Our mental clarity, our ability to differentiate between important and unimportant, is the pivotal point of this hexagram. Our clarity allows us to analyze a situation and the various aspects it comprises: What are my options in this situation? Which of these options should I choose to achieve best results? What or who will help me, give me strength, promote my growth? What aspects of this situation are blocking me or lead me to a dead end in the long term? Sometimes it is enough to have just mental clarity. Sometimes, however, we must take action for the situation to develop and to gain momentum.
Is it good for me – or is harmful? How can I find out? The easiest method is probably: to try it out. But before marching off we should carefully examine the whole situation. Nothing is ever so new to us that we have no prior experience at all. What do we already know? What is the situation’s background? Well-being? Stomach ache?
And now a short recipe for… happiness! 1. Briefly take stock and examine what may be an unnecessary burden, blocking your forces and as a result weakening. Let go all of it! 2. This releases new energies are and off you go…. Without any active involvement from your side, something starts happening: unstoppably, relentlessly, pushing out from your own core. Like a caterpillar inside the cocoon turning into a butterfly, invisibly following its own perfect pathway.
How to solve open issues / unfinished tasks / open points? Much by tackling the problem and work it down. However, some issues can not be solved and checked off through our intervention, sometimes the solution lies beyond our possibilities.
I recently attended a family constellation about partnership. Later I asked the I Ching about the overall situation – from the initial constellation to the healed, resolved outcome. The response I got was hexagram49 – revolution (molting).
A user asks the I Ching the following question: “How should I deal with my lack of jobs – and the corresponding low income? Is there maybe something good about the situation?” The I Ching’s answer is hexagram55 – abundance. A wonderful response to a question which relates to scarcity…
A user writes: “Two weeks ago I decided to separate from my wife after 13 years of marriage. My question for the I Ching is, ‘What situation am I in?’”
A user asks: “My only son is leaving the house. I am currently not working. How should I deal with the future emptiness?”
A user asks how his professional situation will develop for him.
A user wants to buy and renovate an old building in Sicily. However, everything is delayed while she lives in her mobile home and waits, waits, waits. She writes: “Basically, it looks as if what we have planned won’t work anyway. Hence the question to the I Ching: ‘What can you tell me about the problems with the purchase?'”
One user asks: “Is he just a friend to me or more of a future partner?”
Some Reflections
Light at the end of the tunnel
The last inquiry regarding hexagram 55 – abundance, the oil mill in Italy, was sent in recently. And at about the same time, on a walk, I came across an image that I find somehow fitting: Light at the end of the tunnel. What I like about this image is that the tunnel itself is pretty. But exactly that is what you lose sight of when you only focus on the end of the tunnel, that single point, the problem. Yet the surroundings are full of beauty. And probably also full of alternative solutions. Perhaps this is what is meant by abundance (in the hexagrams name): All the possible solutions that actually exist – but for which one is blind as long as one’s focus is exclusively on the problem.
How does the heart gain such clarity and pioneering influence? Only through an entity that is able to discern between important and unimportant, to sort out what is essential and to put only the purest [substance] at the heart’s disposal. This function of the organism is attributed to the small intestine… The small intestine, alchemist of the interior… Discernment is needed on all levels! Sorting out intellectually, differentiating facts, clarifying relationships and… feelings – all this falls under the responsibilities of the small intestine… This is why mental health is associated with the small intestine as well…
During our conversation I consequently I ask the user questions like: What exactly is the problem that led you to consult the I Ching? To what extent is your perception of scarcity actually true? Is your job situation really that bad? And what is your general financial outlook? My inquiries bring up that she has a few small jobs, but not too many. Secretly, however, she sees this situation almost as a blessing, because currently she is intensively and with great joy engaged in a non-profit project – which certainly would not be possible if she had more “real” work. Financially, she has enough savings to make ends meet, although she would prefer not to touch her reserves and keep them for some ominous future (an attitude she was brought up with but gradually starts to feel doubtful about). Clarity Bears Growth shows us here how an honest inventory may open up entirely new perspectives for dealing with a given situation. Originally the user was saddened because she did not receive what she believed to be wanting: more jobs. What she was given were not jobs but enough time for her non-profit work – without any real financial worries. Admittedly, in our meritocracy it is an unusual attitude to use our own work force for charitable goals while living off savings. It’s definitely a new and unusual way, which certainly feels provocative to some people. The judgment of hexagram 55 says: Be not sad. Be like the sun at midday. This phrase seems to indicate that sometimes it is appropriate to not conform to others and not behave like everybody. In some situations it is advisable to make own decisions and to take new directions. Step 2 (second core character) is Dui, the lake, a sign which refers to our connection with the environment and to our attentiveness towards the echoes of our actions. At this stage of development we are confronted with questions like: What exactly is reflected back to me through my environment (what is it really – not: what do I assume / am afraid of to get as a feedback!). The user’s clear answer is: Yes, she has less money available, but she feels very happy and fulfilled in her daily life. And contrary to her expectations she actually receives little criticism but is appreciated and supported. Maybe that’s a good attitude for her to assume in the near future: to move forward with particular care and attention on this new path and to question again and again how she really feels – and what exactly it reflected to her through the environment. We all are threads in the collective fabric of life: when one thread changes, it also affects the surrounding tissue. Quite often these changes are very subtle – but they can be perceived if we look really carefully at your environment. In hexagram 55 – abundance the initial clarity finally becomes Zhen, clear determination: that which has slowly and perhaps even secretly grown will finally push outside, will become visible to all through determined action.
I received the following inquiry regarding hexagram56 – the Wanderer:
The user’s question is: “What I can do to enjoy my life?” She describes her overall situation as follows: “I cannot bear disharmony with other people, it paralyzes my life force and makes me feel deeply depresses. At the same time I feel guilty and responsible for the situation. Therefore, after discord, I’m always the one who takes the first step, a pattern I follow since my childhood. I would really love to develop something like self love.”
One user writes: “I am self-employed as a parent coach. However, the business is not going well yet. My question to the I Ching: ‘Am I on the right track? Should I rethink my target group?'”
The exam period is beginning. A user wants the best possible grades for her final exam. However, she feels she has not yet fully mastered the material. Should she postpone the exams? Her question to the I Ching: “Should I do the exams now?”
A user asks the following question: “Does he call me because he still has the same feelings as I do? Does he just call out of kindness? Does he call me because he misses me as much as I do? Does he still have feelings for me?” The I Ching’s answer is 62 – Preponderance of the Small.
The user’s newly moved-in neighbor repeatedly operates a device that disturbs the peace, triggers violent vibrations and sounds as if a moped was riding up and down in front of and under the apartment all the time. Neither the property management nor the police take the complaints seriously, but the user does not want to move either. His question to the I Ching: “What happens now with this situation?”
