豫 → 蠱
Hexagram 16: Enthusiasm → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 6).
Line 2
六二 介于石。不終日。貞吉。
Six in the second place means: Firm as a rock. Not a whole day. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 3
六三 盱豫悔。遲有悔。
Six in the third place means: Enthusiasm that looks upward creates remorse. Hesitation brings remorse.
Line 4
九四 由豫。大有得。勿疑。朋盍簪。
Nine in the fourth place means: The source of enthusiasm. He achieves great things. Doubt not. You gather friends around you As a hair clasp gathers the hair.
Line 6
上六 冥豫。成有渝。无咎。
Six at the top means: Deluded enthusiasm. But if after completion one changes, There is no blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
茹芝餌黃，飲食玉瑛；與神流通，長無憂凶。
Eating lingzhi, swallowing the golden elixir, drinking jade essence; communing with the spirits, long free from worry and misfortune.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder breaks from the earth, and the verse ascends into the realm of Daoist cultivation. One eats lingzhi mushrooms and yellow essence, drinks jade nectar and crystal dew, communing freely with the spirits and living forever without misfortune. The diet of the immortals replaces grain with the refined essences of mountain herbs and mineral elixirs. From Enthusiasm to Work on the Decayed, the transformation is surprising yet apt: wind blows beneath the mountain, stirring what has stagnated. The decayed world requires renovation, and the adept's alchemical practice is precisely that — transmuting the body's corruption into spiritual vitality. What enthusiasm initiates, inner cultivation sustains through the patient work of self-transformation.
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