Hexagram 50 for love and relationships: The Cauldron

鼎 Dǐng · Love & relationships

Something raw between you can be cooked into something lasting: a shared life, a home, a culture of your own. The reading is favourable and asks for care with the vessel. Do not spill it by carelessness or overturn it by haste.

Wind below, fire above: wood feeding fire, the flame under the great bronze cauldron in which offerings were cooked. The Cauldron is the pair of the Well: where the Well is raw nourishment from nature, the Cauldron is nourishment transformed by culture, cooked, refined and offered. The tradition's judgement is simply supreme good fortune, success. The image is of the wise person consolidating their fate by making their position correct. The reading says the situation is one of refinement and offering: what you have can be transformed into something of real worth, and the worth depends on the vessel being sound, well placed and carried with care.

Advice: Refine what you have into something worthy, set the vessel on correct ground, and carry it with care.
Warning: A cauldron with broken legs spills the meal meant for the prince; the refinement is undone by a single careless move.

The changing lines, read for love and relationships

If your cast of Hexagram 50 had changing lines, these are what each one adds to a love question, and where each leads.

Line 1 · changes into 14 Great Possession
A cauldron with legs upturned. Furthers removal of stagnating stuff. One takes a concubine for the sake of her son. No blame. Empty out the stale before you cook anything new; the disorder is temporary.
Line 2 · changes into 56 The Wanderer
There is food in the cauldron. My comrades are envious, but they cannot harm me. Good fortune. You have substance; envy cannot harm it if your conduct is clean.
Line 3 · changes into 64 Before Completion
The handle of the cauldron is altered; one is impeded. The fat of the pheasant is not eaten. Once rain falls, remorse is spent. Good fortune comes in the end. Your worth is real but unreachable for now; it will be recognised, so wait.
Line 4 · changes into 18 Work on What Has Been Spoiled
The legs of the cauldron are broken. The prince's meal is spilled and his person soiled. Misfortune. Do not take on, or delegate to, what cannot bear the weight.
Line 5 · changes into 44 Coming to Meet
The cauldron has yellow handles, golden carrying rings. Persistence furthers. Be approachable and firm; that is what lets others carry the work with you.
Line 6 · changes into 32 Duration
The cauldron has rings of jade. Great good fortune. Nothing that does not further. Hard within, gentle without; everything furthers.

Hexagram 50 in full Career Money A decision

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