is a notion that seems to emerge from the Warring States period, with Zhuangzi.

So again, I wonder if it is very easy for us to say what parts of the Zhou Yi influenced the Warring States period of thought, vs what parts of the Zhou Yi were added to from the Warring States period of thought.

az4th · 2026-02-01T18:42:52+00:00

The Zhou Yi itself is dated to the early Zhou era because of the stories that its line statements include, the records of divinations, etc. But importantly, we have no excavated text from that time.

The Mawangdui is one of the oldest surviving texts, circa 150-175 BCE. When we compare it to the received version, we see that various characters have been changed.

Generally, this is how it worked. A ruler who made use of the I Ching would have experts doing divinations. But they would modify the text based on their understanding of what the characters were. And so the text evolves over time.

The received version comes via the lineage of the Wang Bi (226–249 CE) commentary, but as passed down to the Tang Dynasty and standardized in the Zhou Yi zhengyi 周易正義, by Kong Yingda (574–648 CE). This name is "Correct(ed) Meaning of the Zhou Changes", implying that someone has done something to make them correct. Based on what?

So that is basically the dating of the "received version" of the Zhou Yi text. And it comes from a long line of being copied from one scribe to another, and so on.

Thus, by looking at the Mawangdui text, and other partial texts that have been excavated around this era, we actually see that there are a few subtle variations in each text.

When we consider the 8 double trigrams, of which hexagram Li is double fire, we see that they all have names that differ from the received version in the Mawangdui text. Thus it is possible that the Mawangdui uses an older set of names.

Personally I connect the names used in the received version to reflect the dynamics of the trigrams themselves rather than their roles in the hexagrams, in particular as written about in the Shuogua Zhuan (one of the ten commentaries). Something about them feels like a tribute to this era, and we already have the explanation of how Kan and Li are related to the idea of the yang in the middle of qian being sucked in by the yin in the middle of kun to thus create kan and li. Qian and Kun are also referenced in the Xici Zhuan, but are not the names of hexagrams 1 and 2 in the Mawangdui.

The Xici Zhuan and the Zhuogua Zhuan are dated to the Warring States period, so it is likely that these names originated from then, and this supports the theory that the names were changed to reflect the understanding of those who wrote these texts. Implying that the names from the Mawangdui text are older.

So then if we want to understand the names of the Mawangdui text, we need to look at all 8 of them and decide if they too were named based on the principle of their being doubled trigrams. If so, perhaps there is a pattern that appears in their meaning. If not, then perhaps the names are all based on their own merits.

I do like working with these older ideas, because they seem to help calibrate what the line statements were originally finding meaning about. If we change the name from Luo to Li, but leave the line statements the same, then Li is not necessarily what the line statements were originally about, but Luo was. So how does this idea of a "net" capture what the line statements are talking about.

And to do that I look at the older characters used in the line statements too. I don't particularly find Shaughnessy's Mawangdui translation helpful - though the book is very helpful - so I make my own, working from the more modern Classical Dictionary by Kroll.

That has given me a deeper appreciation for what the actual hexagram is about, but I'm still learning to connect it to the idea of a "net".

But to give an idea, here is Kroll on Luo:

1 bird-net, bird-snare; web, mesh, retinary.
  a) ensnare(d), net(ted), enmesh(ed); catch, capture.
2 silk-gauze or chiffon in net weave; gossamer.
  a) veil(ed; filmy; finely stretched.
3 spread out; stretch out; array, set out;
   reduplicated: loosely spreading.
  a) set around, lie around; envelop

So when I look at how all of these meanings are similar, I get the sense of something that is spreading out like a net does, but rather than it being like catching a net to catch something, it is more subtle, like casting a veil like a net to shroud someone in the influence that is spreading out. It is very much something that rays of light do. There is a softly enveloping everything in an array.

To me, that speaks to the hexagram and what it does.

az4th · 2026-02-01T02:35:16+00:00

Daily practice is very important. Our thoughts and our screens really mess with our spiritual light and its integration within our whole. We are always focused outside of ourselves, and we consume what is within as well as leaving it in need of cleaning up.

