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Hexagram 2 · Kūn

The Receptive

坤 · kūn
Yield, support, and nourish; strength lies in devotion.
Kūn · Earth
above
Kūn · Earth
below

Core Meaning

The Judgment: The Receptive: sublime success through the steady devotion of a mare. Going first leads astray; following finds guidance. Quiet constancy brings good fortune.
The Image: The earth's nature is to receive and carry. So the wise person supports all things with broad and generous character.

Six broken lines: the receptive earth, Qián's perfect complement. Kūn is not weakness — it is the strength that carries, nourishes, and completes. The mare in its Judgment travels vast distances not by leading but by knowing the terrain and enduring.

Its counsel: this is a moment for responding rather than initiating, for supporting excellence rather than asserting your own design. Going first now leads astray; following what is worthy finds guidance. Devotion, in this hexagram, is a form of power.

The Receptive in Your Question

Love & Relationships

Kūn counsels receptivity in love: listening deeper than you speak, making room rather than making demands. If you have been pushing for a resolution, the hexagram suggests the relationship needs your steady presence more than your plan. Quiet constancy — not grand gestures — is what builds trust here.

Career & Money

At work, Kūn favors the supporting role played to perfection: executing well, strengthening the team, serving the project rather than your visibility. Advancement now comes through reliability, not self-promotion. If you lead, lead as the earth does — by carrying, providing, and letting others grow tall on your ground.

Personal Growth

The inner work of Kūn is acceptance without collapse: receiving circumstances as they are, then working with their grain. Its image — hoarfrost that becomes ice — also teaches attention to small beginnings: notice the first traces of what is forming in your life, good or ill, while they are still light underfoot.

The Six Lines

A line speaks only when it is a changing line in your own casting.

Line 1
Frost underfoot: solid ice is not far behind. Notice the first small signs.
Line 2
Straight, square, and great: without scheming, everything still prospers.
Line 3
Keep your brilliance veiled and your constancy intact. Serve a cause; claim no credit; bring things to completion.
Line 4
A sack tied shut. No blame, and no praise either. Discretion now.
Line 5
A yellow undergarment, worn without display: supreme good fortune through modest dignity.
Line 6
Dragons battle in the open country; their blood spills dark and yellow. Strength misplaced exhausts itself.

Related Hexagrams

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