I Ching: Tuesday, October 13

One of the sixty-four hexagrams

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

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The Abysmal

Hexagram 29 is water above water, the ravine doubled, and the classic does not pretend the danger is imaginary. What it offers is method. Water fills each hollow completely before it moves on and never skips a step. Today the second line is the useful one: in the abyss, aim at small things. Whatever is difficult now may well repeat, so attempt what the situation allows rather than what you want from it. Keep the essential contact going even in reduced form, a plain bowl passed through a window. The Judgment puts success in the heart, not in the circumstances.

For your star sign

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

Aries

Your instinct in trouble is one bold move out. The third line has every direction leading back in, and its advice is to stop. Water gets out of the gorge by filling each hollow, not by jumping.

Taurus

Persistence is your native method and it is exactly water's. Keep doing the same correct thing. The Judgment locates success in the heart rather than in the situation, so expect the ground to stay difficult for a while.

Gemini

Talking your way past the pit will be the first idea. The second line asks for something plainer: aim at small things. In this hexagram the clever plan is the one proportionate to what is actually available.

Cancer

When things are hard you look after your people first. The fourth line approves, in its spare way: a jug of wine and a bowl of rice through the window, plain earthenware. Keep the contact going even in reduced form.

Leo

Danger tempts you toward a grand gesture of courage. This hexagram has no use for gestures. Water never pretends the terrain is other than it is, and the bravery it asks for is the same small act repeated.

Virgo

You will want to understand the whole danger before you move. Water does not survey the gorge. It fills the hollow in front of it. Deal with the nearest part well and the next comes into view.

Libra

Hard times push you to keep everyone comfortable. The fourth line strips the ceremony away and finds the relationship survives on the contents alone. Offer the plain bowl rather than the polished one.

Scorpio

Depths that frighten other people feel familiar to you, which helps. The risk is the first line, a pit inside the pit, where ease with danger takes you one level further down than you needed to go.

Sagittarius

The exit interests you before the pit does. The fifth line has the water rising until it is level with the rim, and no further. Let the situation fill, and the way out is at the top.

Capricorn

Discipline is what carries people through this hexagram, and you have it. Aim it small. The second line says to go after minor gains in the abyss, which is a humbler target than you usually set.

Aquarius

Detachment is useful in danger until it becomes absence. The Judgment makes sincerity the thing that gets through. Stay in contact with the situation, and with the people in it, even when stepping back is easier.

Pisces

Water is your element, and this hexagram is water twice over. That familiarity cuts both ways. Keep the Image's discipline: flow on, never skip a hollow, and never pretend the ground is shallower than it is.

For your Chinese animal

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

Rat

Finding the hidden way out of a bad spot is your talent, and this hexagram doubts there is one. Aim at small gains instead. The second line treats modest, available results as the whole of what is on offer.

Ox

Your patience is the hexagram's own method: fill the hollow, move on, fill the next. Keep at it. The Judgment does not say the danger lifts soon, only that conduct inside it is worth something.

Tiger

Courage is not the shortage here. The third line says forward and back are both danger, and advises stopping to wait. The strong move in this hexagram is the one you do not make yet.

Rabbit

You sense danger early and usually avoid it. This hexagram's danger is already around you, so avoiding is not available. Keep to small correct actions, and let caution set their size rather than whether you take them.

Dragon

A solution on a scale worthy of you is what you will reach for. The abyss answers with the second line: aim at small things. A large remedy here is how people end up in the pit inside the pit.

Snake

Waiting is your gift, and the third line asks for it: stop and wait, or you fall in. Wait actively, though. The Image keeps the noble person at the work of teaching for as long as the danger lasts.

Horse

Being hemmed in is the hardest thing for you, and the top line is three years inside a thorn hedge. Do not lengthen it by thrashing. Water gets out by rising steadily until it reaches the rim.

Goat

In trouble you look for someone to lean on. The fourth line shows what support looks like in this hexagram: a bowl of rice through the window, no ceremony. Accept it in that form and offer it the same way.

Monkey

Quick fixes are your specialty, and this hexagram distrusts them. Danger here repeats, so a trick that works once fails the second time. Do what water does instead: the same correct thing, as often as it takes.

Rooster

Under pressure you will want the procedure exactly right. Keep it simple. The fourth line passes plain earthenware through a window because the door is unusable, and the classic calls that no blame.

Dog

Loyalty in hard times is your strength, and the fourth line rests on it: contact kept up in its plainest form. Keep showing up for whoever is in the pit with you, even if all you bring is a bowl.

Pig

You prefer to believe trouble will pass on its own. This hexagram is frank that it repeats. Treat it as a stretch to be crossed with method, one small step after another, the way water crosses a gorge.

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