O.K. So I called it wrong (unless the Electoral College decides otherwise). I said Hillary Clinton would win the election and now I want to know where I went wrong.

It may seem like I’m trying to wriggle out of being wrong on this and there may be some of that going on but I also like to think I can learn from my mistakes.

First thing to consider is that throwing a bunch of coins and getting a line of advice from a 5,000 year old book is just another Rorschach ink blot test – you read into it what you want to see. And I think that’s partly true.

An I Ching colleague, who predicted Trump’s victory, pointed this out to me. Yes, I wanted Hillary Clinton to win. The polls said she would. I could not believe he could be our 45th president. All this led me to skewer what I saw in the readings I did.

My first mistake was to conflate the last debate and the final result of the election in my last reading. Asking for a single response to two questions (how will they do in the debate and how will they do in the election) will produce a confusing answer.

So on Wednesday, the day after the election, I did a new pair of readings. Now this is after the event. Nevertheless I was curious to see what I would get.

Trump received Hexagram 8 (water over the earth) with line 4. Hexagram 8 is about the leader encouraging people to come together. Line 4 advises him to select advisors from outside his close circle in order to do this.

Clinton got Hexagram 55 (thunder over fire) also with line 4. Hexagram 55 is about an excess or abundance of things – good or bad. Line 4 says there is an abundance of darkness – like an eclipse. Day turns to night.

That seems pretty clear now. Trump wins. Clinton loses.

Now lets go back to the readings done after the final debate.

Clinton got Hexagram 56 line 2 which says the traveler finds a safe place to stay. I thought (or wanted to think) it meant the White House. And in these contentious times the White House might not be a safe refuge.

Trump got Hexagram 30 line 5 which says with tears of grief and sighs of worry and sadness you succeed. I couldn’t make sense of this so I dropped the “succeed” part and said he loses. My bias entering in.

On reflection it means that a person who expresses his emotions freely will engender sympathy and succeed.

So I’ve learned something from this:-
Personal bias gets in the way.
Anything is possible.
I now have a better understanding of these particular Hexagrams and lines.
Ask clear questions.
I still believe the I Ching is a helpful advisor.

And last but not least, this is a Fire Monkey year. 1776 was also a Fire Monkey year. Long live the Revolution!

Thanks,

Rod.