I Ching hexagram 52
I Ching hexagram 52: Mountain
艮 gèn · a mountain above a mountain
Two mountains stacked: the art of stopping at the right place, body quiet, mind unhooked from everyone around you.
- The judgment
- Keeping still in the back, he does not feel his body. He walks through his courtyard and does not see his people. No mistake.
"When one's resting is like that of the back, and he loses all consciousness of self; when he walks in his courtyard, and does not see any (of the persons) in it, there will be no error."
- What it says to you
- Two mountains stacked: stillness on stillness. The judgment's image is strange and exact. You rest the way your back rests, the one part of the body you cannot see and that never reaches for anything, and you walk through your own courtyard without getting snagged by every person in it. It is a working stillness, the kind that lets you stop at the right place. The lines climb the body: toes, calves, waist, trunk, jaw. Stopping early is easy and clean. Forcing stillness at the waist, line three warns, wrenches the spine and burns the heart; that is suppression, and it hurts. The best is line five, holding the jaw, so that what you do say can be trusted. Today, find the single thing to stop doing, and stop there.
Matter by matter
- Love
- Pause rather than push. Quiet attention says more than pressing for answers now.
- Work
- Stop expanding. Consolidate, keep your own counsel, and speak less but more precisely.
- Money
- Hold. No new moves; keep what you have still and secure.
- A yes or no question
- Wait. The text says stop where you are; act only once you are calm.
The six lines of Mountain
A hexagram is built from the bottom up, so the first line is the lowest. You read a line's text only when your cast made it a moving line.
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Bottom line, broken
Keeping the toes still. No mistake. It pays to stay steady for the long run.
Stop before you start. The impulse to move is just forming, and holding it now costs nothing. Stay put, steady and patient, and you avoid a false first step.
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Second line, broken
Keeping the calves still. He cannot rescue the one he follows, and his heart is unhappy.
You can stop yourself but not the person or plan you are attached to. That is frustrating. Accept that you cannot hold back someone else's momentum, and keep your own footing.
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Third line, solid
Keeping the waist still, tearing the flesh along the spine. Danger; the heart burns.
You are forcing stillness where the body needs to bend. Suppressing feeling or need this hard is dangerous. Loosen your grip, find a gentler kind of rest, and let the anxiety cool.
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Fourth line, broken
Keeping the trunk still. No mistake.
You are learning to quiet yourself, not just your limbs but your whole self. The calm is still imperfect, yet the work is honest, and it keeps you out of trouble.
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Fifth line, broken
Keeping the jaws still. His words can be trusted. Regret goes away.
Hold your tongue until you mean it. Speak less and with care, and what you do say will carry weight. Old regrets about careless words fade.
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Top line, solid
Keeping still with a generous heart. Good fortune.
Your stillness has become settled and kind, part of who you are. Rest comes easily now, and so does good judgment. Stay in this calm and let it steady others too.
About hexagram 52
What does I Ching hexagram 52 mean?
Hexagram 52, Mountain, doubles the trigram for mountain. Two mountains stacked: the art of stopping at the right place, body quiet, mind unhooked from everyone around you. Its judgment reads: Keeping still in the back, he does not feel his body. He walks through his courtyard and does not see his people. No mistake.
Is hexagram 52 a yes or a no?
Wait. The text says stop where you are; act only once you are calm.
What does hexagram 52 mean for love?
Pause rather than push. Quiet attention says more than pressing for answers now.
What does hexagram 52 mean for work?
Stop expanding. Consolidate, keep your own counsel, and speak less but more precisely.
Cast the coins for a new question , or for a straight yes or no, throw the moon blocks
The I Ching reads a moment. For the years of your own life, cast your birth chart; on your chart page you can ask three questions of your own, answered against it, for $2.99.
The judgment and lines are rendered from the Chinese text; the quoted judgment is Legge's 1882 translation, and every other English line is Jade Almanac's own. A cast is a prompt for reflection, not advice about health, money or the law.