AsterNymAsterNym

I Ching · Hexagram 48 The Well

Hexagram 48 for decisions: The Well

井 Jǐng · A decision

Choose the option that keeps you connected to a constant source rather than the one that moves the town. Ask whether your rope is long enough and your jug whole before you decide you are at a dry well.

Wind below, water above: wood reaching down into water, the pole and bucket drawing from the well. The Well is the hexagram of the source: what nourishes everyone, stays where it is, and can be neither increased nor diminished. The tradition's judgement is that the town may be moved but the well cannot, that it neither decreases nor increases, and that if the rope is too short or the jug breaks, there is misfortune. The source is constant; the reaching is the difficulty. The reading says there is something deep and reliable here, in a person, a tradition, a practice, and asks whether you are drawing from it properly, with a clean well, a long enough rope and an unbroken jug.

Advice
Keep the well clean and the rope long; the source is constant, the access is your work.
Warning
A well that is muddy, unused or drawn from with a broken jug fails the town that depends on it, though the water was always there.

The changing lines, read for decisions

If your cast of Hexagram 48 had changing lines, these are what each one adds to a decision question, and where each leads.

  1. Line 1 · changes into 5 Waiting

    One does not drink the mud of the well. No animals come to an old well. If the source has silted up, clear it; nothing comes to a muddy well.

  2. Line 2 · changes into 39 Obstruction

    At the well hole one shoots fishes. The jug is broken and leaks. Do not waste the source on trivia while the jug leaks; find a proper use.

  3. Line 3 · changes into 29 The Abysmal

    The well is cleaned but no one drinks from it. This is my heart's sorrow. If the king were clear-minded, good fortune might be enjoyed in common. If the well is clean and unused, the fault is with those who will not drink; keep it clean regardless.

  4. Line 4 · changes into 28 Great Excess

    The well is being lined. No blame. Take time to repair the source; it is not idleness.

  5. Line 5 · changes into 46 Pushing Upward

    In the well there is a clear, cold spring from which one can drink. The spring is clear and cold; draw from it.

  6. Line 6 · changes into 57 The Gentle

    One draws from the well without hindrance. It is dependable. Supreme good fortune. Give freely and dependably; the open well is supreme good fortune.

Hexagram 48 in fullLove & relationshipsCareerMoney

Ask the I Ching about your decision

The topic is pre-selected. The hexagram is not: the coins decide it.

Ask the I Ching →