I-Ching Hexagram 24
復 Return
Also known as Turning Point
The solstice: a single yang returns from below. After long decline, the movement has reversed, but the new impulse is tender.
return · turning point · renewal
The Story
After the solstice, a gardener walked out before sunrise and looked at the bare black earth. The world smelled of winter. But near the stump of last year's peony, a single red tip had broken through. He did not dig around it; he did not water it; he simply marked the spot with a stone so that no one would step there. For weeks the shoot grew slowly. By spring it was a flourishing plant. Return begins as almost nothing. Protect it. Do not force it. The first shoot cannot yet bear the weight of all the hope you would load on it.
The Judgment
Success. Going out and coming in without error. Friends come without blame. To and fro goes the way. On the seventh day comes return. It furthers one to have somewhere to go.
The Image
Thunder within the earth: the image of the turning point. Thus the kings of old closed the passes at the time of solstice. Merchants and strangers did not go about, and the ruler did not travel through the provinces.
Interpretation
The solstice: a single yang returns from below. After long decline, the movement has reversed, but the new impulse is tender. The counsel is to protect it — rest, close the borders of attention, do not over-extend — and to trust that growth has begun.
Trigrams
The Six Lines
- First (Bottom) Return from a short distance. No need for remorse. Great good fortune. Quick correction of a small error; the most fortunate line.
- Second Quiet return. Good fortune. Return gracefully, in the company of something one admires.
- Third Repeated return. Danger. No blame. Habitual backsliding and recovery; not elegant but not condemned.
- Fourth Walking in the midst of others, one returns alone. Choosing the right path even when it means breaking company.
- Fifth Noblehearted return. No remorse. Mature, honest return without fuss.
- Sixth (Top) Missing the return. Misfortune. Misfortune from within and without. If armies are set marching in this way, one will in the end suffer a great defeat. Unfortunate for the ruler of the country. Refusing to turn when the moment is clearly at hand; the cost spreads widely.