Hexagram 27: Nourishment山雷頤 · Yí

• Upper trigram　Gèn, Mountain: stillness, steadiness and stopping at the right time.
• Lower trigram　Zhèn, Thunder: arousal, beginnings and sudden change.

The Judgment

Perseverance brings good fortune. Watch what nourishes, and what one seeks to fill one's mouth with.

貞吉。觀頤，自求口實。

Our plain English rendering, with the Zhouyi original

Reading

The way of nourishment. Today, notice what you eat and what you say; look after your body, and look after your words too.

Something to do today

• Eat one nourishing meal today, and say one fewer complaint.

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.