Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
Fire
Hexagram 30 of the Yi Jing · 离 Lí
The figure
Fire doubled: the broken line held between two solid ones, repeated. Clarity, light — but a light that only burns while attached to what it illuminates.
What this figure illuminates
Fire lights up what your clarity depends on: you only see clearly by leaning on something — a person, a discipline, an attention. Clarity is not a solitary state, it is a relationship.
For a decision, the figure asks a question of support rather than force: “what am I holding onto to see clearly, and does that support truly light my way, or hold me back?”.
The classical text
The Judgment
Fire clings to what it burns. Stay firm and upright, and there is success. Tend a gentle, willing devotion — like the cow's — and good fortune follows.
The Image
Brightness doubled, one light kindling the next. Seeing this, the great person cultivates their inner clarity until it lights the four directions.
The Six Lines
- First line
The day begins in a confusion of steps. Tread with care and respect, and you make no mistake.
- Second line
Clinging to the golden mean, settled in the center. Great good fortune.
- Third line
The light of the declining sun. Instead of singing to the day's turning, you groan like a very old man. Misfortune lies in refusing the natural close.
- Fourth line
A sudden blaze that flares up, consumes, and is cast aside as quickly. What burns too abruptly cannot last.
- Fifth line
Tears flow in torrents, grief that shakes you to the depths. Yet from this true sorrow comes good fortune.
- Sixth line
Called to set things right by force, you strike only the ringleaders and spare those merely swept along. Justice kept measured: 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
What is lighting your way right now — is it the right support?
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