Hexagram 33
Hexagram 33: Retreat
遯 (Dùn)
Strategic withdrawal and knowing when to step back.
Overview
You have come to the moment when you need to start putting your plans into practice. Until now you have studied, gathered experience, and joined old knowledge with new. The new period of your life will be as successful as that stage was.
But this sign advises you not to rush straight into action. Gather your thoughts. Go through the plan again and build a clear order of steps. You may notice small things you missed before.
Life often changes our plans and reshapes them. You need to learn to be flexible and to adapt to new circumstances. Then you will understand the old truth: whatever happens, happens for the best. You will stop worrying over an ordinary event and treating it as a disaster.
This sign is called Retreat for a reason. Before you start on your plans, you need to step back from activity for a while and think everything over without hurry.
People around you
How should you behave with your friends and your family? Cutting off contact completely would be unwise. But for now, stop anything on a large scale. Keep contact with the people around you to ordinary, everyday talk, and do not draw them into your own affairs.
Work and rest
In work and rest, nothing large-scale will succeed either. Effort in that direction is bound to fail. This does not mean you should give up and drift with fate. You can do much good for yourself and for others if you stay inside the daily routine. Routine work will also take your mind off unpleasant thoughts and feelings.
Your wish
Ask yourself honestly. Is your wish something big and serious, or is it an ordinary everyday thing? A small gift from fate can come to you now, but bigger hopes will not come true right away.
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