Okay, so I’ve been messing around with the I Ching lately, and today I decided to focus on Hexagram 37, “The Family” (Jia Ren). I’m still pretty new to this, so don’t expect any deep wisdom, just my raw experience.
First, I grabbed my coins. I use three regular coins – nothing fancy. I like the feel of them, the weight in my hand. Then, I cleared my mind as best as I could. This is always the hardest part, you know? Like trying to stop a runaway train of thoughts.
I focused on a general question about my family relationships, nothing too specific. Then I started tossing the coins. Six times, I tossed, recorded the heads or tails, and built the hexagram from the bottom up.
- Toss 1: Heads, Heads, Tails. That’s a solid line (Yang).
- Toss 2: Tails, Tails, Tails. Broken line (Yin), and it’s a changing line!
- Toss 3: Heads, Tails, Heads. Solid line.
- Toss 4: Heads, Tails, Heads. Another solid line.
- Toss 5: Heads, Heads, Tails. Solid.
- Toss 6: Tails, Tails, Heads. Broken line.
So, there it was, Hexagram 37. I looked it up in my I Ching book – the one with the plain English explanations, because, let’s be honest, the old-school translations can be confusing.
The main message seemed to be about the importance of roles and structure within the family. Everyone having their place and responsibilities. It also talked about the influence of the “inner” (like, the home) on the “outer” (the world). My changing line (the second one) emphasized the importance of nurturing and providing, kind of like the traditional role of a mother. Made sense.
My Thoughts?
Honestly, it resonated with me. I’ve been feeling like things have been a bit chaotic at home lately, not a big drama, just…disorganized. Maybe this is a nudge to think about how we’re all interacting and whether we could all be a bit more supportive of each other.
I also considered how my work affects my family life. That, influence that runs on both sides.
I’m not saying I had some mind-blowing revelation, but it did give me something to chew on. It’s like a little prompt to pay more attention to the dynamics at home and maybe try to be a bit more intentional about my role in it all. I think I may keep reflecting on that.
That’s it for today’s I Ching experiment. Pretty simple, but sometimes, simple is good. I think I’ll keep doing this, it is a quite fun activity to do.
