Return
Judgment
— I Ching · classical
亨。出入无疾，朋来无咎。反复其道，七日来复，利有攸往。
The return brings success. Coming and going happen without mishap, and companions arrive with nothing to blame. The cycle turns back on itself — after seven days, the turning point comes round again — and this favors moving forward from here.
Image
— Great Image
雷在地中，复，先王以至日闭关，商旅不行，后不省方。
Thunder resting deep within the earth: this is the image of Return. Seeing this, the rulers of old closed the mountain passes at the winter solstice, halted the movement of merchants and travelers, and set aside inspection tours of the provinces.
Six Lines
— Bottom to top
Modern Readings
— Interdisciplinary
Career & Management
Economic recovery from the trough, post-illness recovery, projects returning to track. Daylight is visible but yang is still small — protect the recovery, do not overload.
Psychology & Cognition
Build atomic habits; give a new plan time. After failure, recover the original purpose and rebuild psychological resilience.
Decision Guidance
Correct fast (line 1), don't miss the turn (line 6). The cycle is real: seven days and it returns.
Integrated Reading
— Structure · timing · relations
Return places The Receptive / Earth above The Arousing / Thunder. 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 Return · Recovery · The first yang re-emerging. Relations: the opposite hexagram shows the shadow/complement (Coming to Meet); the inverse shows the other-side view (Splitting Apart); the nuclear hexagram shows the hidden internal mechanism (The Receptive).
Line Path
Line path: Initial Nine → Six in the second → Six in the third → Six in the fourth → Six 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 Return, or am I being pulled by returning too quickly before vitality is rooted? What is the smallest reversible next move that respects the timing?
Western Parallels
— Cross-cultural
James Clear on rapid feedback and micro-correction; Nietzsche's 'eternal return'; Heraclitus on the unity of opposites in cyclical change; the AA principle 'progress, not perfection' for repeated returns at line 3.
· 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.