Hexagram 10: Treading

履 (Lǚ)

Careful conduct and proper behavior in dangerous situations.

Overview

You have been through a time when your intentions went nowhere, because outside circumstances pushed back. Something did not come true for reasons you could not control, and you reached a dead end. Sometimes people let you down. Sometimes you made a mistake that burst all your plans at once.

The worst part was watching the results of hard work and persistence fall apart. You remember what you went through.

This sign lets you come out carefully from the shelter that a long run of failures and painful feelings pushed you into. Watching where you step is the idea to hold on to during this period.

Start moving again, gradually and in several directions, as your intuition suggests. Go back over your old ideas. Some of them may not be out of date, and you can still use them.

Keep one thing in mind: you must be very careful. The past is not fully gone, and it can still hurt you if you hurry or misjudge your strength.

People around you

Be just as careful with the people around you. They do not know that you have changed, so their judgment is still the old one. Learn to hold your ground and be who you want to be. Avoid conflict, avoid sharp corners, do everything step by step.

Do not break off your old friendships. Simply meet less often, which frees your time for new projects.

Work

Be as careful at work as you are with people. Much of the work here is moving against the inertia around you. Finish your tasks one by one. Do not rush. If you meet an obstacle, do not throw yourself at it, because you will only get hurt. Every action should be tactful and quiet. That is the only way you will have a chance at real results.

Your wish

Your wish may well have to wait. Do not try to get everything at once. Split the way to your wish into several stages. Get past one obstacle, then the next, keep at it, and you will reach everything you have been aiming for.

This Overview is one traditional reading of the figure, offered as a prompt for reflection and perspective rather than a prediction of a fixed future. Where this material comes from.

New to the sequence? See how lines, trigrams and changing lines work, or cast your own reading with the three-coin method.

Structure

Read from the bottom upward, hexagram 10 is Heaven over Lake. Its two inner, or nuclear, trigrams are Wind/Wood over Fire. What the eight trigrams mean.

Upper trigram (lines 4–6): Qián · Heaven Creative and strong
Lower trigram (lines 1–3): Duì · Lake Joyous and open
Upper nuclear (lines 3–5): Xùn · Wind/Wood Gentle and penetrating
Lower nuclear (lines 2–4): Lí · Fire Clinging and bright