Transformation · lines 1, 2, and 4

What Lasts becomes Darkness

Starting hexagram
Resulting hexagram

What this change means

Light sinks below the earth as the first, second and fourth lines move, and the energetic pairing of thunder and wind goes underground. Both judgments carry the same weight. What Lasts asks for action, clear goals and conduct consistent with them, so that achievements grow and last. The resulting hexagram, 36 Darkness, describes a hard time when you have to live alongside the wrong people, and asks you to protect yourself, keep your integrity and avoid showing your light openly. These seem to pull apart, but they meet in one place: constancy. Keep your goals and keep working toward them, only more discreetly. Don't advertise your plans or your talents where they could be used against you. Steady, quiet persistence keeps you safe and moving, and difficult stretches like this one tend to pass.

What to read, in order

Marked ● is what Zhu Xi's tradition puts at the center for this number of moving lines.

  1. The judgment of 32 What Lasts

    This moment asks you for action, not stillness. It asks you to have clear goals to head toward and to act in line with them. That way you'll achieve things, and your achievements will keep growing and will last.

    Success. No fault. Constancy is favorable. It is favorable to have somewhere to go.

  2. 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.

  3. Line 1 of 32 What Lasts

    Don't expect extraordinary achievements when you're only just starting to move in the right direction.

    Digging deep into duration. Even with constancy, misfortune. Nothing is favorable.

  4. Line 2 of 32 What Lasts

    Right now your enthusiasm and passion are greater than outside circumstances. Staying that way will gradually overcome the stillness and move you toward success.

    Regret vanishes.

  5. Line 4 of 32 What Lasts

    Motivation and enthusiasm aren't all you need to achieve something; you also need to find the places where those dreams can flourish.

    No game in the field.

The trigrams

Below Wind Fire
Above Thunder Earth

The way back

36 Darkness → 32 What Lasts
lines 1, 2, and 4

Other transformations of What Lasts

Make your own cast

The answer changes with the question. Toss the coins and see which lines move for you.

Toss the coins