Hexagram 31 for love and relationships: Influence

咸 Xián · Love & relationships

The reading for love itself: genuine mutual attraction. Let it work at its own pace. The lines warn against pushing with the body before the heart has spoken, and against influencing by talk. Receptivity is what draws the other person.

Mountain below, lake above: the still mountain with the lake resting on its summit, the strong below the gentle, the two drawn together. Influence is the hexagram of attraction between people, and its structure is the whole argument: the strong yields its place, the gentle is above, and the two are joined by feeling that neither commands. The tradition's judgement is that success comes with persistence and that to take a wife brings good fortune. The reading says an attraction is real and mutual, and its lines trace the difference between influence that arises in the heart and influence that is merely restless movement in the toes, the calves, the tongue.

Advice: Be receptive; let influence arise from real feeling rather than from pressure or talk.
Warning: Influence pushed from the toes, the calves or the tongue, before the heart, drives away what it wants.

The changing lines, read for love and relationships

If your cast of Hexagram 31 had changing lines, these are what each one adds to a love question, and where each leads.

Line 1 · changes into 49 Revolution
The influence shows itself in the big toe. Notice the first stirring; it is not yet a reason to move.
Line 2 · changes into 28 Great Excess
The influence shows itself in the calves. Misfortune. Staying brings good fortune. You want to move; do not. Wait for the real pull.
Line 3 · changes into 45 Gathering Together
The influence shows itself in the thighs. Following what one's heart clings to brings humiliation. Do not chase everything that pulls you; choose.
Line 4 · changes into 39 Obstruction
Persistence brings good fortune; remorse disappears. If one is agitated and lets thoughts go to and fro, only those friends one deliberately thinks of will follow. Quiet the heart; a calm influence reaches further than an anxious one.
Line 5 · changes into 62 Small Excess
The influence shows itself in the back of the neck. No remorse. Hold your own will firmly; it is right, if a little cool.
Line 6 · changes into 33 Retreat
The influence shows itself in the jaws, cheeks and tongue. Say less; influence by talk without feeling is hollow.

Hexagram 31 in full Career Money A decision

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