I Ching · Hexagram 16 Enthusiasm
Hexagram 16 line 4: Enthusiasm, yang in the fourth place
I Ching 16.4
The source of enthusiasm. Great things are achieved. Do not doubt. Friends gather like hair in a clasp.
The one line that is the real source of the movement, capable of drawing everyone together. The tradition tells it not to doubt: sincerity and confidence here gather friends and achieve great things.
Advice. You are the source; act with confidence and people will gather.
What changes when line 4 moves
Line 4 of Hexagram 16 is yang, a solid line. When it is cast as old yang (a 9) it flips, and the hexagram becomes Hexagram 2, The Receptive: The power of receiving, supporting and carrying through: strength that follows rather than leads.
Read together, the reading moves from Enthusiasm toward The Receptive. Thunder rising from the earth: energy that moves people when it moves with the grain of things. Six broken lines, earth above earth. Where the Creative initiates, the Receptive completes. The primary hexagram describes the situation; the changing line is the point of movement in it; the resulting hexagram is where that movement leads. Both hexagrams belong to the reading, and the changing line is the hinge between them.
Line 4 in context
- Love & relationships
- You are the source; act with confidence and people will gather. In love and relationships, Hexagram 16 reads: Real energy and delight between you, and the pull to carry each other along. Enjoy it and keep it honest. The risk named is complacency: enthusiasm that stops noticing the other person and becomes a mood.
- Career
- You are the source; act with confidence and people will gather. In career, Hexagram 16 reads: Momentum. People are ready to follow and the moment favours action. Organise, appoint helpers, and move while the energy is high. Do not let the mood substitute for the plan.
- Money
- You are the source; act with confidence and people will gather. In money, Hexagram 16 reads: Enthusiasm is where money is lost as often as made. The reading supports action that follows a real trend, and warns sharply against being carried away by excitement into commitments you have not examined.
- A decision
- You are the source; act with confidence and people will gather. In decisions, Hexagram 16 reads: Act with the momentum, provided the direction is sound. Ask whether you are moving with the grain of the situation or merely with the feeling. If the former, go.
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