Hexagram 62 changing to 32: Small Excess to Duration

Where it starts: 62 Small Excess

The bird that should not fly too high: a time for small things, done with extra care, and for staying low. Mountain below, thunder above: thunder on the mountain, louder than in the sky and smaller in reach. Four yielding lines outweigh two strong ones. Small Excess describes a time when the small predominates and the correct response is to attend to small things with slightly more care than usual: more reverence in conduct, more grief in mourning, more thrift in spending. The tradition's judgement is that small things may be done and great things may not, and its image is the flying bird whose call should go downward, not up. The reading says this is not a time to attempt anything large or to fly high, and that success lies in modesty carried a little past the ordinary.

Where it goes: 32 Duration

What lasts: the marriage after the courtship, movement that renews itself, constancy with a direction. Wind below, thunder above: the two that always move together. Where Influence is the courtship, Duration is the marriage: the enduring union, the long practice, the thing that lasts because it keeps moving in a consistent direction. The tradition's judgement promises success, no blame, and the value of having somewhere to go. Duration is not standing still. Thunder and wind endure by moving; the seasons endure by changing. The reading says the situation asks for constancy of purpose, for not being distracted into novelty or worn into rigidity, and it promises that what keeps its direction keeps its life.

The lines that move

1. Line 2

   She passes by her ancestor and meets her ancestress. He does not reach his prince and meets the official. No blame.

   Accepting a lesser meeting than the one intended, with modesty: dealing with the deputy when the chief is unavailable, with the grandmother when the grandfather is. The line approves of taking what the time allows. Deal with whoever is available; do not insist on the top.

What is changing. The situation of Small Excess is moving toward Duration. Do small things with extra care and stay low; this is not a time to fly high. As the change completes: Keep your direction and renew your movement; constancy is alive, not fixed.

love and relationships

Now: Small things, done with extra care: the gesture, the apology, the attention to detail. Not the grand declaration. The reading favours modesty and warns against flying high; the bird that climbs now is caught in the net. Then: The long relationship, and what keeps it alive: constancy with movement. Not the same every day, but the same direction every day. The reading favours commitment and warns against both restlessness and dead routine.

career

Now: Attend to the details and keep a low profile. Great initiatives are not favoured. Be a little more conscientious than usual in conduct and spending, and let the small, well-done things accumulate. Then: Persistence in a chosen path. The reading supports staying with the work and renewing it from inside, and warns against jumping to the new thing when the old one has simply reached a hard stretch.

money

Now: Thrift beyond the ordinary. Small, careful economies rather than large plays. The reading rules out the big move and rewards attention to the details of the accounts. Then: Steady, long-term, consistent. Duration favours the plan you can maintain for years over the one that is exciting for a season. Keep the direction and let time compound it.

decisions

Now: Choose the small, careful option and decline the large one. The reading is explicit: small things may be done, great things may not. Decide accordingly. Then: Choose the option you can hold to for a long time, and then hold to it. The reading is against sudden changes of course and equally against a constancy that has become inertia.