There's Always Tomorrow

Every tradition or oracle or divination technique has something to teach us.

I just picked up a book on the I Ching -- and man, is this different from what my college boyfriend showed me. Back then, he showed me how to toss a coin and then look up the meaning in his reference book. I thought he was so cool.

That was more than 20 years ago, so when I found a copy of an I Ching "how to" book in the bargain bin I thought I'd toss the coin again and see what was up for me in the year ahead. Except this book is WAY more comprehensive and in fact was a little annoying to handle when I'd just expected to sit down with my coffee and chat about the future. I had to slog through about 6 chapters of history, theory, ways to read the coins, marbles and yarrow sticks, supple and strong lines, young stable yin transitioning to old yang, etc. I was just about to give up -- Good Lord, I don't need to learn another tool when I haven't got my own system down yet -- when I hit on perhaps the most profound description of a challenge or problem I'd ever encountered.

According to this author (can't bother to get up from the computer to find the book and tell you his name, sorry), the spirits are always trying to communicate with us -- our ancestors, spirits of nature, "angry spirits" a.k.a. old grudges or bad habits from our past, God and the angels, even our imagination is a spirit.

If we have a problem, or are stuck somehow, this author says the ancient Chinese believed it was a spirit trying to get our attention. See, the spirit people want to help us, but they can't speak our human language so they endeavor to get our attention by throwing up a road block for instance, in the hopes that we'll recognize this blockage and start to look within, pay attention to our intuition and other signs, so we can see our way through or around something. What the I Ching and other divination tools offer us is a way to tune out our regular way of thinking (conscious mind) and look at something symbolic which hopefully will get us to see the problem in a new way -- or to find the solution in a new action or thought pattern.

The I Ching in particular guides us through change. So part of this "obstacle message" includes real-life advice on how to navigate the change that will inevitably happen when we can clearly see what transition is taking place. Fate is involved too; what fate has brought us as far as challenges go, and what our responsibility is to fate and fulfilling what we're called on to do (once we finally get the message).

Once I got over my astonishment at the simplicity and directness of this approach to problem-solving, I applied it immediately to myself. So okay, what's a problem I have? How about this little guy:

"What the #@$% am I meant to be doing with my life?"

I know it involves God, and helping people -- but HOW? Therapy (did I tell you I'm thinking about going back to graduate school? )? Psychic-mediumship? Channeling? Energy Healing? Hypnosis (please, no!)? Teaching about self-help? Writing about it?

Well, according to this author, this issue has been coming up in my life because my spirit people, my guides and ancestors and maybe God himself, are trying to get my attention. They want me to stop looking at my life the traditional way, stop thinking about it so analytically and rationally, relax my mind a bit and listen to what they're telling me about which direction to go in. Hallelujah! It's not because I can't focus (thanks Mom); it's not because I'm a jack of all trades and master of none (thanks Dad); it's not because I'm restless or bored (thanks Sam). I'm actually not doing anything wrong, or if I am, I'm only guilty of not recognizing that someone is trying to help me.

You might have thought I'd jump right on this and toss the yarrow sticks. Nope, not yet, and I honestly don't know why. Maybe I'm a little freaked out about finally getting my questions answered. For heaven's sake, once that happens I'll actually have to DO something about it. No more "I don't know where I'm supposed to go so I'll wait for a sign." No more half-succeeding: I'll either succeed 100% or fail brilliantly. Yikes.

Maybe I'll do it tomorrow.