Hexagram 49: Revolution

革 (Gé)

Transformation and necessary change for improvement.

Overview

The picture behind this sign is a snake shedding its old skin. It is not hard to guess what that means for you.

First, remember what came before. Your creative energy rose, and then it fell away. You were looking for the strength to move on with nothing holding you back. That search has ended, and you are standing at the start of a new stage in your fate. This stage points to a deep change in your life, for the better.

Like the snake, you have to throw off the old skin, which means everything you gained and everything you lost. Then you appear to friends and family as someone new. Do not be afraid of such a sharp turn. What you have already done has prepared you for it.

You are beginning a new life in earnest, and that brings many duties with it. Do not let old mistakes block your view of the future. Do not be afraid of making them again either. You have changed, and your life has changed.

People around you

The changes should reach your relationships with the people around you. There might be more new meetings and new acquaintances ahead than you think. That does not mean you should drop the old ones.

Be inventive and open in your relationships with the people around you. Do not let them freeze and always stay the same, or you will be terribly bored.

Your task is to learn to shape the way you talk with friends and colleagues, and to steer events yourself instead of obediently following what other people decide. If you manage this, your whole life will get better.

Work

At work you can keep your old goals. It is the methods you use to reach them that should be new. That way you will not repeat old mistakes, and you will learn to win.

Sad thoughts will come to you sometimes, about how not everything in life works out. It is time to say goodbye to sadness and become a more hopeful person.

Your wish

Your wish needs some time, but not very much. Events could move faster than you expect. Reaching this goal will change a great deal in your fate. You may even have to give up some of your plans for the future. But it looks like a change for the better.

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 49 is Lake over Fire. Its two inner, or nuclear, trigrams are Heaven over Wind/Wood. What the eight trigrams mean.

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