Hexagram 62: Small Excess雷山小過 · Xiǎo Guò

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

The Judgment

Success; perseverance furthers. Small things may be done; great things should not. The flying bird leaves its song: it is not well to strive upward, it is well to stay below. Great good fortune.

亨，利貞，可小事，不可大事。飛鳥遺之音，不宜上宜下，大吉。

Our plain English rendering, with the Zhouyi original

Reading

A slight excess: better low than high. Today suits doing details and small things well; major decisions can wait a little.

Something to do today

• Do one small thing carefully today, and save big decisions for later.

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.