The Book of Changes · Zhen

Hexagram 51: The Arousing

Thunder (the storm arriving) over Thunder (the storm arriving)

Shock doubled. The tradition's striking claim is that the person who is genuinely composed laughs and talks while everyone around them is terrified, and does not drop the sacrificial spoon.

The image

Thunder repeated. The reading is that a person, in fear and trembling, sets their life in order and examines themselves, which is what shock is for.

Thunder, above

Shock, beginning, and movement that starts below.

Thunder, below

Shock, beginning, and movement that starts below.

The six lines

Read from the bottom up.

1. Line 1The shock comes, and there is fear, and afterwards laughter. The fear was the useful part.
2. Line 2Shock with danger in it, and a great deal lost. Do not chase it. It comes back in seven days.
3. Line 3Shock, and it unsettles you. Move under it and nothing goes wrong.
4. Line 4Shock that sinks into the mud. The energy arrives and goes nowhere.
5. Line 5Shock going back and forth, and danger, and nothing actually lost. There are still things to be done.
6. Line 6Shock bringing ruin, and looking around terrified. If it has not reached you, no fault, and people will have things to say.

The same figure in Human Design

Human Design took its sixty four gates from this book, in this numbering, so hexagram 51 is Gate 51, Shock.