Hexagram 45 for work
Hexagram 45 Assembly for work and career
At work Cui is the gathering of people around a leader and a purpose: a team forming, a coalition, a meeting that decides something. The judgment says a great offering brings good fortune (用大牲吉) and insists that the gathering be 'through correctness' (聚以正). The hexagram's structure gives the central tension: the ruler at five is the one with the position, but the strong minister at four is the one the lower lines actually gather around. The Great Image's call to inspect the weapons is the sober side of any assembly: numbers attract trouble.
For a project, a job or a negotiation, line four is the capable deputy who must visibly hand the following upward; line five is the legitimate head who must earn trust by long steadiness rather than by demanding it. Line one is the team member whose loyalty wavers; line three is the one who cannot find a place in the inner circle. A changing line in the lower trigram asks where your loyalty is going; in the upper trigram, whether the leadership can hold what has gathered.
The hexagram in brief
The lake over the earth: waters gathering. Success; the king approaches the temple; see the great man — people gather around sincerity, and a great offering brings good fortune.
Bring people together around a worthy purpose, and prepare for the frictions that gathering brings.
The judgment
萃：亨。王假有廟，利見大人，亨，利貞。用大牲吉，利有攸往。In (the state denoted by) Žhui, the king will repair to his ancestral temple. It will be advantageous (also) to meet with the great man; and then there will be progress and success, though the advantage must come through firm correctness. The use of great victims will conduce to good fortune; and in whatever direction movement is made, it will be advantageous.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 萃 Assembly has its own page:
- 初六Six at the beginningsincerity that falters · confusion in the crowd · cry and it turns to laughter
- 六二Six in the second placedrawn forward · unchanged centre · small offering accepted
- 六三Six in the third placesighing to gather · nowhere to belong · small regret
- 九四Nine in the fourth placegreat fortune required · wrong place · gathering below the ruler
- 九五Nine in the fifth placegathering in office · not yet trusted · lasting steadiness
- 上六Six at the topsighs and tears · no rest at the top · left out of the gathering
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 45, Assembly, mean for a career question?
- At work Cui is the gathering of people around a leader and a purpose: a team forming, a coalition, a meeting that decides something. The judgment says a great offering brings good fortune (用大牲吉) and insists that the gathering be 'through correctness' (聚以正). The hexagram's structure gives the central tension: the ruler at five is the one with the position, but the strong minister at four is the one the lower lines actually gather around. The Great Image's call to inspect the weapons is the sober side of any assembly: numbers attract trouble.
- What does Hexagram 45, 萃 Assembly, mean?
- The lake over the earth: waters gathering. Success; the king approaches the temple; see the great man — people gather around sincerity, and a great offering brings good fortune.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).