Hexagram 3
Difficulty at the Beginning
Water over Thunder
The judgment
元亨，利贞。勿用有攸往，利建侯What is needed is here and nothing is in place. Hold off on the journey and put one person in charge of the mess.
The image
Cloud and thunder gather and the storm has not chosen where to fall. Sort the threads before the rain.
The six lines
Read from the bottom up. A line that moves is read here, and read again in the hexagram it becomes.
- 初九Line 1
磐桓，利居贞，利建侯
Barely started and already wanting to move, yet the feet catch on stone; building a footing worth standing on spends effort better than rushing ahead.
- 六二Line 2
屯如邅如，乘马班如，匪寇婚媾，女子贞不字，十年乃字
Pressing forward, then faltering, circling in place; mounted, the horses break ranks halfway. The one who comes is not raiding but seeking a marriage. She keeps her own measure and will not give her word; ten years pass before she accepts.
- 六三Line 3
即鹿无虞，惟入于林中，君子几不如舍，往吝
Chasing a deer with no guide, deeper and deeper into the trees; halting and turning back costs less than pressing further in.
Marked in the textnarrow going
- 六四Line 4
乘马班如，求婚媾，往，吉无不利
Hovering on horseback, then finally asking for the union; once this step is taken, the way opens.
Marked in the textauspiciousnothing works against it
- 九五Line 5
屯其膏；小贞吉，大贞凶
Holding back the gathered good, unshared; keeping it small stays manageable, spreading it wider grows harder to contain.
Marked in the textauspiciousominous
- 上六Line 6
乘马班如，泣血涟如
The horse circles in place, tears falling like blood; at this point there is no road back, only standing still.
Where each changing line leads
Flip one line and it is a different hexagram. These are the six it becomes.
This page is for reference. To get a hexagram from six throws, cast your own.
The classical text is the Zhouyi, public domain, checked against a Wikisource transcript. The readings are ours. Daily hexagram