What this change means
Fire sinks below the Earth as the first and third lines move, and the light goes underground. The third leads: keep your brightness within, persevere, and don't show off; what you do will be recognized in time. The first adds a warning: frost underfoot, a decline that can spread unnoticed. The resulting hexagram, 36 Darkness, explains why discretion matters so much now. This is a dark time, and circumstances may force you to live near the wrong people. Protect yourself. Hold on to your integrity, and don't put your talents on open display where they'd draw harm. Take precautions early, while the cold is only frost. Keep working steadily out of sight. Hard times pass, and the light you've kept hidden is still yours when they do.
What to read, in order
Marked ● is what Zhu Xi's tradition puts at the center for this number of moving lines.
- Line 3 of 2 Passivity
What you do with perseverance and without showing off will be appreciated and recognized.
Holding its brightness within; it can stay constant. If it serves in the king's affairs, no achievement of its own, but a good end.
- Line 1 of 2 Passivity
Things can decline without anyone noticing. It's time to take precautions so the decline doesn't become total.
Frost underfoot. Firm ice is on its way.
- The judgment of 2 Passivity
This is not the time to take the initiative to achieve things. It's better to let others guide you and to keep at your projects with patience.
Great success. The constancy of a mare is favorable. The noble person has somewhere to go: going ahead, they lose the way; following behind, they find someone to guide them. It is favorable to find friends in the southwest and to lose them in the northeast. Calm constancy brings good fortune.
- The judgment of 36 Darkness
It's a dark time: circumstances force you to live alongside the wrong people. If you know how to protect yourself, hold on to your integrity, and go unnoticed, without openly showing your light and your talents, you'll stay safe until better times come. However hard they seem, hard times pass too.
Constancy in hardship is favorable.
The trigrams
The way back
36 Darkness → 2 Passivitylines 1 and 3
Other transformations of Passivity
- 19Fleeting Successlines 1 and 2
- 46Going Uplines 2 and 3
- 51Shocklines 1 and 4
- 40Clearing Obstacleslines 2 and 4
- 62Success in Small Matterslines 3 and 4
- 3Initial Obstacleslines 1 and 5
- 29Waterlines 2 and 5
- 39Held Backlines 3 and 5
- 45Meetinglines 4 and 5
- 27Nourishmentlines 1 and 6
- 4Immaturitylines 2 and 6
- 52Abidinglines 3 and 6
- 35Advancelines 4 and 6
- 20Observinglines 5 and 6
Make your own cast
The answer changes with the question. Toss the coins and see which lines move for you.