Mare in motion
Yi’s been reminding me of hexagram 2 lately. It’s my ‘hexagram for the year’, unchanging, so I have the opportunity to see it from the inside - after seeing it through my mother’s example a few years ago.
One of the biggest changes in my life this year is going to be moving house, and owning a home for the first time. (No more trying to fit our lives around the landlord’s furniture!) Hexagram 2’s ‘peaceful constancy’ is fitting here: the character for ‘peaceful’ shows a woman under a roof. Quite. 
Naturally, as we start looking, I’m talking with Yi a lot. I tried to start out systematically, by narrowing down the area to look in, asking ‘what would it be like to live there?’ questions. Something about the answers told me I wasn’t quite starting in the right place… and so I wound up asking,
‘What would be a good guiding principle to bear in mind when house-hunting?’
Yi’s response: Hexagram 2, unchanging.
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Hexagram 2 is where Yi first introduces the whole idea of ‘having a direction to go’:
‘The noble one has a direction to go,
At first, confusion; later, gains a lord and harvest.’
When I start looking online, there’s a confusing multitude of possibilities, not least the various different areas we could move to. As we get out on the road and look at some houses, guiding principles start to emerge - and they’re not necessarily the ones that made sense ‘in theory’.
One aspect of Hexagram 2 that’s being brought home to me now: the importance of being in motion. A ‘direction’ literally has to do with sounding out a ford with a stick, trying out possible routes. It means having a good imaginative vision of the objective, yes, but not just sitting and theorising about it. I need to get going!
I once heard a motivational speaker type talk about how guided missiles only become guided missiles after launch, when countless little nudges that keep them on course to reach their target. The same is true of the mare, whose constancy bears fruit: she is sensitive to guidance as she runs.
June 4th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
This is gold… “she is sensitive to guidance as she runs.” Your posts have become needful sustenance for me. Thank you…
jRuthKelly’s last blog post..When Free Falling, Play The Violin? Nah! Laugh . . .
July 6th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Interesting too, that the concept of yin is within while that of yang is without. Here one is within the confines of the household, and therefore is at least relatively safe and content. In the outside world we are more likely to find hostility, and trouble. Within, we have the fireplace, the kitchen, and the one’s we love. Some love the road, some love the inn. It is all in your perspective. But here I sense a happiness in finding that which is your own, and a shelter you can retreat to, furnished the way you choose.
Gene
July 7th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Yes… exactly what I’m looking forward to. This sense of being ‘at home’ is important to me on all kinds of levels - it’ll be good to have an outer reflection of it.