Six Doors · No. 40

第40卦解 Xiè · Deliverance

Essence: The knot loosens; forgive quickly and move on.

Judgment

The tension has broken, like air cleared by a thunderstorm. The skill now is dispatch: settle quickly what needs settling, pardon at once what needs pardoning, and carry no old accounts forward. If nothing demands action, simply return to normal life.

Sixty-four hexagrams, six doors each

Trigrams

Upper

震 Thunder

thunder

Lower

坎 Water

water

III

The lines

Line 1The crisis has just passed; nothing needs saying—rest and recover.
Line 2With straightness as your arrow, clear out the foxes—the flatterers working in the shadows—and the field comes right.
Line 3Riding in a carriage while hauling a porter's load—flaunting a station that is not yours—simply invites robbery.
Line 4Detach yourself from the hangers-on clinging at your feet, and trustworthy companions will finally arrive.
Line 5When you genuinely release the entanglement within yourself, the petty influences withdraw of their own accord—and their leaving proves it.
Line 6For the hawk entrenched on the high wall—the one obstinate obstacle left—strike once, fully prepared, and everything opens.

All the doors

Every single-step transition available from where you stand.

Inverse (綜) · Opposite (錯)

Inverse (綜)

Opposite (錯)

Written on this

Hexagram 40, Xiè (Deliverance): After the Storm, Act Fast

A close reading of Hexagram 40, Xiè: thunder over the abyss, the storm that clears the air, and how to read Deliverance and its six lines when you cast it.

5 min read