Hexagram 43: Breakthrough澤天夬 · Guài

• Upper trigram　Duì, Lake: joy, exchange and open conversation.
• Lower trigram　Qián, Heaven: strength, creation and the drive to move forward.

The Judgment

Make it known at the king's court; proclaim it truthfully, though there is danger. Inform your own city; it does not further to take up arms. It furthers to go somewhere.

揚于王庭，孚號，有厲。告自邑，不利即戎，利有攸往。

Our plain English rendering, with the Zhouyi original

Reading

Making a firm decision and clearing an obstacle. Today suits making a decision you have delayed: be firm in attitude but gentle in manner, with no need to clash head-on.

Something to do today

• Make a decision on something left hanging, and tell the people involved in a gentle way.

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.