As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I asked Yi what the basic human need is that it answers, and it responded with Hexagram 49, Radical Change, moving at lines 1, 2 and 4 to Hexagram 48, the Well.
Here (at last!) are that reading’s moving line texts:
‘Bound with yellow cow-hide.’
‘Your own day, so make radical change
And set out to bring order: good fortune, no mistake.’‘Regrets vanish, there is truth and confidence.
Changing mandate, good fortune.’
I’m posting just the pure text to start with, as I always encourage Course students to begin by reading text without commentary. Commentary is great, but it also occupies mind-space that might be better filled with questions like, ‘Bound with yellow rawhide? What kind of need is that?’ – or meditations on the trigrams – or reading over and over the line texts trying to get a sense of how they work together.
(And having said that, of course I’m going to write reams of stuff and hope you’ll read it. I feel like diving deep into line pathways for this one. One line at a time, then…)
These three lines seem to be a journey through layers of involvement in change – from grounding in the present, through personal commitment, to becoming part of something bigger.
The need and the change begin at line 1:
‘Bound with yellow rawhide.’
Experience suggests this one is about the connection to present reality – with all its awkwardness, its obligations, and reminders of the joke about the man you ask for directions who responds,
‘Well, I wouldn’t start from here.’
I think it’s probably literally alluding not just to the strength of rawhide in general, but also to leather bound on as simple shoes for a long march – because, of course, nothing can change unless you will start from here.
This line – changing alone – points you to hexagram 31, Influence. The way in to Radical Change starts with openness to influence, availability to be moved. This is maybe a little surprising: you might imagine it would start with a shining, inspiring vision of possibilities. But no – it feels more like 31.1,
‘Influence in your big toes’
– itchy feet, in fact. You may not know quite what needs to change or why, but you’re restless – aware that something needs to move.
I think – from personal experience and talking to others – that this is how guidance first makes itself felt. Before you consult an oracle, you’re moved to do so. Sometimes the reason is clear – a decision to make, for instance – and sometimes there’s a much less defined sense that this is a Changing kind of time, and there’s something you need to ask. Oracles call people rather like honey pots call Pooh Bear. So when we feel that inkling of influence – more and more I’m finding that this part of the pathway, the fan yao, indicates something you’re aware of (or need to be) – Yi responds by binding us firmly to present realities, or helping us tie on our shoes for a long march.
Continuing round the line pathway takes us from 31.1 to 32.6 (draw hexagram 31 with line 1 changing, turn your paper upside down, and you’ll see how that happens), the place most remote from the original line cast:
‘Shaking up lasting, pitfall.’
It hints at a counterbalancing realisation: change does have to start from here, and on the other hand, constantly re-starting isn’t at all useful. The point of Radical Change isn’t just to create upheaval indefinitely – it’s looking towards a new Vessel.
‘The vessel has a jade handle
Great good fortune,
Nothing that does not bear fruit.’
That’s 50.6, the paired line of 49.1, where the story it’s part of continues to unfold. As this is a jump from line 1 to line 6, it looks a long way ahead – from the changing, prosaic stuff of leather to the enduring, unchanging jade. Being moved (31) founds enduring relationship (32); radical change (49) creates new ways of being (50) – and this line pathway (49.1, 31.1, 32.6, 50.6) combines the two, so when you’re being moved by or into radical change you know an enduring way of being is becoming possible.
In my mind (and from my days among hippie artisans in the 60’s) rawhide can be coarse and heavy, not flexible, not refined, like silk, but sturdy and strong, water-proof, protective. A document or other belonging wrapped in rawhide would be something so valued by its owner that he chose a protective cover that he could afford, that he could travel with, that he could rely on. Rawhide might not have been so easy to come by, as it is a product of one of the domestic animals usually–water buffalo, goat, horse, pig, or wild animals such as deer. I don’t know for a fact, but it seems to me that the ancient Chinese may not have slaughtered nearly as many of these animals as we do today. So, it’s coarse but strong and shows concern and respect for whatever it’s protecting.
The first line in so many hexagrams indicate that either the situation is premature, or that we are not in the right space. Hexagram one line one tells us that it is not time to act, and hexagram two line one tells us that we are not in the right space to act. Hence in hexagram forty nine one we are “wrapped in the hide of a yellow cow ” because the time is not ripe to take action. We must “brake ourselves,” as in hexagram sixty three line one. To know the right time to act is extremely important. We must know “when to hold them and when to fold them.” This sensitivity to the demands of the time is not available to the common man, therefore, we need a tool, a trainer, such as the I Ching to guide is in making the matter known, and as in hexagram twenty, contemplation gives us the answer as to whether we “advance or retreat.” It is only the superior one, (the I Ching) who knows the demands of the time, so sometimes we must act, sometimes we must sit back and allow the universe to do the work for us. It is only when we truly understand the demands of the time that we can be like hexagram fifty line six, and everything works in our favor. Timing is everything. If we miss the right time by a moment, we can lose an opportunity. If we rely solely on our own strength, we are likely to fail. That is why it is so important to have a guide that is wiser than us, and listen to its counsel.
Gene
Thanks, Gene and Chad. It’s especially good to have a physical sense of the imagery, I think – to know what rawhide is actually like.
Gorgeous and right what I needed to be reading today, Hilary. I’m in a process of radical change and your last sentence, “when you’re being moved by or into radical change you know an enduring way of being is becoming possible” is like a nice hand-hold as I walk on the path.
Thank you! So glad you got something from it.
I just realized I never did understand line pathways! Darn!
But I love digging into symbols. I get that rawhide is durable. It can also be constricting – causing the motivation, I guess, to seek a new path.
I think I’m beginning to hear the voice of the oracle (or my projection thereon, however this works). It’s wise, it confronts me on my stuff, and it has a sense of humor.
The voice I hear from the oracle is wise, compassionate, has a sense of humour, and can be distinctly caustic and insulting. Hm…
Still no joy with line pathways? Do email me if you’d like to sort them out. It’s quite possible to live without them, however 😉 .