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I Ching · Hexagram 45 Gathering Together

Hexagram 45 for career: Gathering Together

萃 Cuì · Career

Building a team or a coalition around a sound centre. The reading supports it strongly and asks for two things: a leader worth following and a genuine contribution from everyone. Prepare for what a crowd stirs up.

Earth below, lake above: water collecting on the land, a reservoir. Gathering Together describes assembly: people collecting around a leader or a cause, resources pooled, a community formed. The tradition's judgement is that the king approaches his temple, that it furthers to see the great person, that persistence and a great offering bring success. Gathering needs a centre worth gathering around, and it needs sacrifice, meaning that those who assemble must bring something. The image adds preparation: where people gather, unexpected things happen, and the wise person renews their weapons. The reading is favourable to assembly and asks who is at the centre and what is being brought.

Advice
Gather around a worthy centre, bring a real offering, and be ready for what a gathering stirs up.
Warning
A gathering with no true centre, or with people who bring nothing, scatters as fast as it formed.

The changing lines, read for career

If your cast of Hexagram 45 had changing lines, these are what each one adds to a career question, and where each leads.

  1. Line 1 · changes into 17 Following

    Sincere but not to the end; sometimes confusion, sometimes gathering. If you call out, after one grasp of the hand you can laugh again. Do not regret. Going is without blame. If you waver, call out to the centre; one clasp of the hand steadies you.

  2. Line 2 · changes into 47 Oppression

    Letting oneself be drawn brings good fortune and remains blameless. If one is sincere, it furthers to bring even a small offering. Let yourself be drawn in and bring what you honestly can, however small.

  3. Line 3 · changes into 31 Influence

    Gathering together amid sighs. Nothing that would further. Going is without blame. Slight humiliation. If you are outside the circle, ask someone inside; a little humility gets you in.

  4. Line 4 · changes into 8 Holding Together

    Great good fortune. No blame. Gather people for the cause, not for yourself, and it is greatly fortunate.

  5. Line 5 · changes into 16 Enthusiasm

    If in gathering together one has position, this brings no blame. If there are some not yet sincerely in the work, sublime and enduring persistence is needed; then remorse disappears. Some have come for the wrong reasons; win them by enduring integrity, not pressure.

  6. Line 6 · changes into 12 Standstill

    Lamenting and sighing, floods of tears. No blame. If you are shut out, let the sorrow show; it is not shameful and it may open the way.

Hexagram 45 in fullLove & relationshipsMoneyA decision

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