Okay, let me walk you through how I ended up working with I Ching hexagram 39, Jian, which is often translated as Obstruction or Limping. It wasn’t exactly planned, more like stumbling into it when things got tough.
I was working on a personal project, something I was really passionate about, pouring hours into it after my day job. But I hit a wall. A really solid one. Everything I tried seemed to make it worse, or just lead to another dead end. It felt like wading through thick mud. Frustration was building up, you know? I kept pushing, thinking if I just tried harder, forced it more, I’d break through. That wasn’t happening.
After a particularly bad evening where I almost threw my keyboard, I decided I needed a different perspective. I remembered my old I Ching coins that I hadn’t touched in ages. Felt a bit silly, maybe, but I was stuck and willing to try something different. So, I found a quiet spot, calmed myself down a bit, focused on my project problem, and did the coin toss ritual. Six times. Wrote down the lines.
When I looked up the resulting hexagram, boom: Number 39, Jian. Obstruction. My first thought was, “Great, tells me what I already know!” It felt almost mocking.
Dealing with the ‘Obstruction’
But then I started actually reading about it, not just the name. The image is Water over Mountain. Water can’t easily flow uphill over a mountain, right? It gets blocked. The advice wasn’t about forcing the water over, but about recognizing the obstacle is real and pretty immovable right now.
The core message I got was: Stop pushing directly against it. It advised retreating, regrouping, looking for allies, or finding an alternative path around the mountain, not through it. It talked about turning inward, strengthening oneself, and waiting for the right time or seeking wise counsel.
So, I took that advice literally.
- I stopped working on that specific part of the project that was blocked. Just put it aside completely for a few days. This was hard, felt like giving up, but the reading suggested retreat was a valid strategy.
- I spent some time just thinking, journaling about the problem, trying to see it from different angles instead of just head-on.
- I actually reached out to a friend, someone who knows a bit about the technical stuff I was struggling with. I explained the problem, not looking for them to fix it, but just to talk it through. That external perspective was surprisingly helpful.
- I started exploring completely different approaches to that feature, things I’d dismissed earlier as too complicated or roundabout.
What Happened Next
It wasn’t like a magic wand waved. The obstacle didn’t vanish. But by stopping the direct assault, I definitely felt less stressed and frustrated. Talking to my friend gave me one small idea, a tiny crack in the wall I hadn’t seen before. And exploring those ’roundabout’ ways? One of them actually turned out to be viable, although different from my original vision.
It required reworking some other parts of the project, yes, but it allowed me to move forward again. It was like the I Ching reading gave me permission to stop hitting my head against the wall and look for a door, even if it was further down the corridor.
My takeaway from working with Hexagram 39 wasn’t some mystical revelation. It was practical. When you face a major block, sometimes the best move isn’t more force. It’s pausing, reflecting, maybe getting help, and being open to going around instead of straight through. It’s about conserving your energy and applying it wisely, not just harder. It felt like solid, grounded advice, dressed up in ancient symbols.
