Recently I seem only to approach the Yijing when I want to consult it, or when I am studying this or that. I do not spend half enough time sitting and soaking up the imagery and their meanings. I do not take enough time to ‘feel’ what the hexagrams might mean in terms of different things like work, family, relationships, or spiritual matters. I believe this is important practice because the more I can internalise the imagery of the hexagrams, that is make them part of my inner world, the better I am able to recognise them in the outer world as events unfold.
Each hexagram is a cluster of meanings and symbols. One can work with these much as one might work with a dream. The ideas, images and the feelings they induce can be contemplated, turned in the heart and mind until understanding begins to surface. In adition it is possible to play with the images by picturing the hexagram. It might already have a ready image such as a ding which one might imagine being used in a ritual to converse with the ancestors. Another way is to picture the trigrams as dynamic entities interacting, a tree growing on a mountain (53), or Li, the Bright Clinging in or under Dui, the Mist or Lake. Sometimes, as in the second example the image doesn’t work all that easily at first. However I find that a little reading about the trigrams and the hexagram in question enables all sorts of possibilities to emerge.
Its helpful to remember that each trigram has both a symbol and an action, so these images can be very dynamic.
One day I would like to sit down and complete a 'dream diary' hexagram by hexagram.
Now all I have to do is to make the time.