需 → 旅
Hexagram 5: Waiting → Hexagram 56: The Wanderer
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 5, 6).
Line 2
九二 需于沙。小有言。終吉。
Nine in the second place means: Waiting on the sand. There is some gossip. The end brings good fortune.
Line 5
九五 需于酒食。貞吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: Waiting at meat and drink. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 6
上六 入于穴。有不速之客三人來。敬之終吉。
Six at the top means: One falls into the pit. Three uninvited guests arrive. Honor them, and in the end there will be good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
因禍受福,喜盈我室,所願必得。
Through misfortune, blessings are received; joy fills my house. Whatever is wished for, surely obtained.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds above heaven become fire upon the mountain — the Wanderer's flickering light in a strange land. Yet this wanderer fares well: 'Through disaster one receives blessing; joy fills my chamber; every wish is fulfilled.' The verse is paradoxically brief and wholly auspicious for a hexagram associated with displacement and transience. Misfortune reverses into fortune, and the wanderer finds abundance precisely in the condition of being abroad. From Waiting to The Wanderer, nourishment finds an unexpected home: fire on the mountain moves and does not settle, yet even the traveling flame can illuminate a room. The one who endured calamity discovers that the road itself delivers what the homestead could not.
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