Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
Return
Hexagram 24 of the Yi Jing · 复 Fù
The figure
Thunder beneath the Earth: a single solid line returns, at the bottom, after five broken ones. The first ray after winter — movement beginning again, still fragile.
What this figure illuminates
Return lights up beginnings again: one cycle closes, another starts. The moment is not for grand action but for tending what is reborn, because what comes back never comes back exactly the same.
For a decision, the figure invites you to notice what is starting again in you — “what is beginning, and how do I protect it while it is still tender?” — rather than rushing a restart.
The classical text
The Judgment
Return: the light comes back, and the way is open. Friends arrive without harm; what departed comes round again in its own time — in seven days it returns. It furthers to have somewhere to go.
The Image
Thunder stirs again deep within the earth: the year's turning point. Seeing this, the ancient kings closed the passes at the solstice, and let all things rest before the new movement.
The Six Lines
- First line
Turning back before you have strayed far, while the error is still small. Great good fortune.
- Second line
A quiet, willing return, made in good company. Good fortune.
- Third line
Turning back again and again, restless in your resolve. Uneasy, but not in itself a fault.
- Fourth line
Amid others who drift, you turn back alone to the right path. To return by yourself is no small thing.
- Fifth line
A wholehearted, noble return, examining yourself. No ground for regret.
- Sixth line
You have missed the moment of return and lost the way. To force great undertakings now ends in a defeat that ten years cannot repair.
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 beginning again, and deserves protection while it is still fragile?
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This figure, facing a choice
- Change directionA deep reorientation — when something is asking to change.
- Anticipated regret“What if I regret it?” — when regret in advance keeps you from choosing.
- The midlife crisisQuestioning everything at midpoint isn't a breakdown: it's a passage — better crossed in writing.
- Moving far awayChanging city, region, country: telling the call of elsewhere from the need to flee.