A week with the I Ching of Love

[Rachelcat]

Another new deck from the Llewellyn tarot sale, and another deck of which I had an older edition. (I still have the older edition of this one.)

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are some showing the differences between the versions.

Oh, I forgot to show the backs!

It looks to me as if the illustrations in the new version are a bit fuzzy because they’ve been enlarged, but I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I never saw the original version.

The booklet has a longer introduction and what looks like an improved translation of the card interps. (Not sure what language it’s translated from. Italian? And interestingly, no German translation, one of the three languages on the face of the original cards.)

I’m not sure how I’m going to read with this deck this week because the method I’ve come up with for reading I Ching cards can get a bit long. The booklet recommends just one card readings, and I might do that most of the time. And because of its love and romance focus. I have no interest in doing any romance readings for myself! So that’s something I’ll have to figure out. I’ve typed up a list of hexagram titles from The Complete I Ching by Alfred Huang (and I have the book handy) just in case I need to expand to non-love keywords and interps.

But today we can start with an interview. At 64 cards, the deck could handle a full 6-card interview spread, but I’m going to use the short one because I think it’s going to be dense!

Strength: 58. Friendship
This is an auspicious hexagram, lake over lake. Huang calls it “Joyful.” The strength of this deck is that it can be for more than love readings. It can be for friendship readings, too. And about how we can be more joyful. And it is conventionally pretty, complete with butterflies and flowers.

Weakness: 44. Intimate meeting
The deck talks about but struggles to show sexuality. It does it pretty conventionally. If the card is about two people meeting, why is only one person shown? Then again, maybe that’s better for showing non-hetero romance? The orchid is a good symbol for sex. And the moon I guess.

What can I learn from the deck? 23. The wear and tear of time
This card goes with the usual hexagram meaning, not just love. Except for the heart. I can learn that just because I’m old doesn’t mean I can learn something new about love. Time effects everything, especially emotions.

Outcome of our work together: 39. The obstacle
It won’t be easy! The gorge on top of a mountain is an obstacle. You might not be able to go around it, and nobody wants to go through it. But nature finds a way. I’ll have to use my ingenuity to find a way to read with the deck this week!

Well, we’ll see about that! Have a happy Sunday!

[Rachelcat]

Monday
Let’s try my 2 cards with changing lines reading. General reading, line text from The Complete I Ching.

I drew 12. Superficiality and 46. Sex.
All lines are changing except 1.

I laid them out in one long row of 6 cards; I just split it here for photo purposes.

12. Superficiality
Trying to figure out this keyword. This is considered inauspicious hexagram because the masculine is rising and the feminine is sinking, so they’re moving farther and farther apart. Maybe that’s the superficiality. The people in the relationship are acting out their roles, not being themselves, and allowing themselves to contribute to a war of the sexes dynamic instead of a real relationship.

Changing line 12. 2
Reinforces this. A higher quality person doesn’t get entangled in the whole war of the sexes thing, but instead waits it out with integrity, being real and being him or her real self.

6. Conflict
Wow, more checkerboard here, more game playing. Again the idea that love is a game with one winner and one loser.

Changing line 6.3
Also a bit of a repeat of the previous line: it’s NOT a game, and if you play love like a game, you can’t win. Hold your own in a conflict, but don't try to win.

44. Intimate Meeting
Ok, it looks like we’re making progress. The conflict can be put aside when we just be ourselves and meet each other without hiding. Intimacy as vulnerability.

Changing line 44.4
Being vulnerable can be a risk. But not opening yourself to others is a greater risk--that of walling yourself off from friends and their help.

57. Wind
The idea of this hexagram, wind over wind, is gentle penetration. A summer breeze is soft and gentle, but it goes everywhere. The illustration makes it look like the wind is blowing the clouds away, and some of the more solid cubes. Not sure what the cubes represent . . . The honesty and openness we’ve been talking about has pushed away the conflict and doubts in the relationship.

Changing line 57.5
Regret vanishes. The very specific advice of this line is consider what you need to do for three days, do it, and then review it for three days. If it looks good after all that, then it worked.

18. Awareness
But all this work on the relationship doesn’t mean there will never be problems again. The old clouds might not come back, but there will probably be newer ones. Don’t ignore them. Being aware of them is half the battle of getting over them, too.

Changing line 18.6
I’m going to read this as once again be genuine. And if something’s not working, it’s not working. Be true to yourself and the truth.

46. Sex
And if you go through all of the above, then you can have sex! Just kidding! The non-sexy keyword is Growing Upward. So, if you go through all of the above, the relationship will enhance the growth of both people into better people.

Whew! I told you the method was long!

Just so you know what I was doing here: For the hexagrams, I went by the keywords and illustrations. For the lines, I read the text and interpretations of the lines in The Complete I Ching, and pretty much pulled keywords from them. And, as you see, I tried to turn it into a story or timeline and keep the love/relationship focus of the cards.

