I Ching: Tuesday, October 6

One of the sixty-four hexagrams

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

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Obstruction

Hexagram 39 is water sitting on a mountain: a barrier to climb and a hazard waiting past it. Five of the six lines say one sentence in slightly different words. Going leads to obstruction; coming back finds something. Forward is not available and pressing at the barrier will not open it. Turn back, work on your own position and capability, and go toward the level country and the people in it rather than the hard direction. Keep the second line: the king's servant meets obstacle after obstacle and it is not his fault.

For your star sign

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

Aries

A barrier in front of you reads as an invitation. Five of the six lines say that going leads to obstruction and coming back finds something. Save the charge for ground that will take it.

Taurus

You will sit down at the foot of the barrier and outlast it. Hexagram 39 does not ask for endurance in place, it asks for a return. Every line here that comes back finds something, and none of the ones that sits still does.

Gemini

You will find someone to talk the barrier open. The Judgment does say it helps to see the great person, so the asking is right. The Image puts the inward work first, and that part has no conversation in it.

Cancer

Being blocked feels like a verdict. The second line exists for exactly this: the king's servant meets obstruction after obstruction and the text says it is not his fault. Go southwest, where the ground is level and there are people standing on it.

Leo

Turning back where people can see you is the part that stings. The Image redirects the whole effort inward, to character, with nobody watching. That is the only work available while the water sits on the mountain.

Virgo

You will map the obstacle in full. The map is accurate and the barrier is unchanged. The one move the figure offers is to come back and improve your own position, which cannot be done from the foot of the climb.

Libra

You will look for the third route. There are two directions here and one of them rewards: the southwest, the level ground, the easy country. The other is where you have been standing.

Scorpio

You will want to know who put the barrier there. Water on a mountain has no author. The Image turns the whole inquiry round and points it at your own conduct, which is the thing still open to you.

Sagittarius

The northeast is the hard direction and therefore the interesting one. Hexagram 39 sends you southwest instead, toward level ground and company. Choose the dull direction and keep the enthusiasm for the character work.

Capricorn

You will climb it because climbing is what you do. The water is on top of the mountain, so the hazard begins where the climb ends. Come down before you learn that by arriving.

Aquarius

You will redesign the route. The figure has no route, only a return, and the improvement it offers is to your own position rather than to the plan. Take the friends who arrive at the worst point.

Pisces

You will read the barrier as fate and stop moving entirely. The Judgment says steadfastness brings good fortune, and going toward the level country is an action. Turn back on purpose, not by dissolving.

For your Chinese animal

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

Rat

You will look for the gap in the barrier. Five lines in a row say there is not one, with small variations, until the point is unmissable. Read that as the answer rather than as a pattern to outwit.

Ox

You will lean your weight into it and keep leaning. Weight is what this figure cannot use, and the second line is explicit that meeting obstruction after obstruction is not a judgement on the one meeting it. Turn round and work on your own character.

Tiger

Force at the barrier and a hazard immediately beyond it. The one thing every line agrees on is that coming back finds something and going does not. Spend the strength on your own position instead.

Rabbit

Retreating comes naturally to you and hexagram 39 endorses it fully. The half you will skip is the Image, which asks the returning person to work on their own character rather than simply wait out of sight.

Dragon

Turning back looks like losing face, which is why you will climb. The book has the king's servant blocked over and over without shame attached. Go toward the level country and see the great person there.

Snake

You will wait at the barrier and let it wear down, which it will not do. Water sitting on a mountain does not drain. The help in this figure arrives at the hardest point, and it arrives to somebody who has already turned round.

Horse

You will run at it, then at another approach, then at a third. All of them are the same direction. The southwest rewards; go there, slowly, and improve your own footing while you do.

Goat

You will ask whether being stuck is your own doing. The second line answers directly, that the servant's obstructions are not his fault. Now turn back and work on the part that genuinely is yours.

Monkey

You will try eleven approaches, each cleverer than the last, all of them forward. The figure has one move in it and it goes backward. Return, and put the ingenuity into your own capability.

Rooster

You will audit the obstacle for the flaw that lets you through. Water over mountain has no flaw to find. The Image sends the same scrutiny inward, where it will actually pay.

Dog

You will hold your post at the barrier on someone else's behalf. The help in this figure arrives for whoever turns round, not for whoever stands fast. Come back, and whoever you were holding it for can come back with you.

Pig

You will settle in at the foot of the mountain and make it comfortable. Comfort is not the return the figure asks for. Coming back here means working on your own position, and that is not done from a chair.

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