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I Ching · Hexagram 34 Great Power

Hexagram 34 for career: Great Power

大壯 Dà Zhuàng · Career

Momentum and capability are high. Use them within the rules and the proper channels; the reading favours legitimate advance and warns sharply against forcing through obstacles by sheer force. What is right, done firmly, wins.

Heaven below, thunder above: four strong lines rising, two yielding lines retreating above them. Great Power describes a time when strength is with you and growing, and the tradition's whole concern is what you do with it. The judgement is short: persistence furthers. The image adds the rule: the wise person does not tread paths that do not accord with the established order. Power is legitimate when it is used within what is right, and the lines are full of goats butting hedges and getting stuck. The reading says you have the strength; the question is whether you have the restraint that turns strength into power.

Advice
Use your strength firmly and only within what is right; restraint is what makes it power.
Warning
The goat that butts the hedge out of sheer strength ends up unable to go forward or back.

The changing lines, read for career

If your cast of Hexagram 34 had changing lines, these are what each one adds to a career question, and where each leads.

  1. Line 1 · changes into 32 Duration

    Power in the toes. Going brings misfortune. This is certainly true. You feel strong; you are not yet in position. Do not move.

  2. Line 2 · changes into 55 Abundance

    Persistence brings good fortune. The way is opening; advance steadily, not giddily.

  3. Line 3 · changes into 54 The Marrying Maiden

    The inferior person uses power; the superior person does not. Persistence is dangerous. A goat butts a hedge and entangles its horns. Do not flaunt your strength; the display is what traps you.

  4. Line 4 · changes into 11 Peace

    Persistence brings good fortune; remorse disappears. The hedge opens; no entanglement. Power in the axle of a big cart. Work quietly and persistently; the hedge opens on its own.

  5. Line 5 · changes into 43 Breakthrough

    Loses the goat with ease. No remorse. Let go of stubbornness once the resistance has ended.

  6. Line 6 · changes into 14 Great Possession

    A goat butts a hedge, cannot go back, cannot go forward. Nothing furthers. If one notes the difficulty, good fortune. Admit you are stuck; that admission is what frees you.

Hexagram 34 in fullLove & relationshipsMoneyA decision

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