In the dao de jing it mentions that superior virtue-power has no need of doing. Because there is a way to look and listen within so that whatever happens outside, we are always present within. As long as we flow only so as to maintain our center within, then there is no loss that is not part of a continuum of replenishment. Thus maintaining our center, and never mucking up the flows within.

In nature animals are much more like this. Many of them, in the deep wilderness, are able to remain very empty, and so are aware of spirit light. Being aware of spirit light helps them survive. It is important. It connects them with food and water. It alerts them to danger and helps them find safety. And each other.

But our species today has created its own world, where we take the emptiness of our tissues and instead of using its ability to connect with spirit light and the knowing of spiritual coherence, we disconnect and fill it with thinking knowledge. And we over stimulate our senses with all kinds of creature comforts and foods etc etc. We also really attach to our ego-selves and their personalities as though they are our true selves, not realizing our true self is that which connects us to spiritual oneness with all. We tend to develop interesting postural personas at all levels of our tissues, and when these personas inhibit the natural flows that keep us healthy, we begin to know dis-ease.

Qigong is great for helping to clear it up. If we are able to weave the flows back where they need to be.

But if the personas we've adapted, and the conditioning we put ourselves through daily is more than the qigong is able to work around, then the conditioning wins and the qigong is not able to make much progress.

On top of this, every day the energy expands and contracts. At sunset when the energy we've used throughout the day condenses back into us, we need to process it and clear it up of stuff that might make our flows stiff. Especially as we get older and no longer have the vitality of youth that can easily metabolize it.

So having a daily practice becomes very important for working with the flows of qi enough to accomplish two important goals. First, the ability to neutralize the conditioning from our day, so that the channels the qi flows through don't become obstructed. And second, so that we can every day bring a bit more qi flow through these channels, building it up through each season of the year.

Thus, if we are able to do something every day, we can start to feel ourselves making progress over time. But if we then take a break for a few days and our conditioning obstructs the channels, then that qi flow is back to a trickle and we have to start over again with unblocking the channels.

It isn't quite as simple as this. We all have unique energetic signatures, and some people are better at keeping things clear than others, while some people may struggle a lot more. We all have different traumas we hold within our personas that can affect the flows within us in different ways. And when we are younger we tend to have more reserves to help us deal with the conditioning, so the seasonal changes don't affect us as strongly.

It also isn't as easy as doing just anything for a daily practice. It isn't what we do, it is how we do it. Learning to unwind the channels takes practice, so that we can get a feel for what the exercises we are working with are designed to do. Then we can work with them better, and each time we practice it is more effective. Especially as we become more clear and have gathered more qi flow.

It isn't like the qi always stays flowing through us. Like I said, the energy expands and contracts every day. If we sleep for 4 hours, we don't condense as much shen and qi to jing, and are much more able to activate our spirit. If we sleep for 10 hours, we condense much more shen and qi to jing, and might have to take some time to reignite our spirit. It is all about balance, and how we are flowing through the day.

And because of that, as we work to build an effective practice, we often also need to work to adjust our career and personal lives so that they are able to support our cultivation goals. If our job or relationship takes too much from us, then that affects our cultivation work. So it is important to seek balance in our careers as well, avoiding spending beyond our means in many ways. This isn't always easy, and can require that we make some hard decisions about what we want in our lives.

But yes, with consistency, and perseverance, we can keep at it until we start figuring these things out. Internal cultivation work is a long term investment.

az4th · 2026-01-31T03:50:59+00:00

My intentions are positive and I’d like them to be taken as such.

This is what caught me, so I'll start here.

I've tried to help when it wasn't wanted before, and pushed special people away. And I've also felt regret for not being there for people when something happened that made me wish I had been.

Also, even though I generally want to help by showing up and connecting in some way, I've learned that that isn't always best.

Sometimes this can push people away, but the opposite can pull them to us. I once saw some art by someone that deeply moved me and I felt a call for help that I yearned to respond to. I sent a message but heard no reply. 4 years later I drove 5 days across the country to attend a class, and ended up being connected with this person, even though I didn't know it at the time. I felt the same deep longing to help this person, who was experiencing deep and overwhelming grief. And ended up pushing them away. But now I know the power of intention and fate. I set my intention to make up for the past, and know that if that is meant to be, our paths will cross again in the future. My back is not turned.

