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Daoa
The 64 figures

Yi Jing · Chinese tarot

Enthusiasm

Hexagram 16 of the Yi Jing ·

The figure

Thunder above the Earth: movement bursting from the ground, energy rising and carrying others along. The image of shared momentum.

What this figure illuminates

Enthusiasm lights up the gathering force of a right energy that mobilizes others and prepares action. But momentum without preparation scatters; fervor needs a frame.

For a decision, the figure questions the source of your drive: “does this enthusiasm carry me toward something real and prepared, or is it an excitement that will fade?”.

The classical text

The Judgment

Enthusiasm gathers others: helpers may be appointed and the hosts set moving, with advantage.

The Image

Thunder bursts from the earth, rousing and carrying all. Seeing this, the ancient kings made music to honor virtue and offered it up to what is highest.

The Six Lines

  1. First line

    Loudly parading your own delight. Such display brings misfortune.

  2. Second line

    Firm as stone, you read the sign before it ripens. Correct and steady: good fortune.

  3. Third line

    Gazing upward, lost in easy pleasure. Wake to it in time — linger, and there will be regret.

  4. Fourth line

    From you the shared gladness flows — great success. Let no suspicion in, and friends gather around you.

  5. Fifth line

    A persistent ailment that neither heals nor kills. Held in check, you endure without being undone.

  6. Sixth line

    Blindly given over to pleasure. Yet even now, if you change your course, there is no error.

Daoa's wording, written after the classical reference translations, now in the public domain: James Legge (1882) and Charles de Harlez (1889).

A question to keep

Does your drive rest on something prepared, or on excitement alone?

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