The Book of Changes · Lu

Hexagram 56: The Wanderer

Fire (flame and the sun) over Mountain (the peak)

A stranger passing through, with no standing and no claim on anyone. The tradition says success in small things only, and that the wanderer's safety is made entirely of their own conduct.

The image

Fire on the mountain, burning through and moving on. The reading is that a person is clear-minded and cautious in imposing penalties, and does not protract lawsuits.

Fire, above

Clarity, attachment, and what depends on its fuel.

Mountain, below

Stillness, limit, and the place where a thing stops.

The six lines

Read from the bottom up.

1. Line 1Fussing over small things in a place you are only passing through. That is how the trouble starts.
2. Line 2Reaching an inn with your property intact, and earning someone loyal. The good line in the figure.
3. Line 3The inn burns and the loyalty goes with it. Danger, and it was avoidable.
4. Line 4A place to stay, the property back, and the means to defend it, and the heart is not glad.
5. Line 5One shot, one bird, and the arrow lost. In the end it brings both praise and position.
6. Line 6The nest burns. Laughing first and weeping after. What was held carelessly is gone.

The same figure in Human Design

Human Design took its sixty four gates from this book, in this numbering, so hexagram 56 is Gate 56, Stimulation.