Here’s a very-frequently asked question. This relationship may have been going ecstatically well or this project may have been an intolerable risk yesterday/ last week/ last month, but is that still the case? How long does a reading apply for?
Two possible answers, I think:
- For as long as you specified in the question
- Until there is change
The first point is obvious: to make these things firm and unambiguous, mention a specific time period in your answer. (Actually, I very rarely find myself doing or suggesting that. Mostly people need to know about present possibilities.)
The second… calls for the use of intuition. ‘Change’ can be obvious external-world change: he gets a new girlfriend, you win the lottery, etc. But it can also be an inner change, a new idea, new attitude, new outlook. Sometimes even a very small, nuanced shift can change the outlook in the blink of an eye. Two questions that are about the same objective situation, seen from different places within oneself, can elicit very different answers. A burning desire for a different answer, of course, doesn’t generally amount to ‘change’.
If in doubt, there’s always the option of asking Yi. ‘What effect would it have for me to ask you about this again?’ Such a question can get very clear, direct answers.
It depends what you’re asking too. If you’re asking about something big, a major goal, then few people take on board that it could be referring to a very long period of your life.
Let me give you an example. Twenty years ago I asked the Yi about a major goal and got “hidden dragon” (hexagram 1/1). My natural inclination was to believe such a situation would last 6 months at most. It didn’t. It lasted 10 years. And then the dragon emerged into the field and began the ascent of the dragon lines. But despite it taking so long, I saw in retrospect that of course that was how long it had to take, simply because of the difficulty of the task I was asking about. But the “promise” inherent in “hidden dragon” fulfilled itself. As you may have guessed, my goal was intimately connected with the Yijing itself, essentially about my own destiny in relation to it, which later took form as “The Mandate of Heaven”, among other things. A lot had to happen, and much learning and understanding had to come, before I could possibly have been in a position to be anything other than a “hidden dragon” in relation to such a goal. But in your 20s you have unrealistic expectations, and little grasp of timescale and what is really meant by the time “being ripe”.
Habitual questioning is a real problem. For many, an Yijing reading lasts as long as you are receptive to it, which for some is about 5 seconds. And a lot will “cancel” out what the Yi has just said by immediately asking another question, forgetting what was said the first time if this time it seems “better” or easier to understand. It has been my experience that very few questions I have personally asked the Yijing have been relevant to what the oracle is, mainly because I made them irrelevant myself through consulting the Yijing too much. Later I came to regard such questioning as “practice” to gain familiarity with the oracle, but stopped believing that the oracle always speaks. In fact, I think it hardly ever *really speaks*. And the more habitually a person consults the Yi, the harder it becomes to distinguish real interactions with the oracle from a one-sided conversation. But, in time, it can become possible. The best sign of that is putting the Yijing away and hardly ever consulting it any more.
One of the most useful learnings one can derive from the Yi is to get rid of impetuousness and impatience, and learn to wait for the time to fulfill itself. Even if it takes ten or twenty years.
Yes, the I-Ching has given me some insights that have taken many years to mature. Hopefully in time one learns to ask the right questions,sparingly…