Hexagram 59: Dispersion

渙 (Huàn)

Dissolution of obstacles and the scattering of rigid patterns.

Overview

When the air is still, the water lies smooth. When the wind rises, the water breaks into ripples, separate waves and drops. The whole is scattered into many small parts. That is the meaning of this sign.

Not long ago your life was tied to the lives of the people around you. You had shared goals, shared interests, even shared plans. That state of affairs reached its peak, and now it fades away, as it had to.

There is little point in stretching out a situation that has completely used itself up. You need to choose a direction that has a future in it and set out on your road boldly.

Like it or not, this stage asks you to make a new image for yourself. You have already come a long way in developing yourself, and you are ready to show the world a more serious and mature person.

People around you

Your relationships are part of that change as well. What guides you will no longer be shared interests, but what you yourself consider most important. This calls for care and tact.

While you build your own character, do not forget the people around you. You have obligations to them. Try to keep a balance between your own interests and their concerns. That will keep you out of trouble along the way.

Work

Your choice of work follows from all this. It should not only be interesting and profitable. While you do it, you must also become a better person.

This approach will make you choosy, even hard to please. For a while you may be caught between the stage that is finished and the one that has not started. In the end that choosiness will only do you good.

Your wish

Be careful about how you pursue your wish, because some people have an interest in seeing your affairs fail. Do not tell others about your plans, even when you think they could help. The fewer people know about your plans, the sooner your wish will come true.

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

Upper trigram (lines 4–6): Xùn · Wind/Wood Gentle and penetrating
Lower trigram (lines 1–3): Kǎn · Water Deep and dangerous
Upper nuclear (lines 3–5): Gèn · Mountain Still and stopping
Lower nuclear (lines 2–4): Zhèn · Thunder Arousing and moving