Hexagram 38 for love
Hexagram 38 Divergence in love and relationships
Kui is fire over the lake: flame rising, water sinking, 'two sisters living together whose wills go different ways'. It is the hexagram of estrangement — two people who were close and have drifted into misunderstanding, who want different things, or who see each other through a haze of suspicion. The Judgment offers only 'good fortune in small matters', and the Great Image gives the attitude: 'agreeing, yet different' (同而異) — keep the common ground without demanding sameness.
The lines are the course of an estrangement and its mending. Line one says do not chase what has withdrawn, and do not cut off those you resent. Two meets the other by an unofficial path. Three is held back and misjudged and must wait. Four finds an ally in isolation. Five joins easily with the one who answers it. Six is the climax: the loved one seen as a mud-covered pig and a cart of ghosts, until the bow is lowered and the rain comes. A changing line tells you where in that arc you stand, and all six of them counsel patience rather than confrontation.
The hexagram in brief
Fire rising and the lake sinking: two moving apart. Opposition — good fortune only in small matters; yet difference has its uses, as heaven and earth differ and still work together.
Don't force unity; find small common ground, keep your individuality, and let misunderstandings dissolve with time.
The judgment
睽：小事吉。Khwei indicates that, (notwithstanding the condition of things which it denotes), in small matters there will (still) be good success.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 睽 Divergence has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningthe lost horse returns · do not chase · meeting bad people
- 九二Nine in the second placemeeting in a lane · the indirect path · not off course
- 六三Six in the third placethe cart dragged back · humiliation · a bad start and a good end
- 九四Nine in the fourth placeisolated · meeting the good man · sincerity exchanged
- 六五Six in the fifth placebiting through skin · kin and partner · going forward
- 上九Nine at the topthe mud-covered pig · a cart of ghosts · doubts dissolve in rain
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Is hexagram 38, Divergence, a good sign for love?
- Kui is fire over the lake: flame rising, water sinking, 'two sisters living together whose wills go different ways'. It is the hexagram of estrangement — two people who were close and have drifted into misunderstanding, who want different things, or who see each other through a haze of suspicion. The Judgment offers only 'good fortune in small matters', and the Great Image gives the attitude: 'agreeing, yet different' (同而異) — keep the common ground without demanding sameness.
- What does Hexagram 38, 睽 Divergence, mean?
- Fire rising and the lake sinking: two moving apart. Opposition — good fortune only in small matters; yet difference has its uses, as heaven and earth differ and still work together.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).