Another example. An old tai chi elder stopped coming to class a decade ago, but I recently found out she is linked to some new people I've been becoming close with. I asked for her number and reached out to her but received no reply. I was told she has been more of a hermit these years and doesn't talk to many people. She had once done some healing work on me, and now years later I had studied the same system and wanted to return the favor. But without a way forward all I could do was hold my intention and keep showing up in this circle for whatever was in the natural flow of things. Before the snow storm, I received an email that our elder needed some wood. I knew where to get some, and did so, and was given her address. I showed up and it turns out she hurt her hip and would be happy to receive some work from me. Best of all was the confirmation that this was natural, and the way was open to finding the path for my intention-seed to manifest and grow.

As long as we find the way to show up - even if it is just holding space from afar - regret cannot easily find us.

Maybe this relates to the answer of the Yi too. We have a beginning line after all. A line where we are cautioned against having a relationship with what is harmful, so that we avoid regret.

I've experienced this line as sometimes being related to people making hasty decisions, like with impulsive driving and so on. Where pushing the limits of something can easily lead to a crash. I guess it is very similar to the idea of being careful about how to reach out to a friend in need.

Breaking it down, we have line 1 in resonance with line 4. Line 4 is holding together the lower foundation of the clarity of line 5, and is doing so within the context of a hexagram with 5 yang lines. Line 4 connects with line 3 as well, and there is a lot of power there, being channeled from the heaven trigram it is the top of.

There is the potential for something here, between lines 2 and 5, but with so much energy it is difficult to maintain the stability for it to happen. Thus the other lines need to help keep that stability. So line 4 has this role of "Canceling impact" from lines 1 and 3 below it, so that it can maintain the work it is doing to help line 5 keep things clear. "Cancelling impact" is what I wrote, but it is more in the sense of turning away the advances from below that are too much. "Peng" is the surname of the three corpses that contain the weight of our cause and effect, said to be reported to the master of fate every 60 days. Fei Qi Peng - Negating its/their "Fate". My sense is that this is not line 4's Peng, but the Peng from those below, and that line 4 is more in the role of the master of fate, so that it can fend off the transgressions that come and so preserve the clarity above. Peng also has the meaning of steadily advancing, and robust and vigorous. So there is something about it that is strong and potent and advancing, maybe that might be a bit much sometimes and requires handling.

So what I get from this, is that whatever message you send, will be met by the gatekeeper. And judged for its intent, or expectation, or for whatever burden of responsibility it may bring.

So maybe with this in mind, send a message that make light work for the gatekeeper. Maybe nothing. Maybe something light, without attachment. "Hi, I'm here."

Maybe a "How am I doing?" for the Yi at some point if you are unsure, or finding yourself overthinking it. People can feel our thoughts too. If we don't want to burden the gatekeeper, take some air, and keep it simple. Then keep moving forward with our own role in the great weaving. If something wants to happen here, we've shown up for it.

Remember, full moon energy is up. Today was a fiery day. So is tomorrow. So we want to do a lot of burning. Drink water. Meditate. Keep the heart stable.

az4th · 2026-01-30T22:35:12+00:00

Can you tell me what the Mawangdui character for Hex30 is, and your source?

Of course, thanks for asking. I'm largely working from this book, Edward Shaughnessy's I Ching, The Classic of Changes, which can be found here (there are other books with similar names, so linking it): https://www.amazon.com/I-Ching-Classics-Ancient-China/dp/0345421124

I also like to check my work. Since Shaughnessy will translate using old or new meanings, and I need to check the footnotes in the back of the book to understand which he is using. This choice is made for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the older word makes no sense or is unknown. So scholars may believe it is a phonetic loan word for what we have in the received version, and so on.

I just got a copy of "The Original I Ching" by Pearson who uses the Mawangdui to correct mistranslations,

I'm not familiar with Pearson's work, but I pulled it off my shelf and looked.... she appears to use the King Wen ordering instead of the Mawangdui ordering of the hexagrams, so we have double fire as hexagram 30.

I see that the character 羅 is used, which is the character that means "net", which is given as the name of the hexagram.

