#9, Line 6, #63
No matter what you do, the fruit of your labors never seems to ripen.
Your reward remains just out of reach. Men have gone mad from such anticipation. Don’t lose your balance lunging for the brass ring.
While the Fates continue to restrain you, go them one better and display a self-generated restraint and grace. Look for the humor in the situation.
The needed rain finally pours down, bringing a well-earned time of rest.
It is Nature’s time to enrich the crops, so leave it to her. To work the fields in the rain and mud would only undo all good effort. Do not seek more; the gibbous moon seeks to be full, but once full can do nothing but wane.
Victory at the expense of another is a merciless taskmaster. The precarious balance here is reflected in the lines of the hexagram: each of the yin lines rests upon a strong yang line — a seemingly perfect arrangement.
But the scales will be tipped with the change of any one line. And there WILL be change. Tireless vigilance and an answer to every challenge — that is the uneasy Seat of Power occupied by the conqueror.
