Also known as Gathering Together, Clustering, Assembling.
The character 萃 shows grass growing thick, and means to gather or collect. Hexagram 45 is about people coming together around a shared centre: a family, a team, a community. A gathering needs a leader, a common purpose and some care, because wherever many people crowd in, friction follows.
The figure
Lake over Earth. Water has gathered above the ground into a lake. The two strong lines in the fourth and fifth places are the centre everyone collects around. It is the reverse of hexagram 46.
The judgment
It goes through. The king goes to the temple. Find someone who can help. It goes through, and it pays to hold.
A gathering holds when it shares something larger than itself and has someone worth gathering around. Big efforts suit this time, and so does a generous offering.
The image
The marsh risen above the ground and everything crowded in. Check the weapons and be ready for what you did not expect.
When water collects, it can burst its banks. So the wise prepare their means and stay ready for the unexpected.
The six lines
Counted from the bottom, the way the figure is built when you cast it.
- Line 1, at the bottom. Your trust doesn't hold to the end, so you swing between joining and confusion. Call out for help, and one handshake turns worry into laughter. Go.
- Line 2. Let yourself be pulled in. If you mean it, a modest gift is enough.
- Line 3. You want to join, but you sigh and nothing works. Go anyway. It costs a little pride, not more.
- Line 4. This goes very well, and no one can fault it, as long as you serve the group rather than yourself.
- Line 5. You hold the central place. Some still don't trust you; stay steady and true and the doubts fade.
- Line 6, at the top. Tears and sighing over not belonging. It isn't held against you, and the grief can open a way back in.
Reading it for a question
Hexagram 45 points to the people around you. Join, gather or lead, but give the group a real purpose and a centre. Prepare for the friction crowds bring, and don't hold back out of pride.