Hexagram 5: Waiting水天需 · Xū

• Upper trigram　Kǎn, Water: danger, flow and keeping faith through difficulty.
• Lower trigram　Qián, Heaven: strength, creation and the drive to move forward.

The Judgment

With sincerity there is light and success; perseverance brings good fortune. It furthers to cross the great water.

有孚，光亨，貞吉。利涉大川。

Our plain English rendering, with the Zhouyi original

Reading

Clouds are in the sky but the rain has not yet fallen: waiting for the right moment. Today suits preparing calmly and building up your strength, trusting that what should come will come at the right time.

Something to do today

• Do one piece of preparation for something you are waiting on, and spend the rest of the time eating and resting well.

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.