I Ching: Wednesday, September 30

One of the sixty-four hexagrams

This is an archived reading, kept as it was published.

Limitation

Hexagram 60 is water in a lake, which holds a fixed amount and overflows past it. The Judgment endorses limits and then withdraws the endorsement from the punishing kind in the same sentence: success, and bitter limitation must not be persisted in. The Image gives the instrument: the noble person creates number and measure, and examines the nature of character and conduct. Today, count. Whatever you are trying to limit, spend, time, words, patience, put a number on it before you set the line. Then check the line is not bitter. A limit that hurts to keep is not a discipline; it is the bitter kind.

For your star sign

The same reading, taken through each sign of the zodiac.

Aries

You set no limits and then punish yourself with sudden ones. Today count first, then set a line you can hold without bitterness. The lake overflows past a fixed amount, not a mood.

Taurus

Your limits are fixed and comfortable. Today check one for bitterness. The hexagram withdraws its endorsement from a limit kept out of grimness, and you have one.

Gemini

You will set a limit and forget it by lunch. Today write the number down. Number and measure are the instrument, and a limit uncounted is a wish.

Cancer

You limit others gently and yourself harshly. Today reverse it. The bitter limitation must not be persisted in, and yours is the one the hexagram means.

Leo

You resent limits as beneath you. Today count something and set one, and find it is not a cage but a lake with a known capacity.

Virgo

Number and measure are your instrument and the hexagram adds the caution. Today check that the limit you keep so well is not bitter. Precision can be punishing.

Libra

You will set the limit at the midpoint. Today count first. The lake's capacity is a number, not a compromise, and the midpoint is often wrong.

Scorpio

Your limits are absolute and unspoken. Today speak one and count it. A limit nobody knows is a trap, and the hexagram wants measure, not mystery.

Sagittarius

You overflow every lake. Today count the capacity of one and stop there. The limit is the success, and the overflowing is the part you call freedom.

Capricorn

You persist in bitter limitation and call it discipline. Today the Judgment names it. Keep the limits that hold without grimness; release the one that hurts to keep.

Aquarius

You will theorise the limit. Count it instead. Today the Image is number and measure, and the theory is what stops the number from being set.

Pisces

You have no limits and every lake overflows. Today count one thing and set a line. It will feel like a wall; it is a shore.

For your Chinese animal

The same reading, taken through each animal of the Chinese zodiac.

Rat

You limit expenditure to the penny and patience not at all. Today count the patience. Number and measure apply to conduct, the Image says, not only to coin.

Ox

Your limits are permanent and some are bitter. Today find the bitter one and let it go. The hexagram is clear that it must not be persisted in.

Tiger

You have no measure. Today count something before you spend it. The lake overflows past a fixed amount, and the amount is knowable.

Rabbit

Your limits are set out of fear rather than measure. Today count instead. A limit set from a number is a shore; one set from fear is a wall.

Dragon

Limits are for other people. Today count your own capacity and set a line. The lake that overflows is not more magnificent; it is just wet.

Snake

You measure everything and tell nobody the limit. Today say it. Number and measure examined, the Image says, and examined aloud is what makes it a limit rather than a secret.

Horse

You overflow by design. Today count the capacity of one lake and stay inside it. The success in the Judgment is the limit kept, and it is a different pleasure from the run.

Goat

You accept limits set by others and never set your own. Today count and set one. The measure is yours to make, and the hexagram asks you to make it.

Monkey

You will find a way around the limit. Today keep it. The lake has a fixed amount, and the way around it is the overflow.

Rooster

Your limits are exact and unforgiving. Today check for bitterness. The hexagram endorses the count and withdraws from the punishing kind, and yours is precise enough to be both.

Dog

You limit yourself for others' sake past the point of bitterness. Today the Judgment names that. Keep the limits that serve; release the one that only hurts.

Pig

You have no limits and no bitterness, which is half the hexagram. Today add the count. Number and measure, then a line, and the comfort is safer with a shore.

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