Hexagram 22 line 3: Grace, yang in the third place

What changes when line 3 moves

Line 3 of Hexagram 22 is yang, a solid line. When it is cast as old yang (a 9) it flips, and the hexagram becomes Hexagram 27, Nourishment: What you feed, and what feeds you: attention to nourishment, of the body, the mind and others.

Read together, the reading moves from Grace toward Nourishment. Form and beauty in their proper place: adornment that serves substance, and knows its limits. 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 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.

Hexagram 22 changing to 27 →

Line 3 in context

Love & relationships

Enjoy the ease and keep your discipline inside it. In love and relationships, Hexagram 22 reads: 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.

Career

Enjoy the ease and keep your discipline inside it. In career, Hexagram 22 reads: 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.

Money

Enjoy the ease and keep your discipline inside it. In money, Hexagram 22 reads: 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.

A decision

Enjoy the ease and keep your discipline inside it. In decisions, Hexagram 22 reads: 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.