Hexagram 17: Following

隨 (Suí)

Adaptability and the wisdom to follow the right leader.

Overview

The name of this sign is the key to reading it: Following.

In the recent past you managed to get things around you moving again and to stand up for your wishes. More than that, you stood up for your right to make them real.

Keep moving in the direction you have set for yourself, so that your success is not wasted. But you need to know what leads this movement. Whether it is a person you know or an idea that inspires you does not matter. What matters is having a reliable point to steer by.

Your rise to the next step in life depends on how well you carry it all out. Do not ignore what fate advises. It is there to help.

People around you

Think about how you build your relationships. Do not try to get people interested in your plans yet, even if you are completely sure of how good they are. The plans are still being thought through and have only started to take shape.

Any criticism now can cool your enthusiasm, and that would harm the work. Bring your friends into the work later, when the final result is visible. Then their criticism is less likely to hold you back, and their advice or help less likely to get in the way.

Work

At this stage the most important thing is to make everything serve your one task. Do not get lost in small details. Do not take on several different things at once, even if they all look interesting and full of promise. Move in the direction you have chosen without wavering.

Sometimes it may seem that everything you do has no aim and no chance of success. That is only a passing doubt. Put it aside. Once you do, you will see how much you have already done, and that you can reach what you want.

Your wish

You have other wishes that also need your attention. But the one that troubles you most cannot be settled at present. It is not that you are making no effort. It is just that right now it is better not to press for it. Wait. After some time you might get everything you want easily, if you still want it then.

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 17 is Lake over Thunder. Its two inner, or nuclear, trigrams are Wind/Wood over Mountain. What the eight trigrams mean.

Upper trigram (lines 4–6): Duì · Lake Joyous and open
Lower trigram (lines 1–3): Zhèn · Thunder Arousing and moving
Upper nuclear (lines 3–5): Xùn · Wind/Wood Gentle and penetrating
Lower nuclear (lines 2–4): Gèn · Mountain Still and stopping

Hexagrams this one is connected to by its structure rather than by its number.

Opposite and Reversed:: 18. Work on Decay — Every one of the six lines flipped and the same figure turned upside down.
Nuclear:: 53. Development — The figure formed by the four inner lines.