Bō · Splitting Apart
Upper trigram: ☶ Mountain · lower trigram: ☷ Earth
What crumbles from below; dark forces undermine the structure. Undertake nothing, await the turning.
The primitive graph shows a knife peeling the bark of a tree, or pruning the dead branches until the wood is laid bare. It symbolises the inescapable action of time and erosion, the gradual loss of outer strength, and the necessity of stripping a situation of its useless superstructures in order to return to the essential.
The end of a cycle and the loss of energy
This hexagram describes a difficult phase of fatigue, material regression or general weakening. Your supports crumble, projects bog down and the Yang force is reduced to its simplest expression (a single line at the summit). It is the momentary triumph of negative Yin, of inertia and disintegration. Any offensive initiative is doomed to fail.
Reinforce your foundations and prune the superfluous
The only effective strategy is absolute stillness toward the outside and inner consolidation. The Accomplished Being does not try to fight erosion; they accept losing what has become obsolete, prune their expenses or ambitions, and reinforce their foundations. It is by making oneself discreet and rooting oneself deeply that one protects the seed of future renewal.
On the energetic plane, the hexagram superposes Earth (Kun, retraction, passivity) below, and the Mountain (Gen, stabilisation) above. The Mountain rests upon the Earth, but its base is undermined by erosion. It is a unique case in the Yi Jing where no figure stands as a model in the Great Image: one must efface oneself into the invisible, return to the essence of things, waiting for the fall to come to rest.
Each line is read only if it is changing in your cast. A changing line transforms the figure: the link under each text shows which hexagram it leads to.
Three-coin or yarrow-stalk cast, changing lines, outlook figure — computed on your device, no account.