Hexagram 55 line 4: Abundance, yang in the fourth place

What changes when line 4 moves

Line 4 of Hexagram 55 is yang, a solid line. When it is cast as old yang (a 9) it flips, and the hexagram becomes Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light: The light gone into the earth: a time of adversity survived by hiding one's brightness while keeping it.

Read together, the reading moves from Abundance toward Darkening of the Light. The sun at noon: abundance at its height, with the certainty that noon does not last and the instruction not to grieve about it. Fire below, earth above: the sun sunk beneath the ground. Darkening of the Light describes a time when a bad situation or a bad leader makes it dangerous to be seen clearly, and the tradition's counsel is to veil one's light without extinguishing 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.

Hexagram 55 changing to 36 →

Line 4 in context

Love & relationships

Find the one of like mind; together the curtain lifts. In love and relationships, Hexagram 55 reads: A high point: fullness of feeling, of shared life. Enjoy it without sadness that it will change. The lines warn about the curtain that can darken even noon: suspicion and misunderstanding at the height of things. Keep seeing each other clearly.

Career

Find the one of like mind; together the curtain lifts. In career, Hexagram 55 reads: Peak influence and success. Use it decisively; the image is of judgements made and carried out while the light is strongest. Do not waste the noon in anxiety about the afternoon, and do not let the abundance isolate you from clear sight.

Money

Find the one of like mind; together the curtain lifts. In money, Hexagram 55 reads: Prosperity at its height. Make the decisions that require it now. Do not grieve in advance for its passing, and do not let fullness breed the complacency that the lines describe as a darkening at noon.

A decision

Find the one of like mind; together the curtain lifts. In decisions, Hexagram 55 reads: Decide now, at the height of clarity and resources. The reading favours decisive action in abundance and warns against delay, because noon passes. Act like the sun at midday.