Gathering Together
Judgment
— I Ching · classical
亨。王假有庙，利见大人，亨，利贞。用大牲吉，利有攸往。
Gathering brings success. The king arrives at the ancestral temple; seeking out a person of real stature helps, and this brings success. Staying true to the cause pays off. Offering generously brings good fortune, and moving forward is favorable.
Image
— Great Image
泽上于地，萃，君子以除戎器，戒不虞。
Lake water gathers above the land: this is Gathering Together. The wise leader takes the moment to overhaul their defenses, ready for whatever comes unannounced.
Six Lines
— Bottom to top
Modern Readings
— Interdisciplinary
Career & Management
Industry conferences, mass talent hires, cluster building, platform commerce. Build a unified symbolic core and an attractive distribution rule; prevent mere mob revelry.
Psychology & Cognition
Concentrate scattered energy and capital; focus is a discipline. Raise your credit rating within your core circles.
Decision Guidance
Renew weapons in preparation for the unforeseen. With supreme, enduring steadfastness (yuan yong zhen), dissolve doubt and quiet rumors.
Integrated Reading
— Structure · timing · relations
Gathering Together places The Joyous / Lake above The Receptive / Earth. Read the lower trigram as the emerging ground and the upper trigram as the field, pressure, or constraint it must answer. The core theme is Gathering · Convergence · Focus. Relations: the opposite hexagram shows the shadow/complement (The Taming Power of the Great); the inverse shows the other-side view (Pushing Upward); the nuclear hexagram shows the hidden internal mechanism (Development).
Line Path
Line path: Initial Six → Six in the second → Six in the third → Nine in the fourth → Nine in the fifth → Six at the top. Read from bottom to top to see how the situation emerges, develops, crosses thresholds, and resolves.
Reflection Prompt
Am I acting from the proper position of Gathering Together, or am I being pulled by gathering without a center? What is the smallest reversible next move that respects the timing?
Western Parallels
— Cross-cultural
Steve Jobs on focus as the discipline of saying no; Cal Newport's deep work as gathered attention; Schelling points (coordination via shared focal points); the Roman 'concentration of forces' military doctrine; the corporate strategy classic 'good strategy is choosing what not to do' (Richard Rumelt).
· English renderings and modern readings are original editorial writing, cross-checked against public-domain and classical commentary lineages.
· Hexagram Cast does not predict, score, schedule, ward, or recommend rituals.
· Modern inputs are reproducible; traditional casts can be audited line by line from the stored coin/yarrow trace.