In love
The tailwind is real — undertake the big step now, the commitment or the repair. Sincere effort at scale succeeds, and even its mistakes self-correct. Full love reading
Hexagram 42 · Line 1
Great Deeds Are Favoured
Hexagram 42 · Line 1 meaning
"It is favourable to accomplish great deeds. Supreme good fortune. No blame."
Parent hexagram
42
I is the season of blessing in full flow: what is above sacrifices to what is below, and the people rejoice; wind and thunder amplify one another as gales feed storms. Progress that lately cost everything now comes with help — a sense of inner and outer independence, and a following wind behind every worthy undertaking. Great crossings, long deferred, are open.
Direct answer
Hexagram 42 line 1 means the increase has reached even your low starting place, and it comes with a commission: help received obliges great undertakings. Act on the scale the season permits, selflessly and for the general good, and the extraordinary succeeds. There's even room for honest error — mistakes made in sincere effort correct themselves now. Build large.
The image explained
A first line usually counsels small, careful beginnings — but this is Increase, and the season overturns the rule. Help has flowed all the way down to the lowest place, and where such support arrives it does not license timidity; it obliges scale. The blessing wants to be built with. And because the tide is genuinely rising, it forgives: mistakes made in sincere effort don't compound here, they self-correct, the way a strong current straightens what it carries. The one condition is selflessness — great deeds for the general good, not the ego's monument.
What to do now
Do undertake the big thing now, on the scale the season permits — this is not the hour for cautious half-measures. Do keep the aim selfless and hold to universal truths; humility is what keeps the advantage clean. Don't shrink from mistakes: in a time of increase, sincere errors correct themselves, so let fear of imperfection stop nothing. And don't mistake the tailwind for your own greatness — build for the general good, not the monument, and the supreme good fortune holds.
Transformation
The change toward Hexagram 20
When this line moves, the situation travels toward Hexagram 20, Contemplation — the high vantage from which one sees the whole, and is seen in turn. The link is that great deeds done from the lowest place put you in view: build something worthy and you become a landmark others contemplate and trust. Contemplation's caution is the check on this line's ambition — act from collected inward attention, not display, and your influence spreads without effort. Do the large thing, but let it be worth looking at.
This line in context
In career
Launch the ambitious project or bold proposal; the season backs large, selfless effort, and forgives honest errors made in it. Full career reading
For a decision
Help has reached even the lowest place and obliges bold moves — decide on a large scale, and let sincere mistakes correct themselves. Full timing reading
Reflection
What great thing is this season actually asking me to build?
Is my boldness in service of the general good, or of my own monument?
Read this line well
Keep the line inside the full reading
A changing line becomes useful when you read it in the right order and keep it tied to the wider hexagram pattern.
1. Start with Hexagram 42
Read the parent hexagram first so Line 1 stays anchored in the actual situation rather than floating as a detached slogan.
2. Stay with Line 1
Let this line show where the pressure, correction, or opening is most active right now. It is usually the sharpest instruction in the cast.
3. Then read the direction of change
Only after that should you compare the transformed figure and decide what movement this changing line is pointing toward.
If you want the wider method behind this sequence, read how to consult the I Ching or go deeper with the changing-lines guide.
All six lines
Read the full line sequence
Line 1
Great Deeds Are Favoured
"It is favourable to accomplish great deeds. Supreme good fortune. No blame."
Hexagram 42 line 1 means the increase has reached even your low starting place, and it comes with a commission: help received obliges great undertakings. Act on the scale the season permits, selflessly and for the general good, and the extraordinary succeeds. There's even room for honest error — mistakes made in sincere effort correct themselves now. Build large.
Current line
Line 2
The Increase None Can Oppose
"Someone increases him indeed; ten pairs of tortoise shells cannot gainsay it. Constant steadfastness brings good fortune. The king presents him before God: good fortune."
Hexagram 42 line 2 means blessing so aligned with the order of things that no oracle could contradict it — the receiving side of Decrease's fifth line. It comes to whoever loves the good for its own sake, not just for relief from hardship. Hold that love with constant steadfastness, and what was lost is restored.
Read line 2 in full
Line 3
Enriched Through Misfortune
"One is enriched even through unfortunate events. No blame — if you are sincere, walk in the middle, and act with the authority of a true commission."
Hexagram 42 line 3 means the season's strangest gift: in a time of increase, even the blows enrich you. Adversity now carries instruction and strength — but only under three exact conditions: stay sincere, walk the middle path, and act as if sealed by a true commission rather than improvised by the ego. Met so, misfortune itself joins the increase.
Read line 3 in full
Line 4
The Trusted Intermediary
"Walking in the middle and reporting to the prince, one is followed. It is favourable to be used in great removals."
Hexagram 42 line 4 means you are the trusted intermediary — the mediator between powers, the translator between above and below, entrusted with the weightiest transfers because of your proven balance. Walk the middle, report faithfully, and you'll be followed. Everything rests on impartiality that never bends the message toward your own desire. Serve the transmission, not yourself.
Read line 4 in full
Line 5
Kindness That Does Not Ask
"A truly kind heart need not ask — supreme good fortune. Kindness will be recognised as your virtue."
Hexagram 42 line 5 means the apex of increase: generosity become nature. A kindness this real springs from inner necessity — it doesn't calculate returns, seek recognition, or require penitence before it forgives. It never asks to be acknowledged, and precisely therefore it is. Act with such unmeasuring goodness, and the virtue unadvertised becomes the virtue known everywhere.
Read line 5 in full
Line 6
Increase Withheld
"He brings increase to no one — indeed, someone strikes him. He does not keep his heart steady. Misfortune."
Hexagram 42 line 6 is the season's terminal warning: increase hoarded at the top, passed to no one below. The heart, unsteadied by acquisition, forgets the law that began the flow — the above giving downward — and the current reverses. Isolation comes first, then a blow from an unexpected quarter. This is misfortune. The correction is to resume the giving.
Read line 6 in full
Situation meanings
Read this hexagram in context
Love meaning
Love's season of increase — build boldly and give generously.
Open interpretation
Career meaning
A season of increase — build boldly and pass the gains downward.
Open interpretation
Business meaning
A tailwind season — build boldly, and pass the gains downward.
Open interpretation
Family meaning
The household's season of increase — build boldly and give downward.
Open interpretation
Money meaning
Money's season of increase — build boldly, keep it flowing.
Open interpretation
Personal growth meaning
The wind is with you — imitate good, root out faults, build.
Open interpretation
Learning meaning
Learning flies with a tailwind now — attempt the hard thing.
Open interpretation
Creativity meaning
A fertile season with a tailwind — build boldly, give freely.
Open interpretation
Decision and timing meaning
Act now — the wind is with you; cross the great water.
Open interpretation
Spirituality meaning
A season of blessing — use it, and pass it downward.
Open interpretation
Friendship and community meaning
A season of growing circles — build boldly, give generously.
Open interpretation
Life transitions meaning
A change with a tailwind — build boldly, and pass it on.
Open interpretation
A gift to keep
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Return to steadiness
A quiet place to keep returning
Beyond a single reading: True Essence is a daily pause to steady the mind and return to clearer judgement — a seven-day return, free to begin, then a practice that continues day by day.
Begin the 7-day return →Oracle
Consult the I Ching with Hexagram 42 in mind
If Line 1 is active in your reading, use the oracle to revisit the full pattern and any additional changing lines in your live situation.