Weekly I Ching readings

Weekly readings are a blessing and a joy. I’m finding that the richest rewards come from asking an open-ended question every weekend, and keeping this separate from my readings about whatever pressing issues have come up.

Stephen Karcher wrote that the basic question we ask oracles – the question behind all the others – is ‘What time is it?’ That is, what time is it for me: time for enlisting help, for waiting for my cue, for retreat, for preparation, for vigorous attack on a specific goal, for learning, for exploring possibilities, decision-time…? And asking this question, every Sunday, is providing me with a very simple, understandable, enriching guide to my week.

I think there are basically two ways a weekly reading helps in practice: with better decisions or planning for the week ahead, and in the insights it provides into whatever comes up during the week, ensuring you don’t miss key opportunities. My reading from last week gave me both of these.

When the computer failed, I knew this was an opportunity for me to stop and think. But after just a few days and a few readings, I felt I’d understood a great deal about what needed to change, and I wondered if I really had sufficient excuse not to come straight back to work. It was possible in theory, as I have the use of a somewhat doddery old computer. It doesn’t allow me to do everything, but I can do readings and feedback on assignments, and answer emails via webmail (on the occasions when its internet connection’s working). So on the 8th, with these possibilities in mind, I asked what time it was for me this week.

Yi said it was Hexagram 11 moving to Hexagram 18 time: Flowing into Corruption. I took that as a straightforward instruction to pour my energies (11) into sorting out what I’d got wrong (18) – and also to take the time to connect with energies that were bigger than just my own (11). I might think I’d already basically worked stuff out, but 18 suggested otherwise. So did 11.1: there were more connections to be found under the surface if I kept pulling.

Line 6 struck me at once as a direct warning against trying to impel myself back to work through sheer self-discipline. No use bringing out the army when the bulwarks are falling back into the moat; better to make the mandate heard in your own city. This could have meant that I couldn’t achieve much with the doddery computer (whose bulwark is certainly on the way into its moat); it definitely meant that I really did not know how to concentrate, how to focus, or how to sort out what to concentrate on, and I needed to rediscover the mandate in my own city, my own life, before attempting anything else.

So I had an answer at once to my immediate question – which is why you haven’t heard from me for the past week. (A whole lot has changed for the better in that time, with a lot of Tai energy cleaning out a lot of Corruption in work patterns and beyond.)

But I did have one more thing to learn from 11 moving to 18. On Friday afternoon, steeling myself to walk into a particularly scary emotional encounter, I grabbed the beads for a very quick reading to guide me through. I received 11 moving to 18. So this was what I’d been preparing for all week! The reading gave me confidence to stay connected with that bigger Source during the conversation, channelling it strongly into patterns of Corruption (not just my own).

I also learned (the hard way) another meaning of 11.6: that there are limits to how much Tai-energy and ‘big thinking’ you can give another person at the moment when their smaller-scale securities are crumbling. Ouch…

What time is it for me this week?
Hexagram 2 – Earth time.
A time when I have the strength and resources to use in service, and need to be responsive to whatever guidance arrives on how best to use them. (In other words – yes, it is possible to go back to work without having a Grand Plan.) So I’m quietly returning to work, and began this post on Doddery Computer. I wasn’t expecting my own to be repaired and returned to me for another week, or maybe two.

But – it’s back already! When I called the repair people this morning and they told me it was on its way, I rang off with a huge grin on my face. Of course – this is Earth time, time when you have the resources you need.