Hexagram 7
Hexagram 7: The Army
師 (Shī)
Organized effort, discipline, and collective action under strong leadership.
Overview
Soon you might go through a moment when other people judge you and what you do. The situation itself and the judgment do not matter much. What matters is that the verdict is likely to leave you dissatisfied. That brings you to a firm decision to step in and change that unflattering opinion as far as you can.
The question is what methods you use to get what you want. And you will have to rebuild a great deal. Once you decide to change the opinion of a large number of people, you will have to take serious steps. First understand what the problem is. Then think through in detail how to get out of the situation. You will need patience, and then a slow, stubborn movement toward the goal. Just remember: the smallest attempt to cheat yourself or other people will cost you dearly.
People around you
Do not forget that your colleagues and friends are people too. A relationship will never work if you are moved only by your own interest. Learn to read other people's moods and worries. Do that and your own problems get easier at once, and you will make many new friends.
Work
Your future career depends largely on whether your colleagues like you or not, which means it depends on how well you communicate. If you are a private person by nature and not very sociable, try to open up more. You will be very pleased with what that work on yourself brings.
Your wish
The same is true for reaching what you have planned. Your wish depends on wide contact with people, and the one who is at ease in any company will win.
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 7 is Earth over Water. Its two inner, or nuclear, trigrams are Earth over Thunder. What the eight trigrams mean.
- Upper trigram (lines 4–6)
- Kūn · Earth Receptive and devoted
- Lower trigram (lines 1–3)
- Kǎn · Water Deep and dangerous
- Upper nuclear (lines 3–5)
- Kūn · Earth Receptive and devoted
- Lower nuclear (lines 2–4)
- Zhèn · Thunder Arousing and moving
Related figures
Hexagrams this one is connected to by its structure rather than by its number.
- Opposite:
- 13. Fellowship — Every one of the six lines flipped.
- Reversed:
- 8. Holding Together — The same figure turned upside down.
- Nuclear:
- 24. Return — 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) 19. Approach
- Line 2 (yang to yin) 2. The Receptive
- Line 3 (yin to yang) 46. Pushing Upward
- Line 4 (yin to yang) 40. Deliverance
- Line 5 (yin to yang) 29. The Abysmal
- Line 6 (yin to yang) 4. Youthful Folly
Keep exploring
Continue through the sequence
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