I Ching · Hexagram 43 Breakthrough
Hexagram 43 line 5: Breakthrough, yang in the fifth place

I Ching 43.5
Dealing with weeds needs firm resolution. Walking in the middle, one is free of blame.
The inferior element is close and tenacious, like a weed with deep roots, and must be removed again and again with steady resolution. The middle way is firmness without excess.
Advice. Root it out firmly, repeatedly, and without going too far.
What changes when line 5 moves
Line 5 of Hexagram 43 is yang, a solid line. When it is cast as old yang (a 9) it flips, and the hexagram becomes Hexagram 34, Great Power: Strength in the ascendant: thunder in heaven, and the discipline to use power only in what is right.
Read together, the reading moves from Breakthrough toward Great Power. Five strong lines against one weak one at the top: the decisive, open resolution of a last remaining wrong. 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 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 5 in context
- Love & relationships
- Root it out firmly, repeatedly, and without going too far. In love and relationships, Hexagram 43 reads: Something must be said plainly and finally. Say it openly and without violence, and expect it to be dangerous. The reading favours the clear declaration over both silence and force, and warns against being too sure of the outcome.
- Career
- Root it out firmly, repeatedly, and without going too far. In career, Hexagram 43 reads: A decisive break with a last remaining problem, a person or a practice. Declare it in the open, through proper means, and do not underestimate the resistance. Share the gains of the resolution rather than keeping them.
- Money
- Root it out firmly, repeatedly, and without going too far. In money, Hexagram 43 reads: The moment to resolve a lingering financial wrong, decisively and transparently. Not the moment to hoard the results. Distribute what the breakthrough frees.
- A decision
- Root it out firmly, repeatedly, and without going too far. In decisions, Hexagram 43 reads: Decide, and decide openly. The reading supports the resolute option provided it is declared rather than forced, and it says to keep a destination in view. Half-measures now leave the last remnant to grow back.
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