I Ching · Hexagram 38 Opposition
Hexagram 38 line 3: Opposition, yin in the third place

I Ching 38.3
The wagon dragged back, the oxen halted, a man's hair and nose cut off. Not a good beginning, but a good end.
Everything goes wrong: obstruction, humiliation, injury. The line is unsparing about the start and firm about the end: hold to the person or purpose that is right, and the opposition lifts.
Advice. It is bad now and it will end well; hold on to what is right.
What changes when line 3 moves
Line 3 of Hexagram 38 is yin, a broken line. When it is cast as old yin (a 6) it flips, and the hexagram becomes Hexagram 14, Great Possession: Great possession held with modesty: abundance that lasts because its owner does not cling to it.
Read together, the reading moves from Opposition toward Great Possession. Fire and lake pulling apart: estrangement, and the small gains still possible when opposites understand their difference. Heaven below, fire above: the sun at its height, illuminating everything. Great Possession is a hexagram of abundance, and its subject is not how to get wealth but how to hold it. 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 3 in context
- Love & relationships
- It is bad now and it will end well; hold on to what is right. In love and relationships, Hexagram 38 reads: You are at cross purposes and the pull is apart. Do not force closeness. Work on small things, let misunderstandings clear, and accept that difference is not the end of a bond. The lines end with suspicion dissolving and a reunion.
- Career
- It is bad now and it will end well; hold on to what is right. In career, Hexagram 38 reads: Colleagues or partners diverging, priorities in conflict. Large joint projects will not work now; small cooperative steps can. Keep your own position clear without hostility and let the misreadings correct themselves.
- Money
- It is bad now and it will end well; hold on to what is right. In money, Hexagram 38 reads: Disagreement about money or direction. Keep the stakes small until alignment returns. Do not let the difference become suspicion; that is what the hexagram warns turns an opposition into a rupture.
- A decision
- It is bad now and it will end well; hold on to what is right. In decisions, Hexagram 38 reads: Choose small, reversible steps rather than the big joint decision. The reading rules out large undertakings while the parties are opposed and supports modest progress on what can be agreed.
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