What this change means
Fire on the mountain: the first, fourth and top lines move, and Mountain rises below while Fire takes the place of Earth above. You've been stuck among the wrong people, keeping safe by staying quiet and true to yourself. The resulting hexagram, 56 The Traveler, describes modest gains and a season of change, with unfamiliar places or circumstances asking you to adjust. Keep a light, flexible attitude and be gracious as you form new connections. Weighed together, these suggest that leaving the dark may mean literally moving on. Travel light, without clinging to what held you, and treat each new place as a fresh start. Watch for carrying old grudges into new places. A gentle, adaptable manner helps your situation take hold wherever you land.
What to read, in order
Marked ● is what Zhu Xi's tradition puts at the center for this number of moving lines.
- 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 judgment of 56 The Traveler
It's a time of small achievements. Keep a light, flexible attitude. You may be facing a period of change, new places or situations that ask you to adapt while they settle: let go of attachments and be gracious as you make new connections and your situation takes hold.
Small success. For the traveler, constancy brings good fortune.
- Line 1 of 36 Darkness
Trying to move ahead right now will only show you obstacles. Keep persevering on the right path, the one your heart moves you along, without straying from your goal and advancing as far as you can.
The wounded light, in flight, lowers its wings. The noble person is on the road: three days without eating. There is somewhere to go; the host grumbles.
- Line 4 of 36 Darkness
You'll be allowed to see the causes of the hard situations you're facing. This will help you act quickly and withdraw to safe ground before adversity takes complete control.
It enters the left side of the belly; it reaches the heart of the wounded light and goes out through the courtyard gate.
- Line 6 of 36 Darkness
If you keep persevering, quietly and without drawing attention, the bad situations and the people behind them will fall under their own weight.
No light, darkness. First it climbs to heaven; later it goes into the earth.
The trigrams
The way back
56 The Traveler → 36 Darknesslines 1, 4, and 6
Other transformations of Darkness
- 7The Armylines 1, 2, and 3
- 32What Lastslines 1, 2, and 4
- 16Passionlines 1, 3, and 4
- 54A Subordinate Rolelines 2, 3, and 4
- 48Right Actionlines 1, 2, and 5
- 8Unionlines 1, 3, and 5
- 60Thriftlines 2, 3, and 5
- 31Attractionlines 1, 4, and 5
- 43Overflowinglines 2, 4, and 5
- 17Adaptinglines 3, 4, and 5
- 18Loss, Then Gainlines 1, 2, and 6
- 23The Falllines 1, 3, and 6
- 41Decreaselines 2, 3, and 6
- 14Wealthlines 2, 4, and 6
- 21Bitinglines 3, 4, and 6
- 53Gradual Progresslines 1, 5, and 6
- 9Small Thingslines 2, 5, and 6
- 42Increaselines 3, 5, and 6
- 13Gathering with Equalslines 4, 5, and 6
Make your own cast
The answer changes with the question. Toss the coins and see which lines move for you.