Also known as Enthusiasm, Delight, Providing For.
The character 豫 means at ease, glad, and prepared in advance. Hexagram 16 is about the energy that gets people moving together: shared enthusiasm, good timing and things set up ahead. Used well, it carries a group. Used carelessly, it turns into hype.
The figure
Thunder over Earth. Thunder bursts up out of the ground at the start of spring and wakes everything. One solid line, the fourth, stands among five broken ones, and the others follow its lead gladly.
The judgment
A good time to put people in place and to move.
The mood is with you. Set up your helpers and get going. People follow willingly when the movement fits what they already feel.
The image
Thunder coming up out of the ground. Make the music, honour what deserves it, and name the people it came from.
The old kings made music to move people's hearts. Enthusiasm is best when it connects people to something larger than themselves.
The six lines
Counted from the bottom, the way the figure is built when you cast it.
- Line 1, at the bottom. Enthusiasm that shows off. It goes badly. Bragging about your connections turns people against you.
- Line 2. Firm as a rock. You see what's coming before the day is out. Holding steady goes well. Don't get swept along.
- Line 3. Eagerness that keeps glancing up to check whether it pleases. That leads to regret, and so does dithering. Trust your own judgment and act.
- Line 4. Others take their energy from you. Big things get done. Keep faith in yourself, and people draw in around you, held together the way a pin holds hair.
- Line 5. Ill for a long time, and still not dying. Constant pressure keeps you from giving in to distraction.
- Line 6, at the top. Enthusiasm that has lost its sense. If you change course once it's spent, nothing is held against you.
Reading it for a question
Hexagram 16 says the timing is good and the energy is there. Prepare, rally people and launch. Keep line 2 in mind: stay steady while others get carried away.