Zhèn · The Arousing (Thunder)
Upper trigram: ☳ Thunder · lower trigram: ☳ Thunder
The shock that makes everything tremble; the fright passes, the sage does not drop his cup. To fear, and to collect oneself.
The ancient character depicts a man terrified beneath a violent lightning storm, joined to the sign of a foot receiving an electric jolt and suddenly starting. "Zhen" symbolises the thunderclap, the psychological or material shock that comes to shake beings out of their lethargy, to awaken nature and to shatter settled certainties in order to force movement.
The sudden shock and the setting in motion
This hexagram describes a phase of unforeseen upheaval (a brutal crisis, startling news, an emotional earthquake). The situation shakes you like a plum tree, provoking dread and panic at first. It is the alarm that rings with a crash: your comfortable arrangements are swept away, forcing you to react instantly.
Master the emotion to organise the response
The strategy in the face of the shock consists in not being paralysed by fear. The text recalls that "the thunder frightens for a hundred leagues, but the accomplished being does not drop the sacrificial spoon". You must keep your composure in the midst of chaos, use this shock as a salutary factor of awakening, and channel this immense released energy to launch a concrete and vigorous action.
In its configuration, the figure results from the doubling of the trigram Zhen (Thunder, the arouser). Impulsiveness is at its maximum both within and without, generating great agitation. The implicit counsel is to "calm down" and to make the movement last over time by bringing regularity into it, so as not to exhaust oneself in vain.
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.