Conflict Comes Before Completion

or navigating fate and destiny in the real world

Hello and Happy Monday!

Our first hexagram this week is one that is often challenging. We saw it recently in a post called Hearts On The Line from December 2025. I always love the chance to revisit a hexagram with all new circumstances and a different group of people. This is really the stuff that charges me up, examining each hexagram with fresh and current eyes. So often, I notice that people think divination pertains to the future, but actually, it mostly pertains to the present, showing you what is at play in your present circumstances and how things might unfold in the absence of interference. Of course, one can never guarantee an absence of interference, but readings often offer ways to notice when that interference might take place and in what form. Indeed, in some cases, you might wish for the interference, need a kind of change that you don’t know how to invoke or create. Then, these readings can play the part of knocking you on the head, even tipping you out of the boat, so you can refresh your view.

On to this week’s inquiry:

Cosmos, Cosmos, how can each of us use our experience to
inform our deepest work this week?

In response to this beautiful question, we received Hexagram 6 - Sòng - Arguing, Conflict. As I said, this can be challenging hexagram, suggesting as it does, the presence of conflict. I don’t think there is anyone on this planet at this moment who would deny the presence of conflict, but what this hexagram specifically refers to is inner conflict. Inner conflicts are inititated in many ways, but very often they begin as we grow and find ourselves at odds with our parents, our teachers, our institutions, our culture, our country and so on.

The I Ching as the Book of Changes can be seen as an exposition on the places you may find yourself in conflict, in resistance or opposition, in growth or evolution. Each hexagram depicts a different set of conditions and relationships between the fundamental forces of yin and yang which are naturally always both in union and in opposition, the basic positions that produce conflict.

Conflict produces growth, even nourishes it. Yet at its heart, conflict is a relationship. It might be sourced in the relationship you have with another, but it might also be sourced in the relationship you have with yourself. Such conflicts, from the point of view of the teachings found in the Book of Changes, are the pathway, even the specific opportunity, for growth. This week will be the perfect time to watch for the moments when you feel argument/conflict arising and asking yourself what is in relationship at that given moment. Is it you who are betraying your own intention, or is the world intervening to change the plan?

When you betray your own intention you change your destiny. When the world intervenes, your fate is altered. These two are not the same. It is your very own body that leads the way through your destiny, offering itself to your examination and consideration each and every day, each and every hour and minute of each day.

Contrastly, we have no control over how the cosmos decides to weigh in or when it does for that matter. Shit happens. Our fate is then determined by how we choose (or don’t) to respond to the events that occur in our world. Which brings us to our changing line, Line 5. This line is very interesting, counseling us to speak up, even to argue, on behalf of truth and understanding. If one is committed to finding the truth and making wise choices through the investigation of the situation, then this way of arguing brings good fortune.

Remarkably, in our culture, we are so conflict-averse, that much of time, we fail to learn the truth or even explore our own perceptions in favor of ignoring, repressing or suppressing any conflict. It is possible, instead, to argue with good intention, to have fruitful and healthy debate. In relationship research it has been shown that partners who learn to argue and be heard have the strongest and most long-lasting relationships. This week, toward the end of the week, an opportunity to be heard even with opposing views in the room will likely show up. If you can trust yourself and enter the situation with an open heart, you stand to gain much in the way of your own evolution.

Finally we received Hexagram 64 - Wèi jì - Not Yet Crossing, Before Completion. This is the moment when it is good to notice that things have not yet ripened, not yet fallen willingly to the ground for your perusal. In fact, things are possibly, not even cooking yet, the predicament of having lots of ideas, lots of projects, but the fuel is not yet garnered, the team not yet assembled. In such a moment, you might do well to attune yourself to the inner movements, looking for where your habits, your patterns of mind, might be foiling your attempts at success. You might find this moment a bit galling, delaying you, stagnating you. You have the basic ingredients for things to grow, but they are not yet in the right relationship.

This predicament, having all the right ingredients, even having the pot and the stove, but not having the time or the recipe, means you have to continue to remember the view, cultivate a clarity of purpose. Without such clarity, anything you do will fail, fall apart. According to Carol Anthony:

“Holding onto our path, in this instance, may mean going on our way alone, accepting our fate and sacrificing our ego, without reproach to anyone.”

So, here we are this week, navigating conflict, feeling into our incompleteness, our lack of control and still finding clarity and purpose. To support your efforts, consider the plant and the essential oil of Mugwort. Mugwort is a plant that grows wherever humanity has violated the earth, which pretty much means everywhere these days. It is a stalwart and unassuming plant that will grow strong and profuse pretty much anywhere. This is not an easy essential oil to find, but it is a great ally in your efforts to create clarity through repairing and tending to your own relationship with both the earth of your body and the earth of the planet. Use sparingly and never internally (toxic) but lovely for purifying and annointing your intentions to reckon openly and whole-heartedly in conflict and in peace.

Have a great week! Please share and keep us posted on how you fare by commenting below.