Hexagram 48: The Well水風井 · Jǐng

• Upper trigram　Kǎn, Water: danger, flow and keeping faith through difficulty.
• Lower trigram　Xùn, Wind: gentleness, penetration and steady influence.

The Judgment

The town may change, but the well does not; it neither runs dry nor overflows, and all come and go to draw from it. If the rope does not quite reach the water, or the jug breaks, misfortune.

改邑不改井，无喪无得，往來井井。汔至，亦未繘井，羸其瓶，凶。

Our plain English rendering, with the Zhouyi original

Reading

The well nourishes everyone: steady resources and self-cultivation. Today suits maintaining the basics, continuing to enrich yourself, and finishing things completely.

Something to do today

• Maintain something you rely on every day, such as tidying your tools or backing up your data.

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.