Hexagram 42: Increase

益 (Yì)

Growth, benefit, and the expansion of good fortune.

Overview

In the recent past you needed to drop everything secondary, the things that held only a little of your interest, so that you could take up the serious task in front of you.

If you followed that advice, your affairs should be in reasonable order by now. If you did not, you may meet a hard situation with no preparation at all. The clearest sign of that is being unable to say what your goals are. You have to know them, because you cannot build a plan of action without them.

What you need now is to increase the qualities and skills that will let you carry out your biggest plans later.

By now you should have chosen your direction, cleared space for the work ahead and set the smaller matters aside for a while. You should also have picked the people who can help you as well as they are able.

People around you

Now look at your relationships with the people around you. What has to change here so that you can keep moving in your chosen direction? Talk to your friends and colleagues, but do not tell them your plans in full. Describe the situation in general terms and ask what they think of your decision. If you pick the right moment for that talk, you will learn a lot about the question that matters to you.

After that it should be easier to see which of your many friends and acquaintances really want to help you.

Work and rest

The same is true at work. Do not take on several things at once. Give yourself time to think, and you can see what matters most and what comes first.

Right now it is far better to carry one important matter through than to be pulled apart by several small ones.

In the middle of everyday business, do not forget about rest. There really is a lot of work, but that is no reason to neglect your health.

Your wish

The sign puts your wish very close. You have done a great deal to bring this moment closer. Things may well turn out the way you wanted, and bring you much joy.

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

Upper trigram (lines 4–6): Xùn · Wind/Wood Gentle and penetrating
Lower trigram (lines 1–3): Zhèn · Thunder Arousing and moving
Upper nuclear (lines 3–5): Gèn · Mountain Still and stopping
Lower nuclear (lines 2–4): Kūn · Earth Receptive and devoted