Hexagram 22 changing to 27: Grace to Nourishment

Where it starts: 22 Grace

Form and beauty in their proper place: adornment that serves substance, and knows its limits. Fire below, mountain above: fire lighting the mountain from beneath, making it beautiful. Grace is about form: manners, presentation, art, the way things look and are arranged. The tradition's judgement is favourable in small matters, and the qualification is the whole point. Beauty of form is right and good and it is not the same as substance. The reading says the situation calls for care in how things are presented, that this care is worth taking, and that it must not be mistaken for the thing itself. Grace clarifies small matters; it does not decide great ones.

Where it goes: 27 Nourishment

What you feed, and what feeds you: attention to nourishment, of the body, the mind and others. Thunder below, mountain above: the hexagram's shape is an open mouth, two firm lines enclosing four yielding ones. Nourishment asks a simple question that runs in both directions: what are you taking in, and what are you giving out? The tradition's judgement says to pay attention to what you nourish and to what you seek to fill your mouth with, and the image adds care in words and moderation in food. The reading is about sustenance in the widest sense: diet, information, company, the people you support and those who support you. Its favourability depends on the quality of what is being fed.

The lines that move

1. Line 3

   Graceful and moist. Constant persistence brings good fortune.

   A pleasant, easy situation, beauty and comfort together, with the risk of sinking into it. The line asks for steadiness inside the enjoyment. Grace is fortunate when it does not soften the will. Enjoy the ease and keep your discipline inside it.

What is changing. The situation of Grace is moving toward Nourishment. Give form its due care, keep it in proportion, and decide large matters on substance. As the change completes: Attend to what you take in and what you give out; feed what is worth feeding.

love and relationships

Now: Attention to how things are done: courtesy, gesture, the setting. It matters and it is enjoyable. The reading warns against mistaking the surface for the bond, and its last line points at plain, unadorned sincerity as the highest grace. Then: Ask what each of you feeds the other: attention, kindness, honest speech, or the opposite. The reading asks you to look at the diet of the relationship, and to be careful with words, which nourish or poison more than anything.

career

Now: Presentation counts: how you frame the proposal, how the work looks, the manners of the negotiation. Take the care. Do not let polish stand in for content, and do not make a large decision on the strength of appearances. Then: What sustains you at work, and what you are sustaining. Feed your competence with real learning, not gossip; support the people who depend on you properly. The reading warns against seeking nourishment from the wrong source.

money

Now: Good for matters of style, display and small refinement; poor for major financial decisions, which should not be made on how something is presented. Look past the packaging. Then: Money as sustenance, not display. Spend on what feeds you and yours, be moderate, and be wary of dependence on a source that does not deserve trust. Look at what your money is feeding.

decisions

Now: Fine for small choices of form and manner. For a large decision, strip away the presentation and decide on substance. The reading explicitly does not support deciding great matters by appearances. Then: Decide by asking what the option will nourish. The choice that feeds something worthwhile, in you or in others, is the right one; the one that only fills the mouth is not.