Hexagram 10 for love and relationships: Treading

履 Lǚ · Love & relationships

A delicate situation with someone whose reaction you cannot predict. Tact matters more than truth-telling for its own sake. Be kind, be careful, and do not test the tiger to see if it bites.

Lake below, heaven above: the gentle and cheerful beneath the strong. Treading is about conduct, about how to move through a situation where a wrong step has real consequences. The tradition's image is of stepping on a tiger's tail without being bitten, and the way that is achieved is with courtesy, care and good humour rather than with force or fear. The reading says you are close to something powerful or dangerous and that your behaviour, moment to moment, decides whether it turns on you. Correct manners, plainly kept, carry you through.

Advice: Behave with care and courtesy, especially toward whatever is stronger than you.
Warning: Presumption near the tiger, or an overconfident step, gets bitten.

The changing lines, read for love and relationships

If your cast of Hexagram 10 had changing lines, these are what each one adds to a love question, and where each leads.

Line 1 · changes into 6 Conflict
Simple conduct. Going on brings no blame. Keep it simple and expect nothing; that is safe and it is enough.
Line 2 · changes into 25 Innocence
Treading a smooth, level path. The lone traveller persists; good fortune. Stay on your own quiet path and do not be pulled into the contest.
Line 3 · changes into 1 The Creative
A one-eyed person sees, a lame person walks; they tread on the tiger's tail and are bitten. A warrior acting for a great prince. Do not overestimate what you can see and do; the tiger is real.
Line 4 · changes into 61 Inner Truth
Treading on the tiger's tail with caution and care. In the end, good fortune. If you must take the dangerous step, take it deliberately and carefully.
Line 5 · changes into 38 Opposition
Resolute conduct. Persistence, with awareness of danger. Be resolute, and stay aware that resolution does not remove the danger.
Line 6 · changes into 58 The Joyous
Look at your conduct and weigh its signs. When the cycle is complete, great good fortune. Review how you have behaved; the outcome follows from it.

Hexagram 10 in full Career Money A decision

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