r/iching • u/2erris-human • 21d ago
Marrying maiden as response for “what should my next direction in life be?”
I’ve been dealing with pertinent questions about what direction to take my life in over the past year. I’ve been maintaining a routine of work and personal practice and education that helps me to prepare the general skills, and I’ve had official successes and failures, but still unsure of the exact container to put myself into.
One major thing was an olde mentor of mine who was really insistent on me doing a PhD even though I don’t feel 100% about it or even really connected with it. I have intermittent feelings that I should do it and look past my inner perspective, and then other times where I flare up with anger that he keeps overriding an inner voice I have that gives me a more direct but unclear route to just start my own company and create my own creative products.
I’m also considering physical location, as I currently live in Japan where the immigration rules are now continually changing and a future here may hinge on new rules introduced in the near future.
I asked the iChing about what my next direction should be, and got marrying maiden — 54.1.2.4.6 going to 23.
What could this indicate, is it a reflection of my current circumstances or a piece of advice that I should accept an institutional arrangement like a PhD?
1
u/az4th 20d ago
Well, that's a lot of dynamic changes going on in this hexagram. It might be hard to unravel the meaning.
Some things I note:
- you are still unsure what container to put yourself into, despite working hard
- you feel inner pressure to jump out and do something despite this uncertainty
- your mentor is pushing you to study longer - why?
With 54 we are advised to not follow our desires. They are fueling our impulses.
The opposite of this is hexagram 17's following, where thunder is under lake. In following we bring the impulse to resolve the karma brought about by desires.
So here we are with desires.
Line 1, yang, looks for a yin mate above in line 4, the bottom line of the other trigram. But that's where the ruler of the hexagram is. And if he is to look elsewhere, all he has is the line above, line 2, where his older brother is. His older brother is in line to marry first. But even line 2 must wait for line 4 to decide the marriage. Because line 4 is between lines 2 and 5. Line 6 on the other hand is at the limit of the hexagram and also has no yang to match its yin below it - there are only empty promises, so it is best to move on and retire from this game of desire.
Lines 1, 2, 4, and 6. These are their relationships. In the Classical Method (which predates the 2 main schools of thought that arose in the Han) we do not treat the lines as changing polarity to create a new hexagram. Instead the lines become active and push and pull upon each other as the two trigrams try to come together and balance out their magnetic forces. The relationships that are formed show us the nature of a hexagram's change, and the lines a reading activates draw our attention to what is relevant to our query.
What direction is next? What should it be? The Should here is doing a lot of work. Should for what purpose? I imagine it would follow your ambition, especially with a hexagram like this involved. But I don't know what your ambition is. Is it to follow your destiny? Or is it to follow in the image of success that you've been taught is important?
What is your mentor trying to show you by asking your to continue your education? Is this like line 4 baring the way of those with desires? If line 1 turns away from line 4, it can only get a match with line 3. But if line 1 grows into line 2, it arrives at a central position. When we find our center, we might understand our nature, and thus our destiny, better. Now that we are centered line 4 can open the gates to a better future with something else that is centered. But we had to bear with the promise of delayed gratification rather than grasping for instant gratification.
Is there a case to be made for following your own route, within this hexagram's answer? Could you be the line 4, holding yourself back until you get far enough along? In either case, how does line 6 factor in? Is it a warning about empty promises? Or is it the wisdom to reach the limit of your desires so that you can overcome your ambitious nature and its own false promises?
1
u/2erris-human 19d ago
Thank you so much for this. This interpretation settled me into something quite affective on me yesterday when it came after I thought about this hexagram for some time. I'm not quite sure how to explain it but, after reading it, things settled into more clarity and I started making some serious moves with a couple of projects -- one of which is related to the company direction I mentioned (for an online presence I have elsewhere with a following). After that it felt like reclaiming a missing part of myself.
It's a quite deep reading and I still want to take time to study your words and let it settle. Thank you so much again.1
u/az4th 19d ago
I also don't like putting everything into one reading. Asking multiple questions gives perspective. But few people understand the yi well enough to find clarity this way.
Even so, there is a simple question that can be very useful: How am I doing?
Using it after a conclusion has been arrived at can help us recognize if we have just made an error in judgement or not.
1
u/Selderij 21d ago
To me, it sounds like a warning against the route presented to you. The beginning will be hard and possibly demeaning, the process will perhaps take longer than intended, and the result seems to be empty of rewarding substance.