Hexagram 64: Before Completion

未濟 (Wèi Jì)

On the verge of completion but requiring final careful effort.

Overview

Not long ago you passed through a stage of your life in which you reached results that proved your worth as a person and gave you a sense of fullness.

You have done almost everything you planned, and the wishes you had then have been fulfilled. Now you are in a place where the old goals are behind you and the new ones have not ripened yet. But even such a happy state cannot last forever.

So that you do not freeze at the stage you have reached, you need to leave your past achievements and step into unknown territory. Only a thorough search for yourself can bring you to the next stage of life.

You are starting a completely new stage of development. You may meet hostility, and sometimes plain indifference. There is no one to expect help from.

Getting through the first part of the road safely takes all your strength. Without going back over your earlier experience and knowledge first, you will not manage it.

Think about what you have right now, and how far you can go with it. You need to do this so that you do not fail because you understood things too late.

People around you

Look carefully at your relationships with colleagues and friends. You will have to change a lot to reach your new goals. Build new ties with the people who interest you, but do it gradually, and do not unload your problems onto others. Pay attention to what your acquaintances are worried about. They may need your support. Building relationships this way can bring noticeable results in a short time.

Work

Your work is still completely new to you, and it brings frustration from your inexperience along with joy from your first successes.

Go forward boldly. There is no sense in standing still. Shyness is not the best quality in business.

Do not take on serious matters straight away. You cannot handle them yet, because you do not have enough experience or knowledge. Small matters tend to go well. Later, when you have mastered your new profession, you will have a good chance of becoming a good specialist.

Your wish

You have every right to see your wish come true, but it will take a lot of work. This is the case where the outcome depends entirely on what you do, not on a whim of fate.

Do not waste time. Get down to business.

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 64 is Fire over Water. Its two inner, or nuclear, trigrams are Water over Fire. What the eight trigrams mean.

Upper trigram (lines 4–6): Lí · Fire Clinging and bright
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

Hexagrams this one is connected to by its structure rather than by its number.

Opposite, Reversed and Nuclear:: 63. After Completion — Every one of the six lines flipped, the same figure turned upside down and the figure formed by the four inner lines.