ASK ROASTIE

BAD ADVICE. GOOD TIMING.

HEXAGRAM 3 OF 64 WATER OVER THUNDER

DIFFICULTY AT THE BEGINNING

屯 Zhūn

a hard start, birth pains, chaos before order, gathering help, patience

ROASTIE

Difficulty at the Beginning. Thunder under Water. The book calls it birth pains, chaos before order, appoint helpers. You call it every Monday. Every project you have ever started lives permanently in this hexagram, because you never got to the part where there's a middle. Ya roasted!

THE JUDGMENT

Great success for the one who stays firm and correct. Do not rush into anything; it helps to appoint helpers.

THE LINES, BOTTOM TO TOP

  1. Line 1 Stuck at the threshold, unable to advance; stay firm and correct, and find helpers to stand with you.
  2. Line 2 Distress; the horses turn back. He is not a robber but a suitor; she refuses, and marries only after ten years.
  3. Line 3 Chasing deer without a guide, lost deep in the forest; the wise one gives up, for going on brings regret.
  4. Line 4 The horses turn back; one seeks union; going forward brings good fortune, and nothing is lost.
  5. Line 5 Hard to spread one's generosity; firmness in small things brings good fortune, in great things misfortune.
  6. Line 6 The horses turn back; tears of blood flow in streams.
THROW YOUR OWN ALL SIXTY-FOUR

Text: the I Ching, after James Legge's 1882 translation, public domain, trimmed into plain English. The take: a coffee bean, licensed in nothing.