This is probably too ambitious for right now. I don't really know if I should make this a blog post instead or what, but just so you know, I'm liable to stop writing mid-sentence at whatever stage of completion, and come back to finish it later.
Um. Relationship readings. I know the title says 'Yijing Cartography' but just bear with me a second. Because one of the most popular readings that I've seen a lot of people do- "she loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not...", like flower divination (and I actually have a really good way to do those readings, and its a lot less headachey than the Yijing: You take a flower, and you go, "she loves me, she loves me not" until you run out of petals).
So this is, you know, another way of doing a relationship reading. Or it could apply to any situation, but the first time I did this it was a relationship reading. Because as some of you may already know, I am... I'd like to have a boyfriend.
So I started doing "timeline" readings at first, on the situation. Because with my ordinary readings, I was struggling with the timing. So I started asking Yi, "where am I on the timeline?" With regard to finding a partner, or specific relationships. I don't remember all the specifics, but I cast a 46.6 about the timing of a courtship. The way I was thinking about these readings, that was meant to be like, a two-dimensional, linear timescale. And Yi seemed to be playing along- I had one changing line on every single timeline reading I'd attempted, no more, no less, so it was easy to visualize a 'pinpoint'. But with the 46.6, my very first thought is that I actually have no idea where I'm going, where I am, let alone when. Naturally, I asked for a map.
"Could I take a look at the area map, please?"
"7 unchanging."
Immediately, it was like a really brigt floodlight switching on. "The Army??? That's not even close to where I- OH. OHHHHH." I'd been thinking about a boyfriend, and what I realized then was that in order to make hexagram 13, I would need every single line to change. I was actually as far away from a Fellowship With Man as I could possibly be. I was rigid and anonymous, and other things one might associate with the army and not with having a boyfriend; there may be a need to disarm, to stop thinking in terms of a conquest. But it also suggested to me something much more interesting: That my "map", what I'd asked for, wasn't the 7 I cast, it was the entire table of the hexagrams. The way to read the map I'd been given was not by my usual process of conceptual analysis, or not entirely. It was by comparison of the hexagram figure I'd cast to other hexagram figures that I would have preferred to cast, identifying the bypasses, backroads and stopovers and following them to a more hospitable location. The 7 was just my immediate area, the "you are here". But getting to 13 from here is gonna be... It's gonna be really hard, maybe impossible. For that to happen, there are a lot of other things that have to happen first maybe. Anyhow, it probably isn't going to happen very soon. Even 53, where I vaguely thought I was going, is lookin' kinda far away. New plan.
What are some more realistic destinations I could travel to from here? Well, there's 8. I only need two lines to change to get 8. Starting with that second line, which is starting to look like a roadblock itself. There's 16, my elephant, deep comfort (I was a "twice exceptional" kid with slow processing speed, I posted about the connection to hexagram 16 before, but I had been hoping at one time to find another "elephant"). 2, 45... Hmmm... Maybe if I add a stopover to the itinerary, it opens up a few more options. Again, that second line is gonna be my step one. Drummer in the army? Not on the front lines, you know, not flinging myself at potential boyfriends. Banging a drum in the middle, the guy next to me probably feels pretty safe. Except, hang on... There's an even better choice than any of those. In fact, I think it's exactly where I want to be, more so than the 13 I had in mind initially. Very close to someone. Close. And I was almost there. You might even say "adjacent". And the nearest road is actually the one that goes there. Excellent.
So if I was going to travel down 7.1 towards 19... Something tells me I should travel on foot, pace myself, try to act more like a sane person, maybe even blend in. Not necessarily conformity, or anonymity. But keep pace with the others. Plural. Being one of a crowd. If I want to pick a boyfriend out of a crowd, maybe step one is to find the crowd, and join their procession. Okay, we're off to see the Wizard.
More later (or never).
Um. Relationship readings. I know the title says 'Yijing Cartography' but just bear with me a second. Because one of the most popular readings that I've seen a lot of people do- "she loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not...", like flower divination (and I actually have a really good way to do those readings, and its a lot less headachey than the Yijing: You take a flower, and you go, "she loves me, she loves me not" until you run out of petals).
So this is, you know, another way of doing a relationship reading. Or it could apply to any situation, but the first time I did this it was a relationship reading. Because as some of you may already know, I am... I'd like to have a boyfriend.
So I started doing "timeline" readings at first, on the situation. Because with my ordinary readings, I was struggling with the timing. So I started asking Yi, "where am I on the timeline?" With regard to finding a partner, or specific relationships. I don't remember all the specifics, but I cast a 46.6 about the timing of a courtship. The way I was thinking about these readings, that was meant to be like, a two-dimensional, linear timescale. And Yi seemed to be playing along- I had one changing line on every single timeline reading I'd attempted, no more, no less, so it was easy to visualize a 'pinpoint'. But with the 46.6, my very first thought is that I actually have no idea where I'm going, where I am, let alone when. Naturally, I asked for a map.
"Could I take a look at the area map, please?"
"7 unchanging."
Immediately, it was like a really brigt floodlight switching on. "The Army??? That's not even close to where I- OH. OHHHHH." I'd been thinking about a boyfriend, and what I realized then was that in order to make hexagram 13, I would need every single line to change. I was actually as far away from a Fellowship With Man as I could possibly be. I was rigid and anonymous, and other things one might associate with the army and not with having a boyfriend; there may be a need to disarm, to stop thinking in terms of a conquest. But it also suggested to me something much more interesting: That my "map", what I'd asked for, wasn't the 7 I cast, it was the entire table of the hexagrams. The way to read the map I'd been given was not by my usual process of conceptual analysis, or not entirely. It was by comparison of the hexagram figure I'd cast to other hexagram figures that I would have preferred to cast, identifying the bypasses, backroads and stopovers and following them to a more hospitable location. The 7 was just my immediate area, the "you are here". But getting to 13 from here is gonna be... It's gonna be really hard, maybe impossible. For that to happen, there are a lot of other things that have to happen first maybe. Anyhow, it probably isn't going to happen very soon. Even 53, where I vaguely thought I was going, is lookin' kinda far away. New plan.
What are some more realistic destinations I could travel to from here? Well, there's 8. I only need two lines to change to get 8. Starting with that second line, which is starting to look like a roadblock itself. There's 16, my elephant, deep comfort (I was a "twice exceptional" kid with slow processing speed, I posted about the connection to hexagram 16 before, but I had been hoping at one time to find another "elephant"). 2, 45... Hmmm... Maybe if I add a stopover to the itinerary, it opens up a few more options. Again, that second line is gonna be my step one. Drummer in the army? Not on the front lines, you know, not flinging myself at potential boyfriends. Banging a drum in the middle, the guy next to me probably feels pretty safe. Except, hang on... There's an even better choice than any of those. In fact, I think it's exactly where I want to be, more so than the 13 I had in mind initially. Very close to someone. Close. And I was almost there. You might even say "adjacent". And the nearest road is actually the one that goes there. Excellent.
So if I was going to travel down 7.1 towards 19... Something tells me I should travel on foot, pace myself, try to act more like a sane person, maybe even blend in. Not necessarily conformity, or anonymity. But keep pace with the others. Plural. Being one of a crowd. If I want to pick a boyfriend out of a crowd, maybe step one is to find the crowd, and join their procession. Okay, we're off to see the Wizard.
More later (or never).