Transformation · lines 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6
Success in Small Matters becomes Increase
What this change means
Growth stirred into motion: five lines change, leaving only the second still, and wind stands over thunder. That still line of 42 Increase carries the reading: your inner qualities earn gains and favors from people in power. The hexagram itself describes a time of growth when projects prosper, as long as you keep your integrity, follow good examples and drop the traits that caused you trouble before. After a period of small achievements, this is an expansion, and it comes from character rather than from pushing. Keep the modesty that served you. Accept help and recognition with good grace, model yourself on people you admire, and let go of old habits that held you back. Generosity in good times keeps the gain alive.
What to read, in order
Marked ● is what Zhu Xi's tradition puts at the center for this number of moving lines.
- Line 2 of 42 Increase, which stays still
Your inner qualities are rewarded with gains and favors from people in power.
Someone adds to it: a tortoise worth ten strings of shells cannot go against it. Lasting constancy brings good fortune. The king makes an offering to the Lord on High: good fortune.
- The judgment of 62 Success in Small Matters
This isn't a time for great things; it's a time for small achievements. Recognizing that will help you live in step with the moment. Trying to go beyond your present means and resources will lead you astray and waste your efforts.
Success. Constancy is favorable. Small things can be done, not great ones. The flying bird leaves its call behind: it is not fitting to rise, it is fitting to descend. Great good fortune.
- Line 1 of 62 Success in Small Matters
Failing to recognize your limits and trying to go beyond what you can do right now will bring you loss.
The bird in flight: so, misfortune.
- Line 3 of 62 Success in Small Matters
Carelessness and excess bring trouble.
Unless one goes beyond in guarding oneself, someone following will do harm. Misfortune.
- Line 4 of 62 Success in Small Matters
It's not the time to act, but it is the time to stand firm, without straying from your purposes, until the time to act arrives.
No fault. Without going beyond, it meets it. Going is dangerous: be on guard. Do not act with lasting constancy.
- Line 5 of 62 Success in Small Matters
Your humility will help you find people who will act on your behalf.
Thick clouds, yet no rain, out of our western fields. The prince shoots a corded arrow and takes what is in the cave.
- Line 6 of 62 Success in Small Matters
If you insist on chasing goals that are out of reach for now, you'll lose whatever you put into them.
Not meeting it, goes past it. The bird in flight falls into the net. Misfortune. This is called calamity and ruin.
- The judgment of 42 Increase
You're in a time of gain and growth: your projects will grow and prosper. At times like this it's important to keep your inner integrity, follow the example of people who have the qualities you want to gain, and get rid of the traits that have caused you trouble before. Overall, it's a time of achievement and generosity.
It is favorable to have somewhere to go. It is favorable to cross the great river.
The trigrams
The way back
42 Increase → 62 Success in Small Matterslines 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6
Other transformations of Success in Small Matters
Make your own cast
The answer changes with the question. Toss the coins and see which lines move for you.