Hexagram 8
Hexagram 8: Holding Together
比 (Bǐ)
Unity, alliance, and mutual support among people.
Overview
You are standing on top of the mountain, and everything you planned has been reached. The wishes that came from a real inner need, and not from a passing mood, have come true the way you wanted. Do not settle for this and do not freeze here, or everything you have won will turn into a handful of useless little things that you throw away in irritation.
People around you
Your relationships with the people around you should be harmonious, though there may be surprises. They are unlikely to be unpleasant ones. Fate sees to that.
There is no reason to cut down the time you spend with colleagues and with the people you know. It is among them that you are most likely to meet the person, or the idea, that matters a great deal in your life.
Work and rest
To keep your achievements worth something, work on making them solid. First, think about what lies ahead of you. Look forward, and you can keep trouble away. Take responsibility for your decisions and your actions all the way to the end. That is the only way a success becomes real and whole.
Second, secure the results, so that nobody can take your achievements apart.
Rest matters a lot for you now. You have had time to get things moving, so you can rest. Your body really needs it. Spend your days off in a way that brings your strength back.
Your wish
Your worry about your wish is not groundless. The Book of Changes warns you: if you are late, you lose. Do not delay.
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 8 is Water over Earth. Its two inner, or nuclear, trigrams are Mountain over Earth. What the eight trigrams mean.
- Upper trigram (lines 4–6)
- Kǎn · Water Deep and dangerous
- Lower trigram (lines 1–3)
- Kūn · Earth Receptive and devoted
- Upper nuclear (lines 3–5)
- Gèn · Mountain Still and stopping
- Lower nuclear (lines 2–4)
- Kūn · Earth Receptive and devoted
Related figures
Hexagrams this one is connected to by its structure rather than by its number.
- Opposite:
- 14. Great Possession — Every one of the six lines flipped.
- Reversed:
- 7. The Army — The same figure turned upside down.
- Nuclear:
- 23. Splitting Apart — 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) 3. Difficulty at Beginning
- Line 2 (yin to yang) 29. The Abysmal
- Line 3 (yin to yang) 39. Obstruction
- Line 4 (yin to yang) 45. Gathering Together
- Line 5 (yang to yin) 2. The Receptive
- Line 6 (yin to yang) 20. Contemplation
Keep exploring
Continue through the sequence
Free, ad-supported mobile app
Continue your reflection in the app
Consult the I Ching, explore all 64 hexagrams, and keep your reading history on your device.
