Hexagram 43: Breakthrough Changing to Hexagram 42: Increase

I Ching casting meaning · Guai → Yi

Breakthrough is entering genuine expansion — Increase, where the victory creates space for growth that was impossible under the old obstacle. Wind and thunder feeding each other: resources, opportunities, and momentum rising into the cleared ground. This is the reward phase of the breakthrough arc. See good, copy it. See any remaining weakness in the new order, fix it fast. Use the surplus of attention and goodwill to invest in what the fight was meant to enable. Increase after breakthrough hoarded curdles into a new oppressive regime; increase circulated through the community the victory was meant to serve compounds into genuine prosperity. You broke through for a reason. Now grow what the obstacle was blocking.

A casting that moves from Breakthrough 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 2, 3, 4 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 Breakthrough into Increase.

The situation: Hexagram 43, Breakthrough

One holdout left. Break through openly, without violence.

Five strong lines pushing up against a single weak one at the top — the breakthrough is basically done, and that's exactly the danger. Last obstacles fall to pressure applied correctly, not force applied blindly. This hexagram's rules are specific: be open about what you're doing — no back-room moves; rally your people honestly; and don't fight the old corruption on its own terms, because grappling with mud gets you muddy. Announce the truth, hold your ground, let the remaining rot lose on the merits. Resoluteness plus transparency wins. Resoluteness plus aggression just makes you the next problem.

Structurally, Breakthrough is Heaven below Lake — 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 Breakthrough 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.