Does an Unsteady State of Mind Interfere with the Hexagram When Casting in Plum Blossom Numerology?

Someone once had an argument with a family member one evening, and while still seething with resentment, casually cast a hexagram to ask whether their relationship could still be saved. The result was an unfavorable image, and the more they stared at it, the more panicked they became. The next day, once they had calmed down, they felt that the hexagram had not counted for anything at all. I have encountered this kind of situation more than once. The problem lies right here: if the person was in turmoil at the moment of casting, can the resulting hexagram still be trusted?

Let us first lay out the logic behind casting hexagrams in Plum Blossom Numerology (Meihua Yishu), and only then discuss the matter of state of mind.

Why Plum Blossom Numerology Emphasizes "A Hexagram Is Cast When the Heart Stirs"

Plum Blossom Numerology differs quite a bit from other divination methods. It does not, like Liu Yao, require tossing coins six times, nor does it demand the laborious counting of fifty yarrow stalks as in the Great Expansion Number method. What it captures is the "present moment" — the instant you hear a sound, see a number, or feel a sudden stirring in your heart about a certain matter, you use the year, month, day, and hour of that moment, or the count of objects before your eyes, to form the hexagram. According to legend, when Shao Kangjie saw a peony trampled by someone, he immediately deduced on the spot that the flower would be trampled by a horse the following day at noon — this is precisely the method of instantaneous image-taking.

The core assumption of this method is that at the very moment your thought stirs, the information of heaven and earth happens to converge at that point, and the hexagram is a snapshot of that convergence. This is why it places such emphasis on the purity and focus of "a single thought."

Herein lies a potential problem. If the "single thought" at the moment of casting is itself turbid, wavering, or wrapped in intense emotion, then the snapshot it captures — is it a picture of the matter itself, or a picture of your turmoil at that moment?

My view is this: it is both, and when emotions run high, the portion reflecting yourself tends to be greater.

What Happens to the Hexagram When the State of Mind Is Unsteady

Let me state the conclusion first: an unsteady state of mind will not turn the hexagram into a pile of random symbols, but your interpretation of it will almost certainly be skewed. The real interference tends to occur at two points.

The first point is an impure motive for casting. Plum Blossom Numerology holds that "one does not cast without a stirring, one does not cast without sincerity." If you do not genuinely have a matter you wish to ask about, but are merely upset and looking for something to press down your feelings, or you keep casting repeatedly hoping to land on an answer that satisfies you, then the hexagram is unsound from the very source. Traditionally there is a saying: "one matter, not two castings" — casting repeatedly for the same matter in a short span of time only leads to greater confusion, and this is exactly why. If you first ask about a relationship and get the Kan hexagram, feel it is unfavorable, and then, unwilling to accept it, cast again ten minutes later, that second hexagram is no longer asking about the relationship — it is asking about your own unwillingness to accept.

The second point is self-projection during interpretation. This is more subtle. Take the same hexagram — say, the Substance hexagram (Ti Gua) being overcome — a calm-minded person will examine how severe the overcoming is, whether there is any generation or support, and when the response period falls, working through it layer by layer. But if you are in the grip of anger, the moment your eyes land on the words "being overcome," your mind instantly fills in the worst possible picture, and all the mitigating information that follows gets automatically ignored. The hexagram has not deceived you — you have simply picked out only the half you wanted to see at that moment.

Strictly speaking, then, an unsteady state of mind does not interfere with the generation of the hexagram — it interferes with the connection between you and the hexagram.

Situations Where I Would Suggest Simply Not Casting

Rather than agonizing over whether a hexagram cast under duress is accurate, it is better to first judge whether the hexagram should be cast at all. In the following situations, my personal advice is to hold off:

• Emotions are at their peak — crying, raging, or so panicked your hands are shaking. Casting a hexagram at such a moment is, nine times out of ten, seeking an outlet for emotion rather than genuinely asking about a matter.

• You already have a particular answer in mind that you desperately want, and casting is merely an attempt to get the hexagram to endorse it. With this kind of "seeking comfort" casting, you will not believe an unfavorable hexagram, and even a favorable one is just you deceiving yourself.

• You have already cast a hexagram for the same matter today. Even if you were dissatisfied with the previous result, stick with it rather than piling on another.

• Moments of extreme joy or sorrow — just having won the lottery, or just having gone through a breakup. At such times, judgment is inherently offline, and both casting and interpreting are prone to distortion.

Conversely, when is casting relatively reliable? It is in that state where a matter lies before you, something is genuinely undecided in your mind, but your emotions are not out of control — you simply wish to use the hexagram to sort out your thinking. This state of "having a doubt without panic" is exactly what Plum Blossom Numerology handles best.

Practical Approaches When the Mind Is Unsettled

If you truly must ask and yet cannot calm down, there are ways to remedy the situation.

The simplest one: postpone the moment of casting. Drink some water, take a couple of walks outside, and wait until that surge of emotion has passed before casting. Plum Blossom Numerology captures the opportune moment (ji) of the present — if you shift that "present" to a time when your heart is calm, the moment you capture will naturally be cleaner too. This is not cheating; you are simply choosing a moment better able to bear sound judgment.

The second: let the method of casting be entrusted to external objects rather than to your own hands as much as possible. When the mind is in turmoil, reporting numbers yourself makes it easy to unconsciously report numbers you prefer. It is better to use the first sound you hear, the page number a book falls open to, or simply the time at the moment the thought arises to determine the hexagram — letting chance take charge in your stead and reducing subjective interference.

The third point, and the most crucial one — when interpreting the hexagram, treat yourself as an outsider. Pretend this hexagram belongs to someone else who has come to ask you about it — how would you judge it? This step forces you to look at the full picture of the hexagram rather than fixating only on the most eye-catching character. The generation and overcoming between Substance and Function (Ti Yong), the transformation of moving lines, the waxing and waning of hexagram qi — none of these steps should be skipped. Once you have worked through it all, you will find that many hexagrams that once felt like the sky was falling were, in fact, saying "there will be twists, but you will get through."

One more thing should be made clear: Plum Blossom Numerology itself was never meant to hand down a death sentence. What it excels at is indicating the current state and direction of a matter — it is a reference for trends, not a verdict on fate. If you treat it as a calm bystander offering you a reminder, it serves its purpose well; but if you insist on demanding a final "yes" or "no" verdict from it, forcing it to declare itself precisely when you are most panicked, you will most likely end up with an answer that even you yourself dare not trust.

When the mind is in turmoil, what is needed most is not, in fact, a hexagram — it is first letting that heart settle back into place. A hexagram, on its own, is inert. Only once your heart has settled can you truly see it come alive.