Hexagram 63 line 5: After Completion, yang in the fifth place

What changes when line 5 moves

Line 5 of Hexagram 63 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 After Completion toward Darkening of the Light. Every line in its proper place: the crossing made, order achieved, and the only remaining task to keep it from decaying. 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 63 changing to 36 →

Line 5 in context

Love & relationships

Offer sincerely and simply; splendour without feeling is not received. In love and relationships, Hexagram 63 reads: Things are in order and the reading says this is the moment of greatest risk, not because anything is wrong but because nothing is. Keep attending to the small things. The relationship that assumes it is finished is the one that starts to decay.

Career

Offer sincerely and simply; splendour without feeling is not received. In career, Hexagram 63 reads: The project is done, the position reached, the structure in place. Now maintain it. Small matters only; no large new ventures on the strength of the completion. Watch for the first signs of slippage and arm against them.

Money

Offer sincerely and simply; splendour without feeling is not received. In money, Hexagram 63 reads: Goals met, affairs in order. The reading warns against the complacency that follows success. Keep the discipline that got you here; the disorder at the end comes from relaxing it.

A decision

Offer sincerely and simply; splendour without feeling is not received. In decisions, Hexagram 63 reads: Decide for maintenance and small adjustments, not for the next great thing. The reading is favourable in small matters and warns that the end of completion is disorder unless it is guarded.