4 Hexagram Minor Folly
Folly in small matters is mostly harmless
One may learn from small mistakes to avoid great ones
Do not let others make a fool of you
And do not fool yourself
The essence of folly is overconfidence. A foolish person becomes enthusiastic and gets careless. When mistakes get made a foolish person will panic and change from overconfident to paranoid.
Folly in matters of greater importance leads to misfortune. Fortunately, the type of folly represented here is usually minor in nature. Mostly, this is a weak prediction that does not interfere with your normal activities that much.
Folly is normally associated with some kind of carelessness of even a feeling of intoxication. One good way to sober yourself up is to check details thoroughly. This will expose any problems there might be and make it easy to see what is really happening and so make wiser decisions.
One should check oneself and remain calm and steady at this time. Another kind of folly is being gullible and easily persuaded.
Traditional Text
Line 1
Light hearted
New things come your way
Also, old projects come to fruition.
Be active, confident and good fortune will come
The first line represents a fresh start, or recovery of some kind. Folly in this case is more akin to youthful exuberance. It often comes when you have been in some kind of trouble
Line 2
Dangerous folly
Beware of usurpers
And don’t try be one yourself
This line is more serious than the others in this hexagram. Something old that was good is replaced by something new and bad. Avoid this path if possible. If not, then being aware of danger may well save you from future problems.
Line 3
Many are friendly when it suits them
Suitable for superficial relations only
You will always need to keep them sweet
Small matters succeed.
This should not be a big issue, but one should take care to use charm and diplomacy to avoid unpleasant situations. Difficult people should only be tolerated so far. After that it is better to drop them. At this time one should proceed as normal, but with a little extra awareness.
Line 4
Not much can be achieved
Better to refrain than act
Small matters can be accomplished.
Unlikely much will come of this. Get on with your life as normal.
Line 5
Nothing to be gained, but experience
What is learned may be of some use
Expect no concrete gain
Small matters proceed normally.
Another dead end path really. No harm as long as you do not invest much in it.
Line 6
One way comes to an end
Time for a fresh start
Be confident
Be more concerned with excellence than profit
Beware of folly
Time to initiate new options and revamp existing practices. You may have a lot of enthusiasm and this is a good thing at this time. However there is a danger that a foolish mistake can cost you some of your well earned progress.
A real life story to help you understand how I reinterpret the I Ching
Hexagram 4 line 5 – The job interview (a story by A Friend Overseas)
"I was teaching ESL online, but my company went bust, so I had to look for another job. This was just after the new Chinese government rules came in and a lot of companies were in trouble, which meant a vast hoard of teachers looking for jobs. I found it difficult to get even an answer, so when I did finally get an interview I was keen to do my best.
There were a lot of questions, technical stuff to work through and even though I prepared quite well there was a glitch when I came to the big day. The interviewer was not friendly and did not offer a second chance, just cutting me off.
Nevertheless, I persevered and persuaded admin to give me another shot. This time I doubled checked everything with even greater care. I did the interview and passed easily. The interviewer then told me about the job. He apologized and said the salary was not what they advertised, in fact it was less than half (it was not high in the first place). In addition, I thought a company that fragrantly misrepresents itself in an ad might not even pay out at all. So, I had to turn it down."
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