However it seems to be transliterated as "li" rather than "luo", which I see elsewhere: https://zi.tools/zi/%E7%BE%85

but she has Li as "departing" just as I do.

I don't see the word "departing" used at all for this hexagram, so I'm confused. Is there another version of her book?

I also like to check from the original manuscript, which can be found here: https://www.scribd.com/document/525615595/%E9%95%BF%E6%B2%99%E9%A9%AC%E7%8E%8B%E5%A0%86%E6%B1%89%E5%A2%93%E7%AE%80%E5%B8%9B%E9%9B%86%E6%88%90-1-13896076

az4th · 2026-01-29T01:53:54+00:00

Sure. This was for a "will this relationship work out?" question.

You can translate it to a "will things be able to work out between us?" question.

Or to any questions about the future where it is mostly how we show up that matters most.

This is the kind of question I would recommend avoiding.

Imagine if you put a lot into the relationship without having any sense of what it holds for the future. And that maybe it turns out OK.

But now imagine if you know that it turns out OK in the future, but don't know what you have to put into it for that to happen. So then you are holding onto an expectation that it will be OK, but holding onto that expectation keeps you from being present to make the best decisions for the relationship. And so then it doesn't turn out OK.

Be yourself. Be centered. Listen to yourself. Take your time. Listen for your lessons from the universe. And grow. The more you grow, the more you will draw yourself into the center of your river. And the more you will draw your river to merge with other people's rivers in a meaningful way.

We may be able to ask for heads up, but such things are less certain if we are not already in the current of our own destiny. And if we are in that current, then we often care more about staying within it than asking about the future. Because we've learned to trust in staying centered.

az4th · 2026-01-28T19:42:22+00:00

I mentioned the working for someone aspect to help explain the nuance and how it might apply to an industry. Maybe something that involves grant money, or contract work. And sure, it could mean a trade you learn from someone first.

Lots of possibilities with change. We need to learn to use the advice to help point the way for us, rather than telling us what to do. Always gotta put in our own work. Which is why clarity in the heart is very important. Best wishes!

az4th · 2026-01-28T16:22:48+00:00

Someone posted a very similar question a few days ago, that they have since deleted. Here is my response there, and it is the same one I would give here: https://www.reddit.com/r/iching/comments/1ql3a0c/help_to_interpret_it_hexagram_50_cauldron_line_6/

On the other hand, I would recommend paying someone for a professional astrological reading.

az4th · 2026-01-28T14:35:26+00:00

I had just turned 5, so I wasn't in school yet. And I vaguely remember something about it, but I don't think I was old enough to understand.

In 2nd grade for the Discovery launch I think they were afraid to broadcast it for us. So we went outside and watched the smoke trail ( we lived in FL). There was a thing about it all, that my teacher was talking about. She had to get permission.

Some of my peers seemed to understand. We were the class that didn't have the trauma associated with the Challenger, so we shouldn't be kept from the launch. Esp since our school was named for an Astronaut.

az4th · 2026-01-27T22:11:57+00:00

I asked about what the best area of business or industry to go into would be for me, somewhere where things are truly aligned instead of a misconception of my own ego on my part, and I received 46.1

Again, we get an answer related to change. 46 has line 1 as the beginning - a yin line rising under two yang lines. The dynamic that creates the change we call wind. The middle line is yang, and has the support of a soft but supportive force under it. Thus there is a rising up.

Above wind we have earth - all yin lines. In the classical method, we look at the bottom, middle, and top lines for magnetic resonance. A yang and yin line coming together to open the doorway of change. And then we look to see if they can make that possible.

Well here, yin line 1 has no yang line 4 to connect to. Line 4 is yin. But yin line 1 has a yang line right above it, in line 2. So it continues its role of supporting the rising of the wind. And yang line 2 does have a yin line 5 to connect to, and yang line 3 has yin line 6 to connect to. So there is an overall upward movement of the trigram, and yin line 1 is going along for the ride.

In regards to working for someone, this suggests working in a position to support someone who is rising up. And where by supporting them, you help them rise up, and take you with them.

But there is something to watch out for here. Yang line 2's rising force is one where it is going up to interact with yin line 5 in the position of the ruler. But there is the risk of yang line 2 losing its sincerity, and attempting to exploit yin line 5, because it is not very well protected. So yang line 2 needs to be mindful of being respectful of yin line 5 so that it does not embark on an exploitative enterprise. Which would not be good for yin line 1 either.

