Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Changing to Hexagram 42: Increase

I Ching casting meaning · Kan → Yi

The same water that nearly took you under is about to carry you. Increase is wind and thunder multiplying each other, and the movement from The Abysmal into it is one of the most fortunate turns in the book: danger converting directly into gain. What you learned in the gorge — consistency, nerve, flow — is exactly what this expansion phase rewards. The catch with Increase is that it flows toward those who pass it on. Hoard the good fortune and it stalls; circulate it and it compounds. So take the opening, say yes to the growth, and move some of what arrives toward people or projects that need it. The current favors generous motion now, not accumulation.

A casting that moves from The Abysmal into Increase means the situation you asked about is not static — it begins as one pattern and resolves into another. The first hexagram describes where you stand; the second describes where events are carrying you.

Highlighted in red: lines 1, 2 and 6 are moving — counted from the bottom. A moving line is where the change is actually happening: it flips from yang to yin or back, and that flip is what turns The Abysmal into Increase.

The situation: Hexagram 29, The Abysmal

Deep water, twice. Flow through danger without stopping.

Water upon water — the gorge, the rapids, danger that repeats. You're in a genuinely hard stretch, and the hexagram doesn't pretend otherwise. What it offers is the one strategy that works in deep water: keep moving like water does. Don't stop, don't fight the current head-on, don't waste energy on panic or blame. Flow finds the channel. Hold to a few true things — your values, your routine, one or two people who are solid — and let everything else stream past. Sincerity and consistency are your depth charge here. The gorge has an end. Moving water always reaches it; still water never does.

Structurally, The Abysmal is Water below Water — the inner state meeting the outer condition. That pairing is the lens for everything above.

Where it's heading: Hexagram 42, Increase

True increase. Wind and thunder multiply each other.

The changed hexagram is the trajectory, not a verdict. As the moving lines settle, the energy of The Abysmal gives way to Increase (Yi) — Thunder below Wind. The advice that belongs to this outcome: Use the surplus boldly: invest in what matters and fix one fault fast.