水山蹇 & career

Read 水山蹇 (Obstruction) as a mirror, not an answer key. It does not foretell how your work and career turns out; it offers a set of angles for looking at where you actually stand right now.

The judgment reads "利西南，不利东北". 水山蹇 is built from water above (坎) over a mountain below (艮) — 山上有水，蹇；君子以反身修德. In everyday terms it sketches a kind of situational "weather" rather than a verdict. The questions below are drawn straight from that imagery — they are for you to answer, about your work and career.

Turn the imagery of 水山蹇 into questions you ask yourself

1. 1The upper trigram of 水山蹇 is water, the lower is a mountain. In your working life right now, which part is like the "water" above — outward-facing, responding to the world? And which is like the "a mountain" below — your quieter, underlying ground?
2. 2Placed in your working life, does "利西南，不利东北" feel more like a nudge to advance, or to hold steady? Which way do you lean — and what is pushing you there?
3. 3The image "山上有水，蹇；君子以反身修德" points to a standard you set for yourself. Against how work has felt lately, is the bar you've set too slack, or too tight?
4. 4水山蹇's line 5 is the line of holding a position and its duties. Is the direction you are pushing in the one you actually want — the water you mean to reach — or just the one easiest to push on right now?
5. 5If this position is a stage in 水山蹇 rather than a destination, what is this step really meant to build into the a mountain that grounds you?

水山蹇 gives you an angle on your work and career, not a should-or-shouldn't. The real work is to carry these questions back into your own situation — the answer is in you, not in the hexagram. The classical line text above is quoted in Chinese; the real work sits in the everyday choices only you can see.

Yarrow Yi casts hexagrams deterministically (by time, by hand, or by coin) and treats the I Ching as a tool for self-awareness — not for predicting fortune.