Hexagram 7 line 5: The Army, yin in the fifth place
I Ching 7.5
There is game in the field; it is right to catch it. The eldest son leads; the younger carries corpses.
A legitimate cause for action has appeared, and the line supports responding to it firmly. The condition is that the experienced person leads. Handing command to the inexperienced turns a just campaign into a disaster.
Advice. Act on the real provocation, and keep the seasoned leader in command.
What changes when line 5 moves
Line 5 of Hexagram 7 is yin, a broken line. When it is cast as old yin (a 6) it flips, and the hexagram becomes Hexagram 29, The Abysmal: Danger repeated, as water in a ravine: the way through is sincerity, and going through rather than around.
Read together, the reading moves from The Army toward The Abysmal. Organised collective effort under a capable, principled leader: discipline turns a crowd into a force. Water below, water above: the same trigram doubled, a gorge within a gorge. The Abysmal is the hexagram of danger, and it is not a warning to avoid 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.
Line 5 in context
- Love & relationships
- Act on the real provocation, and keep the seasoned leader in command. In love and relationships, Hexagram 7 reads: A relationship or family under strain that needs structure and a shared purpose. Someone has to take responsible charge, with the consent of the others. Order given kindly holds; order imposed does not.
- Career
- Act on the real provocation, and keep the seasoned leader in command. In career, Hexagram 7 reads: Team leadership, a campaign, a large coordinated effort. The reading favours the experienced leader and the disciplined team, and warns against putting the wrong person in charge to keep the peace.
- Money
- Act on the real provocation, and keep the seasoned leader in command. In money, Hexagram 7 reads: Resources held in reserve and deployed in an organised way. Not the moment for scattered spending. A clear plan, executed with discipline, is what the reading supports.
- A decision
- Act on the real provocation, and keep the seasoned leader in command. In decisions, Hexagram 7 reads: Decide as a commander: who leads, what the objective is, what order is needed. If the cause is not worth the discipline it requires, the reading says not to march.
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The topic is pre-selected. The hexagram is not: the coins decide it.
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