Also known as The Family, The Clan, Dwelling People.
The characters 家人 mean "family" and "people": the people of the house. Hexagram 37 is about the household as the root of everything else. When roles are clear and people keep their word at home, order spreads outward, to a team, a community or a country.
The figure
Wind over Fire. Wind rises off a fire, the influence that starts inside and moves out. The lines in the second and fifth places, the two centers, are each in their proper place, a picture of a household where everyone knows their part.
The judgment
It pays for the women of the house to hold their position.
In the old household, the one who ran the home was its steady center. Read more broadly: a home, or any group, holds together through the person who keeps it running day to day.
The image
Wind coming off the fire, working from the inside out. Say things with something in them, and do things the same way each time.
Influence at home comes from words with substance and from consistent behavior. Say what you mean, and do it every time.
The six lines
Counted from the bottom, the way the figure is built when you cast it.
- Line 1, at the bottom. Firm boundaries in the household from the start. Regret goes. Set the rules early, before habits form.
- Line 2. Not following every whim, but tending to the meals within. Holding steady goes well. The quiet work that keeps everyone fed.
- Line 3. Tempers flare in the house. Too much strictness brings regret, but it goes well all the same. Laughing and fooling with no limits ends in shame. Lean firm rather than loose.
- Line 4. The treasure of the house. This goes very well. The one who makes the household prosper.
- Line 5. The king comes to his family as one of them. Don't be afraid. It goes well. Leading with love rather than fear.
- Line 6, at the top. Sincerity that commands respect. It goes well in the end. People follow someone who lives what they ask of others.
Reading it for a question
Hexagram 37 points to home, family or the inner circle of a team. Make roles clear, keep your word and set the tone through your own behavior. Order at the center steadies everything around it.