Hexagram 18: Work on What Has Spoiled山風蠱 · Gǔ

• Upper trigram　Gèn, Mountain: stillness, steadiness and stopping at the right time.
• Lower trigram　Xùn, Wind: gentleness, penetration and steady influence.

The Judgment

Supreme success. It furthers to cross the great water. Three days before the start, three days after.

元亨，利涉大川。先甲三日，後甲三日。

Our plain English rendering, with the Zhouyi original

Reading

Clearing up old problems and correcting what has gone wrong. Today suits dealing with something long put off: think it through before, check it after, and improve step by step.

Something to do today

• Pick one small problem you have put off for a long time, and sort it out today.

How a hexagram is cast

The three-coin method: toss three coins together, counting heads as 3 and tails as 2. The total, 6, 7, 8 or 9, gives one line; six tosses, recorded from the bottom up, make a hexagram. A 6 (old yin) or 9 (old yang) is a changing line, which turns this hexagram into another and shows where things are heading.