EN (English)
☷
One of the eight trigrams
Earth
坤 · Kūn
Three broken lines, the perfect complement to Qián. Kūn is the earth read as capacity: the thing that receives, carries and grows what has been put into it.
receptivity
support
capacity
nourishment
- Lines, bottom to top
- Broken · broken · broken
- Image
- Earth
- Attribute
- Yielding, receptive
- Family role
- The mother
- Element
- Earth
- Direction
- Southwest (Later Heaven)
- Season
- Late summer into autumn
- Animal
- Ox
- Body
- The belly
What it means
Kūn is three open lines, and every image attached to it is about holding rather than doing. Earth carries mountains and rivers without complaint; a field takes a seed and returns a harvest it did not design. The Image commentary makes this a moral instruction as well as a description: the noble person carries the world by being broad enough to hold it.
Receptivity here is not passivity. Kūn's work is real work, and it is the harder half of the pair in practical terms, since accepting a direction and carrying it through takes longer than choosing one. The classic gives the trigram the phrase about following rather than leading, and then attaches gain to it, which is the point: the advantage belongs to whoever knows which of the two roles the moment actually calls for.
In the family Kūn is the mother, and the three daughters come from placing a single yin line into Qián. Its element is Earth, its Later Heaven seat the southwest, its animal the ox: strong, steady, and used to being harnessed to something larger.
In a reading
Kūn in a hexagram points at the ground a situation is standing on. It asks what is supporting the matter, who is doing the carrying, and whether the container is large enough for what is being poured into it.
Its weakness is inertia: the same capacity that receives good direction will receive a bad one just as faithfully. When Kūn is the ruling half, the useful question is rarely whether to act. It is whom or what you are agreeing to serve.
Where it appears
As the upper trigram: 2. The Receptive, 7. The Army, 11. Peace, 15. Modesty, 19. Approach, 24. Return, 36. Darkening of the Light, 46. Pushing Upward.
As the lower trigram: 2. The Receptive, 8. Holding Together, 12. Standstill, 16. Enthusiasm, 20. Contemplation, 23. Splitting Apart, 35. Progress, 45. Gathering Together.
Related figures
Latest Posts
Discover the ancient wisdom of tarot cards and unlock the mysteries of your spiritual journey. Our blog is your gateway to understanding the rich symbolism, meanings, and practical applications of tarot reading.
