Changing Lines

[Daeluin]

Starting out learning the Yijing, I only used the seed method to select one hexagram and one line that was the heart of the situation.

 

Recently I used an app that yielded multiple changing lines, and am learning to understand their flow.

 

I think I read that the first hexagram is the most important, not the second one... but after these readings I wonder if it depends on the situation.

 

So.... last week an acquaintance adamantly invited me to a shamanic event. At the time I had no idea if I should go or not. But come the day of the event, I felt the dao was trying to lead me somewhere, though I did not necessarily feel I needed to go to a shamanic event, as I have learned that taking care with mixing teachers is more helpful to me right now. So I explained to my teacher that I would not be attending the second class of the day as I felt I was being called somewhere.

 

I did not have the phone number for this acquaintance, but showed up to the house where she lives, knocked on the door.... no answer. So I walk upstairs and knock on the other door where two of my friends live... no answer... send them both text messages... no answer.

 

So the event starts in 15 minutes, and I feel I've been led here for a reason. I didn't have other plans aside from the class, although I did have a family member in town whom I had just spent lunch with and allowed myself to become escalated a bit... a recurring theme I've been working very sincerely to harmonize, usually by finding ways to give us space even though space is not usually a mutual desire.

 

So I consult the yijing via this app, asking what my flow is, and receive Wind under Earth, 46 ䷭,  Pushing Upward, with changing lines 2 and 4, yielding Thunder over Mountain, 62 ䷽, Preponderance of the Small.

 

Reading that Pushing Upward is associated with effort, I endeavored to put more effort into making it to this event, and found a way to contact the event holder, who tells me he canceled the event about 30 minutes ago, not feeling of an energy level equal to holding the event and wanting to do it right or not at all, but I was welcome to come next week.

 

So at first I had thought I needed to make more effort, but perhaps the hexagram was indicating how the situation itself was changing - line 2 of Pushing Upward represents the minister who performs the spring ceremony, and the minister was no longer present.

 

At this point my friend from upstairs contacts me and asks if I'm outside, the comes out, explaining he was taking a nap and didn't hear my knock. We walk inside and I am invited to his band practice that evening. Then my other friend emerges from a bedroom... he too had been sleeping. Then the acquaintance who originally invited me returns - the situation has quite suddenly changed from a silent house (earth on top) into an aroused house (thunder on top) - and she has freshly printed T-shirts with this picture:

 

 

Which is very resonant with me, as the visiting family member and I have a history with ribboned trees... so I buy two and then we're whisked off to band practice. On the way the family member calls, expecting I was going to meet them for dinner despite us being escalated and not having made plans.... and I realize if I hadn't listened to the subtle flow around me, I would just now be emerging from class and getting sucked into a very different flow. That situation still needed time to settle. Unable to accept that I am involved with other plans, the family member tries to dig deeper, forcing explanations I do not need to give, and I explain I need to go as I am with company, but I will see them soon.

 

We end up driving far out of town into the boonies next to some mountains, and I spend the evening studying the yijing and doing circle walking in the garage as the rock band plays. Quite literally thunder in the mountains, and I learn how even though the small has become preponderant, it is in exceptional times that exceptional measures are required for re-establishing the norm. The point here is that the time demands a restraint that would appear to be excessive. The superior man ... must always fix his eyes more closely and more directly on duty than does the ordinary man, even though this might make his behavior seem petty to the outside world. He is exceptionally conscientious in his actions. Wilhelm/Baynes

 

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The next day my family member drives out to a cabin 3 hours distant and I focus on my other plans, and we have time to settle. The following day I am to drive out early to meet them there for lunch and hiking by a river park.

 

I wake up early, do my preparation, and as I am leaving I consult the same app and receive Thunder under Heaven, ䷘ 25, Innocence / The Unexpected / Fidelity, with changing lines 1 and 4, becoming Earth under Wind, ䷓ 20, Observing.

 

I end up going to several grocery stores to grab something for a picnic lunch - one wasn't open, the next one was shut down, so I get a later start than I wanted, but I let them know when I am leaving. On the way I keep getting stuck behind truckers who can't go very fast up the winding mountain roads, and begin to realize this is the boom of thunder that I was hoping for that simply isn't being allowed to happen, and I keep being held back... so I become receptive to the situation even as I make sure to communicate my status to my waiting companion.

 

I arrive and everything is cordial, a simple lunch is enjoyed as we share gifts, and then we drive to the state park.... only we can't find it. We drive this way, then realize we've crossed a state boundary and must've gone the wrong way... so we go back, then try a different way... get to a dead end, turn back, ask someone for directions and end up finding our way to a park, but a different one than my family member had been to earlier that morning, and is very confused. There was a sign pointing the way down the first road we took, but no further signs saying which way we should turn.

 

Liu Yiming writes of line 4: Promoting strength by action, when one is compounding the elixir, if there is the slightest carelessness the medicine will fly off, so that there is error in spite of fidelity. Clearly we were not careful enough with proper directions, and allowed ourselves to be blown about in the wind. At this point I was open and receptive to it all and had a merry time observing where we ended up.

 

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So in both of these readings it would appear that the situation was changing outside of any influence I had over it. I can see all three aspects - the original situation, the resulting situation, and the changes in between.

 

These readings were more of intended to read the surrounding winds of change. Perhaps a different sort of question or intent would have revealed how the situation might change unless I take certain steps to prevent it, to preserve the integrity in some way.

 

So I'm curious how others approach changing lines in hexagrams. Please share your stories!

Edited April 10, 2015 by Daeluin

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Interesting story. I have to admit I don't have a set way to read changing lines, but I often get a lot of benefit from reading them as the forces behind a scenario turning into a particular situation - "manifesting" into a real scenario, if you like. I know there are methods to concentrate on only one moving line, but I take these as guides rather than rules.

 

Your first reading is particularly interesting:

 

Wind under Earth, 46 ䷭,  Pushing Upward, with changing lines 2 and 4, yielding Thunder over Mountain, 62 ䷽, Preponderance of the Small.

 

The changing lines actually reflect the Push Upward, with the 2 yang lines seeming to advance further up in themselves, like a bubble rising.

 

I'll try to dig out some older readings to see if I can find some examples of what I mean, anyway.