Hexagram 21: Biting Through火雷噬嗑 · Shì Kè

• Upper trigram　Lí, Fire: light, clarity and attachment.
• Lower trigram　Zhèn, Thunder: arousal, beginnings and sudden change.

The Judgment

Success. It furthers to let justice be administered.

亨。利用獄。

Our plain English rendering, with the Zhouyi original

Reading

Biting through an obstacle and dealing with a problem clearly. Today suits facing what is stuck head-on and resolving it with clear rules and communication.

Something to do today

• Write a stuck problem down clearly and set one principle for handling it.

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.