I Ching: Sunday, September 13

One of the sixty-four hexagrams

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

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The Well

Hexagram 48 is the well: water above wood, the bucket on its wooden frame. Its Judgment is the most quoted in the second half of the book. The town may be moved, the well cannot; it neither decreases nor increases; people come and go and draw from it. Then the warning, which is where today actually sits. If you get almost to the water and the rope does not reach, or the jug breaks, misfortune. The source is fine. Every failure this hexagram describes is in the apparatus and all of them happen at the last moment. Check your rope today rather than your water.

For your star sign

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

Aries

You will blame the water. The hexagram is specific that the water is not the problem. Today's failure, if there is one, sits in the last three feet of rope, which makes it a repair rather than a defeat.

Taurus

Maintenance is the whole of this hexagram and you are better at it than most. Do the unglamorous check today. A well that gets looked at once a season is a well nobody has to think about.

Gemini

You are almost there on several things and finished on none, which is exactly the jug breaking at the rim. Pick one and carry it the last stretch before the day ends.

Cancer

You are the well for several people and nobody has inspected the frame in a while. Check your own apparatus today. The source is holding; it is the drawing up that has been getting harder.

Leo

The well takes no credit and belongs to the town. Put something back into the shared supply today without your name attached, which is the version of generosity this hexagram recognises.

Virgo

Your rope is fine and you keep inspecting it while the jug is chipped. Look at the part you have not been checking. The failure is never in the piece you were already worried about.

Libra

You draw for everybody and find the bucket empty when your turn comes. The hexagram does not ask you to stop drawing. It asks you to fix the mechanism so it holds a full load.

Scorpio

You know exactly where the fault is and have said nothing because the equipment is not yours. Say it today. Almost reaching the water is a shared misfortune here rather than a private one.

Sagittarius

The town may be moved and the well cannot. Whatever you are planning to relocate this month, check first that you are not walking away from the only source within reach.

Capricorn

You built the frame and are still hauling by hand. Today belongs to the apparatus rather than the water. An hour on the mechanism saves a season of effort at the rope.

Aquarius

The well is the book's argument that a shared facility makes a society, which you will agree with immediately. Then go and repair one, specifically, today. The Image is about work rather than assent.

Pisces

You will trust that the water is there and skip the check on the bucket. The source genuinely is reliable. Everything this hexagram warns about happens in the equipment you did not inspect.

For your Chinese animal

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

Rat

You know where every resource is and how deep it runs. Today's question is whether the means of reaching them still works. Stored knowledge and a frayed rope come to the same thing.

Ox

You will haul all day on a worn line rather than stop to replace it. Stop. The hexagram is unusually direct that endurance does not make up for equipment.

Tiger

Speed at the well gets you a broken jug. The last part of drawing water is slow by design. Go slowly today at exactly the point where you would normally accelerate.

Rabbit

You maintain things quietly and nobody notices, which suits you and undersells you. Let one person see the state of the frame today, before it fails rather than after.

Dragon

You are interested in the water and bored by the woodwork. This hexagram gives the woodwork top billing. Spend today on the unimpressive half and the supply holds all year.

Snake

You noticed the crack and are waiting to see how it develops. It develops into a broken jug. Repair it while it is still small enough to be uninteresting.

Horse

You draw fast and spill most of it. The well rewards a steady pull and nothing else. One careful haul today is worth more than four hurried ones.

Goat

You draw from other people's wells and rarely maintain your own. Look at your own source today. Depending on the town is fine; having nothing of your own is a different position.

Monkey

You will invent a better bucket. The hexagram would rather you fixed the rope you already have. Ingenuity applied to an unrepaired mechanism is how the water stays down the well.

Rooster

Inspection is your instinct and this is the one hexagram that agrees with you entirely. Check the apparatus top to bottom today, then stop and actually draw some water with it.

Dog

You keep the well working for everybody and drink last. Drink first today. A caretaker nobody looks after is the next thing on the list to break.

Pig

The water is good and you will assume the arrangement takes care of itself. It does not. Half an hour of maintenance today is what keeps the supply as easy as it has been.

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