I Ching: Sunday, October 18

One of the sixty-four hexagrams

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

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The Power of the Great

Hexagram 34 has four strong lines rising and thunder rolling above heaven. You have the strength today, and the classic gives it the barest Judgment it can: holding to the course is rewarded, nothing more. The rest is one warning repeated. A ram butts a hedge and gets its horns caught, because a hedge gives a little and so invites the second charge. If something is yielding just enough to keep you pushing, stop pushing. The fourth line moves the force into the axle of the wagon, where the load is carried. The fifth lets the goat go, easily.

For your star sign

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

Aries

Strength in the toes is the first line's phrase for force with no judgement attached, and it says pressing on brings misfortune. That is your particular risk. You have the power. Move it up from your feet.

Taurus

Once you start pushing, you keep pushing. That is the ram and the hedge. If something gives a little and then holds, stop, because the give is exactly what traps the horns in this hexagram.

Gemini

When an argument half-lands, you argue harder. The hedge in this hexagram yields just enough to invite another charge. Notice the second charge before you make it.

Cancer

Your strength shows when you protect your own, and it is considerable. The Image sets the only limit: do not walk paths that fall outside what is right. Protect fully, inside that boundary.

Leo

Power suits you, and this hexagram hands you plenty with no praise attached; its Judgment is four characters long. Use the force where the fourth line puts it, in the axle of the wagon, carrying a load.

Virgo

Brute strength is rarely your style, which helps. The danger for you is persistence that has turned into butting. If you are fixing the same thing for the third time, the hedge has your horns.

Libra

You seldom choose force, which makes you good at the fifth line: losing the goat easily, no regret. Let go of the stubborn thing without a struggle, and notice how little it costs.

Scorpio

Your force is concentrated and you dislike retreating. The top line describes the ram that can go neither back nor forward, and finds good fortune only in admitting it. Admit it early.

Sagittarius

Obstacles get a cheerful charge from you. The third line says the small person uses force and the noble person does not. Under this hexagram the charge is the small move, however good it feels.

Capricorn

Strength you have built carefully gets used on purpose. The fourth line suits that temperament: power in the axle of a great wagon. Put the effort into carrying the load rather than breaking through.

Aquarius

Principle gives you great conviction and conviction gives you force. The Image limits that force by what is right, not by what is effective. Check the path before you put your weight on it.

Pisces

Strength is not your usual register, so a surge of it may surprise you. Use it gently. The hexagram warns that power applied to something half-yielding gets caught, and tugging free is not your skill.

For your Chinese animal

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

Rat

Cleverness does for you what strength does for others, and it keeps you out of the hedge. The hexagram asks for something simpler still: the fifth line's easy release of the goat. Drop one stubborn pursuit.

Ox

Pushing on is your nature, and in this hexagram it is the hazard. The ram does not stop when the hedge gives. Pause after the first push and look at what is holding you before you push again.

Tiger

Raw power is yours, and this hexagram has more of it than almost any other. It spends all six lines on how to use it. The first answer is not to charge, since the third line is the ram caught.

Rabbit

Force is not your habit, and that keeps you safe in a hexagram that punishes it. Let the strength sit in reserve. The second line gives good fortune to steadiness alone and asks for nothing more.

Dragon

Power to spare comes with the urge to display it. The Image answers that the defining restraint of great strength is self-imposed. Where you refuse to go will say more than where you charge.

Snake

Precision is how you apply force, which is closer to the fourth line than most get. Keep it there: located where the load is carried, not where the collision is. The hedge opens for that kind of strength.

Horse

Momentum is your strength, and the hedge is made for it. It gives a little, then holds. If you are already caught, the top line asks only that you recognise it, and calls that good fortune.

Goat

Some of your pushing may be mostly stubbornness. The fifth line loses the goat easily and feels no regret. Let it wander off; this hexagram treats that as an achievement.

Monkey

Tricking your way through the hedge beats butting it, though the hexagram suggests asking first whether you need to go through it at all. The Image keeps you to paths that are right.

Rooster

Challenged, you push back on principle. Ask whether this one is worth the horns. In this hexagram strong things become stuck by applying force to something that partly yields.

Dog

You push hardest on someone else's behalf. The Image still sets the limit: no paths outside what is right, even for a good cause. Put your strength into the axle, where the load is carried.

Pig

Strength arrives for you with little effort, which is pleasant. Spend it on carrying something. The fourth line puts great power in the axle of a wagon, which is to say in useful work.

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