We might have to do something shorter tomorrow! Have a happy Monday!

[Rachelcat]

Tuesday
Well, let’s try 2 cards again and see how many changing lines we get.

50. The Crucible and 18. Awareness
Only 1 changing line, so no extra cards! Let’s see if that changes how we read it.

50. The Crucible
A crucible is a vessel that holds melted metal. It’s a metaphor for painful testing: you melt down some metal in fierce heat to see if it’s true gold. Here, a free bird is visiting a bird who seems very sad to be in a cage. I’m going to have to go to the book on this one . . . Oh! It’s the cauldron! I didn’t recognize the hexagram. It’s not a vessel for melted metal, it’s a vessel, made of melted bronze, for ritual offerings. Huang says that when there was a change in dynasties, the new emperors cast new cauldrons to honor their ancestors, thus “establishing the new.” Maybe it’s a time of testing, anyway. The free bird is telling the caged one that his time will come when he can escape, and they can be free together. Watch and wait for your big chance to establish a new, better life!

Changing line 50.4
This line says the leg broke off the cauldron and spilled the offering food all over the prince! Misfortune! The birds’ strategy isn’t a good one. It’s not good enough to wait patiently for an opportunity that might or might not come. It’s better to have a more active plan of escape.

18. Awareness
And this card confirms that. We have to deal with reality and be aware of the dangers and opportunities that are really there, not wishful thinking or pie in the sky. It might not be all wonderful and optimistic, but it’s real, with a better chance of really making it out. I just realized both the bird and the woman are inside looking out. I think they want to get out. But they have to be realistic about how they’re going to do that.

Well, this was a little bit more difficult to put together than yesterday’s, but not necessarily because of the fewer cards.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings! Have a good evening!

[Rachelcat]

Wednesday on Thursday
I got lazy yesterday. Time to catch up!
Let’s try a regular spread just for an experiment: Opportunity, Challenge, Resolution

Well that’s cheery! Let’s dig in.

Opportunity: 62. Identifications
I think it means “identification.” The booklet warns of identifying all of your happiness with one person. Huang says this is Little Exceeding, a warning against overdoing something. So that makes sense. I have an opportunity to trust and enjoy someone, but I shouldn’t go whole hog into making that person everything to me. Interesting illustration of that. The other person in the background is just a shadow or silhouette or projection of what the person things he/she is.

Challenge: 21. Betraying (Jealousy)
Obviously, a challenge to trusting someone, even a reasonable amount, is suspicion of betrayal or just plain jealousy. I’m having trouble with both of these in the same card. Betrayal is betrayal. Somebody done somebody wrong, not necessarily by cheating, but breaking trust of some sort. But jealousy is usually an unfounded suspicion, sometimes just as destructive to the relationship, but working in kind of the opposite way. This is Wilhelm’s Biting Through. (The fourth line is going to be chomped by the teeth and jaws of the other lines.) Huang says we can have success after an obstruction is broken through. So the card is saying betrayal and jealousy are obstructions, and we just have to bite the bullet and get over it. A challenge for sure! The illustration is of a woman working to get over the wall of her pain back into the beauty of nature.

Resolution: 49. The Tomb of Love
Like I said, cheery. The resolution is to let it go. If the love is dead, bury it an move on, don’t try to drag the dead body around with you. This illustration is so sad. The people are completely divided yet they’re still living in the same house. What an uncomfortable home for both of them; it’s shadow is a tomb. Huang says this is Abolishing the Old, which agrees with this. If the old is worn out or rotten, let it go.

This is actually a positive message for me. I hope it’s saying that my letting go resolution is moving along quite nicely. I would love that!

See you soon with today’s reading!

[Rachelcat]

Thursday
Something I need to know. Issue and outcome.

Before I go ahead with getting close to anyone, I need to beware of deception. Things and people aren’t always what they seem. Be cautious.

Issue: 53. Intimacy
Huang’s name for this is Developing Gradually. Which intimacy does! You can get close to someone quickly, but real intimacy, true closeness develops gradually as you get to know someone. The tree is growing gradually, and the butterfly gets to know the flowers intimately. But the heart is up high on the mountain. It’s going to take time to get to it. Oh, it’s wood over mountain. The tree looks higher than the mountain.

Outcome: 33. Deception
Heaven over mountain. The clouds are behind the mountain. Huang calls this Retreat, and it seems like an ok or auspicious hexagram. Sometimes it’s good to retreat and it can lead to success. Not sure about deception here. Maybe I’ll combine it and say if I run into any evidence of deception, I should retreat! The poor guy in the illustration gave his heart away but had it returned (the very next day). His love is discarded on the floor. But there’s still a wide world out there, and he will recover to love again.

Have a happy Thursday!

[Rachelcat]

Friday
2 cards with changing lines again.

38. “No” in Love and 31. Engagement
All changing except line 4. Another long one!