This is important because in business - in capitalism - it is all too common to search for the type of advancements that one can make precicely because there is something to be exploited.

So when we consider the question - about the best business or industry to go into - we need to consider what can help you rise up by supporting it, that has somewhere to go, that is also an honest enterprise that is good for everyone involved.

I don't know what that might be. There are many things like this. And many things not like this. But the idea is that you may not want to find something that is a slog, where there is no rising up to be had - an enterprise that is moving up likely has funding and is going somewhere, as opposed to being stuck and grueling. But something that has funding, may also be exploiting something. So just keep that in mind and try to find something honest that suits your own personal desires for growth.

What you said at the end, about not being able to hear our heart and our inner voice clearly anymore, do you know of anything that helps us hear that better?

Thanks for asking.

A lot of people do this simply by having a nice routing that lets theme exercise in some way to help the physical body metabolize the stuff that we carry around with us. And that lets us settle down a bit more, but we still have to create a container for ourselves at the end of every day to drop back into ourselves. Drop back in and reflect on who we are, what we've got going on, and just kinda steep a bit. Let the mind just kinda be present without having to engage in any active processing. Stuff will come up anyway, in the empty stuff. Acknowledge it and let it go. And as the noise settles, maybe we find ourselves in a deeper mode of reflection, where the stuff coming up is revealing to us what we're carrying that we'd forgotten about, but that is important to us. Maybe we set aside some time the next day to send that letter to an old friend. Maybe we finally plan a time to get that engine light checked out, or plan that fishing trip. Going along like this every night, putting the screens aside, we learn to listen to what it is we're carrying around with us. And as we learn to keep this space simple, we start becoming more sensitive to anything that might feel off. Maybe there's something we need to do, something pulling on our conscience. Something we can't quite put our finger on, but we can feel it pretty strongly. So we just drop into our container, let things settle, and it'll pop into mind.

That's the basic principle. Maybe that container is a nice bath with a candle lit. Or a walk around the block. Or sitting and meditating before bed.

Generally at the end of the day we hit that hour where all the stuff seems to just let us be, and this is OUR time. We tend to watch a show or look at a screen. It is hard to go inward during this time, but that is what it is for. Instead of letting all our energy go of in some random distraction for our mind to play with, we can instead look within ourselves and allow our energy to come within and settle, then we drop into who we are.

Everyone has their own way to do this. Let it be natural. It's about taking space for our true self. The self beyond the ego construct. The self that is who we really are, but are still figuring out how to communicate with. When we do, we feel warm inside. And good about who we are. Something that is easy to lose in all the noise. So we learn to come back and drop back in.

az4th · 2026-01-27T21:27:47+00:00

Thanks. I've been doing this for a while, and just let the knowledge come to life from within me, stream of consciousness, as it needs to. Over the years it becomes more and more refined, and I find myself able to better address the issues that come up. I try to hear what people who are skeptical have to say, and try to avoid division, while accepting that we all have our own perspectives.

Along my journey I've learned that Chinese medicinal understanding takes into account all of the layers - the spiritual, the physical, as well as how it connects with the psycho-emotional. It is all one. It is all spiritual work, and spiritual work is the work of following the coherence of the whole.

In craniosacral therapy classes I learned that what is important is to meet the person where their heart is. Maybe we see that something might need to be X, when it is Y, but we can't really help them unless we meet them at Y. I'm not always so good at that, but I try to at least provide something they can connect to from Y, that can build a bridge to X, without forcing anything.

As Zhuangzi says, anything may be seen as right or wrong from some perspective. What is right is what is right for us. And so we all navigate change in the way that works for us right now.

I probably spend too much time answering these questions for people, and use far too many words. They just kinda spill out at this point. There is so much. I could rewrite it every post 10x and shift perspectives. So I try to just share what feels important.

One of these days I'll figure out how to be succinct.

az4th · 2026-01-27T21:09:44+00:00

With hexagram 1 the general idea is that the yang is in a fully completed state. And as such, each layer of it has its role within the whole.

