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I Ching · Hexagram 54 The Marrying Maiden

Hexagram 54 for career: The Marrying Maiden

歸妹 Guī Mèi · Career

A junior or secondary role, joined late, with little leverage. The reading is against initiatives from this position and in favour of doing the role well, with tact, while understanding its limits. The lines describe both the people who thrive in it and those who overreach.

Lake below, thunder above: the young daughter following the eldest son, joy in the wake of movement. The Marrying Maiden describes a relationship or a role entered from a position of weakness: the secondary partner, the junior, the one who joins an arrangement already formed. The tradition's judgement is unusually stark: undertakings bring misfortune, nothing that furthers. This is not a condemnation of the person. It says that a position with no standing cannot be used to push, and that the way to hold it is with tact, patience and an understanding of what will and will not last. The reading asks you to see the terms of the arrangement clearly before you act within it.

Advice
See the terms of the arrangement as they are, hold your position with tact, and understand what will not last.
Warning
Pushing from a position with no standing, or mistaking a temporary arrangement for a permanent one, brings the misfortune the judgement names.

The changing lines, read for career

If your cast of Hexagram 54 had changing lines, these are what each one adds to a career question, and where each leads.

  1. Line 1 · changes into 40 Deliverance

    The marrying maiden as a concubine. A lame man who is able to tread. Undertakings bring good fortune. Accept the modest position and do what it allows well.

  2. Line 2 · changes into 51 The Arousing

    A one-eyed man who is able to see. The persistence of a solitary man furthers. If the arrangement has disappointed you, your loyalty is still yours to keep.

  3. Line 3 · changes into 34 Great Power

    The marrying maiden as a slave. She marries as a concubine. Do not accept any terms just to belong; the price is servitude.

  4. Line 4 · changes into 19 Approach

    The marrying maiden draws out the allotted time. A late marriage comes in due course. Wait for the right arrangement even if it comes late.

  5. Line 5 · changes into 58 The Joyous

    The sovereign gave his daughter in marriage. Her embroidered garments were not as gorgeous as those of her attendant. The moon nearly full brings good fortune. Enter the lesser position modestly; do not compete with ornament.

  6. Line 6 · changes into 38 Opposition

    The woman holds the basket, but there are no fruits in it. The man stabs the sheep, but no blood flows. Nothing that furthers. If the forms are kept and the substance is gone, there is nothing here to further.

Hexagram 54 in fullLove & relationshipsMoneyA decision

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