歸妹

54. Uncertain position

guīmèi · Mountain ☶ over Wind ☴

Acting in a situation where you have less control than others.

The Noble One's Path

Thunder above a lake. A rare counsel of wisdom (Zhi): look at the end already at the beginning, recognize an approaching decline before it appears.

The Lesson

Check the conditions carefully before you commit. Not every beginning ends well.

A question to sit with

Am I getting involved in something that requires me to pretend to be someone other than who I am?

Related hexagrams

In the I Ching no hexagram stands alone. Each one enters into relationships with others, and those relationships show the situation seen from the other side, in its opposite, and in its hidden tendency.

Opposite

53. Gradual development

漸

Inverted

53. Gradual development

漸

Nuclear

63. Already completed

既濟

易

The classical deep dive for this hexagram — the Judgment and the Image after Richard Wilhelm — along with the texts of all six changing lines, is in the book. Get the book

卦

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