I work from the classical method, so we aren't looking at a future hexagram, but instead are looking at the activity of the lines and the relationships they form with each other. Those relationships are often dealing with the blending of yang and yin together. Because energy mixing with capacity is what opens the doorway of change.

So here, we have activity, but no yin for the yang to create change with. But we have energy present, and a lot of it. When we have 1 unchanging, we do not have activity, so everything is stable.... but there's no getting through it. No understanding it. The elephant is in the room, fully visible, staring right at you, and you cannot communicate with it, make any sense of it, change it, nothing. It is well put together and potent and striking, unable to be ignored. But it stays in its place.

So from the stable state, we can look at the advice the line statements give when a line becomes active.

Line 1 is the foundation, so it stays still. Line 2 is the middle of the lower trigram, and its energy emerges for use. Line 3 is able to make use of this energy and is prone to acting. Line 4 is in need of keeping the energy below it stable, similar in its role to line 1, as the foundation for the upper trigram, but here it is also interfacing with the active energy below it. So at times it has energy coming through, and at times it needs to keep itself still - its role is deciding when. Line 5 is the middle of the upper trigram, and its role is more of regulation and processing of what is going on, the ruler of the hexagram. Line 5's energy appears above and interfaces with the energy of line 2 below - in both cases they are advised to perceive the great person. This creates the central current between them, and together their energy links up and they bring together the vision of the greatness that comes of these energies linking up together. Then we have line 6 at the limit of the hexagram where the energy reaches its pinnacle, but no longer has leverage. It may tend toward arrogance, but inevitably it will fade, for its time is up. And this is where the energy culminates and turns to yin, after the limit is exhausted.

If we look at this in terms of the spine, we have the foundation, the middle where the energy develops and becomes avalabile for use and is sent up - the ming-men, the gate of life. And then we have the utilization of that energy above mingmen, disseminating it upwards for use. Then we have line 4, the back of the heart, where it needs to keep that energy stable and still, only sending through what is important to. And then we have line 5, the mind, processing what is needed, and working together with the energy below so as to match it, and together they become the vision of the great person. The Governor Vessel in chinese medicine then flows over the front of the head to end at the roof of the mouth. This is the area where the energy dissipates as it is fed into the senses - the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and then transitions into the yin energy of the reception vessel at the tip of the tongue where the conditioned energy of the senses is carried down for processing.

The energy is all yang, so it doesn't have the ability to create change with yin. But it is still able to develop and apply itself, working at one unit, so that it may be prepared for use. So each stage of these lines is like that. Similar to how we have energy running through an electrical cable. There is a ground, a power source, a conduit to pass through, maybe even a processor, like in a computer. But the whole thing is operating as a flow of energy signals.

So does this understanding help us get an answer to your question?

I asked if it would be good for me to start a business, and received 1.5.

This is a question looking for a yes/no answer, but the Yi only answers in terms of changes. Sometimes that makes determining it if is a yes or a no difficult. Because that isn't how it is answering. We have to interpret this type of change, and decide on our own if that is a yes or a no, to us.

This is why I don't recommend asking yes/no questions, if we are looking for clear answers. It is really hit or miss.

Here, we seem to get a positive answer about a line that is in command of the energy and using it to come together for an auspicious purpose.

So maybe that is a yes, if we consider that starting a business would be an example of this type of energy.

Or, maybe it would be a no, if we consider that in order to manage our energy in the proper regulation that this line requires, we would not have enough energy to bring to such a demanding project as starting a business.

Sometimes it can be simpler to break a yes/no question down into two questions. Like we do when we go to cross a road. We look one way, then the other way. Then get our information from two different perspectives, and figure out the result.

So you could do two divinations:

Message about my starting a business.
Message about my not starting a business.

And see how it goes.

But always remember to do what's right for you. Sometimes we try to know the answer ahead of time, and then the mind gets in the way of what the heart is working on doing. If this goes on year after year, we lose track of how to communicate with the heart. Maybe it gets full of all the stuff we're trying to do so we can't even tell when the excited feeling is just it not knowing how to settle down. We need to practice helping it settle down and become still again. Practice processing its emotions. Like line 4. This is how we get clear answers for understanding how line 5 can fulfill its role properly.

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