Hexagram 40
Hexagram 40: Deliverance
解 (Jiě)
Liberation, relief, and the resolution of problems.
Overview
Lately you have been in a situation where real obstacles left you no way forward. Everything around you was slow and stuck. You had to step back for a time and wait out the difficult period on your own.
The idea was that by thinking over your past and your future you would find the way out.
Now you can judge that way out by what has already happened.
No situation can last forever, least of all one as tense as the one you have been in. Everything comes to an end sooner or later.
Be ready for big changes soon. Most of them should be good ones that bring you a lot of joy, with some difficult moments too.
People around you
Your relationships may be tense. Changes look to be on the way at work, and with them new people in the circle you spend time with. Whether they become friends is not clear yet, but it is worth looking at them closely.
Work
Work is likely to get better gradually. Perhaps while you were on your own you neglected some of your duties. That was bound to show in the result. But do not lose heart over missed chances. You can easily make up what you need. And if something cannot be brought back, do not worry: what you truly needed would not have been lost, so there is no reason to regret what you do not need.
Your wish
Your wish looks close, and the first signs of it are already visible. Things are moving in the right direction. Step by step you are reaching the finish line. Circumstances are working out well for you. Do not get nervous and do not give in to doubt. Do not hurry, and do not turn from the course you have chosen. Your goal seems very near.
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 40 is Thunder over Water. Its two inner, or nuclear, trigrams are Water over Fire. What the eight trigrams mean.
- Upper trigram (lines 4–6)
- Zhèn · Thunder Arousing and moving
- Lower trigram (lines 1–3)
- Kǎn · Water Deep and dangerous
- Upper nuclear (lines 3–5)
- Kǎn · Water Deep and dangerous
- Lower nuclear (lines 2–4)
- Lí · Fire Clinging and bright
Related figures
Hexagrams this one is connected to by its structure rather than by its number.
- Opposite:
- 37. The Family — Every one of the six lines flipped.
- Reversed:
- 39. Obstruction — The same figure turned upside down.
- Nuclear:
- 63. After Completion — The figure formed by the four inner lines.
If one line changes
A reading with a single changing line moves from this figure to one of these, counting from the bottom line up.
- Line 1 (yin to yang) 54. Marrying Maiden
- Line 2 (yang to yin) 16. Enthusiasm
- Line 3 (yin to yang) 32. Duration
- Line 4 (yang to yin) 7. The Army
- Line 5 (yin to yang) 47. Oppression
- Line 6 (yin to yang) 64. Before Completion
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