The Book of Changes · Gou

Hexagram 44: Coming to Meet

Heaven (the sky) over Wind (wind, and wood growing)

One yin line returning underneath five yang: something small entering something large, unnoticed and consequential. The tradition's counsel is not alarm but attention, and not to give it more room than it has taken.

The image

Wind under heaven. The reading is that the prince acts by disseminating his commands to the four quarters, because what enters quietly is answered by being clear everywhere.

Heaven, above

Force, and the initiative that does not wait to be asked.

Wind, below

Penetration, patience, and what works by not stopping.

The six lines

Read from the bottom up.

1. Line 1Braked early, while braking is still possible. Let it run and it turns thin and bad.
2. Line 2Contain it rather than share it. This is not for guests.
3. Line 3Walking is hard. Aware of the danger, and no great fault comes of it.
4. Line 4What you meant to contain has gone. That is the misfortune, and it happened while you were deciding.
5. Line 5Character kept covered, and it falls to you from above rather than being claimed.
6. Line 6Meeting it head down, with the horns. Humiliating, and no fault: force applied to a meeting.

The same figure in Human Design

Human Design took its sixty four gates from this book, in this numbering, so hexagram 44 is Gate 44, Alertness.