38. “No” in Love
Fire above lake. The general meaning is not seeing eye to eye, opposites. Here is a cactus who like fiery heat and a lily that can only live in a pond. So we’re not going with opposites attract here! It’s no to love because they just can’t agree on anything, including attraction.

Line 38.1
“If you lose your horse, don’t chase it. It will come back on its own.” If you can’t agree, let it go. Maybe you’ll agree on something else. And if not, it’s not a problem.

64. Mystical Union
This is the last hexagram in the list, and it has achieved full integration of yin and yang lines, perfectly alternating. But, because this is I Ching, this is usually interpreted as INcomplete, with 63 (lines alternating oppositely) being complete instead. So that when we get to the end, we are ready to start all over again. With the keyword and illustration, the creator seems to be going the other way, but the booklet says that this mystical union is an unobtainable ideal, so incomplete it is. And it’s very much the opposite of 38.

Line 64.2
“Dragging ones wheels”? Don’t aim for perfect, hold out for good, though, and that will be successful.

35. Game of Love
We had this one before! Again, just because you can’t have perfect doesn’t mean you have to be a player.

Line 35.3
“Obtain the trust of the multitude.” Emphasizing that trust is what’s important if you want a true relationship.

56. The Wayfarer
Maybe you shouldn’t work toward a relationship at all. You might do better traveling around to new places all on your own.

Line 56.5
This interesting has the same “three days” advice that we’ve encountered in another line. Think about the change you want to make for 3 days. Make the change, and then review what happens for 3 days. Then it will all work out well. Maybe consider where you want to travel to?

33. Deception
And we had this one before too! Just beware of deception. Maybe that’s what we should be considering for 3 days: Before you commit!

Line 33.6
“Elegant retreat.” Remember, the non-deck keyword for this is Retreat. This line says the retreat from deception should be elegant. Just stay away from it. Don’t take it personally.

31. Engagement
The non-deck keyword is Mutual Influence, which expands the meaning of Engagement nicely. Here the two stars are engaging and mutually influencing each other. We’ve moved from completely apart through an unobtainable ideal through depending on oneself to true mutual connection! Whew, what a ride!

Have a happy weekend!

[Rachelcat]

Saturday
Last day for I Ching of Love
I Ching Study Spread

I created this spread a while back in an imitation of Stephen Karcher, who suggested something similar in his Total I Ching book, but didn’t really follow through. So I did for myself! The first card is chosen randomly, and the rest of the cards are hexagrams related to it in different ways. I’ll try to make it make sense as we go along.

Primary. Shuffle and draw a card. Describes the situation. The rest of the spread expands on the meaning of the Primary.
44. Intimate Meeting
We’ve had this one a couple of times. Let’s see if the related hexagrams help us understand it better.

Nuclear. Lines 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5 of the Primary. The hidden or unnoticed aspects of the situation. Something present but below the surface.
1. The Creative Desire
In any important meeting, there has to be a moving, active force. Real chance meetings that amount to anything are really pretty rare.

Seed. The nuclear (lines 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5) of the Nuclear. The most basic character of the situation, one of four: 1. Active; 2. Receptive; 63. Complete; or 64. Incomplete.
1. The Creative Desire
This is one of those active, intended meetings.

Reverse. Switch the trigrams of the Primary (lines 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3 of the Primary). If the lower and upper, inner and outer, elements of the situation were reversed, it would be like this. But it’s not.
9. Impotence
If the situation were switched, it would be switched, not from active to receptive, but from active to ineffective.

Inverse. Turn the Primary upside-down (lines 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 of the Primary). Where the situation is headed. Near future.
43. The Courage of Love
This is actually a step back, not a step forward, from 44 to 43. So I’m going to say the person who initiated the meeting showed courage and strength to actively make it happen.

Opposite. Change the all lines of the Primary. What the situation is not.
24. A New Beginning
The meeting isn’t a new beginning, it’s a culmination of this stage of the relationship.

Evolutionary. Line 1 is the changed Primary line 6. All other lines move up one position (Primary lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 become Evolutionary lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). How the situation will develop. Longer-term future or outcome.
33. Deception
Even though everything looks exciting and prosperous now, there is a chance things will sour later on.

Transitionals. Change each line of the Primary to get each corresponding Transitional. Change only line 1 to get Transitional 1, change only line 2 to get Transitional 2, etc. Each changing line text of the Primary leads to its corresponding Transitional. Six possibilities the situation could change into.

I’m not going to interpret these, I’m just going to list them:
T6: 28. Under Pressure
T5: 50. The Crucible
T4: 57. Wind
T3: 6. Conflict
T2: 33. Deception
T1: 1. The Creative Desire

Well, obviously, I need more practice with this spread. But at least we got to see the mechanics of it. And more cards from the deck! Here's a copy of the spread, in case anyone wants to give it a try.

Thanks for playing along with I Ching cards. I’ll see you over in the autumnal equinox threads!